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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Energy Consumption
| Author | Message | ||||
norcold Guru  Joined: 06/02/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 670 |
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2013/09/29/forget-eag le-deaths-wind-turbines-kill-humans/ An interesting article from Forbes. Note the 3000kWhrs/person figure. Just makes you realise how much the average person relies on energy, electricity in particular. Electricity consumption for the Missus and I for the last year was 1889kWhrs and we do not suffer,(944.5kWhrs/person) are very happy and content with the alternate system we have. Our costs are probably no less then on-grid, taking into account maintenance, breakdowns and the big one the eventual replacement of the batteries. Of course lack of initial capital outlay makes on-grid much more appealing, sort of pay as you use. Deaths /unit figures also interesting then breaking down into costs/death, I always treat statistics with some scepticism in particular the nuclear figure. But the author interestingly brings in road deaths, drug deaths etc to give the article some perspective. What sort of consumption figures have other 4M members? Whether on-grid or off-grid. We come from the land downunder. Vic |
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raymond thomson Newbie  Joined: 19/09/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 36 |
Now that is an interesting benchmark! I have just checked my run-sheet and over the past 10 quarters we are averaging 6,400 uniits pa for two of us! Pretty big house with carefully used a/c, swimspa etc and lots of visitors. The latter is compensated by our frequent travels away. Anyway it is a benchmark to watch and I will be interested to see others. Raymond ps. having trouble getting logged onto Forbes this morning to see the full article. |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
I wouldn't have a clue exactly how much I use now. When I first went off grid, I was very conservative in my energy use as my battery bank is a bit on the small side, 8 220AH lead acids. But lately I adjust my energy use to the weather. If its overcast I tend to cut back on energy use and operate in "green" mode. I like to keep the battery voltage above 48 at all times, and if its really overcast with no wind, the solar panels make just enough power to keep the basic necessities going ( fridge, water pump, laptop ). But on sunny days or windy nights I don't worry about power usage and will happily use as much energy as I like. But even on the sunny days, I guess I would use less than the average. I'll have to reset the watt hour tally on my controller and take some notes, but I'm guessing around 3 to 5 kwh a day. I would like to reduce the amount of fuel I use in the car. I get around 9 to 12 litres per 100km, which is OK, but I do a lot of highway miles, a trip into town and back is 60 plus km, about 8 litres, or $12. So my next car will be smaller I think. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| norcold Guru Joined: 06/02/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 670 |
Worry no more Glenn, 40 odd energy efficient cars are here, they start in Darwin today on the annual solar race, check them out. But I think we`ll be using fossil fuel in our cars for a wee bit longer, money spent on the solar challenge is on the way to compete with The America Cup. http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/ We come from the land downunder. Vic |
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| M Del Senior Member  Joined: 09/04/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 155 |
My usage is 16kwhr a day for me and the missus, just below average. That includes hot water, but not for long as solar heater is planned, that will knock another 5-6kwhr a day off current usage. I have a 1kw system on at the moment, more to follow soon. We were using 30-35kwhr a day with the kids at home, they left and usage remained the same. I added the panels 4 years ago and did some hunting with a meter for a while. Usage dropped fast to start with, slowly dropping further as phantom loads were killed off. My meter disappeared 12 months ago  after I proved to the boss that boiling a kettle with two cups of water in it used a lot less than boiling a full one especially if topped up and boiled two hours later for another two brews.Mark |
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| MOBI Guru Joined: 02/12/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
1.3kWHr per day here. Just the two of us.. but... Kitchen runs on gas - 45kg lasts at least 18 months. Winter season - most cooking on the loungeroom s/c heater which also has an oven and wet back for hot water. Summer: hot water from thermal solar We had to change lifestyles to cope e.g doing the vacuuming or front loader washing first thing in the morning so the batteries have all day to recharge. Have hooked up 1kW of mono xtal solar panels powering a sunnyboy grid tie unit which feeds to a 3.3kw sunny island which acts as the "grid". The two talk to each other as well as keep the batteries charged. Rarely have to use the old poly xtal trackable unit, the selectronic RAPS or the 500watt chinese hawt. Garden and wc water is supplied using an amorphous xtal paney array driving a Lorentz submersible. Rain water is collected from all our roof space where 5mm rain equals 1000gal (1 month supply). Fire pump the rain water to the top of the hill behind the house (about 10 mins) gravity feed along with the hard water (separately of course). Rain water capacity = 8,000 gals and hard water = 5,000 gals. It all works well. David M. |
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| norcold Guru Joined: 06/02/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 670 |
Mobi`s consumption details reminded me I have not included water pumping consumption in my figures. I have 760 watts of solar panels operating 3 pumps, I have no logging on these thus do not know the kWhrs consumption there, plus I will be increasing pumping now I know I have one dam that holds out during the dry. Being in a very dry part of OZ, water thus green grass and healthy fruit trees are very important for our oasis. Not enough for a garden as yet. Whilst I have to date been pumping approx. 2 Megs/year I wish to double this if possible. My soil at my house block is very porous and deep(decomposed granite)thus maintaining green requires along with adding humus lots of water. Glenn I would think that allowing your batteries to get down to 48 volts would be running them a little low, do you check the SG at that 48 volts? Mine very rarely go below 50 volts never below 49 volts. Currently at 5.45 AM they are 50.5 volts, 1.256 SG. Solar panels will start charging at 7 AM. We come from the land downunder. Vic |
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