Electricity bill

[getforfree]

Re: Electricity bill

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]

Re: Electricity bill


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]

Re: Electricity bill

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]

Re: Electricity bill

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]

Re: Electricity bill

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]

Re: Electricity bill

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]

Re: Electricity bill

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]

Re: Electricity bill

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]

Re: Electricity bill

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]

Re: Electricity bill

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.

[getforfree]

Re: Electricity bill

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.

Ours doesn't offer alternative rate schedule. If it would, it wouldn't help much. We don't use AC in the night, and I don't think, I would want to get up at 2 am and to my laundry.

[boomeyers]

Re: Electricity bill

I think $90 is pretty good!

[poundwise]

Re: Electricity bill

Ours doesn't offer alternative rate schedule. If it would, it wouldn't help much. We don't use AC in the night, and I don't think, I would want to get up at 2 am and to my laundry.

The schedule here during the warm-weather months puts off-peak hours at before 10am and after 9pm Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday are also off-peak all day.

Also, as I mentioned already, the on-peak rate is lower than the standard flat rate anyway.

Anyway, rates vary and not every company offers the alternative, but among those that do, I believe a frugal-minded person could easily benefit from a time-of-use plan.

[poundwise]

Re: Electricity bill

But I did mention the tankless water heater to my fiancee, and we're going to do some research into that.

You will find out that high efficiency gas tankless water heaters can offer a substantial savings (though after the intial cost it may be a few years before you reach the break-even point), however, electric tankless heaters offer little to no advantage over conventional hot-water heaters.

[Ima saver]

Re: Electricity bill

It costs about 50cents in electricity to run the dishwasher for 85 minutes. Not too bad. I turn off the hot water the minute the cycle ends.