How much electricity do you use?

[DivaJen]

A recent month...

458 kWh used (512 last year)
32 days (33 days last year)

14.31 avg kWh/day (15.52 last year)
Our house is around 1500-1600 sq. ft. We've since shut off a server, so I'm curious to see how that affects our electric bill.

[frugalfarmwife]

I don't have the bills in front of me but last months bills totaled out to about 120.00 and we heat with gas and our water heater is also gas. Our bills are always high in the winter, we have two separate, one for the house, one for the barns. We run 3 heated waterers in the barns and they just suck the electric.

Our farm is locaated on the top of a valley and we are VERY windy for Ohio so are seriously looking into both solar and wind power, in the long run it would work very well for us but for now the initial cost is just to much for us to cover.

kj

[Ima saver]

We have an extra garage that we heat. It also has a hot water heater which my husband uses a lot in the winter to wash the car. He washes it 4-5 times a week for an hour. He likes a really clean car.

[miclason]

197 Kwh - 30 day billing period.... our average for the last 6 months (listed on the bill each month) is 200.33 Kwh....Not too bad for a family of 5 (I count the maid, she is at home from 8 to 6!)....it goes up in the "summer" (6 months) as we cannot live without fans (a/c is EXPENSIVE in El Salvador!, very few people can afford it!)...

[cercis]

Wow, miclason, I want to know what you do. That's low. My usage will go waaaay up in the summer.

[Ima saver]

I am anxious to see if mine will go down this month. I don't think so, cause we have used the jacuzzi so much this months. Sometimes, we go months without using it.

[Ima saver]

Well, I got my bill and it is $12 less than last month. Of course, we went to fla. for 4 days and that may be the reason, but I am please that it went down.

[acezz4e_tish]

i know detroit edison does. i have a friend in michigan using windmills. he has a very large deep freeze chest, and still gets paid 6 dollars a month by detroit ed. six dollars dont sound like much, but add that six to your electric your paying and hes not.lol for me that would about average including the 6 dollars, 111 a month. state agencys i saw on hgtv also, are suppost to pay up to 10,000 back from your investment towards the energy panels they are chosing to pay back on. what i would give to see my dial work in reverse.lol

[infocus]

Last month was 483 kwh and my total electric bill was $50.58 with tax and the fuel surcharge (that was $12.58 - yikes!) I have a 930 square foot apartment and I heat with electric. I average around $50 a month when we are really careful, though my highest bill was $75 last winter when it got cold. Surprisingly, the winters tend to be higher than the summers, even though we live in a fairly moderate climate with very hot summers. I noticed a huge difference when my upstairs neighbor moved in - my electric bill seemed to drop by at least $15 a month. I think that helped to keep my summer bills from going as high.

Has anyone checked into wind power? I am going to sign up for it. Normally, it is a bit more expensive than regular electric, but right now you actually save a bit since the fuel surcharge is so high on the regular electric, and the fuel credit you get with wind power more than makes up for the extra cost of wind power. You can sign up for 3 months at a time, then reevaluate fuel costs at that time. The way things look, fuel will not be going down anytime soon. I was so worried about having all electric heat when I moved in here a year ago, because it used to be so much more expensive than gas heat, but now I feel lucky when I hear how much people are paying for gas heat.

[acezz4e_tish]

my son gets an ssi check, i finally asked about discounts, he said a year from then, i would be eligable for this discount, which will be in july. i reccommend asking your provider if there is any discounts or programs available. if you dont ask, they wont tell.

[lrjohnson]

I am at
This Year 30 days 1,328 KWH 44.3 kwh per day
Last Year 31 days 1,115 KWH 36.0 kwh per day.
This is for a household of 2.

We are freaking out.

We have a 2 bedroom, relatively largish house with very old wiring, some original-i.e., cloth cords, and 12 foot ceilngs. We have an gas stove and gas water heater. We live on the North Coast; very moderte weather, never any AC, and limited heating during winter - in winter most rooms are pretty cgilly-bad insulation, bad windows. (I love the old rented Vic but....)

We have flourescent light bulbs in every light bulb except on halogen lamp. We do maybe 3-4 loads of laundry a week, all in cold. We line dry a lot in the summer but this winter we haven't much. We have a thermal carafe coffee pot. We have a tiny microwave we use maybe once a day for a few minutes. We have a coffee grinder we use once a day. We have 2 computers on 24/7, and a printer. We have 3 TVs plugged in, one dual VCR/DVD. We have no hairdryer, curling iron, electric kitchen appliances other than a crock pot. We have 2 small space heaters-the radiator/slow/oil heat kind that are supposed to be fair as opposed to awful. We know heaters are a lot but we run one very low only on cold nights. Tthe other, we had used in the computer room, but much less often now-when my boyfriend took some time off and was in the computer room all day with heat on low, the heating bill jumped by $160. Even without that, though, we feel we should be NOWHERE near $200 a month!

We know PG&E is doing some rebate stuff in CA, but it's been so tough to see if it would be worth it. I look at the "average" usage per appliance on different charts, and add them all up, and even overestimating (I think) and accounting for old, inefficient washer/dryer/fridge, get no more than 664 KWH. Since we are double, I don't know whether to double everything, or what. (Or watt, he he.) So I can't effectively determine how quickly we could recoup money with a new dryer and a good rebate.

I mean, it might be worth, but how can I tell? If the very fact of my old wiring is what does me in, does it help much to get a much newer dryer?

Okay, okay, I'm not expecting answers, sorry about the rant. But my freaking electric usage is outrageous, especially considering our "actual" usage!!!

This certainly doesn't help my (modified) minimum wage challenge.

[PrincessPerky]

try unplugging your computers when done, I imagine you are not up 24 hours on them.

Might not make the budget, but will cut your usage down a bit, less they make you money while you sleep?

[Ima saver]

I wonder if my ice machine will make a difference in our bill. We had a big one behind the bar and it leaked. It just got fixed last weekend and it is now plugged in out in the garage and making ice. I wonder how much power that will pull. I am an ice "fanatic"

[Tightwad Kitty]

Irjohnson ~ We do maybe 3-4 loads of laundry a week, all in cold. We line dry a lot in the summer but this winter we haven't much. ……. even overestimating (I think) and accounting for old, inefficient washer/dryer/fridge, get no more than 664 kWh. ….. So I can't effectively determine how quickly we could recoup money with a new dryer and a good rebate. ….If the very fact of my old wiring is what does me in, does it help much to get a much newer dryer?

Looking at what you have written in your post, I would start looking at modify few routines or habits.

How many loads and hours is your dryer on per week?
Yes, I would be changing your computer routine to save money in that area.

In my household I unplug any electrical item that is not used daily.
Only one TV on at a time and is switch off if no one is watching it!

I would be looking at rewiring your house in the near future. As it’s old house, you may find if you wish to put in A/C you may not be able too! My neighbour had to put extra main power in as the wiring from power company to house was not strong enough for all the modern appliances they had, you only could put two on at time or the fuses would blow. But I would be more worried about a fire from the old wiring!

When was the last time it was rewired and meter box upgraded?

[lrjohnson]

Tightwad Kitty:
We could modify some habits, but I don't think that would make a dent. We only ever have one TV on at a time, and only if someones watching. We dry 1-3 loads a week, drying til just one only, and doing an extra spin to get water out. On appliance usage sites electric washer and dryer at FIVE loads a week is 107-double that (even though it's already more because of the five loads) for inefficiency and you've got 16% of our usage. Same with computers-if I QUADRUPLE normal usage, it would account for 12%. So yeah, I could turn of the computers when not in use, but I don't think that's it.

We would never need AC because we are on Coastal Northern california. In the summer when we line dry almost all loads and never run the heater ever, we still hit $150 electric. With all flourescents, turning off lights all the time, few gadgets, I am not seeing what other routines or habits to modify to really contribute. I could unplug everyhting when not in use, but I don't see the blender sucking up all this juice. I've heard that the "always on" in sleep mode guys are the ones that really suck when off, so I could do the computer, TV, DVD/VCR, but I think that I could save along the lines of $12, $20, etc, from looking at various wattage usage sites. Now, I know that's real money-6 to 10 pounds of cheese!-but when we are looking at a $360 bill it really is a fraction.

I can't rewire since it's a rental. And I think that's the main source.

[flash]

ah, but if it's a rental you can have it inspected and any problems/leakages fixed. California codes, you know.

when we lived in CA, our electric bills were higher than on the east coast, even with the milder weather. But we have dropped costs significantly by insulating, recaulking, etc. We recaulked all the windows around the house two years ago, and saved, well I'd have to pull up my old journal notes, but it was a major difference in oil and electricity usage.

[lrjohnson]

flash, your right. If I'm gonna get het up about it, I should take action.

Here's where I'm a sucker: my landlady isn't in the landlady business. She's a civil servant like me, recently widowed, who is not all together financially. She used to live in this house before, that's why she owns it now. Of course she still has responsibilities as a landlord, but it's not a faceless corporation raking in the profits. She is starting to do some work around the house, some minor roofing (a recent storm made it necessary), one cracked window, etc. But we can tell that even though she wants to keep the house up, that each call to a low-cost repair person is a dent. Our fridge is making some odd cooing noises that my boyfriend thinks might be the condenser fan or a fan in the freezer from online searching, and we asked her about that. A new fridge (from her) and a new dryer (ours) might help some, as those 2 items seem to be the biggest drains on the appliance lists, other than the heat which we just wont use. But I just don't know about asking her to rewire. We recently had to have an outlet replaced, as the connectors were bad, so it's not that she's unaware of the old wiring. We try to be lowkey tenants, and the rent hasn't been raised in 4 years. It was a little high when we moved it, but now, California market being what it is, it's low rent.

I may be looking to buy this year. This has been a lesson-even though I adore funky old Victorians, there are certainly some setbacks and costs.

I just can't be concise.

Today is day one of my (modified) minimum wage challenge.

[Tightwad Kitty]

It’s does sound like it’s the old wiring, as you are not using that much kWh elsewhere.

The only other thing I can think of, did the person who read the meter read it right. Can you read your own meter?

My bill before last one was read wrong by 1000 kWh, I read it myself and had reading on the bill changed to the right reading. My last bill was right amount so I was right.

I find my kWh chart, post part of it as it's now has 14 years of figures on it.

[Tightwad Kitty]

Power Usage Challenge

Only the last 5 years Quarterly Bills here.
[Start Date, Days, Tar 11power /Tar 33 kWh hot water used , $ amount & notes]
Date is starting not ending one. e.g. 9/8/02 10/5/02
Tariff 11 – 14.5c kWh ~Tariff 33 – 7.45c kWh in 2/2003 (prices have gone down a bit now). (now we have a flat rate 13.49c from Nov 05 for tariff 11)

Pensioner rebate ... My hot water tank has the word NORMAL on it. So my setting N –low, M – medium, L – on full.

Autumn Period
2/01 D94 T 894/384 $149.85
2/02 D87 T 756/284 $101.15 Rebate $28.05 Turndown hot water temp. to @N. (NZ)
2/03 D91 T 837/316 $117.40 Rebate $29.04 Turndown hot water temp. to @N.
2/04 D90 T 951/285 $133.30 Rebate $30.03 New Refrig455kWh +Old, Hot HW@ M
2/05 D91 T 922/277 $132.25 Rebate $30.79 -2 Refrig, Hot HW @ M (no air-con on)

Winter Period
5/01 D87 T 761/423 $137.70 [Turn-up Hot water temp to middle point 5/02]
5/02 D91 T780/452 $117.95 NZ Cruise 2 weeks [3.3% priceup/ Rebate $29.04]
5/03 D91 T772/407 $117.40 [3.4% increase Rebate $30.03 New Roof June] HW@L
5/04 D91 T840/414 $130.25[2.5% inc] May/June House Repairs- HW@ L
5/05 D89 T901/394 $139.50 [2.6% inc] rebate $31.58 AC heater on 10 D - HW@ L

Spring Period
8/01 D91 T 798/396 $115.00 Rebate $28.05
8/02 D89 T 787/359 $114.11 Rebate$29.04 [Turndown hot water temp to @M]
8/03 D88 T 791/345 $117.05 Rebate$30.03 [T/down H water temp to @M] Sep 31C
8/04 D92 T924/358 $139.10 Rebate $30.79 Air-con. bought Sep HW @ M
8/05 D97 T1008/386 $157.20 Rebate $31.58 – (wrong read) HW@ M -Sep 37C (reading was out by 1000kWh first reading.)

Summer Period
11/01 D96 T 945/345 $129.85 Rebate $28.05 / Heat wave 4 weeks @ 41C temp.
11/02 D96 T 897/317 $125.85 Rebate $29.04 / Cooler <33C / 6th day Wash Trial/ HW@N
11/03 D96 T 879/295 $126.05 Rebate $30.03 <37C (Blackout 50.45Hrs) HW@M
11/04 D92 T1061/280 $150.90 Rebate $30.79 <38C Air-Con in use HW@M
11/05 D88 T1106/253 $155.20 Rebate $31.58 <39C Air-Con in use HW@M

All this is in Australian dollars which is at the moment around .75 to US dollar

$2.00 donation for local Helicopter Rescue is included on each bill.

I started this chart in 1992 until now for single household.

[CJsoccerchic]

woo hoo!! just got my electric bill only a whopping $51!!! YAY!! That's a savings of $75 (i truly do not KNOW what I did to make it happen like that..)