Recent Riot Posts « Robin Hill Gardens

OVER FOUR YEARS OF RIOT!

This is the Riot for the months of February and March 2013 for the three of us. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers!

Gasoline. Calculated per person.

9.3 gallons pp.

22.6% of the US National Average

Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an electric stove. According to our solar meter, we produced 7805 kWh since the system was turned on, that’s 668 kWh over the last two months, 395 kWh in March (you follow our solar harvest live here). We used a lot because the grow lights and heat mat are on. Our 668 + 337 kWh (from NSTAR Green) makes:

502.5 kWh

27.8% of the US National Average

Heating Oil and Warm Water. This too is calculated for the entire household, not per person. This is for heating water and space heating, which we mostly do with our wood stove, except for the guestroom (thermostat at 45F – no guests in there, obviously), at night and when we’re not home (thermostat at 59F). We went solar hot water in the middle of February (the Riot calculator has no provision for solar hot water).

36 gallons of oil

58.4% of the US National Average

Trash. After recycling and composting this usually comes down to mainly food wrappers:

6 lbs. pp per month

4.4 % of the US National Average

Water. This is calculated per person. This is about our usual.

501 gallons pp.

16.7% of the US National Average

DSCF0050

This is (four days shy of) two month’s worth of trash: one 30 gallon bag (our town uses PAYT – Pay As You Throw – and these bags cost $2 each, which is still way too little if you ask me) and an assortment of recyclables. I didn’t weigh all this before taking it to the Transfer Station, but I doubt it came to 6 lbs. per person per month (the value I usually put into our Riot).

On the way back from the Transfer Station Amie and I stopped by our town’s Winters Farmer Market to see the lamb and buy some carrots. We learned that there were also Angora rabbits, which we immediately sought out. While admiring the rabbits in their cages we asked questions of the farmer. Another mom with her two-year-old joined, right on time for my next question:

“How long do they live?”

Woah, the look on the other mom’s face! The farmer saw it too and merely gave me a sheet of paper, saying there was a lot of info there. None of it, I see now, about how long a rabbit lives. She told me that after the other mom had left (5 to 6 years, some 9 years).

The death-phobia in this culture is something fierce! We no longer tell our kids Grimm’s fairy tales, because people die in them (the gall!). Taylor Swift scored big giving Romeo and Juliet a happy ending, and the only characters that die in kids’ movies are animals. Human characters may die only in animated movies. One is no longer allowed to ask about lifespan of animals in public because, dear lord, the concept of span implies a beginning and an end.

Well, more about that soon. Did you know that rabbits can die of wool block?

OVER FOUR YEARS OF RIOT!

Four year summary coming soon (Yes, I keep promising)

This is the Riot for the month of January 2013 for the three of us. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers!

Gasoline. Calculated per person. DH’s shuttle didn’t run because of the academic holiday, so many trips into town, resulting in:

15.6 gallons pp.

36.7% of the US National Average

Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an electric stove. According to our solar meter, we produced 7137 kWh since the system was turned on, that’s only 240 kWh over the last month (another dark month – you can follow our solar harvest live here). We paid NStar because the credit we gathered last year through our overproduction ran out last month. We used quite a bit, again because of the darkness of the month: more lighting was needed. Our 240 + 271 kWh (from NSTAR Green) makes:

511 kWh

20.8% of the US National Average

Heating Oil and Warm Water. This too is calculated for the entire household, not per person. This is for heating water and space heating, which we mostly do with our wood stove, except for the guestroom (thermostat at 45F – no guests in there, obviously), at night and when we’re not home (thermostat at 59F). This number is going to change soon because we’re going solar hot water soon (but the Riot calculator has no provision for solar hot water). I was a co-old month! We even hit 0 F once or twice.

35.1 gallons of oil

56.9% of the US National Average

Trash. After recycling and composting this usually comes down to mainly food wrappers:

6 lbs. pp per month

4.4 % of the US National Average

Water. This is calculated per person. This is about our usual.

483.6 gallons pp.

16.1% of the US National Average

OVER FOUR YEARS OF RIOT!

Four year summary coming soon (I know, I keep promising)

This is the Riot for the months of November and December 2012 for, mostly, the three of us. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers!

Gasoline. Calculated per person. There were two trips, one to Providence, one to NYC, which brought up our usual consumption of gasoline:

17.7 gallons per person

43.1% of the US National Average

Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an electric stove. According to our solar meter, we produced 6897 kWh since the system was turned on, that’s only 420 kWh over the last two months (makes sense, these being the darkest months - compare to 302 in October, 615 kW in August – you can follow our solar harvest live here). It was also the first time I had to pay NStar - meaning the credit we gathered last year through our overproduction is finished. The bill came to $1.38! This means we used 420 + 58 kW (November) + 207 kWh (December) = 685 kW for two months, which is

342 kwH monthly

18.9% of the US National Average

Heating Oil and Warm Water. This too is calculated for the entire household, not per person. This is for heating water and space heating, which we mostly do with our wood stove, except for the guestroom (thermostat at 45F – no guests in there, obviously), at night and when we’re not home (thermostat at 59F). In December the temperatures finally started dropping and we had to turn on the heat. This number is going to change soon because we’re going solar hot water soon (but the Riot calculator, I now see, has no provision for solar hot water).

18.5 gallons of oil

30% of the US National Average

Trash. After recycling and composting this usually comes down to mainly food wrappers, though this month there was some unfortunately not-recyclable packaging of holiday gifts, so I’m adding a pound per person to our usual.

7 lbs. pp per month

5.2% of the US National Average

Water. This is calculated per person. We used more than in November and October, but still, this is about our usual.

481 gallons pp.

16 % of the US National Average

We are very close to choosing our solar hot water system and installer. It is something we were thinking about even before we went for the solar PV, and when the latter system was designed, we made sure there would be plenty of room for thermal collectors. Now that we have whittled down our oil consumption, solar hot water is the natural next step.

And how much we’ve whittled it down became obvious last week. An enthusiastic referral brought in a last-minute installer for a site visit – we have nine estimates already lined up, but a tenth can’t hurt. This lady was very down-to-earth and she loved our small home, with the wood stove, the insulation, and the PV array, of course. When we told her how much oil we use for hot water, and for that and heating, she said: “that’s not possible.” Then I told her about the Riot, and she looked around again, and believed it. “I’m glad you told me,” she said, for the sizing of the system.

According to our August Riot, when we had a full house (5 adults, one child), we used about 10 gallons of oil for heating water. Over the year, our total consumption of oil (hot water and heating) is about 200 gallons. That is about 25% of the US National Average.

So, we’ve reduced our barrel of oil (in the first year of our Riot – before we had the wood stove – we used about 600 gallons of oil in general, that’s 75% of the US National Average) to a bucket of oil (200 gallons), and now we’re looking at reducing it even further, to… half a bucket of oil (since it turns out, then, that we use about half of our oil for heating water and half for heating the house).

Now it’s just a matter of deciding what we want as a secondary backup (for when the sun isn’t quite up to heating the water enough): oil, electrical (we do have *some* solar PV overproduction), or heat pump?

I’ll keep you updated!

PS. We also just we filled up our two oil tanks (the previous owner needed two so her 50-year-old furnace could overheat her uninsulated house) with 358 gallons of BioHeat, a biofuel. May it last us three years, even more!

FOUR YEARS OF RIOT!

Four year summary coming soon

This is the Riot for the month of October 2012 for the three of us. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers!

We did well in October. The somewhat lower numbers are because I recorded the last Riot on October 2, so we’re looking at two days less than I usually count. Still, it looks good. I wish I could say what we’re doing to make it look that good, over and beyond our average numbers.

Gasoline. Calculated per person.

9.8 gallons per person

23.8% of the US National Average

Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an electric stove. According to our solar meter, we produced 6477 kWh since the system was turned on, and 302 kWh this last month (the return is going down quickly now – comparre to 502 in September and 615 kW in August – You can follow our solar harvest live here). We owed NStar nothing because we still have credit from our over production, but we do know that with that credit we bought 10kWh from them. So we used 302 + 10 kWh = 312 kWh, which I think is pretty neat!

312 kwH

17.3% of the US National Average

Heating Oil and Warm Water. This too is calculated for the entire household, not per person. This is all for heating water for dishes and showers, since we’ve not had to turn on the heat, yet. We did really well last month and kept it up this month. We’re still looking into an electric on-demand heater with perhaps a solar thermal unit.

7.8 gallons of oil

12.7 % of the US National Average

Trash. After recycling and composting this usually comes down to mainly food wrappers.

6 lbs. pp per month

4.4% of the US National Average

Water. This is calculated per person. We did even better than last month!

431.4 gallons pp.

14 % of the US National Average

This is the Riot for the month of September 2012 for the three of us plus my parents for two weeks, so 4 people. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers!

Gasoline. Calculated per person. DH’s shuttle started running so he hasn’t been driving in. I’ve been doing less outreach for Solarize. So we did much better this month:

8.6 gallons per person

20.9 % of the US National Average

Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an electric stove. According to our solar meter, we produced 6175 kWh since the system was turned on, and 502 kWh this last month (down from 615 kW, the sun is lowering. You can follow our solar harvest live here). We owed NStar nothing but how much we consumed is a mystery: the NSTAR billing software apparently cannot handle negatives. So we used less than

502 kWh

27.8% of the US National Average

Heating Oil and Warm Water. This too is calculated for the entire household, not per person. This is all for heating water for dishes and showers. We did really well this month. We’re still looking into an electric on-demand heater with perhaps a solar thermal unit.

7.15 gallons of oil

11.6% of the US National Average

Trash. After recycling and composting this usually comes down to mainly food wrappers.

6 lbs. pp per month

4.4% of the US National Average

Water. This is calculated per person. Again, not bad!

499 gallons pp.

16.6 % of the US National Average

***

After three months of having at least 6 people in the house – at peak times 9 – a general exodus is taking place and we will be down to just Amie and I for a couple of weeks. Hopefully there won’t be a repeat of last year’s storm and week-long power-outage!

This is the Riot for the month of August of 2012 for the three of us plus my parents-and sister-in-law. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers!

Gasoline. Calculated per person. DH and SIL have been driving into Boston every day for work and that is inflating our gasoline usage.

13.15 gallons per person

32 % of the US National Average

Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an electric stove. According to our solar meter, we produced 5673 kWh since the system was turned on, and 615 kWh this last month (you can follow our solar harvest live here). We owed NStar nothing but how much we consumed is a mystery: the NSTAR billing software apparently cannot handle negatives. So we used less than

615 kWh per household

34% of the US National Average

Heating Oil and Warm Water. This too is calculated for the entire household, not per person, and since our numbers have doubled, our consumption has obviously gone up, but not by twice as much, which is good news. Bad news is that this is ONLY for hot water, since obviously we’ve not needed the heating to be on. We’re looking into an electric on-demand heater with perhaps a solar thermal unit…

9.75 gallons of oil

15.8% of the US National Average

Trash. After recycling and composting this usually comes down to mainly food wrappers.

6 lbs. pp per month

4.4% of the US National Average

Water. This is calculated per person. Unfortunately this is again a higher average than usual.

660 gallons pp.

22 % of the US National Average

***

Here it is, the Riot for the month of July of 2012 for the three of us plus my parents-and sister-in-law. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers!

Gasoline. Calculated per person. DH and SIL have been driving into Boston every day for work (shuttle doesn’t operate during the Summer) and that is inflating our gasoline usage, but since this is calculated by person int he household, it actually lands us in the lower percentages.

13.86 gallons per person

33.7 % of the US National Average

Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an electric stove. According to our solar meter, we produced 5058 kWh since the system was turned on, and 621 kWh this last month (you can follow our solar harvest live here). We owed NStar nothing but how much we consumed is a mystery: the NSTAR billing software apparently cannot handle negatives! But we’ll know soon how much we’ve consumed over the year, from mid-August 2011 till mid-August 2012 (when our one year of solar production is up!).

In the meantime, we’re working on some ways to reduce out consumption more.

Heating Oil and Warm Water. This too is calculated for the entire household, not per person, and since our numbers have doubled, our consumption has obviously gone up, but not by twice as much (last month we used 6.5 gallons of oil, which was 10.5% of US nat av), which is good news.

9 gallons of oil

14.6% of the US National Average

Trash. After recycling and composting this usually comes down to mainly food wrappers.

6 lbs. pp per month

4.4% of the US National Average

Water. This is calculated per person. Unfortunately this is higher than usual.

572 gallons pp.

19.1 % of the US National Average

Here it is, the Riot for the month of June of 2012 for the three of us. My summary of our first three years is here. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers!

Gasoline. Calculated per person.

16.35 gallons per person

39.8 % of the US National Average

Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an electric stove. According to our solar meter, we produced 4437 kWh since the system was turned on, and 581 kWh this last month (you can follow our solar harvest live here). And most heavy electrical equipment has been turned off: the growing lights and heat mat and the heat lamps for our chicks. Result: we owed NStar nothing. How much we consumed is a mystery: our NSTAR bill will not say. All we know is that we produced 581 kWh and they rebated us (yes, paid us) $26, but who knows at what rate! I’m going to guess here:

380 KwH

21% of the US National Average

Heating Oil and Warm Water. This too is calculated for the entire household, not per person.

6.5 gallons of oil

10.5% of the US National Average

Trash. After recycling and composting this usually comes down to mainly food wrappers.

6 lbs. pp per month

4.4% of the US National Average

Water. This is calculated per person.

436 gallons pp.

14.5 % of the US National Average

Robin Hill Gardens

Be joyful though you have considered all the facts

Category Archives: Recent Riot Posts

Riot – February and March 2013 – Months 52-53

Two Month’s Worth of Trash and Terrible Faux-Pas!

Riot – January 2013 – Month 51

Riot for Austerity – November and December 2012 – 49-50

Going for Solar Hot Water

Riot for Austerity – October 2012 – Month 48

Riot for Austerity – September 2012 – Month 47

Riot for Austerity – August 2012 – Month 46

Riot for Austerity – July 2012 – Month 45

Riot for Austerity – June 2012 – Month 44

Solar Production