Record Low Electric Bill for September:

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$42.00

I was aghast.

I even ran a window air unit a few times during the evenings.

Makes me doubt the wisdom of swithcing my electric hot water heater on a timer to tankless natural gas hot water. I suppose no energy to heat water that's not in use is better than even cheap electric to heat hot water 12 hours/day (12 hours off).

[Nightfly]

Or, consider a passive solar heating system for hot water; would that work where you live? You're probably just fine with the set up you have now.

[greenskeeper]

on demand water heater is almost always cheaper. Once my tank craps out, that's what I will be installing.

[Xtreme Thunder]

I had a $45 bill (billed every 2 months) for August and September with 0kw usage. Come to find out, as I questioned it (never do that!), that our meter stopped working. Power company came out and replaced it. They missed out on peak season when we were cranking the A/C and running a dehumidifier 24/7.

I should have never called! Looks like our reassessment of our budget bill will be artificially low for Nov 2011 - Nov 2012.

I too wonder if and how much I would save a month if I switched from a 40gal natural gas water heater to a natural gas on demand unit.

[kork13]

Originally Posted by Xtreme Thunder

I too wonder if and how much I would save a month if I switched from a 40gal natural gas water heater to a natural gas on demand unit.

The on-demand units are fantastic. I have one in my apartment here in Japan, and it works great. Turn it on, hot water in less than a minute, and I've never had it run out. And even with the high cost of living and abysmal Yen exchange rate, my gas bill is still below $30/mo (electricity normally $50-$60/mo, though I've had it get up to $180 -- oops ).

One big factor I think alot of electric utilities have is that many use "tiers" of energy usage... Say you get charged $.10/kWh from 0-20 kWh, $.20/kWh from 20-50kWh, and $.30/kWh from 50-100kWh (totally arbitrary numbers, example only). I've discovered if you can keep your average power usage even moderately low, the total cost drops off significantly.