Tuesday 9 September 2014

Life hacking using gas consumption data

So my flat is in a split terraced house, and somehow both gas meters ended in the neighbours flat (I have the dubious pleasure of having both electricity meters). I'm moving out soon, so I need to submit the final readings to the gas company, but my neighbours are moving out tomorrow, so I won't be able to just pop in to check the readings. The landlord will check the meters anyway, so it's not a big deal, but hey, why should I trust him?
Fear not, for, as a geek, I begot a spreadsheet, in which collected are all figures detailing my hydrocarbon usage, at least in the gaseous phase! So I can trust my own math instead of the landlord! Cue plot:
Hello, Mr. Putin!
You can see quite clearly when the winter started getting cold, when I was away for Christmas, or when I just got lazy and have not taken readings as often. I hear that the police uses electricity consumption to locate weed plantations. Does the BBC use gas consumption to find people for the Great British Bake Off?
Anyway, assuming a linear interpolation between the previous meter reading in July and when I move out, I shall use about 1.75 cubic feet extra on top of today's meter reading. I doubt the utility companies use anything fancier to predict their bills, though they usually err on the side of more consumption. Let's see how far off I'll be.