Energy Usage Calculator 2.0
With Energy Pricing as high as it is, I thought it might be time to upgrade the Energy Usage Calculator.
A few years ago I created a web tool to help me whilst I was at work as on a near daily basis I was helping customers understand their bills and why they cost so much. It was very basic but more complicated than it needed to be.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been redesigning the tool in various forms (Excel, Power Apps, Web Apps) to make it easier for end users to use.
Most of the tools I’ve been using have been based around Office 365 and as much as I’ve tried to include one of them here for some reason, I can’t quite figure it out, I just can’t get it to work without everyone needing to be able to sign in with a Microsoft 365 account (not ideal for a free easy access web tool).
So I’ve spent the last few days between Hospital visits, Giving Abi Driving lessons, looking after the little one, work and a boatload of other things, bending WordPress and the Calculated Field Form Plugin to my will… well it was mostly me bending to theirs and learning but that’s what I love to do anyway.
Well after all the hard work and late nights, I’m now happy to launch the Energy Usage Calculator 2.0.
I’ve redesigned the tool and used some new calculations that are a lot more accurate. You no longer need to select what types of setup you have which greatly reduces the number of calculations running, except to ask if your gas meter is Metric or Imperial.
The tool now asks you for the dates of your meter readings, your meter readings, how much you pay per kWh and your standing charge and will figure out how much your bill should be for the period between the dates.
It’s not quite where I would like it to be just yet, as I’d like it to give a breakdown of Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly usage as well as have the option to skip the meter readings and just put the dates and total energy used, but the basic functionality is ready and it should be quite easy to implement the extras in the coming days.
Please let me know what you think of the upgraded Energy Use Calculator as there is no point in me creating a tool that no one else is likely to use as it’s not fit for purpose.
