November Results of Our Energy Reduction Plans
November has come to an end and it was a cold one here in the Midwest. In fact it was quite a bit colder than last year, so even with our efforts to reduce our natural gas usage we ended up using more than we did last year. We did however do great on the electricity side of things, with the first full month of using our CFLs. Here are our usage figures for November:
- Electric: 242 kwh (Sept: 853 kwh, Avg: 1043 kwh) - 76.8% Reduction
- Natural Gas: 239 CCF (Oct. 2006: 233 CCF) - 2.5% Increase
If you remember the electric company estimated last months usage high, so we knew that this month would be extremely low. Since we have been tracking our daily usage for the past month, we know that our actual usage was 381 kwh for a 63.5% reduction - quite a bit more than our 50% goal 
I know that next month is going to be higher since it is the Christmas season and we will have Christmas lights shining throughout the season. I would love to be able to replace all of our Christmas lights with LED lights, but we don’t have the extra money right now.
As for our gas usage, we ran our fireplace and hearth heater almost everyday, but the lower than normal temperatures were too much for our efforts and we ended up using slightly more gas than last year. But adding up our gas usage since we started conserving in September and comparing it to last year usage, we have reduced our total gas usage by 21.2% (345 CCF vs 438 CCF) . This is right on track with our goal! It also has been nice having our wood kept dry and easy to get in our temporary sunroom.
Monetarily, this month we save saved us $70 on electric bill, -$30 on gas bill and $25 on our water bills for a total of $65 this month. So far we have saved a total of $235 on energy costs since September. Our total investment has only been $230 not including the cost of our new washer and dryer, so we have already saved more than we have spent.
December Plans:
Our goals for December are to fill sunroom with wood, stay on top of the energy usage of the Christmas lights, and to just keep doing what we have been doing. One of the most important things is for us to keep the fireplace running everyday, and to make sure that we remember to turn down the thermostat when we leave the house. After this months natural gas usage, I am not sure that we can meet the 20% goal for this winter, but we will continue to try. Next year we definitely have to add some money into the budget to start insulating our walls!