The results are in, and it appears that my experiment has been a success.

It was in February that I wrote my first article on a plan to minimize my power bill.  Over a two month period I implemented several energy saving techniques with the qualification that none of them would negatively impact my way of living.  Of course I could save money by not turning on the air conditioning, but when it's 90 degrees, "I want my AC please."  (Didn't Dire Straits write a song about that?)

How do I know this was a success?  My April power bill was the lowest it's ever been.  I've used a spreadsheet to record every power bill I've gotten over 6 years (doesn't everyone do this?), and for the month of April I used less kWh/day than during any previous month.  This even includes the first few months I lived here when I didn't have a whole lot of stuff to turn on.

But you observantly point out that maybe this April was simply a month where very little AC or heat was needed.  Maybe April is always a low power-consuming month.  It is, but it's not the lowest.  October averages the least power usage, and May is second.  April ranks third, closely followed by September.  I need to see May's numbers before I can conclusively say that my power consumption is less, but I'm convinced already.

If the trend continues, it looks like I'll save about $100 each year.  It's not a fortune, but not bad for a fun little experiment.  There are some more complicated things I could do such as install solar panels, but it looks like they might take 10 to 15 years to pay for themselves.  Until it becomes more cost-effective I'll wait on that.  In the meantime, I think I'll use my savings to go buy a box of JELL-O Pudding Pops.