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Construction: Enviroment Projects
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As
part of the renovation of my house I have been conscious that it would
be good to reduce the energy demand of the building to not only reduce
its impact on the environment, but also to reduce the ever increasing
energy bills.
Apart from improving the insulation and reducing
draft's as part of the renovation, I also intend to make and fit solar
heating array and possibly given time, experiment with a solar sterling
generator. When I get round to it the progress will be logged on this
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Solar Panel Parabolic Mirror
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Calculating your energy use
Not all energy companies make it easy for you to calculate the cost of
your energy usage, possibly because not being able to work it out
yourself means you aren't necessarily aware to how much you are paying.
The following is how I keep track of my costs.
Gas
Converting to kWh
Gas is probably the most difficult fuel to calculate the usage because
the majority of meter in the UK record the gas usage in cubic feet
rather than kilowhat hours. The conversion isn't streight foreward.
imperial units
used
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metric conversion factor
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calorific value
of gas
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volume
correction
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to convert
to kWh
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gas used
in kWh
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1
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x2.83
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x39.403
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x1.02264
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÷3.6
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=31.6764
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In a spreadsheet the following formula will work assuming you put your units of gas used in cell A1 and this formula in cell B1
=(((B1*2.83)*39.403)*1.02264)/3.6
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All Content © 2011 Robert Burke, unless otherwise stated.
Please contact me if you would like to use any of this content.
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