Location: Forsyth, Missouri
October 2011 turned out to be a pretty normal month when compared to historical averages. The mean temperature for the month was 56°F as compared to a historical average of 57°F. (source: West Plains, Mo.). Just a degree cooler. Rainfall lagged behind the normal amount, as I recorded only 2.65 inches against an average of 3.39 inches (data also from West Plains, Mo.). So, we were a little dryer than normal, a trend that the weather service thinks will carry on through the balance of this year.
Energy Use
I was surprised, in a good way, with the fact that my use of electricity came in at only 395 kilowatts for the entire month! This represented a 44% reduction over the year before! So, I hopefully doing something right in my efforts to reign in my energy cost.
November 2011
Looking ahead, I’m pretty sure the month of November will pose an even bigger challenge as the mean temperature looks to drop twelve degrees from 57°F to 45°F. This will mean that some of the nighttime temperatures may likely flirt at or slightly below freezing on some days which is also the lower limit of the efficiency rating for my heat pump. On those cold days, I plan to implement my ‘space heater plan’ (see a Roomy Experiment) to help keep the costs down. It’s interesting to note that last year I used 922 kilowatts of power in a month that saw a mean temperature of 48.5°F versus a historical average of 45°F. I can always hope that this year will turn out to be even a little warmer than 2010 was.
A parting word on the Arctic Oscillation – it turned negative for the last week of October. Just in time for that ‘rare’ snowstorm that took eleven lives and plunged millions into darkness when the power failed. I’ll keep a close eye on this in the future.
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