Our household electric bill drives me insane-- our local coop has incredibly high rates and I'm not sure where to begin on cutting our costs. Our energy use is pretty average when you look at the national stats for our small rural house and northern climate (about 400-450 kwh per month, with an electric stove and water heater), but I hate paying this bill and feel wasteful. (Note: we're not interested in efficiency related to heating or cooling -- our wood heat and no AC are working fine for us.)
How do I go about cutting costs or determining where we're using the most energy? I've already done the following:
-- Lots of general energy efficiency: turn off lights, use CFLs, line dry clothes most of the time (next to the wood furnace in the winter, outside in the summer), run full dishwasher loads, crockpot meals, etc etc
-- Used a Kill-o-watt meter to find out how much our appliances use. This is very limited in giving us useful info, since the largest things are wired in (well and septic pumps, pressure tank for the well, hot water heater, dishwasher) or have the the large plugs (stove, electric dryer).
-- Our appliances are fairly new and efficient. We'll continue to use them until they break, but then replace them with more efficient ones.
-- Accounted for seasonal differences. This is mainly having a wood furnace and more lights running in the winter and a dehumidifier in our basement in the summer (we bought an energy star one last summer, but it's still a hog!). There's relatively low variation across seasons, even with the wood furnace in the winter, so that leads me to think that it's our larger appliances and/or general use patterns.
It seems like the remaining option is to start turning off breakers one by one (or turning them all of and and turning them back on one by one) and reading the meter to get a better sense for how much energy our big appliances are using. Any tips for the best way to do this and get good data?
What are some other things we might be missing or should do? I'm really looking for things that will have a big impact. Thanks!