May Power Usage Summary

So, while I did use a bit of power in May, an estimated 287 kilowatt hours (KWH), I did manage to keep my power consumption to a minimal.  Some of the key factors that played into this include: Compact-Florescent Lighting, adequate placement of windows for natural light, and never using more than one light bulb.

The two peak days of power usage I have from May are on the two days I did a ton of laundry.  One load of laundry uses almost 6 KWH of electricity (washer and drier,) which is something I am happy to say I do minimally.  Also the dishwasher uses about 4 KWH, which is almost twice as much as my entertainment center (the red line on the graph.)

This month I was able to determine that my entertainment center accounts for just under one third of my daily power usage.

So, how does this compare to my past power consumption?  Let me show you...

As you can see from this chart, at 287 KWH, I have come very close to using an all time low for monthly power consumption (which is 255 KWH in July 2008,) and I used 201 KWH less than I did in May of 2008.  I also spent (will spend...) $51 less on my power bill, and my CO² production was down by 190 lbs.

My average daily power usage was down from 13 KWH a day in April to 9 KWH a day in May.  This reduction in about 4 KWH is partially due to power that I was billed for from my old apartment, however my daily power usage from the month of April shows that this information is most likely true (I am missing 6 days of data from the beginning of April.)

So what does this mean?  It means I am right on track to using half as much electricity this year as I did last year (My data shows that in 2008 I used 5,574 KWH from Jan - May, while in 2009 so far I have only used 2,161 KWH.).