Weekly snapshot. How are we doing in early spring?
Ater a particularly wet and overcast winter, we’re finally enjoying some warmer weather! With clear blue skies and bright sunshine, our home begins to warm up early in the morning, gradually reaching its peak during the day, and then effectively retaining that heat overnight. Our motto? “Heat up quickly, lose heat slowly!”
The chart below illustrates data from temperature sensors placed throughout the house. It highlights a significant contrast between the outdoor temperature (shown in green) and the temperatures in various rooms inside. On average, the indoor temperature was 20.9°C—over 8°C warmer than the outside!
But what about energy?
For this home, there is no connection to the local energy network (‘the grid’). All our electricity comes from an 8.4kW solar array and a Tesla Powerwall 2. This is a relatively small system for an ‘off-grid’ home, which is great because we wanted to test how energy-efficient we can be! Most people don’t want or need to be off-grid, but being energy efficient always makes sense to save money and the environment.