This is the first post in the performance tracking category . I plan to add more sophisticated tracking devices in the future, but for the moment I’m simply tracking our monthly power meter and solar generation meter readings, as well as our total water usage.

Our readings at the beginning of January:

Meter reading 97,095 kWh
Solar PV output 5,054 kWh
Water usage 547.9 gallons

We’ve only been in for 5 days, but here’s our initial learnings. The first night we left the heat on. It was set to 68F. We generally like to sleep in cooler temperatures, however, so we started turning it down to 60F at night. The inside temperature hasn’t gone below 62F yet. We’ve had a decent amount of sun since we moved in, so the heat tends to shut down after 10am-ish. This means we’ve only been using the heat for about 4 hours a day (6am to 10am). The house has maintained it’s temperature throughout the day and dips down into the lower 60’s at night.

Today has been a bit different. It’s cloudy, snowing and 28F outside. I set the heat at 68F this morning until it reached that set point. Then I lowered it to 65F. With very little sun out today the heat has kicked on a few times. The sun really makes a difference during the day.

I’ve been tweeting our daily morning temperature readings (@uphillhouse). We had a cold snap the other night. The outside temperature got down to 3 degrees F, but the house only went down to 62F. Same for the last night. Low was 18F, but house didn’t go below 62F.

Five days in, the house interior has only had an 8 degree temperature range overnight with temps outside ranging from 3F to the lower 30’s.

We’re off to a good start.