Ever thought about how you consume energy around your house? No I am not talking about eating everything in your fridge and cupboards. I mean how you and your family consume electricity in your home.
Let’s take a look at your daily routine
Wake up – Lights go on, coffee maker is started, TV is turned on to check if the apocalypse has come or you still have to go into work. Once you have settled into your morning routine you might also have a shower and throw in some toast before rushing out the door to make it on time for work. That is 5 extra appliances that were not being used while you sleep. So your electricity usage probably spiked in the morning. Especially if you have multiple family members because they all need to do the same thing as you.
During the day – Well during this time electricity usage has probably declined compared to the morning. Most people leave their homes to go to work, kids go to school or to a caretaker somewhere else. Normally during the day less appliances are working for you just the stuff that is normally plugged in all day long.
Evening time – This is usually the peak electricity usage for many families. Everyone is now home from school and work, watching tv, using computers, making dinner and getting all the chores done. Not only that but usually we want a nice comfortable temperature so the A/C or furnace is likely working overtime to keep you comfortable.
Night time – Zzz Zzz Zzz. Normally this is the lowest usage time as everyone is sleeping and not really using much electricity at all. Except of course charging your cell phones.
In the future your electricity usage will likely end up increasing as well. Sure we have more energy efficient appliances and many of those appliances can receive rebates like the ones offered by Efficiency PEI and Efficiency NS but the more advanced we become the more toys we want. Someday soon you might consider an electric vehicle which you will need to charge daily. You could even start adding more screens to your home, every room might be connected by the ‘internet of things’
But there is hope to reduce your electricity costs!
Image Source: Sunly.ca
Join a net metering program!
Net metering is the concept of producing electricity through solar panels, using them for your homes current consumption needs and supplying the rest to the grid for times that you need electricity that is above your ability to produce electricity.
During the day you will overproduce electricity and feed that energy into the existing power grid. This will accumulate credits for you to use at a later time. Then during the morning and night when you need that extra energy the grid will supply it to you. Find out about daily and annual consumption and production from Sunly here
What if I don’t produce enough credits to cover me? Not to worry, your electric utility provider like Maritime electric will simply charge you for the excess you need over and above the credits you accumulated.
So while you consume electricity today, think about going solar and joining a net metering program to make it so that you are saving on electricity all day long.
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