Although the data is relatively sparse (I only get a bill every two months) I'm pleased to see that my water use is down significantly compared to last year. Some of that is because I had a roommate for parts of the year in 2014, and some of it is thanks to a water shutoff valve I installed in the shower. Once area that could still use improvement is the summer when my use bumps up thanks to watering all of the plants outside.
Read MoreYear In Review 2015 - Power of the Sun
Readers of my posts will know that I collect quite a bit of data about my solar panels. Once a year I like to take a look at the bigger picture and see how the system is performing over time. First some quick numbers: Overall system efficiency averaged just over 13.1% in 2015, slightly up from 12.5% in 2014. The panels themselves were also a bit more efficient, up to 14.4% from 13.7%. This is a little surprising since they're expected to drop 0.5% per year.
Read MoreYear In Review 2015 - Now We're Cooking With Gas
Thanks to PSE's handy website I have daily numbers for my natural gas use. Much like last year I had fairly flat use during the warm months, and more irregular use in the colder seasons.
Read MoreYear In Review 2015 - Vehicle Miles Traveled
I'll have to confess: I don't actually have any data on my car use in 2015. I only record the mileage when I have it serviced, and I was remiss in getting an oil change from November 2014 until January 2016. During that 417 day gap I drove a grand total of 1,628 miles, averaging 1,428 miles/year or only 3.9 miles/day.
Read MoreYear In Review 2015 - Steps & Pounds
Following up on my previous transit post I took a look at my walking for 2015. Much like my transit data this is the first year I have data for the full year (via my FitBit). In total I walked over 2,400 miles in 2015, taking over 5.1 million steps and burning 1.1 million calories.
Read MoreYear In Review 2015 - Transit
Solar Performance - December 2015
December's numbers are in, and while they're better than estimates they're actually a bit worse than December of last year. My use was up a little, compared to both last year and last month.
Read MoreSolar Performance - November 2015
November got off to a slow start solar-wise, but the latter half of the month turned out to be surprisingly strong thanks to some unseasonably sunny (though cold) weather. As expected my electrical use was up a bit compared to last month while production was down noticeably. Unexpectedly I ended up producing more than November of last year.
Read MoreSolar Performance - October 2015
October turned out to be a much better month than September, particularly in terms of system stability. Whatever was plaguing the inverter seems to have settled down and after a reboot the panel monitors/optimizers seem to be humming right along. Production for the month was right on track with estimates, though it was noticeably lower than October of last year. Compared to last month production was, not unexpectedly, down considerably.
Read MoreSolar Performance - September 2015
September was a rough month for my solar panels. On several days the inverter failed and shut down, which meant no power was produced. In the last 10 days of the month the monitoring and control unit for the individual panels also froze, reducing efficiency (and giving me some holes in my data).
Read MoreSolar Performance - August 2015
My solar numbers for August turned out pretty well, though it's clear that summer is starting to wane. Compared to last August use was down and production was up, though only slightly. More noticeable was the drop in production compared to last month as the days are getting shorter and the weather cloudier.
Read MoreSolar Performance - July 2015
July was a fairly typical summer month, with production coming in just a bit (half a percent) shy of the estimate for the month. As expected production was a bit lower than last month although it was better than last year.
Read MoreSolar Performance - June 2015
June turned out to be a great month for solar, with a hefty amount of production, a sizable incentive check, and even a small mystery!
Read MoreSolar Performance - May 2015
This month got off to a strong start with a string of sunny days, but around mid-month the traditional Seattle "June Gloom" rolled in early and put a real damper on production. The month ended up just a little shy of estimates, about 6 kWh short of the expected 469 kWh.
Read MoreSolar Performance - April 2015
April turned out to be a very good month for my solar panels, handily beating the estimate for the month as well as last year's performance. I finished the month with a surplus of about 250 kWh sent to the grid, having generated just short of 400 kWh.
Read MoreSolar Performance - March 2015
March turned out to be a good month for my solar panels, with production beating both the estimate and last year's production. I sent a surplus of power back to the grid, and am rapidly closing in (already!) on having a surplus of power for the year.
Read MoreSolar Performance - February 2015
This post is a bit overdue, but I'll make up for it with a slew of new charts. I've started collecting solar radiation data from a nearby weather station and am using that to estimate the efficiency of my panels on a daily basis. I've also incorporated some additional comparisons between past data (yearly and monthly) to see how my system performance may be changing over time.
Read MoreSpring in February?
For the last few days Seattle has had unseasonably warm and sunny weather. Plants are blooming, birds are chirping, and people are walking around in shorts and sandals. What, you might ask, have my solar panels thought of all this unexpected sunshine? It turns out that until this spate of sunny weather my production had been noticeably below expectations.
Read MoreSolar Performance - January 2015
With the new year I've decided to put together a few new charts, mostly to compare my system's performance over time. Compared to December my use was pretty much the same. My production, however was up by about 22.7%.
Read MoreEnergy Use in 2014
Recently I was thinking that it would be interesting to take a look at the amount of energy I use (and generate) to see how it varies over time. I already had daily data for my electrical and gas use, but thought that it would be interesting to see if this correlated to the weather. Luckily I found a weather station near my house that had a treasure trove of data, including solar radiation numbers. It took me awhile to pull all the data together, but I was able to come up with an interesting set of charts. I'm also trying something new in this post by embedding the charts directly, which should make them interactive. Let me know how it works for you!
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