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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: LAL on June 02, 2014, 07:18:29 AM

Title: How much energy do you use?
Post by: LAL on June 02, 2014, 07:18:29 AM
Do you know how many KwH you use a month? What do you use and pay?

How many therms if you use natural gas heat do you use? What do you pay?

We used 887 kwh and paid $165 but do balanced billing so i pay $225/month for winter months since we have to use some electric to heat our bottom floor of living.

We use in winter 231 therms and pay $427. We keep our house to 62 and 55 at night.

Is this on par with everyone else? We have an old hold and it leaks heat like crazy.
Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: nereo on June 02, 2014, 08:42:35 AM
My usage (like many) varies wildly with the seasons.
Last year in June-September my consumption was between 350-400kwh/month, and $31-40/month.
My peak usage in January was 1564 khw, with a whopping $135/month charge.
According to my utility company's online profile, I consume less energy on average than similar homes in my area - but they don't state exactly what the average - only that I am below it.

Our electricty is cheap here:
our first 30kwh/day are billed at 5.41¢/kw
anything over 30kwh/day are billed at 7.78¢/kw
there is also a 'fixed charge' of 40¢/day to be hooked up to the grid ($12/month)

Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: hexdexorex on June 02, 2014, 11:16:33 AM
summers are around 80 kw...winters are 200-300 kw

summer bills average 10 dollars
winter average 30-40 dollars
Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: nereo on June 02, 2014, 12:04:07 PM
summers are around 80 kw...winters are 200-300 kw

summer bills average 10 dollars
winter average 30-40 dollars
holy cow!  how do you keep your energy usage so cheap?  Where are you located?
I thought I was doing well with new insulation, LEDs, and no dryer in the warmer months. 
I guess I need to re-evaluate my energy consumption :-)
Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: hexdexorex on June 02, 2014, 12:36:59 PM
Just outside of San Francisco. I have a studio apartment a laptop/a small tv/refrigerator/electric stove and that's about it. So its pretty easy to keep my energy use light. Hopefully going to get a volt in the next year or so and that might spike the bill (although ill keep usage to off peak.)
Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: amicableskeptic on June 03, 2014, 02:09:20 PM
We have no A/C and gas heat so our kWh consumption is pretty constant, it averages under 120 kWh/month with peaks of up to 180 and valleys of down to 80.  For gas we average around 45 therms per month with winter months peaking at just over 100 therms.  This is for a 1930's 3 bedroom 1300 sqft house in upstate NY and is based largely on putting R60 insulation in the attic and using very few electronics (outside of laptops which are low energy consumers).

Based on your post it sounds like you could really benefit from better air sealing.  NY has free home energy audits through NYSERDA and your state may have something like this too.  A home energy audit will really tell you what needs doing and how much it will save you (though they may try and sell you pros to do it instead of doing it yourself which can be much cheaper).  Post your state and utility provider and I may be able to give you better recommendations.
Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: LAL on June 04, 2014, 12:34:51 PM
Already did energy audits and they couldn't help us. We did all energy stuff we could. MA and nstar and keyspan. Just old house and it's a condo so can't exactly tear it apart. We shot in insulation where we could.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: sol on June 04, 2014, 10:19:27 PM
Our family of five uses approximately 1000 kWh/month in our ~2k sqft home.  That includes all electric appliances but no electric heat or electric car, either of which could easily double that number.  Big TV, several computers, and children who are not good about turning off lights.

We pay 8.4 cents/kWh (power cost plus delivery charge) so $84/mo plus about $6/mo to be tied to the grid.  I've been exploring these numbers in some depth recently in preparation for installing solar panels on our home.
Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: bogart on June 05, 2014, 08:44:57 AM
We live in the US SE in an energy inefficient home with a fairly new gas furnace and electric central air.  ~1600sq ft, 2 adults, 1 kid.  Last year we averaged 643 KWH per month at a cost of $.11 per KWH, and 18 therms per month at a cost of about $1 per therm (plus a $10/month connection fee).  We also used maybe 4 pickup trucks of firewood, of which we paid for 3 ($110 per) and gathered 1.
Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: FLBiker on June 05, 2014, 10:07:39 AM
Interesting question -- my wife and I live in an 1800 sqft home in Florida.  (Bigger than we wanted, but the 12-1300 sqft houses that were bikable to work were in lousy neighborhoods.)  We typically use between 350 and 500 kwh per month @ $.09 per hour.  Surprisingly (to me) we don't spend much more in the summer.  The real spikes tend to be when we have guests.  In the summer, we keep the house at 78 or 79 overnight, then bump it up to 81 when we're out during the day.  We've got ceiling fans and it's a cinderblock house with plaster walls (hence decent thermal mass).  In the winter, we keep the house at 68, but that only kicks on for a couple of weeks, usually.  In all, our bills are usually between $50 and $65, with occasional spikes as high as $80 (again, usually when we have guests).
Title: Re: How much energy do you use?
Post by: boarder42 on June 05, 2014, 10:14:36 AM
we max out at about 1k KWH in jan/feb.  and are around 400-500 kwh in spring and fall ... and hit in the 800s in peak summer. my old PC was a power hog.  just by not running it 24/7 it knocked probably 50-100 kwh off our monthly bill.  just put together a new HTPC thats super efficient.  should cost 1 kwh  a month to operate give or take.