Green Building Forum - GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

GBP-Keith — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:44:12 +0100

We measure it with a total generation meter of sorts but taking these readings will not give a correct co2 output I assume as it will see it as grid electricity rather than on-site renewables? I'll take a look t the 'other' option on the heating fuel. thanks JT

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

JTGreen — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:00:41 +0100

imeasure use "CO2" as a surrogate measure for "energy use".

They are really pitched at helping the vast majority of the population whose energy sources do emit CO2 to reduce their energy use (the demand side). That seems reasonable to me, given that renewables are a v. small percentage of energy used (overall, not in the individual case - YMMV) and that negawatts are absolutely fundamental in reducing CO2.

Presumably, people who are motivated to invest in renewables for their own use off-grid are also committed to reducing energy use? Otherwise it would be fine for an individual (assuming limitless wealth/land) to specify a massive system (with the greater embodied energy that implies) to supply completely profligate use. But that's not fine. If someone is off-grid, lower energy demand makes possible renewable systems with lower embodied energy. If someone is grid-tied, then lower energy demand enables them to export energy - thereby reducing someone else's CO2 emissions. Therefore, negawatts are important regardless of the source of your kWh.

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

SteamyTea — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:00:51 +0100

I cannot make head nor tail of what I have entered. Since I started 'collecting my bills' I have had 4 different bill format, 3 different accounting periods, a meter change and numerous interim bills, one being wrong by a factor of 10 (cost me 90 quid in bank charges as well)
When I looked at my results says I should have paid 1300 quid and produced around 850kg CO2.
I have worked from Units used as I cannot work out the meter readings with the format I am given.
So either people can explain to me where I have gone wrong or it is not too valid.
Oh and I cannot compare myself with other until my records are up to date. No more info to input so what is that about.

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

JTGreen — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:22:48 +0100

Do you have a meter or meters you can read easily? You can input up-to-date data from them. If your bill has been out by a factor of ten in the past, you might want to forget retrospective data from bills. Garbage in, garbage out and all that.

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

jamesingram — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:19:53 +0100

Damon , might i suggest you consider having more children , thus reducing your per person usage and pipping me to the top of the list

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

JTGreen — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:25:29 +0100

imeasure does peversely incentivise procreation - future carbon footprints, be damned!

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

DamonHD — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:33:50 +0100

Yes James, I noticed you snuck ahead.

I'd like to point out that after having 2 children our household footprint dropped from about 6tCO2e/y to 0.3t/y, and I'm concerned that if we had any more we'd go massively negative and warp the space-time continuum. And we wouldn't have enough space. And my other half has said no.

Suggestion denied. B^>

Rgds

Damon

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

brig001 — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:51:58 +0100

By my reckoning I don't need more insulation etc., I just need 8 more kids ...peversely incentivise procreation? ...my other half has said no... oh well, back to insulating then

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

jamesingram — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:40:45 +0000

Damon , I see you've advanced to the premier league ( last week of december), are you registering you electric usage , without considering you PV generation .
If so you gas usage is good and low for you house type.
Or were you off skiing that week

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

DamonHD — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:43:49 +0000

Rest of family was away a few days though I was here all but one day hermit-like.

I think that iM is reporting the wrong week on the Carbon Club page at the moment which confuses things.

I assume that you have given at least one child away over Christmas, given how badly you are slipping!

All meters are being faithfully and accurately recorded. (Imports for the whole year only about 1MWh of electricity, bill for last qtr of 2010 < Â£70.)

Rgds

Damon

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

brig001 — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:01:10 +0000

Maybe he has revived the ancient tradition of sacrificing the first-born

I still threaten our eldest with that when he goes too far

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

DamonHD — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:36:22 +0000

James: just to be clear having re-read your post...

The electricity number I record in iM is the import meter value as-is.

So that is somewhat lower than if I had no PV, but just to put bounds on that our gross consumption for the whole year was about 1500kWh of which the import meter showed 1050kWh-ish, so on average that figure shows most of our gross consumption and gives no credit for any export.

Does that answer your question properly this time?
Rgds

Damon

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

Anke — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:14:22 +0000

Been on imeasure for a while, but am hopeless at regularly reading my meter, so most weeks are estimates. Bought an OWL energy meter before xmas, so readings might get more frequent.

About my household:
Occupants: me, plus the occasional short term lodger
House type: 1968 semi-detached bungalow with recently converted loft (no dormer)
Internal heated floor area: approx 108 m2 (68m2 downstairs, 40m2 ish upstairs)
75% under floor downstairs insulated with 25mm kingspan
Heating: gas condensing combi (band A) tankless + 10 rads
Walls: Breeze block with brick skin, 75mm PU foam insulated cavity
Roof: 150mm kingspan, 250mm rockwool between floor joists in attic
Windows: new 93% rated (B) uPVC 2G low E argon filled
Lighting: CF everywhere
Whitegoods: A rated fridge and chest freezer, C-B rated small dishwasher, C rated normal freezer and washer
Microgen: none yet

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

mw116 — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:39:18 +0000

Been on iMeasure intermittently for a while, but finally got round to entering all the meter readings I have access to this weekend. I think my current E rating show's that I've still got a lot of work to do...

About my household:

Occupants: me, plus occasional other half
House type: 1981 detached 4 bed barratt box, with mid 90's extension to bathroom and smallest bedroom
Internal heated area: 128m2 (equal upstairs/downstairs)
Heating: Original boiler (I know it needs replacing, just need a round-tuit) feeding HW tank, radiators and underfloor to lounge and kitchen
Walls: Block and brick cavity, with glasswool CWI in 60mm ish cavity
Roof: 0-200mm glasswool between and across joists
Windows: late 90's uPVC double glazing of unknown quality, with alu framed sliding door to lounge
Lighting: CFL everywhere except (unused) halogens in kitchen, and downstairs wc
Whitegoods: A+ rated fridge, C rated washer, unknown freezer.
Microgen: none yet

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

DamonHD — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:45:29 +0000

Well, if you can bear to wait, stockpile your boiler-replacement-tuits (at least the round ones) until the RHI is sorted, and maybe you can get a heat-pump of some sort.

Any idea what the efficiency of the boiler is? You can look up the part number to get the Sedbuk efficiency rating.

Rgds

Damon

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

mw116 — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:09:55 +0000

I think the energy figures on the label on it work out to be 60-65% efficient, and it's had 30 years to reduce in efficiency so it is quite bad. Heat pump could work, but the radiators are on the small side already, though I do have a reasonably large garden to put a GSHP in.

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

DamonHD — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:09:47 +0000

If you're starting from that low a base then a heat-pump is likely to save you on carbon footprint and daily running costs with a fairly modest CoP (2--3, though you should aim for 3 or over).

Rgds

Damon

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

CatherineD — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:36:07 +0000

Hello,

I signed up to the group on imeasure a little while ago and thought I'd better get round to an introduction

About my household:
Occupants: 2 adults, 2 children (youngest still pre-school, so somebody is at home most of the day)
House type: 1920s 3 bed semi
Internal heated floor area: not sure - need to measure this
Heating: gas CH (very old boiler) supplemented by wood-burner (Pioneer)
Walls: Solid brick with EWI on front and side
Windows and front door: all double glazed, although stable back door and french windows at back of house are wooden single glazed
Lighting: all low energy lightbulbs
Whitegoods: A rated fridge, B rated small freezer (lower energy use than most of the A rated ones!), A rated dishwasher (mostly run on 'quick' setting which uses less energy than the eco setting), A rated washing machine - mostly used at low temperatures
Microgen: none yet, solar hot water planned for this summer

Usage for 2009 - 2010 was 12,573kWh

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

docmartin — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 23:13:07 +0000

CartherineD,
I am on i-measure, too. What type and thickness of EWI do you have? Only my off-shot kitchen has EWI; the results are so good that there has been no heating in the kitchen for the whole of this winter. The EWI is Kingspan K5 phenolic, 60mm thick with acrylic trowel on finish. Currently I am trying to persuade my youngest daughter to have her 1925 end of terrace fitted with EWI; I have just finished insulating the floors.
Some further detail about your area, floors and EWI would be useful; I was expecting rather less total energy consumption if her whole house is insulated to current regs for a refurb,
Martin.

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

DamonHD — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 06:48:20 +0000

Can you please separate for us your gas and electricity kWh? They are apples and oranges (1kWh of electricity can do the work of 2 or 3 or more kWh of gas).

Rgds

Damon

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

CatherineD — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:29:23 +0000

Annoyingly, imeasure doesn't split the annual total of kWh so I had to export the data to excel - still one year but slightly different time period
Gas: 10037
Electric: 2598

The renovation is part the way through - the back of the house is still the original 1920s render! In fact there is one wall which is not plastered internally and the heat loss through the wall is greater than through the window (window is 10 year old UPVC).

The EWI is ecotherm with K-rend render plus foamglas below the damp-proof course - designed to stay within the existing overhang of the roof tiles. Will post the exact measurements later.

The eventual plan is to build an eco-extension on to the back of the house, hence the back of the house not being insulated. We were hoping to do the extension this year, but with the current financial climate are likely just to move the bathroom, add solar thermal and possibly add a porch (and sunspace).

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

DamonHD — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:32:05 +0000

Mean UK household values (when heating with gas) are about 18000kWh/y gas and 3300kWh/y electricity, so you're doing well on both already! B^>

Rgds

Damon

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

Mike (Up North) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:58:43 +0000

Hi
Looking at the i measure site the options seem to be only gas or elec or in combination. Are there any ways other fuels can be quoted. For example you could quote each lit of oil as 10 kw hr (unit) but its not very precise.
I think the sq footage of the houses is very usfull for a comparison between them.

Cheers
Mike up North

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

Justin — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:49:00 +0000

I've been in Imeasure for some time, but it was wrong before (my ancient electricity meter was running backwards for 8 months summer PV). Now after actually getting a new export meter recently, I've deleted loads of the old records, and begun again with the export meter and total generation as separate meters. This is still added up by the system as positive not negative, meaning we get "scored" twice for that we didn't use!

Still despite that, it's handy as a log. Nothing I couldn't do with Excel of course, but I like to support a good initiative even if it has it's flaws.

Oh, and I joined GBF club. I don't think we can read much into the results if it comprises people with microgen and /or backwards running meters!

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

DamonHD — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 06:53:47 +0000

Justin: I don't attempt to record our generation, only the readings on the (non-reversible) import meter. iMeasure is not intended to cope with microgeneration IMHO, and you'll get misleading results.

Rgds

Damon

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

RobinB — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:55:35 +0100

Just joined Imeasure I put in two adults, one teenager, two children- it says we have 3 people - is that normal? Seems a bit harsh!

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

RobinB — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:59:14 +0100

SORRY! found the answer in their FAQS. Should look right from next week. Missed 2 children when I first entered the data. Hope that doesn't reflect too badly on me as a step-parent.

"The number of people in my house has changed but the badge still has the old number"

"That's right. The badge reflects the status of your house the week before the current week. The change won't take effect until next week"

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

RobinB — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 15:21:01 +0100

Our energy consumption this past week is everything barr than heat and DHW as that's all solar. We have no PV (yet).

29 kg of CO2 sounds high - is it? 2 adults, 1 teenager, 1 child (actually two half-timers).

GBF "Carbon Club" on imeasure or carbon account

DamonHD — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:37:10 +0100

We have 2 adults + 2 (small) children and imeasure reports our footprint as ~15kgCO2/week for the house as I recall.

(I believe we're currently somewhere between about 19kg (based on gross consumption and ignoring PV) and 13kg (just measuring what we import from the grid) and -7kg taking our PV exports into account!)

Rgds

Damon