Family

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Family Meters

The meters on this page show the amount of electricity being used by a family on the Isles of Scilly in real-time. At this geographic scale, the time of year, weather, days of the week and what individual members of the family are doing tend to have the biggest effects on demand.

Real Time Displays

Jon Plowman : Review

Real Time Demand

This meter compares the amount of electricity being used by a family on the Isles of Scilly right now (green needle) and at same time yesterday (red needle).

The amount of electricity used by a family varies a lot over the course of a day and between days. The peaks in demand occur when everyone is getting ready to go to school or work and when the family get back for dinner and watch television in the evening.

A typical family is able to reduce it's electricity demand by 10% - 20% when it is able to see how much electricity it is using in real time.

Cumulative Demand

This meter compares the total amount of electricity that this family has used since midnight this morning, with the equivalent period yesterday.

A red arrow indicates that electricity demand is higher today than it was at the same time yesterday.

A green arrow indicates that electricity demand is lower today than it was at the same time yesterday.

Demand Curves

This graph compares the amount of electricity being used by a family on the Isles of Scilly now (green line) and at same time yesterday (red line).

In the winter, this family has a baseline demand of about 500 - 1000 Watts and peaks of demand of about 4000 Watts (4 kW), when a kettle and toaster are both switched on.

The regular small peaks in this family's demand are the result of the fridge cycling on and off every few minutes. The bigger, sharper peaks are the result of a kettle being used.

Average v Daily Demand

This graphs show the average amount of electricity that this family has used each day over a 7-day period (red column).

The green columns, to the right of the red column, show the amount of electricity that the family has used over each of the following 5 days.

The lowest demand occurs over the weekend, whilst the biggest jump in demand occurs between a Sunday and a Monday.

Demand tends to peak on a Tuesday or Wednesday and to drop off towards the end of the week.

Family Electricity CO2 Emissions

Family Emissions

This meter shows you an estimate of the number of grammes of carbon dioxide (CO2) that this family has emitted since midnight this morning.

Family Electricity Bill

This meter shows you an estimate of the Electricity Bill for the family since midnight this morning.