Ok, I'm finding it more than just a little hard to believe that gas stored underground in tanks can vary enough in temperature from one day to the next to make any noticeable difference in volume measured at the pump. But, based on what I'm reading, it can vary by enough to charge several more cents per gallon than it should, which adds up quick on a July 4th Road Trip . What kills me is that the oil and gas industry has known about this all along. Wholesale gas is even sold at a temperature adjusted price because of it. We, the consumers however, are just now finding out about it. So, I guess the moral of this story is, buy your gas in the early morning hours.

Got the power bill today, and you'll never guess what happened.

Ok, maybe you will. I thought I was doing a pretty bad job at unplugging the router and stuff when not in use the past month, so I didn't think I'd beat my previous record of 114 KwH. But I guess I was doing better than I thought, 'cause the latest bill shows that I'm just 3 away from the magical double digits. That's 102 KwH for an entire month. According to some of the stuff I've read lately, that's what the average inefficient homeowner uses in just two or three days. I'm not sure what to expect from the next bill. I broke down and ran the dryer a couple times since the end of that billing period, but I was also out of town for 5 days at RailsConf, and unplugged just about every damn thing I could before I left, so... we'll have to wait and see.

Speaking of RailsConf, part of my motivation for setting up this blog was to occasionally talk about Rails, which I have yet to do, so, here goes.

Thanks to the day job for paying all the registration fees and travel expenses for RailsConf. Considering I work for a non-profit now (and my previous job at a much bigger company would have done no such thing), that's pretty fucking amazing. Since this was the first conference of this sort I've been to, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was just one among lots and lots of geeks, and that wasn't surprising. But I think I expected more of the presentations to be low level "Let's dissect some code together" kind of things, and some of them certainly were. But there were also a lot of high level theory presentations that weren't even Rails specific. So, I think that kind of disappointed me. But that just means if I go next year I'll be a more discriminating about which presentations I go to.

One of my favorite presentations though was Josh Sussers's presentation on contributing to Rails Source. I'll not bore anyone with the details, but Josh gave point by point directions to get started and made it seem very easy to take part (assuming you can code), with the hardest part being having the patience to wait for someone to review your submissions. I guess there's a backlog of hundreds of tickets and patches waiting to be reviewed. I managed to corner Josh at the final reception in the lobby and get some tips. His big suggestion was to find a submitted patch that didn't come with a test. Then, write a test case that proves the patch fixes something, and add that to the ticket. So, that night back at the hotel I figured I'd browse around the rails bug tracking site and see what I could find. Well, before I knew it, 7 minutes before midnight Pacific Time, I'd submitted my first patch to Rails Source. So, now the waiting game begins.

There was one more thing that surprised me at RailsConf... a marching band... or at least that's what they called themselves. Twasn't anything like the marching band I was in in High School.

So, a month ago my record KwH for a month was 151. My bill for this past month? 114!

I attribute the difference to the fact that the previous month only had me unplugging things like an OCD sufferer for part of the month. So this past bill reflects a full month of that.

One other trick I forgot to mention in my last post on the subject; I do not use "budget billing". Budget billing is where the energy company figures out what your average annual energy usage is and charges a monthly fee based on that. So, you're paying less than you normally would in the winter, and more than you normally would in the summer. The idea is that your bills won't skyrocket in the winter and you can count on a predictable bill from month to month regardless of the weather.

However, budget billing is, IMHO, an energy waster because it significantly reduces the motivation to save energy. If I do something stupid that starts drawing a lot of energy, with budget billing I may not notice right away. I want to be immediately slapped with a higher than expected energy bill, so that I can immediately evaluate what changes I made around the house or in my lifestyle that prompted such a sudden fluctuation. At the same time, if I start doing something that saves a ton of energy (like unplugging my cable modem when I'm not using the Interwebs), I want to be rewarded with a surprising low bill, so that I keep doing that.

Granted this means that in past winters I've had to deal with some pretty big energy bills. But those big bills motivated me to do things to save energy, like install programmable thermostats, turn the heat down, and wear sweaters around the house more often. It also eventually lead me to have a pellet stove installed. I kinda doubt I would have done most, if any, of all that if doing so meant I had to wait months to see a noticeable decline in my monthly energy bill.

I do realize that budget billing is a very useful tool for some people in certain financial situations. But, I honestly think a LOT of people on budget billing would greatly benefit from the strong energy saving motivation that comes with big winter energy bills, and the relatively immediate feedback that comes with lifestyle changes that effect their energy usage.

Since I was a kid I've had a passing fascination with "free" (aka alternative) energy. I remember in grade school having a calculator with a little solar panel above the display that never needed new batteries. At the time, it was pretty novel.

So, several years ago I went downtown to Solar Plexus to start asking questions about options and the cost of a solar system. The first question the guy asked me was how much energy I was using per month. I didn't have a clue. He said the first thing to do was check and if it was above 400 kWh (Kilowatt Hours) per month, then my time and money would be better spent making some changes around the house to save energy before investing in a solar system.

When I got home I pulled out my last bill from the energy company. According to it I was averaging between 550 and 600 kWh/month. 400 kWh seemed like an impossible target. How on earth was I going to cut my electricity usage by 30%?

The electric bill shows your historical usage for the last 13 months, so you can always compare your current bill, with the same month for the previous year. This gave me an idea. I'd simply set a goal of using less electricity each month than I did on the same month one year earlier. Having a touch of a competitive streak, this was all that I needed.

First thing I did was drain the water bed and replace it with a mattress that fit the water bed frame. This wasn't cheap, but I estimated that the energy savings alone paid for the mattress inside the first year. I also replaced all the light fixtures in the house with CFLs. They were expensive up front, but the fact that they last so much longer (and thus need replacing much less often) than regular bulbs was alone worth it, regardless of energy savings.

These were big enough improvements that for the next year, I was pretty much guaranteed to beat the prior years monthly usage. Once 12 months had past though, it was time to figure something else out. So I replaced the clothes dryer and refrigerator with newer (they were both ancient) energy efficient models. That helped some, but not as much as I'd hoped.

Next step was to experiment with drying clothes on a clothes line instead of in the new dryer. Bullseye! That saved about as much energy as converting the water bed. And I swear, there are some summer days when the clothes dry faster outside than they would in the dryer. I've got a covered back deck with the clothes line crisscrossing it, so that even if it's raining, I can hang the clothes out for several days to wait for them to dry. When I need them dry faster, I'll bring them into the house a few at a time to hang in the bathroom or over a kitchen chair. When those are dry (usually several hours), I put them away and bring in some more. Bringing a few in before I go to work in the morning, and then a few more when I get home seems to be a good system, and it even works in the dead of winter. Sometimes though, I really do need something dried quick, in which case the clothes dryer is a wonderful luxury.

As time went on, it got more and more challenging to beat the prior years usage, and sometimes was just impossible. Having a family member who's not quite as goal oriented move in for several months has a tendency to completely screw up one's energy conservation goals, among other things. But even under ideal circumstances, each time I set a new record low, it was that much harder to get even lower that month the following year.

Nevertheless, by 2004, I was down to 300-350 kWh/month, well under the previously perceived impossible goal of 400. In 2005, I was seeing usage in the 250-300 kWh range, and on May, 2006, I used an impossibly low 199 kWh.

One tool that I've found invaluable here at the low end is the Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Meter. You'd be amazed and the crap you've got around your house that uses up electricity, even when you think it's off. The TV, the printer, the computer. Yes, they were all sucking up tons of juice, even when they were turned completely OFF. And since the cable modem and router don't really turn off, they were using tons of electricity all the time too, even if everything connected to them was off. (Disclaimer: When you're only using around 200 kWh/mo, just about anything that uses a measurable quantity of electricity 24/7, whether you're using it or not, qualifies as "tons.")

So, a few weeks ago, I started unplugging things completely from the wall when I'm not using them, just to see how much energy THAT would save. The first bill just arrived since that experiment started, and Holy Crap! I set yet another record low. 151KwH.

It's hard to believe that when I started this project several years ago, I was using more than 600 kWh some months. Certainly some of the things I do might be considered a little too aggressive for some people. Remembering to unplug the computer every time I turn it off is challenging at first, but even if I only do it sometimes, that's still saving more energy that not at all. Back when I set the record of 199, getting below 150 seemed impossible. Now that I've reached 151, I've got my sites set on double digits. Will I ever be trying to beat a prior record of only 20 kWh in a month? Probably not. But back when I was in the 500's... I never imagined that I'd get down to below 200 without killing the main breaker and living by candlelight. Yet, here I am, working on the computer, lights on, refrigerator humming along, and I'm fairly confident next month's bill will be solidly below 150kWh.

So, what about a solar system now? Well, my total electric bill for the month comes to a little over $20. A basic solar system will probably run at least $10,000 for a grid tied system (i.e. uses the existing power company grid to "store" the electricity rather than using batteries). And that would only save me the $7.91 of this months bill that was spent on "supply" charges. I'd still need to pay for most of the other fees like transmission and distribution since I would still be using those services. To avoid all those fees, I'd need to go off grid, which would require a bank of batteries, which would be even more expensive and require a lot more maintenance. Somehow that seems kinda silly to save $8/mo. The industry is making a lot of technological advances though, so maybe one day....