An Invitation !
September 28, 2011
Marika writes ….
Mom and I were at the farmer’s market last week and we ran into someone she used to work with. He’s one of those scientific guys who knows everything about research and measuring. We told him about the energy diet and mom said that he could go on the website and start tracking it too. She was explaining how easy it was to just put your meter reading in and then later you could see if you made progress. He’s a pretty honest scientist because he said “I’m not sure I know how to do that.” (Read the meter that is.)
I just learned to read the meter because of this energy diet. Before that I didn’t even notice it on the side of our house. So, I thought if I could make a video, other people could learn how to read the meter too because we still have the one with the dials on it.
The Family writes ….
We are inviting other people to go to the “Personal Energy Dashboard” on this website and take the challenge. It’s super easy to get started and takes only a few minutes at your computer.
Here are some ideas to get you going ….
Use the “Personal Energy Dashboard” to record your progress or the progress of your whole household put together. It’s as easy as pie!
This is the same way that all the families who are in the challenge are logging their energy usage every week. The little charts you see on the cover page create themselves when you add information. We made a baseline before the challenge started because we had to, but you can start your baseline today, and track it as often as you like.
There is a place to change the date so you can go from a previous bill or receipt to a current one.
You don’t have to do it in all the different energy areas. Just pick one thing if you want, like electricity, water or gas for your vehicle!
What you need to know in order to do this ….
The “Personal Energy Dashboard” will allow you to track 3 areas including: 1) Smart Mobility (this is your transportation); 2) Energy in the home (electrical, heating, etc.), and 3) Water. Depending on what area you’d like to track, this is what it will look like:
Smart Mobility/Cars
Keep your next receipt for gas fill up and enter it. (If you want to get started right away, estimate how much gas you’ve used since your last fill up.)
Enter the new litre amount every time you fill up. If you have multiple vehicles you can add them all together once a week or enter each one separately.
Smart Mobility/Public Transit
If you are carpooling, using public transit like buses, or flying, the counter will ask you for information about each of these things separately. Simply press “save” each time.
Energy in the Home
This is broken down into different categories like heating oil, electricity, wood. It even separates soft wood and hard wood …that’s impressive! Again it’s very easy to estimate once you get on the website and see how the recorder works.
Energy in your Home/Electricity
Read your meter today and then again tomorrow. Record how much energy you used in kilowatt hours (kWh) and then do that as many days in a row as you can or if you have an old power bill you can take your reading off that. Make sure you change the date on the dashboard so you have a record of when the reading was taken.
Water
If you don’t have a water meter this is more difficult. Many people from the north can estimate based on the water in their holding tank. If you are not sure about the water, then just skip it! You can still do some worthwhile tracking even if you don’t have that information. It’s okay to leave it blank.
It’s fun to participate even if you only have a bit of information to start with. Don’t get stuck on thinking that you need to have details in all categories.
The dashboard is set up to be very user friendly!
How this is all measured ….
In order to compare energy use, one standard unit of measure needs to be used. You will notice that the website converts all the energy use to kWh equivalent and CO2 output. This also helps to measure both your overall energy use and your carbon footprint. So the meter needles on your “personal energy dashboard” will read in kWh, and change as you go along.
As you put more entries onto your “Personal Energy Dashboard” your results will become more accurate and over the next 3 months you will be able to challenge yourself to make some small changes and see how you do. (Hopefully information from the “Energy Matters” section of this website and the six families in the challenge will give you some ideas).
The Family writes ….
We invite everyone to try this challenge. It’s set up nicely for tracking, and we think it’s a lot of fun. It’s going to get even better as we try different things, get suggestions from others and see results. Happy logging!
Marika writes …
I hope the scientific guy is going to do the meter part!
Way to go --keep up the great posts--you are making me very aware of the hydro we are using.!
Betty Anne
As for smart meters I understand that they will give different readings or more information at peak times so you can monitor the changes in your personal energy demands in the home. I don't know if the Yukon is going in that direction, but I wonder if the regions of the country that are going with smart meters are regions where the population and energy demands are greater.
Keep up the good work!!
If a household makes a compelling case for switching out their old meter for a digital one when the old one still works well, we would consider that. Generally though, our policy is to not replace the old meters until they have lived out their useful lives.
We don't at this time have smart meter technology, although that may be something we look at in the future. One of our concerns is that smart meters are expensive to install, and because there is such a small customer base in the territory a smart meter program could be a financial hardship for Yukoners.
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