Viewing recent local weather data

Fred Clade shared this with me the other day.

Indianapolis Climatological Data

Compared to digging through the monthly edited climate data, that link is much easier to get recent weather data at your finger tips.  No importing .csv files.  No long waiting, just the ease of drop down menus!

An interesting tidbit about the recent cold snaps in January.  There were 1387 HDD here in Indianapolis.  Historically, the average for January is 1145 HDD.  So for those of you here around Indy, you can tell your clients they can expect their heating bills to be about 21% more than they would be in a typical year.  Last year there were only 1083 HDD here in Indy, so they could expect a heating bill to be about 30% more than last year's bill.  Client Ed!

The process is a little different depending on what part of the state you want data for.  The link to the northeast (Fort Wayne) region is here.

As you can tell, the site is not the same.  To look at monthly data for the northwest part of Indiana, you need to select 'Preliminary Monthly Climate Data (CF6)', then pick the year and month you'd like to see. 

Northwest Indiana, Evansville,  and Cincinnati have a similar method.

2014 Vectren Share the Warmth

Has been approved.  Agencies with Vectren clients, be looking for MOUs in your mail.  There aren't any significant changes.  Client testimonials and pictures are still required.  Funding levels have increased a bit, and the time line is going to be shorter due to the MOUs not getting approved until February.  Here we go again!

ASHRAE 62.2 dog owner implications?

I've joked that there should be some exemption/credit in the ASHRAE 62.2 standard for dog owners letting their dog out to 'get some fresh air'.  After hearing this story about revolving doors and the energy/infiltration impacts of door openings, there might be something to it!

Random Billing analysis update: over 10,000 meter readings entered for over 270 local utility customers.

Pricing out tiered utility rate structures

I've gotten a few questions about how to determine annual energy costs when utilities have a tiered rate structure.  Here is a walk through for one method of modeling the annual electric costs. 

This model assumes that the house is NOT heated with electricity and that there is a summer cooling load.  So if the house is located in the Indianapolis, Evansville, or Cincinnati weather regions, this modeling would be appropriate.  If your homes are located in the Chicago, South Bend, or Fort Wayne regions, a smaller cooling load might be more appropriate.  If there is a need for this manner of modeling from the northern areas, I'll work on that later.

This table shows an assumed monthly allocation of how much electricity is consumed each month.  The percent allocation show below is what was used in the most recent DOE priority list run.  That analysis was based on the average electric consumption during the 2009-2010 evaluation period: 11,323 kWh.

Monthly profile	% of annual consumption		Monthly Consumption
January	0.068		769.964
February	0.051		577.473
March	0.05		566.15
April	0.051		577.473
May	0.06		679.38
June	0.115		1302.145
July	0.17		1924.91
August	0.142		1607.866
September	0.103		1166.269
October	0.063		713.349
November	0.063		713.349
December	0.064		724.672
Total	1.000		11323

This breakdown can then be used to determine the monthly bills of the hypothetical utility customer.  The sum of the 12 monthly bills divided by the number of kWh used during those twelve months (11,323) will tell what the average cost per kWh is for the purpose of NEAT & MHEA.

Update:
The following is a similar benchmark to use for determining average annual fuel costs for the small handful of natural gas providers that are not Vectren, NIPSCO, or CEG.  These are the monthly consumption amounts that can be used to determine the annual fuel costs (along with the utility rate tariffs):

Monthly profile	therms
January	169.671
February	140.408
March	113.366
April	65.9213
May	32.7063
June	13.425
July	10.2859
August	10.8714
September	21.7202
October	58.3251
November	106.783
December	153.517
Total	897

 

Second quarter status - BEACon

This year's energy impact report is progressing along.  Several successful test runs have taken place using BEACon with consumption data from Vectren.  Preliminary results have been sent to Weatherization providers based on those test runs with the Vectren data.  So some programs already have feedback on homes that were weatherized, shortening the time between completion and savings results.

There is still progress to be made on how to best incorporate the pre-weatherization consumption data back into the IWAP database.  Conversations are on going between IHCDA, Roeing, and INCAA to determine the best way to proceed.

So far requests for data have been made to nearly half of the state's metered fuel providers (54 providers, 45 percent).  Of those 54 providers, 40 have returned consumption data (34 percent).  And of those that have returned consumption data, 25 have had the data converted into a format usable by BEACon.  Both Vectren and Citizens Energy Group have returned consumption data.

The next major tasks are re-establishing data request procedures with NIPSCO, IPL, I&M, and Duke.  Data requests to the remaining electric and natural gas fuel providers will continue, as will converting the returned consumption data into a BEACon friendly format.

Update: consumption data has been entered for 170 non-investor owned utility customers consisting of over 6,000 meter readings at this time.

Preliminary BEACon results - Vectren

While little bits of missing data are being collected and sent back, BEACon has been put through a couple test runs with limited datasets.  Due to Vectren's fantastic cooperation by providing a speedy and secure turn-around for data, the early test runs are all based on Vectren customers.  That said, here are some preliminary rankings of top savers:
 

 

 



Please bear in mind that these savings results are gross results.  The provider savings results will almost definitely be lower after factoring in the comparison groups for each provider when the final provider reports are completed. 

 

 

 

Again, these percent savings results are gross, without any comparison group factored in.  So the savings results will be a bit lower (or could be totally different if your provider has other natural gas companies that have not been analyzed - NIPSCO, Ohio Valley Gas, Citizens Gas, etc.).

 

Preliminary provider reports will be coming out and sent to the providers very soon based on these initial runs.  Hopefully the feedback they provide will be more relevant being distributed before March!

 



Patents in the residential energy business

Please take a moment to read this article, touching on 'business method' patents. 

So what does that have to do with energy conservation?

This

The good news is that home inspectors (ASHI) are now looking into the issue since a suit has been filed (and ruled on).  The comments section of the GBA article are rather educational as well and worth a read.  I wonder if the folks in Mississippi realize those methods have been used in some way or another for at least two decades prior to their patent in thousands of homes?