My Numbers are in

Finally got a chance to go through my own numbers. It's, well, interesting, and maybe not what we had hoped for.

This is my consumption since Aug 2005, smart meter went in Jan 08.

Plotting the monthly deviation using 2007 as the baseline year:

Quite the jump up in the past winter. Jan 2010 was 3 times Jan 2007, 2.5 times Jan 2006 and Jan 2009. Two things happened in the winter of 2009 and 2010. My daughter and her 2 kids moved in with us temporarily in Aug 2009, you can see the effect that had increasing our consumption some 80% starting in September. The ground source heat pump was installed March 2009, and was heating the house through March and April 2009. Almost no perceivable increase in consumption those two months.



The summer of 2009 was not a hot as this year, so we only had the A/C from the GSHP on a couple days (This summer it's been on constant since July).



So the dramatic jump in winter consumption, which I attributed to the meter not reading correctly, may have been the combination of my daughter in the house and the GSHP heating the house. The only way I will know for sure is this coming winter. She has moved out as of July this year.



The average of the monthly daily readings are also interesting.

The dark blue lines are the past 3 months that I have been taking daily readings. Notice the significant drop in consumption since June (the first blue bar). August, the last blue bar, is down 45% from June, and the A/C has been on every day! The reason for the drop? My daughter had moved out beginning of July.

3 more people in the house, basically doubling the number, has made a dramatic difference in consumption. More lights on, and a biggy, more clothes being cleaned and dried.

So I expect that this winter should have around a 45% drop in consumption, as projected in the gray bars through to March 2011. If that projection is the case, then my winters will only be slightly higher than the base year with the GSHP working.

So two things from this:

1. The high readings I had in the winter of 2009-2010 were not from the smart meter reading incorrectly. There is no evidence to support the meter reading wrong in my case.
2. GSHP do not appreciably increase the consumption, and compared to NG, which I converted from, is arguably the best way to heat the house. I know it is the definitely the best way to cool the house because my neighbour, which I will post next, has consumption THREE TIMES mine at the moment with his pool and A/C running.

So what does this mean for the pending action against H1? For me I cannot use my place as evidence. But that does NOT mean the game is over, nor that I will not be part of any action. I still plan to move forward.

I'm moving on two fronts for that. The first is to continue to gather evidence of faulty meters and abuse to consumers by H1 (still getting the odd email and phone call from people). But I need that evidence to proceed. So far only 3 people have provided me their numbers. Everyone who wants to continue with this and think they have been ripped off MUST get their consumption to me for evaluation.

The second front I will explain later. It may be much later, a year or more, after the Provincial election in Oct 2011. I can tell you this, the PC's are planning to make energy the #1 issue in the election. The plan is to completely revamp how the system works. (Don't buy any solar panels expecting 20 year contracts.)

This fight is not over by a long shot!