Electricity bill

[abowers]

It's been around $32.00-33.50 for the past four months.

[Ima saver]

I have decided to keep a closer check on our electric bill, so i am going to read the meter every day and write it down. I am also going to fiqure out how much I am paying per kilowat hour. I can't find my last bill, but the one before was $80 and I figure out I paid .091 cents per hour. What are you paying? I do like it cool in the house, I cannot stand the heat!!

[joeswife]

ours is .10 for the first 750 kw, .096 for the next 750 kw...and after that,i think the summer kw usage is for .78 per kw. in the winter anytying over 1500 kw is .05 a kw. thats what my company charges anyway . hth.

[Ima saver]

Thanks Joe's wife, I guess I should just call the electric company and ask how they charge! I know I am going to try and watch it, especailly this summer. This is when our bill is the highest, July, August, September.

[joeswife]

np..i keep track evey couple days of my elect..i made a game of getting the numbers wiht the girls. they think its a treat to get them for me. i also have a programmable thermostat i use too. i like that. and i also know how much my ac costs most days..and my dryer...that way i can debate if i want to use them or not.

good luck ot you on this..let us know what happens.
ericka

[getforfree]

[color=Black]Like I predicted, our electricity bill was $25 in april, and $35 in May (had to use AC for 10 days or so), but I also started hanging clothes outside, since it doesn't rain every day like during the winter.

I do about 6-8 loads of laundry a week. Using the drier would cost me $3-4 a week or $13-17 a month in electricity.

When it's really hot outside, the most or the laundry dries within an hour, just a little longer than in the drier. But on those hot days when its about 100 degrees outside my AC is on for 10 hours, but because it's stops sometimes, it runs about 7 hours a day. I don't know exactly, I just assume it runs about 7 hrs a day.

The AC takes 3200 watts.

3.2kw x 7hrs x$0.09 (the rounded-up cost for each kw) =2.01 a day

It costs about $2 a day to run AC. Hey, that's like having to feed an additional person!!! (even more than that)

It could cost about $60/month just for running an AC.+ the other electricity use ( $15), so it could cost me about $75 just for electicity. Too expencive.

I think, the easiest way (maybe not easiest, but more efficient) to cut the electricity cost is:
(those are the things that use the most electricity in my house)

#1 Use less AC
#2 Hang your laundry
#3 Stop watching TV (will save on cable if you have any and on time[ and time is $$, joking])

And those are things that I do, but they not saving me that much:

Turn the lights off when nobody is in the room ( and I don't turn the outside light for overnight like some of my neighbors), I have those energy-saving long-lasting bulbs.

Try to take shower when it's light outside (I have a window in my bathroom), so I don't have to turn the lights for extra 10-15 min

Try to do all the things (like fix up clothes: changing zipper, fix the hole, etc: reading, and ocasional painting (trims), also cleaning) when it's light outside.

Close my blinds when it's hot an sunny, so the sun wouldn't heat the room.

When I need to thaw something from the freezer, I would put it in the frige 24-48 hours before I need to use it, depends on the size of the item. That would make the frige work less hard and I don't have to use microwave.

[banana]

I'm on the budget for $88 a month. We have an electric stove, central air and use some space heaters occasionally during the winter. I have really been watching my bills and a couple of months I got the bill down in the $30 something range. I try to read my meter at the same time daily which helps me keep track of my usage. The next 3 months will be when I get my largest electric bills. They usually range from $100 - $130, but that is with the a/c, attic fan and dehumidifier running in the basement.

[getforfree]

Originally Posted by banana

I'm on the budget for $88 a month. We have an electric stove, central air and use some space heaters occasionally during the winter. I have really been watching my bills and a couple of months I got the bill down in the $30 something range. I try to read my meter at the same time daily which helps me keep track of my usage. The next 3 months will be when I get my largest electric bills. They usually range from $100 - $130, but that is with the a/c, attic fan and dehumidifier running in the basement.

Do you have any ideas how you can lower your electricity bill.

Except for the ones I mentioned above, maybe cooking the meals that require less stove usage and not expencive at the same time. Or the ones that can be cooked in the crockpot or microwave. I bake potatoes in microwave for about 9-10 min instead of running the oven.
I don't know, can't think of anything right now.

[banana]

I basically do all the things you listed above. How do you heat your hotwater? If electric maybe you could install a timer to save some money. I switched to all CF lightbulbs several months ago and really noticed a difference. I do use my stove daily (expect in the summer time). My hubby loves a good supper so I dont skimp on that. In the summer I refuse to use the stove if the AC is on. I will either use the crockpot and put it outside or use the grill.

I unplug appliances that I could easily reach, like my microwave on my kitchen counter. I only plug it in when I need to use it and then it gets plugged right back out!

I find reading my meter everyday really gives me an idea as to how much I spent the day before. On a really great day, no a/c, attic fan, dehumidifier, washing machine, I could use as little as 10 kwh a day.

We also re-insulated our attic last fall which helps with the heating and cooling bills tremendously. If I shut the a/c off and have the windows open I keep an eye on the temp both inside and outside. If the inside temp seems to be catching up to the outside temp I quickly shut everything. I also have thermal lined drapes on all my windows which help a lot. I have ceiling fans in all the bedrooms so at night I raise the temp on the a/c to 74 or 75 and turn on the fans.

I think you are doing a great job with the $25 bill in April and the $35 bill in May. I would look at your bills again and compare how many kwh you used the same month last year.

Hope this helps!

[getforfree]

I also have natural gas.
It's used for water heater and stove.

We just replaced our water heater and got the tankless one a few days ago. The old one was leaking, and it caused our last gas bill to be $58 instead of $20-25.

Because we needed to replace the water heater anyway, we went for the tankless one, because it will use much-much less gas. It turns on only when I use the hot water instead of eating the gas 24-7 like our old one.

Don't know what the next bill will be. They send it on 20th of the month, so 7 of those days on the bill will be with the new water heater. Hope it will be under $45. But I have big hopes on the one after that, hope it will be a pleasant surprise.

[getforfree]

And I forgot to mention, that I use AC only when there is at least someone home and usually between 9am and 7pm. I open windows at night. I live in CA, and days in the summer are really hot here, but hights are mostly ok.

[poundwise]

A suggestion: Check to see if your power company offers an alternative rate schedule.

My provider has two plans. The first is the basic, default arrangement whereby you pay a basic customer charge plus a certain amount per kilowatt hour for energy usage.

The alternative is called a time-of-use plan whereby you are charged a different customer charge and have, instead of one constant rate for usage, two rates; on-peak and off-peak. The off-peak rate is considerably lower that the standard flat rate.

The idea is, with the alternative plan, that you plan to do more energy intensive tasks, like washing and drying clothes, utilizing other appliances, etc. during off-peak hours and thereby save money overall.

I am looking into this with my provider. Its a certainly an alternative worth considering if your provider makes it available to you. They typically will not 'advertise' this but if you ask or examine the rate schedules online, you can typically find out relatively easily.

One thing I like about my provider, is that switching to the time-of-use plan doesn't cost anything (they have to replace your meter with a special one) and it is month-to-month. Be sure to check on these types of terms if you inquire with your provider about similar plans.

[no_more_oilily]

On average here in New Zealand we pay $300 a month just for electricity,that is not including air con (99.9% of houses do not have air con here).We are having some of the coldest days here in NZ atm,it is frezzing!

[no_more_oilily]

And I hate wasting power and I dont use a drier either.
Edited to add..
Atm nz is having black outs-whole cities without power
Last weeks was the city I live in had its turn due to a cable snapping yet again.
A few years back NZ's biggest city Auckland had no power for weeks on end!

[lillyb]

We do the average monthly here. Total electric. With summers being so hot and central air it's created a deficit that I'm still not near paying down. Our 'normal' bill will run about $170 but the averaged amount is about $265 a month. Yeah, high. Along with our somewhat extreme highs and lows (we've seen many days already in the triple digits this year), dh also has a 1800sqft shop on our property that's all electric as well. *sigh* Very soon I aim to pay the deficit part of our electric bill and get the figures closer to what we do use monthly. It'll be a work in progress.

We really don't mind our higher bill. Dh works in the heat all day and refuses to sweat at home, I won't ask him to as hard as he works. We can't afford to re-route the gas lines (we were told we'd have to if we wanted natural gas), too expensive. Seems like the gas bill was just as high as the electric bill some months, so not really saving there. Our older AC (and gas heating) central unit is still running good, but will be needing to be replaced in the next few years. We've been relying on portable electric heat for the past two winters, which is costly. But, we aren't going into debt to purchase a new heat pump, will have to save up and pay with cash. I can hang clothes out to dry some days, when the wind isn't blowing 40mph, lol. Replacement clothes is too expensive. Our other bills aren't as bad as some other places, so it kinda evens out.

[Ima saver]

Ou electric bill runs between $80-160 per month. We do have a big house (3200 sq. feet) plus 2 garages, one with an efficency apt. I do not have screens on my windows, or I could take advantage of the cool nights. My husband does not like all the dust and pollen to come in with open windows. No clothes lines are allowed in our neighborhood.
My husband is a builder and he does not reccommend heat pumps except in a real warm state, like Florida. We do keep our hot water heater off all the time, except when taking a shower.

[Ima saver]

I just read my meter. I know I should do it about the same time each day. We used 40kwh's since noon yesterday. That is about $3.64 for electricity for one day. If I can keep that no more than $5 a day, it will fit under my budget. A/C is my big thing, so I found a big fan to put in my computer/exercise room, the hottest room in the house. So far, it is helping.

[Elgin526]

Our winter electric runs around $50 or so (more in December when we have X-mas lights up). All our appliances are gas, though, so I'm sure that helps, plus we swiched most of our lights to the compact florecent bulbs (uses less energy and last longer). This is our first sumer in our home so we'll have to see what it will go up to now that we are running our two window a/c units (our central A/C died and we won't get it replaced until next year). They are both energy efficiant models so hopefully it won't be too bad...

[Ima saver]

I have made it all day without running the airconditioner. It is about 80 in my exercise room, but the fan is helping. It also helped that it was overcast today and not as hot.

[mschluckbier]

We just moved, so havent gotten our first bill yet, but I know the last people who lived here had bills averaging $100 a monthbecause our deposit was almost $200 (which is 2 months of service I believe). At our last house, our bill ran about $65-$80 a month, but that was a huge OLD house, with an inefficient electric system. This house is partially updated so we'll see what happens. But I did mention the tankless water heater to my fiancee, and we're going to do some research into that.