Now that we have the wind measured, we still need to know: what is our consumption? How much energy are we consuming? The total per year you will find on your energy bill, but what is the daily consumption? What is a typical profile per day? Or on the weekend? What are we consuming per month? And will a wind turbine be able to cover this?
On this page we will see how we get more detailed knowledge about our consumption. What can we do ourselves and where do we ask if this is not enough? Also here, how long do we need to measure to have a reliable basis for the next steps.
Energy meters
We can measure the consumed energy via the devices which are installed at our homes already. There are two types: the traditional analog meters and the new digital meters. In Belgium, digital meters are installed by the grid operator since 2019 (new houses) and will be exchanged in all households until 2029.
With respect to measurements, digital meters have a couple of advantages, but principally both types of devices are doing the same: they measure the total electricity consumption in your house in kWh. For analog meters, you often see two counters (like in the picture on the left) which counts the consumption during day and during night separately.
More information about digital meters in Flanders is provided by the grid operator 'fluvius' here (in Flemish).
Data readings
The meters above can be read manually (analog meter) and via apps or online tools (digital meter). Since a manual reading is very time consuming, it will always be better to ask the grid operator for your data. This can be done, e.g. for a period of three months for the EAN codes assigned to your household. An EAN code is a unique number that identifies a connection to the electricity or natural gas network. Typically data are stored at your grid operator in a 15min-interval.
Our electricity consumption is typically the same every (work-)day and every weekend-day. There might be small differences between summer and winter since in winter we start to use lights earlier in the day and we will use less heatings (only in case electric radiators are used). Then we still have public holidays and periods where we are not at home over a longer period (e.g. travels or holiday periods). The latter is very difficult to account for, but public holidays can be assumed to be the same than weekends. It is therefore sufficient to measure the consumption in the range of three months.
What can justASK! do for you?
justASK! has analysed multiple sites already regarding energy consumptions. We have looked into all kind of data (formats), processed and analysed them to provide a daily profile for weekdays, a profile for weekends, and statistical data of monthly and yearly consumptions.
justASK! will assist you in understanding the energy consumption on your site. Together with the analysis of wind, we can provide you with relevant, up-to-date information about installing wind turbine(s), incl. cost and business case analysis, legal, and engineering aspects. JUST ASK!