Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Electric meters, usually mounted outside the home, are an easy and convenient
way to track electric consumption in real time. For instance, if you want to see how
much electricity your home is consuming in a particular hour you can simply step
outside and record the numbers on the electric meter then wait one hour and step
outside to the record numbers again. Subtract the two numbers and that will give
you the amount of kilowatt hours or watts consumed during that hour. The same
thing goes for the natural gas meter. If you have a gas stove in your kitchen and you
want to see how much natural gas the stove consumes you can check the natural gas
meter reading when no other gas appliances or systems are running. Then turn the
stove on for 10 to 15 min and then check the meter again. Subtracting values will
tell you how much gas the stove consumed during that time. I use propane to fuel
my gas fireplace. I have a small 100 gallon propane tank which has a gauge attached
so that I can check when to order more propane. I've also used this to measure how
much propane the fireplace uses. I step outside and check the value on the gauge
then turn the fireplace on. I usually burn the fireplace for least a few hours in the
evening during the winter. After a period of time, 1 to 2 hours, I will step outside and
check the gauge again to see how much propane I used during that time. That tells
me the rate of consumption of propane that my fireplace is using. Fuel oil consump-
tion might be somewhat more difficult to measure. I can remember many years ago
when I had a fuel oil furnace and I had a 250 gallon tank. The way that I checked
the amount of oil in the tank was I dropped a measuring stick down into the top of
the tank and read the markings on the stick. Aside from these primitive methods of
measuring consumption, these are the most convenient types of monitoring devices
available to us because almost every home has them. This is how the utility compa-
nies track our consumption and decide how much to charge us. Take advantage of
these opportunities to monitor your energy consumption and use the information to
help you conserve.
Some utility companies will help you monitor your energy consumption for you.
My electric company provides web pages that show my electric consumption on a
weekly daily or even an hourly basis. This is an excellent tool to see how much elec-
tricity I'm consuming throughout different parts of the day. Smart electric meters
allow this to happen. Smart meters provide feedback to the utility companies about
electric consumption. There are also whole house energy monitors available that
plug into your electric meter or into your circuit panel. These devices will monitor
the energy consumption of your home as a whole. Some of these devices are WIFI
enabled so that you can view the consumption in real-time on display devices con-
veniently located in the home.
Some devices called data loggers can plug into your circuit panel and monitor
the whole house electric consumption or the consumption associated with any par-
ticular circuit. On a smaller scale, you can use devices to measure the consumption
of individual appliances throughout the home. Small devices are available that plug
into the wall and then allow you to attach a plug-in appliance to them. The device
will record the kilowatt hours consumed and the amount of time you monitored the
appliance. Also, you can use thermal leak detectors to monitor how much hot or
cold air is coming out of a forced air vent. If you know that your forced air ducts are
