The battle ahead

My energy supplier provides a graphical view of my energy usage over the year, and compares it against the previous year. This is based on metered readings and then averaged out and smoothened. The company state: We calculate your average daily energy use using your previous meter readings or estimates divided by the number of days billed.

I've logged into my account and pasted the current chart below:

It shows that my target of 10kWh by Christmas looks overly optimistic. Last year, my usage rose significantly in October and November (probably corresponding to greater usage of lighting) getting close to 15kWh/day - that's some reduction I need to make! I can't explain the slight increase in April 2007, but the use over the summer appears constant (ignore the slight increase in August 2008 - the energy company haven't got any meter readings yet, so must be estimating based on last year - I'm pretty sure when they next update the chart, a more accurate value will be charted).

Yesterday, the meter said that we used 12.55kWh, much more than I would have liked, but then the occasional blip cannot be completely eradicated. On more positive news, the usage up to 7am this morning was 1kWh, so some changes are starting to take effect.

Natural Gas Usage

As an aside, I also get a (natural) gas graph, and a combined one for both fuels. The gas usage is a bit more scary:

That's another challenge entirely (this fuel is only used for heating and cooking, so the options are limited).