[Narrator] Gaining control of your energy purchases
is an essential part of making your farm or ranch a sustainable enterprise.
This video will cover the first step in the process, collecting information.
Recording the pattern of your farm's energy use is something you can easily do yourself.
In the end, you will see not just how much energy is being used,
but when and this will enable you to make efficient use of your financial resources.
There may be times equipment is running when you're not aware of it, this is especially
true of electrical devices designed to run automatically. Thus our energy buying decisions
can be both deliberate and unintentional. A leaking compressed air line, for example, will
cause an air compressor to run more frequently. Once you have a baseline recorded,
it will be easier to see when something like this is happening.
[Johnstonbaugh] So prior to making large investments in new equipment and new
operations on farms it's very important to spend time tuning up what's already there.
[Narrator] Extension agent, Ed Johnstonbaugh, recommends recording your energy use
and then calculating an Energy Use Quotient for each interval of time.
[Johnstonbaugh] The Energy Use Quotient is a simple means
of determining whether your buying habits are within budget or over budget.
[Narrator] The Energy Use Quotient is equal to the kilowatt-hours of energy used divided by the
number of hours over which it was used. Thus, one kilowatt-hour used over one hour would equal one
Energy Use Quotient. kilowatt-hour used over two hours would equal one half an Energy Use Quotient.
Let's say 72-kilowatt hours were used in a 48 hour period.
Improving your Energy Use Quotient means lowering its value by lowering
the amount of energy used, increasing the time over which it is used, or both.
You can calculate the Energy Use Quotient for any fuel,
but we'll start by explaining how to do this for electricity.
First, get familiar with the meter that measures your electricity use.
Most of you will have a smart meter, that provides a digital readout of your cumulative energy usage.
Some older systems may still have an analog meter
with dials that point to the digits of your current reading.
Start recording the day, the time, and the kilowatt-hour reading on a fairly regular
basis. Doing this every day is a good starting point, but you may want to check it more.
For example, you could record both before and after a process that uses a lot of equipment.
Also, record a few other relevant bits of information like outdoor weather,
and any unusual activities on the farm that might affect energy use.
After a week or so, you should have a nice collection of data.
You can now calculate the kilowatt-hours used by subtracting the previous reading
from the current reading. After that, calculate the number of hours in between each reading,
by subtracting the date and time of the previous reading from that of the current reading.
Now, simply divide the numbers in the kilowatt hours used column by the numbers in the hours
elapsed column to get your Energy Use Quotient for each time period during which you recorded data.
The Home Energy Log Tool has an easy to use template,
it can be found in the description of this video. And that's it! You now have a set of Energy Use
Quotients from which you can see patterns. You can also average them to determine the
overall Energy Use Quotient for electricity use on your farm.
If your farm uses other forms of energy, you'll have to go through
the same process to calculate the Energy Use Quotient for those energy sources as well.
Since they aren't sold in units of kilowatt-hour, you'll have to convert the units. Fortunately,
there are tables to do this. Gallons of fuel oil and propane, therms or cubic
feet of natural gas, can all be transformed to kilowatt-hour without a lot of trouble.
A conversion table is included in the Home Energy Log Tool,
available in the description of this video. Measuring the daily use of some fuels,
like fuel oil, may be a challenge if your storage tank doesn't have a gauge.
A dipstick that measures the height of the fuel in the tank might be the best approach you can take.
Once you've calculated all of the Energy Use Quotient values for your farm,
you'll be well on your way to understanding your farm's energy use patterns
and gaining control over your energy buying.
For example, it will make it easy to do cost-benefit analysis when considering
updating equipment to gain energy efficiency. In addition, you may be able to schedule
electricity usage to decrease demand charges or take advantage of variable rates.
In our next video, we will talk about how to analyze the numbers you've calculated,
and how to bring the overall Energy Use Quotient down so that you can see profits go up.