Home Energy Analysis

This title of the post is a heading in Melbourne’s Sunday Age. It refers to the the first budget of Australia’s new government, one which is committed to actions addressing climate change.

Half a billion will be devoted to the development of “clean coal” technology. As a country we love coal because we export it and we have been indifferent to the amount of CO2 that results from its use. I am sceptical about the practicality of the proposed technology but reluctantly agree that we should invest some dollars so that research can be undertaken.

I am more enthusiastic about the proposed support of commercialisation of renewable programs.

I am most enthusiastic about funds to help businesses become more energy efficient, and of course would love to see a section of the budget providing a copy of the Home Energy Analysis System for every Australian small business. It would need a few changes to supply information required by business but this is a small challenge, certainly when compared with clean coal technology.

One of the features missing from HEAS is the ability to update the readings database using a file. With smart metering in our future, many of our energy suppliers will be able to supply readings as computer readable files. This will be a welcome relief from the need to visually read meters, and update the Home Energy Analysis System databases manually. Most of these devices will deliver frequent readings, perhaps by the minute or the hour. Having data at this level means that HEAS will be able to produce new graph types. For instance, it will be possible to create profiles showing consumption by hour or by day of the week.

A beta test version is now available for anyone who is interested to download and try. It is based on data published on the Brultech web site. (This version of HEAS is not officially endorsed by Brultech Reseach Inc.)

The Brultech format is the only one that HEAS will currently process correctly, but other formats will be added in the future. If you have a format the you’d like added please contact us. Sample files help, and a formal specification helps.

One of the resolutions I intended making for 2008 was to pay a little extra to purchase some or all of our household electricity from green sources. All the major suppliers offer greenpower in some way or another. One motive was so that graphs from the Home Energy Analysis System would illustrate the decrease in carbon dioxide from our electricity use.

GreenPower is defined as coming from “any generator built or commissioned after 1 January 1997 that is GreenPower approved”. Most of Australia’s 8% power from renewable sources is hydroelectric and was in place prior to 1997. Approximately 0.4% of total electricity fits the GreenPower definition - electricity generation facilities are not built overnight but 0.4% in ten years is a modest record.

I was a little puzzled that some suppliers offer a fixed cost irrespective of consumption rather than an increase in the rate per kWh. The  author of this blog post was also curious and has created a detailed analysis of this question. He has exposed the many inconsistencies of the Australian green power market.

For instance, the various retailers had customers in 2006 purchasing 4.8 times the accredited GreenPower produced. This doesn’t make sense, and means that anyone paying for 100% renewable energy cannot realistically claim to be adding zero CO2 to the atmosphere. 

Yesterday I went to work a little early, and because it was the first Monday in November traffic was light. (For those who don’t know, the Melbourne Cup is run on the first Tuesday in November, and it is a public holiday. Many workers give themselves a four day weekend by taking Monday on Annual Leave. Hence, little traffic.) In the couple of months since I have been driving our “new” car to work, I’ve played a game of minimising fuel consumption, keeping score by watching the car’s computer. Yesterday was a record.

This made me think of the role that analysis of performance plays in my life. One area is that each year I run the Melbourne Marathon, and every year I recognise that training must commence immediately if I want to run an acceptable time. When I start training, distances are short, times are slow. Nothing is written down. When fitness increases, I start recording training in a diary - now Excel but originally a paper diary. The fitter I get, the more detail and analysis goes into the spreadsheet which becomes a motivator - “I can’t miss training today, because the 7 day rolling average would drop.” A couple of years ago, my training was so bad that no diary survives. In a slightly different class, Robert de Castella went over 1000 days in a row where he ran at least twice.

I assume the Weight Watchers organisation uses the weekly weighings for a similar reason. Those participants who succeed will do so at least in part because of seeing the achievement of weekly successes, each of which will be small, but the cumulative effect can be the desired weight reduction.

Here comes the commercial. The Home Energy Analysis System can operate in the same way by enabling monitoring of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The graphs available will soon show changes by day, week or month. Stick them on the refrigerator so that the whole family can see what is happening.

The Australian Government has recently made this small booklet available.  Non-Australians can see its contents on the web here. It contains a mixture of motherhood advice and sensible suggestions. Among the banal is the recommendation to switch off lights when leaving the room. Among the sensible is a list of ways to obtain rebates for going solar. Among the very sensible would have been a suggestion to use the Home Energy Analysis System as a way of measuring the effects of changes in behaviour on energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

It is a very slight document considering the volume of press and TV advertising. Many interested people will, like me, have requested a copy through the web site or the advertised telephone number under the impression that this was the only to obtain it. However, we received two copies with Sunday papers a week after the commencement of advertising.

The booklet is also an instrument of electioneering propaganda.  Australia is soon to have an election and the current government has changed from climate change scepticism as it realises that most of the electorate believes that climate change is real. The booklet mentions “The Australian Government” (sometimes without the Australian) ten times in 12 pages. The url www.australia.gov.au/climateclever is on each page. A url like www.climateclever.org.au would have been more appropriate.

We recently received an electricity bill which was abnormally high. When I entered it into the HEAS database it was obvious that there had been a misreading of the account. This is actually quite easy to do with our meter so I assume it happens regularly. So, instead of ringing the supplier and asking for another reading, I produced a long letter with graphs and screenshots of the electricity readings to emphasize how wrong this reading was. And didn’t pay the bill. Of course, a letter is processed less quickly than a phone call, so we received a computerized threat of disconnection before Sam read the letter and made the appropriate entries to our account.

HEAS probably is overkill when faced with situations of this kind, but it certainly made me much more confident that an error had been made and added weight to my case in support.

The Home Energy Analysis System (HEAS) has long been able to report on weeks and months - see some examples here. I recently had a request to add the option to report by days. The reason was that changes were being made to electricity consumption on a daily basis. Taking readings at the same time every day, recording in Excel and producing graphs wasn’t good enough, especially when readings were taken late or missed. 

 HEAS obviously copes well with missing and irregular readings although there is some loss of precision. I have now added the capability to report by day. A date range, eg 17 July to 3 August can be requested to make reports more relevant and avoid clutter.  This option should be very useful for those with the discipline to read their meters each day. I’m not that person, so can’t link to an example based on our household.

Whilst changing the report, I changed a few aspects of entry of parameters for reports. It’s long annoyed me that every time a report is requested, all parameters have to be entered, even though the new report might only differ from the previous in minor detail. Now, parameters are stored so that each time a report is requested the previous report’s options are shown - this saves me time, and I hope users will also be appreciative. 

The non-Australian reader might need to consult an atlas to see that Tasmania and Victoria are some distance apart and that there is a considerable amount of sea water between them. Nevertheless, there is a suggestion that Victoria’s water crisis could be lessened by piping water from Lake Margaret in North West Tasmania to Victoria.  No pumping would be necessary as the Lake is 600 metres above sea-level. Apparently the 350 kilometre underwater section would be easily built by comparison with other projects, for instance,  a gas pipeline being constructed between Norway and Britain.

Lake Margaret is the site of Tasmania’s first hydro electricity centre, beginning production in 1914. The area has reliable rain, apparently receiving 177 inches in 1948. Melbourne, by contrast, receives an average of 24 inches (600mm). There would be some negative effects on the environment by such a large infrastructure project. Tasmania is used to robust discussion of major projects.

 The desalination plant planned to be built in Victoria over the next few years has obvious environmental impacts and with considerable ongoing electricity use and carbon dioxide emissions.

By comparison, a pipeline would be almost benign. As it is claimed it could be operational more quickly and cheaply than a desalination plant, it seems to be well worth further investigation by our elected representatives. 

This week was one of the coldest experienced in the state of Victoria for quite some time. Our gas heating failed early in the week and was out of action for about four days. We found and borrowed a couple of oil filled electric heaters to fill the gap. They worked well, but used a lot of extra electricity and produced elevated emissions.

Other HEAS graphs show that last year we spent less than $40 per week on our electricity consumption, and I calculate that this most recent week cost $48, where only 4 of the 7 days were at the higher rate. Last year’s gas bill for this period was at a rate of about $25 per week which is about $17 per week more than our summer minimum (gas used for cooking and hot water). So, my conclusion is that there isn’t much difference in dollar terms.

There isn’t much in the way of detail available yet, but the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, has announced that: “Every school in Australia will be eligible for a voucher of up $50,000 to help install solar hot water systems and rainwater tanks.” Can I recommend to these schools that they invest $20 of their green voucher in software to measure the magnitude of their savings?