2026

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After a sunny start in the first week of January it was gloomy for the rest of the month and much of February. In addition we had more visitors in January so the gas usage was significantly higher than previous years. Looking at the comparative numbers month by month over the last few years is instructive but it is too early to tell how 2026 will go.

I will add January and February together in this commentary but the table on the summary page shows the months separately.

We generated a total of 683 kWh from the PV, exported 571 kWh of that and pulled in 312 kWh at gloomy and dark times. There was 102 kWh of EV charging. The gas usage was 1793 kWh and so our net energy use excluding EV charging 1432 kWh so quite a bit to make up in the rest of the year.

Because much of the use was gas, if we had the heat pump the negative balance would be much smaller at 356 kWh.

Although 2026 is slightly less sunny than 2025, at least in Dorset, the numbers look reasonably similar.

So both March and April were energy positive months but not enough to drag the year to date usage into energy positive territory. 

All the numbers are in the spreadsheet on the Summary of Performance  page so I won't repeat them here. We are seeing more car charging which is good. We don't charge (excuse the pun) guests for their EV usage but we do ask if they can schedule charging for sunny periods if they can. That way its greener and slightly cheaper for us.

Hot water usage remains the driver of gas use variability as well as guests choice of internal temperatures. It is fascinating to see how much variation there is.