Ours is closer to 20/day as well for a small house with excellent passive solar and no need for A/C. We don't leave anything on, and indeed aren't even home most of the time. I know the culprit is our water heater, because our bill goes up in cold weather months before we start using heat for the interior of the house. I've started killing the breaker for the water heater when we leave for the day, then flipping it on again when we get home. DH is not thrilled, but we only use hot water for showers and dishes, so it seems like a waste to have it on all day. We'll see how the next bill looks to know if it will be worth doing indefinitely.
But yeah, gas is a much more efficient source of heat.
Gas is technically not more efficient than a heat pump. Moving heat around is more efficient than converting electricity or gas into heat. However, it is a lot more effective. Not much heat to pump into the house when it's 30F outside.
Urgh, up until today I had *never* looked at my usage. Electricity is one of those bills that I know I have to have and that some months is higher than the other months, but I've never actually looked at it beyond making sure they were charging me for actual readings not estimates.
I don't know about the Harbor Freight light, but I installed Home Depot motion sensor lights in another house and they failed quickly. The solar lights don't last through the night, especially in winter. Back to the drawing board....
- Electric heat (winter months, ouch)
We do run lights all night for security, but they are CFL's.
All lights and fans, as well as the modem and router, are solar powered 12v DC, and are completely and entirely independent from the 120v grid system.
I have been unplugging the entire TV media center at the power strip for days at a time, watching a couple hours, then unplugging everything again (so no stand-by power draw).
Hi everyone, I have been a lurker here for a while. I felt I had to comment on electricity consumption, we average about 9 kw a day. This is for cooking, cooling ( we live in a hot area) and hot water. Gas is not available here. By the way, our cost is 34.9c per kw. In Australia electricity prices have risen about 40% in the last few years. I wish I could get it for 10c like you guys. This means our quarterly bill is in the region of $400.
We are on the cheapest plan I can find, there are many that are dearer.
Hi everyone, I have been a lurker here for a while. I felt I had to comment on electricity consumption, we average about 9 kw a day. This is for cooking, cooling ( we live in a hot area) and hot water. Gas is not available here. By the way, our cost is 34.9c per kw. In Australia electricity prices have risen about 40% in the last few years.
Hi everyone, I have been a lurker here for a while. I felt I had to comment on electricity consumption, we average about 9 kw a day. This is for cooking, cooling ( we live in a hot area) and hot water. Gas is not available here. By the way, our cost is 34.9c per kw. In Australia electricity prices have risen about 40% in the last few years. I wish I could get it for 10c like you guys. This means our quarterly bill is in the region of $400.
We are on the cheapest plan I can find, there are many that are dearer.
Another Aussie.... just sating but ours is $0.2318 per kWh with TRU energy. Maybe it is time for you to shop around.
Here's an interesting article on new "net zero" electricity use homes in Southern California. The house still uses 33 kwh a day.
At least they never wash their sheets or towels, so that's saving something ;)
On the other hand, there are probably a good number of people like me. I'd like to have solar electric, but with a power bill that runs around $40/month, the only way I could make the numbers work out is by winning a free Tesla.
And yet somehow, my monthly bill came in at 194kWh for 31 days, or 6.25 per day.
At least I'm below the baseline rate. Bill is $24.98
Still too high. Time to start looking for that kill-a-watt...
We use about 14 kwH/day in spring/summer/fall (no AC), rising as high as 40 in the winter - all heating is electric. Based on a month-long "cold shower" challenge I did last year, at least half of our base usage is from hot showers. Perhaps it's time to do that challenge again...
We use about 14 kwH/day in spring/summer/fall (no AC), rising as high as 40 in the winter - all heating is electric. Based on a month-long "cold shower" challenge I did last year, at least half of our base usage is from hot showers. Perhaps it's time to do that challenge again...
Or perhaps it's time to think seriously about solar hot water?
We use about 14 kwH/day in spring/summer/fall (no AC), rising as high as 40 in the winter - all heating is electric. Based on a month-long "cold shower" challenge I did last year, at least half of our base usage is from hot showers. Perhaps it's time to do that challenge again...
Or perhaps it's time to think seriously about solar hot water?
I'll definitely look into it when we have our own place (though something tells me that in Seattle area it probably won't pan out), but I don't think that's an option when renting an apartment.
Since you already have gas lines in the house, it wouldn't be too expensiveness or difficult to run lines for a gas dryer - although presumably you are only using it in winter, since the sun will dry your clothes for free the rest of the year.
Is this a single household? Why do you have 2 refrigerators and 2 freezers? If its 3 or 4 households, it would be fair to divide your numbers accordingly.
Better even the LED lights would be to only use lights when it in dark outside (again, sunlight = free), and spending 8-9 hours sleeping when it is dark out (rather than sleeping when the sun is up, and then needing more hours of lights on)
The payoff time frame for that is instant.
Do compact fluorescent globes really use so much less electricity that it is worth replacing long-functioning incandescent globes even in rooms where the light is on only for very short periods?
We're at 11.5 KWH/day here. We've got a larger house (1700 sq ft) but we've got new appliances, (except the deep freeze). We cook with electric, and heat with natural gas.
We're at 11.5 KWH/day here. We've got a larger house (1700 sq ft) but we've got new appliances, (except the deep freeze). We cook with electric, and heat with natural gas.
Do you put much effort into using less? At 11.5 watts a day you're a touch over 300 a month or according MMM 1/3 the average household use.
The reason why I keep coming back to this is the first poster said he is an electricity hog running stuff, 7/24 yet consumes only half the hydro that MMM uses who puts a huge effort to get his so low. Maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges but something doesn't make sense when an electricty hog consumes less than half the amount as a super efficient user. Maybe someone can enlighten me.
E
Since you already have gas lines in the house, it wouldn't be too expensiveness or difficult to run lines for a gas dryer - although presumably you are only using it in winter, since the sun will dry your clothes for free the rest of the year.
Since you already have gas lines in the house, it wouldn't be too expensiveness or difficult to run lines for a gas dryer - although presumably you are only using it in winter, since the sun will dry your clothes for free the rest of the year.
Hm, when we (eventually) replace this dryer, I should look into the cost. The gas line will have to run through the attic, though.
We're at 11.5 KWH/day here. We've got a larger house (1700 sq ft) but we've got new appliances, (except the deep freeze). We cook with electric, and heat with natural gas.
Do you put much effort into using less? At 11.5 watts a day you're a touch over 300 a month or according MMM 1/3 the average household use.
The reason why I keep coming back to this is the first poster said he is an electricity hog running stuff, 7/24 yet consumes only half the hydro that MMM uses who puts a huge effort to get his so low. Maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges but something doesn't make sense when an electricty hog consumes less than half the amount as a super efficient user. Maybe someone can enlighten me.
E
I also want to paint my roof white/reflective anyone got any practical numbers or experience on that?
Alright, I'm going to steal this cake.
Avg last year: 125kWh/day
Worst last year: 254 kWh/day (jan-feb)
The beast is a 3200sq home in Ottawa Canada (cold winters), non-insulated basement (in the process of putting up 3" R15 foam). Heat pump and electric forced-air heating. Luckily, Hydro Quebec rates are low, but still lots of work to do...
How much is your bill??
How much is your bill??
$320 a month averaged out
I found an interesting documentary on youtube about the normal energy usage of an english family. As a part of an experiment the consumption was powered by 80 cyclists during 12 hours. It made me think about my use of electricity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVK6w1Fldxw&feature=player_embedded
How much is your bill??
$320 a month averaged out
We're at 11.5 KWH/day here. We've got a larger house (1700 sq ft) but we've got new appliances, (except the deep freeze). We cook with electric, and heat with natural gas.
Do you put much effort into using less? At 11.5 watts a day you're a touch over 300 a month or according MMM 1/3 the average household use.
The reason why I keep coming back to this is the first poster said he is an electricity hog running stuff, 7/24 yet consumes only half the hydro that MMM uses who puts a huge effort to get his so low. Maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges but something doesn't make sense when an electricty hog consumes less than half the amount as a super efficient user. Maybe someone can enlighten me.
E
I just reread this. At first, I thought you were chastising me for our usage LOL.
I just reread this. At first, I thought you were chastising me for our usage LOL.
Yeah sorry if it came across that way, it's hard to get the tone right in a post, was more currious how you did it, like I said that's my next project.
How much is your bill??
$320 a month averaged out
But that includes heat right?
Much better than changing bulbs is never using any light in the daytime, and never sleeping when the sun is up (wasting available free light, and then having to use more power at night to compensate).
we have an in unit washer/dryer, dishwasher, and oven/stove (which uses gas, although it also must use elect, too, right?)
Since you already have gas lines in the house, it wouldn't be too expensiveness or difficult to run lines for a gas dryer - although presumably you are only using it in winter, since the sun will dry your clothes for free the rest of the year.
So, my latest electric bill came in, and we used 344 kWh for the month in a family of 4. Is this a lot, a little, or about average (for mustachians)?
I feel like we've done all of the easy savings, but it's pretty stubborn:
-wash on cold, front-load washer, no dryer
-all lights CFL or LED
-gas heat & stove
-TV is on for less than 3 hours / month
-newer (2003) energy-efficient refrigerator
we DO run the dishwasher often, but run it on the "quick" (45 minute) cycle for most dishes, rather than the "normal" (1:40) cycle
Any thoughts?
I'd like to bring this down, maybe I need to find a killawatt.
I'd like to bring this down, maybe I need to find a killawatt.
The killawatt's definitely a lot of fun. Puts your mind at ease when you can know something's not eating up too much power being plugged in all the time. Is your hot water heater electric? That's a biggy if it is.
It looks like I'm averaging 6-7kwh a day. I haven't run the air since I've gotten here, so the only things that are plugged in are a cell phone charger at night, a TV/Xbox, and a fridge. I turn off lights when I'm not near them. My stove/oven is electric, and the dishwasher. I guess the only way to get down to the lowest levels possible are to unplug the TV when I'm not using it.
It looks like I'm averaging 6-7kwh a day. I haven't run the air since I've gotten here, so the only things that are plugged in are a cell phone charger at night, a TV/Xbox, and a fridge. I turn off lights when I'm not near them. My stove/oven is electric, and the dishwasher. I guess the only way to get down to the lowest levels possible are to unplug the TV when I'm not using it.
Looking at the bill is very demotivating where I live...our electricity keeps going up, as my KW/day comes down. The bill stays the same :(
Looking at the bill is very demotivating where I live...our electricity keeps going up, as my KW/day comes down. The bill stays the same :(
Its because those of us on the low end of the spectrum feel gluttonous, when we see what we use compared to what we could use. We aren't comparing ourselves to "normal" or "average" we are comparing to our own personal expectations.
If you read the specifics of what the OP posted in the first post, it isn't that much (by 1st world standards) yet it obviously could be less (not running computers and internet 24/7).
When I first joined this thread, my most recent bill had said 194kWh for 31 days, or 6.25 per day.
I was VERY unhappy and disappointed about that. It turns out that the meter reading is apparently delayed from the dates it lists, and the reading had my old fridge, just before I replaced it, jacking up the numbers, but before I learned that I tried to see what else I could change, started leaving entertainment center and computer power strips off more, and started unplugging the microwave when not in use...
Then the next bill came, which was after the fridge change, and it was only 76kwH for the month (2.5/day) which I was perfectly happy with - but I had already started those new habits, and a new one came today: 64.0 for the month, about 2 per day, for a total cost of $8.24
Moral is: never feel you are doing good enough just because you are doing better than "average". There is always room for improvement.
Of course, climate, house size, household size, and more than anything, willingness to experience minor discomfort, are all huge variables too
if you're using solar, it's extremely worthwhile to minimize your usage first to decrease the amount of generating capacity you need to install.
an $8.24 electricity bill. 2kwH/day for a house??? inspiring. i will seek to emulate.
I'd like to bring this down, maybe I need to find a killawatt.
The killawatt's definitely a lot of fun. Puts your mind at ease when you can know something's not eating up too much power being plugged in all the time. Is your hot water heater electric? That's a biggy if it is.
The hot water heater is Gas, and I believe the heat pump (for central heating) is also gas, not 100% on that though.
Now that the month of November is in the books, I'll copy and paste a bit:
Month--------Avg Usage-------Avg Temp---#d>90---#d>80
July ----------33.83kwh/day------83-----------22-------29
August-------33.00---------------82----------13--------30
September---32.52---------------78-----------3--------30
October------25.17---------------69-----------0--------17
November----21.00---------------51-----------0---------3 - since its getting colder : AVG days under 50* = 19
So my total KWh for the month keeps coming down. Going from 1000 in September, 750 in October, to 588 for November.
Gas usage went from 8 therms in October (3 days under 50*) to 18 therms for November (19 days under 50*) though, so that's a good indicator that my heat pump is gas. On the other hand we've had quite a few guests in November, including my parents for a whole week. I do typically notice the gas going up a lot when there are more people taking hot showers.
the fridge which is 16 years old.
the fridge which is 16 years old.
I know this post is old, but good savings can be had here. If the fridge is older than 8 years it's a good time to think about replacing it. Otherwise, for those of you that air condition your house it is the same as running a 1000 watt space heater inside for four hours a day!
I'm planning to install a switch, so I can leave the auto defrost off most of the time, and then turn it on maybe one day a month or so.
Just need to buy the switch
A coworker just sprung for a Nest (v1) and put it in his apartment. He said it had the heat on for all of 30 minutes yesterday (I guess it can report that sort of thing?). The wife and I have been interested in one, but $200-$250 is significant enough of a purchase to require more research, so I'm interested to see how it works for my coworker.
A coworker just sprung for a Nest (v1) and put it in his apartment. He said it had the heat on for all of 30 minutes yesterday (I guess it can report that sort of thing?). The wife and I have been interested in one, but $200-$250 is significant enough of a purchase to require more research, so I'm interested to see how it works for my coworker.
And here's where I'll appear batshit crazy and contradict myself entirely:
I'd totally do the Nest concept if I could build it myself from off-the-shelf components for the same price and McGyver it together into an ugly mass of perl scripts and graphs.
I'd do this not as a money saving exercise though. If I did it, it would be an entertainment/educational expense.
Good news, friend, you can do just that... but for less (http://androidthermostat.com/).
A coworker just sprung for a Nest (v1) and put it in his apartment. He said it had the heat on for all of 30 minutes yesterday (I guess it can report that sort of thing?). The wife and I have been interested in one, but $200-$250 is significant enough of a purchase to require more research, so I'm interested to see how it works for my coworker.
There's actually a thread on the Nest (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/do-it-yourself-forum!/nest-learning-thermostat/) here already. It's overkill, IMHO, and not very mustachian when you consider what you get for the money. A decent offline digital programmable thermostat should be plenty on its own if you just learn to adapt to more extreme temperatures and it'll track usage with the filter replacement counter. As such, I know we've used the heater for a total of five hours, 44 minutes since we swapped filters at the end of December... and that was with a month of drafty single-pane windows (our landlord just reno'd our unit with new double pane windows a couple weeks back - it's snowing outside right now and the heater hasn't even kicked on since our last snowstorm).
If you feel you somehow need a networked thermostat, you can get nearly the same functionality outside of the human detection bit out of a Radio Thermostat CT30 (http://www.ebay.com/sch/Home-Improvement-/159907/i.html?_nkw=ct30+wifi) for under $75. As Spork has pointed out, it's basically nothing more than feature creep and lifestyle inflation.
our bedroom in summertime is FRIGID and its colder than in the winter. I dont know how to get him to relax and lower the acceptable temp.
... and Dear Wife is adamant she does not like the feel of air-dried clothes.
Power is cheap in Japan. Thank god for that because come summer that aircon is going ON
Power is cheap in Japan. Thank god for that because come summer that aircon is going ON
What? Compared to where?
TEPCO charges 18.89 yen/kwhr up to 120 kwhr, and then 25.19 yen/kwhr up to 300 kwhr each month. Above 300kwhr it increases to 29.10 yen/kwhr. All of those values are significantly higher than the average residential rate of 11.9 cents/kwhr for US residential users (found here (http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/xls/table_5_03.xlsx).)
Power is cheap in Japan. Thank god for that because come summer that aircon is going ON
What? Compared to where?
TEPCO charges 18.89 yen/kwhr up to 120 kwhr, and then 25.19 yen/kwhr up to 300 kwhr each month. Above 300kwhr it increases to 29.10 yen/kwhr. All of those values are significantly higher than the average residential rate of 11.9 cents/kwhr for US residential users (found here (http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/xls/table_5_03.xlsx).)
Ours is closer to 20/day as well for a small house with excellent passive solar and no need for A/C. We don't leave anything on, and indeed aren't even home most of the time. I know the culprit is our water heater, because our bill goes up in cold weather months before we start using heat for the interior of the house. I've started killing the breaker for the water heater when we leave for the day, then flipping it on again when we get home. DH is not thrilled, but we only use hot water for showers and dishes, so it seems like a waste to have it on all day. We'll see how the next bill looks to know if it will be worth doing indefinitely.
But yeah, gas is a much more efficient source of heat.
Do a search for "water heater timer" - for $35-50 these are great for electric WHs especially if you typically shower at the same time. Set the timer to turn on a bit before and after your showers and you will have all the heat you need for the shower and the tank will stay warm enough for dishes/general washing all day. I had one in the past, it was great - ours had a button that could turn it on if we needed more hot water at a different time of day.
There may be some that are programable.
Does anyone have a link to the original MMM article about energy consumption?
I scanned the archives and none of the titles jump out as being about this. I probably overlooked it. Based on some of the posts in this thread, it had to be posted at least by September of 2012.
The electric company says we used 439 kwh this past billing cycle. Assuming a 30-day cycle, that is 14.6 per day.
That seems higher than many of you. Do you think it's unreasonably high?
I can see that our use increased between 2012 and 2013 for this billing cycle. It's a bummer because we're not using AC or heat now, and I've been running around turning off lights a lot. DH says it could be because we had to run fans when the water heater leaked in the basement. Maybe next month will be better.
We run our dishwasher about every day and use the dryer, so those might be the areas to cut back.
The electric company says we used 439 kwh this past billing cycle. Assuming a 30-day cycle, that is 14.6 per day.
That seems higher than many of you. Do you think it's unreasonably high?
I can see that our use increased between 2012 and 2013 for this billing cycle. It's a bummer because we're not using AC or heat now, and I've been running around turning off lights a lot. DH says it could be because we had to run fans when the water heater leaked in the basement. Maybe next month will be better.
We run our dishwasher about every day and use the dryer, so those might be the areas to cut back.
How big is your house, how do you heat your water, cook, and how old is your fridge/freezer - those four would probably explain it.
We use about 12 a day, according to our bill. Our hot water is electric, as is cooking; new smaller fridge freezer last year.
My guess: no A/C (common in Europe), heat and water heater are both non-electric. "Small" fridge probably means what we would consider dormitory sized (also common in Europe).About 600 KW per year for a 66 square meter apartment (Europe)
We cook every day with electricity, have a small fridge, and use the occasional lamp
Are you sure about that?
66 square meters is about 710 square feet, the size of my apartment.
You're using one tenth the power I am. If so: wow. Teach us.
Upcoming bills will be telling for me since I recently installed LED and low wattage CFL bulbs around the place but I'm using around 14kWh/day. The electric water heater is probably a big power suck.
Are you sure about that?
I have done some research. We were paying 26c/kw, this went up to 34c/kw on July 1st. I have checked for the best deals. The best I can get is with Origin, who I am currently with. If I sign up for a new contract I can get 13% discount : 10% upfront, 2% for paying on time and 1% for direct debit.
Out of interest I tried Tru energy, they told me my post code didn't exist! Seems the options are between Origin, Country Energy, AGL and Integral.
I need to look for more ways to cut back - less time on the internet LOL.
Are you sure about that?
Yes. And apparently, it is the average consumption of a single person in Belgium (source for the Dutch speaking: http://www.vreg.be/info-over-het-gemiddelde-elektriciteits-en-aardgasverbruik )
I do not have an AC, I do not use electricity for heating, and I do not have much electronic devices, beside lamps, watercooker, stove (no microwave nor oven), mobile phone, and netbook (no router as I have Internet via my mobile phone).
Super impressive. Thanks for confirming.
FYI, my apartment isn't heated electrically and I don't have air-conditioning installed.
The fridge, while not Euro-small (I used to live in Germany) is Energy Star compliant and only accounts for a fraction of my electricity use.
The entertainment centre draws 230Watts when fully powered but is offline most of the time.
I use smart-strips everywhere so there are few if any phantom loads.
The single biggest draw I can think of is the electric water heater. I'm having it put on a timer soon so hopefully that'll help.
Are you sure about that?
Yes. And apparently, it is the average consumption of a single person in Belgium (source for the Dutch speaking: http://www.vreg.be/info-over-het-gemiddelde-elektriciteits-en-aardgasverbruik )
I do not have an AC, I do not use electricity for heating, and I do not have much electronic devices, beside lamps, watercooker, stove (no microwave nor oven), mobile phone, and netbook (no router as I have Internet via my mobile phone).
Super impressive. Thanks for confirming.
FYI, my apartment isn't heated electrically and I don't have air-conditioning installed.
The fridge, while not Euro-small (I used to live in Germany) is Energy Star compliant and only accounts for a fraction of my electricity use.
The entertainment centre draws 230Watts when fully powered but is offline most of the time.
I use smart-strips everywhere so there are few if any phantom loads.
The single biggest draw I can think of is the electric water heater. I'm having it put on a timer soon so hopefully that'll help.
Could you give some details about putting the hot water heater on a timer? I might want to do that and I've never heard of it before now.
Regrets for the late reply as I just saw this now.
The provincial electrical authority offers a program where they'll install a load control device on your air conditioner and/or electric water tank. I went with that option as they also give you a free energy monitor.
See this link: http://www.hydroottawa.com/residential/conservation/programs/peaksaver-plus/pool-pumps-water-heaters/
If that weren't an option, I'd have gone with a system such as those described on this site:
http://waterheatertimer.org/Compare-13-electric-water-heater-timers.html
The idea is that well insulated water tanks are probably not cooling down appreciably throughout the day; some people report their cottage water tank is still hot after a week of being shut off.
By putting them on a timer to shut off during weekdays when most people are away from the home, the tank isn't trying to maintain a constant water temp, using energy in the process. (mine draws about 3.5kWh when active *shudders*)
I think other people just tolerate temperatures better. My bones HURT when I'm cold. I can barely stand to be conscious. I'm almost never "too hot."
WOW!! Just checked my usage. I am feeling completely embarrassed and horrified! I mean, it's not like I never LOOKED at it before, I just kinda compared it to my own usage over previous months.
Get this... in an 1100 sq ft house with 2 adults and a dog, we averaged 58 FREAKING KWH/DAY for the last year! WTF?!?
WOW!! Just checked my usage. I am feeling completely embarrassed and horrified! I mean, it's not like I never LOOKED at it before, I just kinda compared it to my own usage over previous months.
Get this... in an 1100 sq ft house with 2 adults and a dog, we averaged 58 FREAKING KWH/DAY for the last year! WTF?!?
Wow, per person that's 26 times more than I use -- https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/why-do-you-use-so-much-electricity!!/msg38112/#msg38112. I can't imagine how I'd use that much power. If you're getting power from coal that's a lot of pollution.
On the shower-front: use a low-flow head that doesn't feel like it's a low-flow head. I got one myself and don't even mind the reduced flow. If I want to give my muscles a real heat soak, "bath."
Here's the specific head I got: http://www.waterpik.com/shower-head/products/hand-held/ecoflow/VBE-459
Thanks for the suggestion! I actually already got on this after doing a little more research, and our new $8 showerhead arrived yesterday. It has two settings, 1 and 1.5 GPM. (Although I was super sad when my boyfriend pointed out that our old showerhead was only 1.75... haha) We were pleased to find that the higher setting is just great and even the 1 GPM is good for most purposes, so hopefully with the long showers even the small change in flow will make a difference...?!
This is a nifty device for the phantom device that suck power when not in use.
Also, would my fridge/freezer be OK if I put it on a manual 24h timer so it's off between 10pm and 5 am while we're sleeping?
Also, would my fridge/freezer be OK if I put it on a manual 24h timer so it's off between 10pm and 5 am while we're sleeping?
You'll get a lot of freezer burn on your stuff that way. I would check the door seals first, try to open it less, and if it's mostly empty, put some water jugs in there.
Does anyone have one of these?
Great to hear that you're working to improve greenmimama! With a 6K sqft house you're definitely right to look at your heating/cooling first, I would be they're 50-80% of your total load. Sleeping in the basement in the summer is a great idea. Another good summer idea is to open your windows at night to let in cold air and then close them in the morning when the world starts heating up (this may be tough for such a big house as yours, but that's all the more reason to downsize). As for the winter I challenge you to drop your thermostat even lower than 62 at night. In our house we go down to 58 at night and are even dabbling with 56 (make sure your builder didn't stupidly put pipes in exterior walls before you drop this low to avoid burst pipes). The key is to use a programmable thermostat so that the house cools down after you've gone to bed and warms back up right as you're waking up. Once you're under the covers and warm the ambient temp or your house barely matters (and if you have to get up and pee in the middle of the night the chilliness will encourage you to do it quickly).
In a house like yours you probably already have a programmable thermostat so this should be do-able without much money investment (you may need to sink a few bucks into new blankets but those will be a high ROI purchase). Unfortunately programmable thermostat UI is notoriously terrible so you may have to spend an hour or two reading the manual to figure it out, but that's what Mustachianism is about right? In a house as big as yours dropping a few degrees could save you hundreds on your heating bill (even if you turn it back up upon waking up). The other thing you might notice if you do this is that your heat pump might take a long time to bring your huge house up to your desired wake-up temp. If that is the case just program your thermostat to start warming up even earlier in the morning.
The other thing to note, is that in a huge house like yours you may be better off buying a few cheap single room electric heaters and keeping the temp down during the day when just 3 people are there. Have them heat the individual rooms they're in and let the rest of the house be chilly. Single room heaters are less efficient than your heat pump, but since your space is so large if you can heat just 2 or 3 small rooms up with them and cool the rest of the house they might be a winning proposition for you. Be sure and shut the doors to the rooms you're heating with them so they don't try and heat the whole house (I even go so far as to put a foam strip under my office door when I'm heating it individually). Also, be careful not to leave clothes or other stupid stuff on top of these heaters as that can start a fire.
Good luck!
http://www.goalzero.com/yeti1250/#whatitpowers
Does anyone have one of these? We have thought about getting one, we have a crazy dream of being off grid at some point, so it would come in really handy then, but we could use it as a supplement to our power now, I have no idea what the pay off time would be though, if I could hook it up safely to my heat pump, that is where the real savings would be I would think, or use it to run a nice electric space heater we have.
http://www.goalzero.com/yeti1250/#whatitpowers
Does anyone have one of these? We have thought about getting one, we have a crazy dream of being off grid at some point, so it would come in really handy then, but we could use it as a supplement to our power now, I have no idea what the pay off time would be though, if I could hook it up safely to my heat pump, that is where the real savings would be I would think, or use it to run a nice electric space heater we have.
I haven't got this one specifically but I've got 6 250 watt-peak solar panels on my roof. In all of november they generated around 40KWh, the current estimate is that they would generate between 1000-1300KWh per year total.
This fact is useless to most though since I live in europe (Netherlands) but I can supply you with info if you want.
In regards to usage, my home uses approximatly 12KWh per day in an approximatly 3-story 1200sqft house. The biggest user (approx. 8KWh per day) would be the electric water heater. They are highly inefficient, considering that they keep water at a certain temperature even though it might not be used. Alternatively mine is only heating at night where it uses cheaper power (20ct in stead of 22ct per KWh) while I can manually flip the switch for a quick re-heat if required. Thus far it only happened 3-4 times (after 3 showers the 250 liter bath was cold halfway through).
I have a question though, in a 3 person household with a 120 liter boiler (about 30 galons I think) with a thermos set at 65 degrees celsius (140-ish F?) we've yet to run out of hot water. I'm feeling that a smaller heater (say 20 in stead of 30 galons) on a higher temperature would be more efficient than this one? Does anyone know the math on this?
Piece of advice for the Halogen and/or dimmer users among us: I noticed that my dimmable Halogen lamps were pulling 300W regardless of how far I dimmed it. The used bulb was only 150W though. Switching those 2 for 4 low-energy lamps saved me 4KWh PER DAY from oktober to march. I further dropped that by swapping the 7-12W lamps for 1.3W LED bulbs in the corridor and bathroom/toilet/closets because the are immediatly on and don't burn out as fast.
they can't work with a 'tankless' system but as you have a tank, it might be reasonably efficient to plumb a panel in...
they can't work with a 'tankless' system but as you have a tank, it might be reasonably efficient to plumb a panel in...
yes they can!
they can't work with a 'tankless' system but as you have a tank, it might be reasonably efficient to plumb a panel in...
yes they can!
Well there you go. Not sure how the dynamics would work out for that in a cooler climate (ie, would the water stay in the panel long enough to absorb much heat.. where in a tank-system it can take its own sweet time, it can trickle heat), but still, good to know!
If we have 2-3 years left in this house, would it make sense to put the money into better insulating it or swapping out for a more efficient water heater or should I just keep pouring that money into my investment accounts?
Bit the bullet in August, forgot to post about it. Was really peeved getting my bill in August for July's usage, it was almost $200!! Holy cow!! So I called and asked them 'what's up?'. Told them everything I was doing.. (all CFL's, hanging clothes to dry, handwashing dishes, A/C up between 78-80 degrees, had gas water heater, used natural lighting during the day, closed vents in unused rooms, ran fans, etc, etc,..)... and I got the 'blah, blah, blah speech.
So September comes around for August's usage. Mind you, August was just as hot here as it was in July. Was doing the same things. Guess what? Bill was less than $60. Hmm.... I guess it pays to call and let them know you are paying attention.
Bit the bullet in August, forgot to post about it. Was really peeved getting my bill in August for July's usage, it was almost $200!! Holy cow!! So I called and asked them 'what's up?'. Told them everything I was doing.. (all CFL's, hanging clothes to dry, handwashing dishes, A/C up between 78-80 degrees, had gas water heater, used natural lighting during the day, closed vents in unused rooms, ran fans, etc, etc,..)... and I got the 'blah, blah, blah speech.
So September comes around for August's usage. Mind you, August was just as hot here as it was in July. Was doing the same things. Guess what? Bill was less than $60. Hmm.... I guess it pays to call and let them know you are paying attention.
This may not apply to you... but if you have the old (dumb) meter, some electric companies will "guess" your usage based on past patterns. Every now and then they'll spot check and do an actual meter read. The result can be a very high (or very low) bill that "trues it up."
Bit the bullet in August, forgot to post about it. Was really peeved getting my bill in August for July's usage, it was almost $200!! Holy cow!! So I called and asked them 'what's up?'. Told them everything I was doing.. (all CFL's, hanging clothes to dry, handwashing dishes, A/C up between 78-80 degrees, had gas water heater, used natural lighting during the day, closed vents in unused rooms, ran fans, etc, etc,..)... and I got the 'blah, blah, blah speech.
So September comes around for August's usage. Mind you, August was just as hot here as it was in July. Was doing the same things. Guess what? Bill was less than $60. Hmm.... I guess it pays to call and let them know you are paying attention.
This may not apply to you... but if you have the old (dumb) meter, some electric companies will "guess" your usage based on past patterns. Every now and then they'll spot check and do an actual meter read. The result can be a very high (or very low) bill that "trues it up."
...now if you're on a smart meter... I got no guess.
Bit the bullet in August, forgot to post about it. Was really peeved getting my bill in August for July's usage, it was almost $200!! Holy cow!! So I called and asked them 'what's up?'. Told them everything I was doing.. (all CFL's, hanging clothes to dry, handwashing dishes, A/C up between 78-80 degrees, had gas water heater, used natural lighting during the day, closed vents in unused rooms, ran fans, etc, etc,..)... and I got the 'blah, blah, blah speech.
So September comes around for August's usage. Mind you, August was just as hot here as it was in July. Was doing the same things. Guess what? Bill was less than $60. Hmm.... I guess it pays to call and let them know you are paying attention.
This may not apply to you... but if you have the old (dumb) meter, some electric companies will "guess" your usage based on past patterns. Every now and then they'll spot check and do an actual meter read. The result can be a very high (or very low) bill that "trues it up."
...now if you're on a smart meter... I got no guess.
You're right, it is a dumb meter. Wonder if I can call and request that they actually come read the real meter for a while instead of just guess. Thanks for the heads up. :)
Bit the bullet in August, forgot to post about it. Was really peeved getting my bill in August for July's usage, it was almost $200!! Holy cow!! So I called and asked them 'what's up?'. Told them everything I was doing.. (all CFL's, hanging clothes to dry, handwashing dishes, A/C up between 78-80 degrees, had gas water heater, used natural lighting during the day, closed vents in unused rooms, ran fans, etc, etc,..)... and I got the 'blah, blah, blah speech.
So September comes around for August's usage. Mind you, August was just as hot here as it was in July. Was doing the same things. Guess what? Bill was less than $60. Hmm.... I guess it pays to call and let them know you are paying attention.
This may not apply to you... but if you have the old (dumb) meter, some electric companies will "guess" your usage based on past patterns. Every now and then they'll spot check and do an actual meter read. The result can be a very high (or very low) bill that "trues it up."
...now if you're on a smart meter... I got no guess.
You're right, it is a dumb meter. Wonder if I can call and request that they actually come read the real meter for a while instead of just guess. Thanks for the heads up. :)
You may be able to either submit your own reading online, or call in with your current reading. They will either issue you a new bill, use the current reading to set the next bill, or get yelled at until they send you a new bill ;) They can't *not* send a new bill if they are miles away from the truth because they are charging you for something you haven't used.
Bit the bullet in August, forgot to post about it. Was really peeved getting my bill in August for July's usage, it was almost $200!! Holy cow!! So I called and asked them 'what's up?'. Told them everything I was doing.. (all CFL's, hanging clothes to dry, handwashing dishes, A/C up between 78-80 degrees, had gas water heater, used natural lighting during the day, closed vents in unused rooms, ran fans, etc, etc,..)... and I got the 'blah, blah, blah speech.
So September comes around for August's usage. Mind you, August was just as hot here as it was in July. Was doing the same things. Guess what? Bill was less than $60. Hmm.... I guess it pays to call and let them know you are paying attention.
This may not apply to you... but if you have the old (dumb) meter, some electric companies will "guess" your usage based on past patterns. Every now and then they'll spot check and do an actual meter read. The result can be a very high (or very low) bill that "trues it up."
...now if you're on a smart meter... I got no guess.
You're right, it is a dumb meter. Wonder if I can call and request that they actually come read the real meter for a while instead of just guess. Thanks for the heads up. :)
You may be able to either submit your own reading online, or call in with your current reading. They will either issue you a new bill, use the current reading to set the next bill, or get yelled at until they send you a new bill ;) They can't *not* send a new bill if they are miles away from the truth because they are charging you for something you haven't used.
It does generally work out in the end... They adjust their guesses up/down at every real read. And if you ever do actually close your account, they do a meter read and everyone settles up. It's not a great system, but I don't think they're intentionally trying to rip you off. They're just guessing with a quarterly "true up".
I GOT A NEST FOR CHRISTMAS!Kewl!
Sorry, I just had to tell someone. I'm excited.
I am beginning to suspect the heat pump may be incorrectly wired. I just found my kill-a-watt units and found the fridge using 100w and the freezer 200w. Even if the second refridgerator uses 100w they would add up to about 240kwh per month, That leaves 1260+ kwh for the rest of the house appliances.
We do keep the house 72F when occupied, and about 60F when not occupied. I won't get any agreement from my spouse on lower temperatures.
Not yet, I just connected the kill-a-watt and will measure kwh after 24, and possibly 48 hours. I have a few other devices I wish to measure so I might only test for one day.I am beginning to suspect the heat pump may be incorrectly wired. I just found my kill-a-watt units and found the fridge using 100w and the freezer 200w. Even if the second refridgerator uses 100w they would add up to about 240kwh per month, That leaves 1260+ kwh for the rest of the house appliances.
Did you measure your fridge and freezer over a long period of time (like a couple of days?) Those types of devices cycle a lot and you can't just take a snapshot reading. They spend a lot of time pulling 0 watts, too. I only ask because you stated the measurement in watts and not watt-hours.
I haven't been keeping up with this thread lately, but I thought I'd pop in, and post this news story:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/u-s-home-electricity-use-declines-for-3rd-straight-year-1.2479249
I think the title says what it needs to. :)
We do keep the house 72F when occupied, and about 60F when not occupied. I won't get any agreement from my spouse on lower temperatures.
72ºF? Holy crap, I'd be sitting around in a speedo at that temp. Might this be the cause of some of the excess energy use?
We have 70 at night, 74 during the 'at home' time on our bedroom programable... we keep the house around 65~70 downstairs. My wif is only 'not cold' when she's wearing multiple layers after we get back from snowboarding. I walk around in my underwear.. Any colder temps in the bedroom means nothing happens that requires removal of clothing if you know what I mean!
Bought and installed an Efergy energy monitor (http://efergy.com/au/products/energy-gateways/engagekit-hub (http://efergy.com/au/products/energy-gateways/engagekit-hub)) a couple of days ago to keep an eye on my electricity consumption, even when I am not at home. While the internet interface it provides could do with some polish, the information it provides is gold in knowing when and how much your electricity is being used.
The real time monitor provides updates every 6 seconds, so you can walk around the house turning on and off inbuilt appliances (air cond, oven, etc) and plugged in devices (fridge, microwave, TV, sound system, dishwasher, kitchen appliances computers) to find out what they use when running. The data is collected and posted to your internet account automatically and you can see graphs of it in minute (that day), daily and monthly as well as being able to download the data in CSV form down to minute detail for a given month.
With it, I have been able to know my daily consumption without having to read and calculate it from the meter box and know when devices have been used, even when I am not at home. This latter feature now has my adult children on alert for their electricity use as I can ping them for any power wasting activity they do eg. leaving the TV/computer on when they go out for a couple of hours ;-)
The result so far is that daily consumption has dropped about 20% without me or the wife really changing any of our habits. This alone will pay for the device in a couple of months!
Figured we'd be using a crazy amount compared to you guys but actually it's not too bad... for 3 adults in a 1100 sq ft condo, last month we used 15.47 a day. It's down from 17.68 the month before that, but honestly not sure what I did differently. Mind you, this is with also having a lizard with lights on all day long, and fish tanks with lights on as well.
Figured we'd be using a crazy amount compared to you guys but actually it's not too bad... for 3 adults in a 1100 sq ft condo, last month we used 15.47 a day. It's down from 17.68 the month before that, but honestly not sure what I did differently. Mind you, this is with also having a lizard with lights on all day long, and fish tanks with lights on as well.
Ahh I'm so jealous! This is where I don't understand what I'm doing wrong! Do you have non-electric heat though?
Sounds pretty cool. I wonder if this ever goes on sale?
I looked online at my bill and last month was 1,625KWH cost 172.41 good or bad?
I just looked at our paper bill and yes the average is 54.723kWh per day. Looks like I have something to work on now. Where to start??? We have 3 kids most of the time then my 2 a few weeks out of the year. We have a tankless hot water heater, electric dryer, Dishwasher, 2 directv dvrs. 2 story 4 bedroom house.
I just looked at our paper bill and yes the average is 54.723kWh per day. Looks like I have something to work on now. Where to start??? We have 3 kids most of the time then my 2 a few weeks out of the year. We have a tankless hot water heater, electric dryer, Dishwasher, 2 directv dvrs. 2 story 4 bedroom house.
Figured we'd be using a crazy amount compared to you guys but actually it's not too bad... for 3 adults in a 1100 sq ft condo, last month we used 15.47 a day. It's down from 17.68 the month before that, but honestly not sure what I did differently. Mind you, this is with also having a lizard with lights on all day long, and fish tanks with lights on as well.
Ahh I'm so jealous! This is where I don't understand what I'm doing wrong! Do you have non-electric heat though?
Correct, we use forced hot air which is cheaper. Oddly enough there is an electric heat bar in the kitchen only though, when I first moved in I used it, but then found out it's more expensive so I just leave it off now. I also after moving in had the electric company come and do an energy audit, where they replaced all our bulbs with energy efficient ones for free :) Have you tried doing one of those?
I just looked at our paper bill and yes the average is 54.723kWh per day. Looks like I have something to work on now. Where to start??? We have 3 kids most of the time then my 2 a few weeks out of the year. We have a tankless hot water heater, electric dryer, Dishwasher, 2 directv dvrs. 2 story 4 bedroom house.
Wow, that's some serious power you're chewing through every day! My suggestion is that if it is not some really obvious power-hungry device you are using extensively (eg. dryer on high for 10 hours a day!), then you need to do real time measurements of power being used by appliances.
...
eg. below is a screen shot I just took of the power use in my house today. You can see between midnight and dawn the power use is pretty low with most things off or on standby and has a bump up every hour or so which is the fridge doing its thing. At 8am we get up, turn the TV on (consistent increase in baseline power), boil the electric kettle and fire up the toaster (glitches of 2000W). At 11am, the wife puts the dishwasher and it has two 2000W watt peaks where it heats water for the wash and rinse cycle respectively. At 6pm I put the oven on for dinner and you can clearly see the warm up phase (block of 2000W) followed by glitches of 2000W as the thermostat cycles on and off (there's another oven cycle at the very start of the graph at for dinner the previous night). Downloading a daily report by hour shows that we have used 9.35kw hours today so far. A bit nerdy I know, but it tells me exactly what I want to know to help reduce power consumption.
The tankless is electric. I forgot to mention I also have a dehumidfier running in basement as well as a small freezer. The freezer is almost always full. I buy meat in bulk and keep it stored. I might look into the Efergy. If I can cut my electric usage in half that would pay for it in less than 2 months.
I did some very quick googling .... a FAQ I found said the average electric tankless was on a 120amp circuit. Yes, that is amps, not volts.
I did some very quick googling .... a FAQ I found said the average electric tankless was on a 120amp circuit. Yes, that is amps, not volts.
Ouch. I've only got a 100 amp panel. :-)
With my electric bill so high I am undecided what to do. Buy a Kill-A-Watt ($20) or get the whole house monitor efergy U.S. version ($145). Any suggestions?
I do use a time of day meter and we run the dishwasher, washer, dryer on nights and weekends when electricity is cheaper but there is still something wrong with how high our usage is.
If you want an instant read of a large 240v device, a clamp on ammeter would do the trick. You'd probably need a fancy one if you want to measure it over time (like an oven cycling on and off).
I'm not recommending this one... just posting this as a reference to what I'm talking about: (Maybe someone with a little more in depth electrical knowledge can recommend an actual make/model).
http://www.amazon.com/Uni-Trend-UT202A-Auto-ranging-Clamp-Meter/dp/B005FSSKJA/
I installed 2 smart power strips for the main entertainment areas. I discovered that my older projection tv draws more than 14 watts even when turned off. I am not sure what adverse consequences there are to shutting it down completely every time.
I installed 2 smart power strips for the main entertainment areas. I discovered that my older projection tv draws more than 14 watts even when turned off. I am not sure what adverse consequences there are to shutting it down completely every time.
not to sound rude, but do you really use all your TVs or could you get rid of some?
Those of you that use 10k per day do you have a gas water heater?
Since installing an Efergy Engage power monitoring kit earlier this month, I have been keeping a close eye on watt's (pun intended!) been driving my power bill.
Since installing an Efergy Engage power monitoring kit earlier this month, I have been keeping a close eye on watt's (pun intended!) been driving my power bill.
Well done, Ozstache. I had a look at the Efergy Australian website, and boggled at the comparison chart. Which model did you get? I couldn't work out which would be best for me.
Last bill went from 23kwh/day to 22! :(
I still haven't solved it. I found some old bills from our last house @16kwh/day and at that point I wasn't trying too hard re usage. We are using less on hot water in this house (2-3kwh/day), our appliances are the same (except the dishwasher but its not the problem). Frequently used lights are leds/cfcs. I'm currently methodically working my way round the house with my killa watt meter plugging things in and measuring for a few days. Haven't found anything to account for > 8kwh/day difference. Starting to wonder whether the meter on either house might have been incorrect. Or the teenagers are secretly running a whole heap of stuff all night.
I found that kids' computers/xboxes left on for hours can chew 500W per hour, which can add up to 8KW in a day if left on long enough. Even in standby, these devices can use up to 40W per hour which is 1KW a day.
Smart power strips can help solve the problem of electronics that are "off" but not really. I bought 2 of them and so far they are really helping cut down my usage.
Smart power strips can help solve the problem of electronics that are "off" but not really. I bought 2 of them and so far they are really helping cut down my usage.
As convenient as these devices are, the ones I had (Clever Watts) consumed 6W in the off position, which meant the three I used on the various components on my home entertainment system consuming 18W continuously, or $54 per year, over not using them. As Australian power points have switches on them and those near my entertainment system were easily accessible, I stopped using the power strips and just turn components on/off at the wall.
wow you guys are all really low i'm at 25kwh per day ... maybe i need to evaluate. i thought we were pretty efficient.
wow you guys are all really low i'm at 25kwh per day ... maybe i need to evaluate. i thought we were pretty efficient.
Depends mostly on how you
heat/cool
heat water
heat food
We're averaging 13 or so a day at the moment; gas heat but everything else electric. We have a new baby so we're home, and cooking, a lot more (during peak time too, ugh).
QuoteI found that kids' computers/xboxes left on for hours can chew 500W per hour, which can add up to 8KW in a day if left on long enough. Even in standby, these devices can use up to 40W per hour which is 1KW a day.
Ok, I have to confess I've been avoiding too much confrontation with the teenagers over power usage. My reminders are usually met with Eyeroll, followed by the chorus of "Yes we know mum". Usually the xbox type stuff is turned off when I check. I definitely need to investigate this a bit area more thoroughly.
I did find I was using 1kwh/day with the electric kettle, due to my bad tea making habits. It was pulling a fair bit of power, and I would go to make a cup of tea, get distracted: it would boil and turn off, then a bit later I'd reheat it again. Rinse repeat too many times a day. I got a whistling kettle for the gas stove (using flybuy points), so some will be passed onto the gas bill, but its slower, and I have to turn it off when it whistles i.e. I have to really want the tea and have time/pay attention to follow through. Slow living.
22W seems a lot to me, my entertainment systems draws 5W when in standby, that includes:
AV-Receiver
Smart TV
XBox 360 + Kinect
Bluray Player
Network Switch (which is not actually turned off and draws about 2W)
I just saw a coworkers bill...last month his household used over 4700kwh. Holy crap.What's he doing? Running an illegal aluminium melter in his cellar?
I just saw a coworkers bill...last month his household used over 4700kwh. Holy crap.What's he doing? Running an illegal aluminium melter in his cellar?
\I just saw a coworkers bill...last month his household used over 4700kwh. Holy crap.What's he doing? Running an illegal aluminium melter in his cellar?
Grow house?
Shoot! I pulled out my bill when I saw this topic. We used 25 kWh last month. On top of that, we pay $32.21 per month for the monthly charge to have electricity to the house...unfortunately the barn is on a separate account with it's own $32.21 charge. Rural living, I suppose.
I have electric everything, gas-powered nothing. The house has high ceilings and is hard to heat, so it always feels cold even when the thermostat says it's a comfortable temperature.
I have electric everything, gas-powered nothing. The house has high ceilings and is hard to heat, so it always feels cold even when the thermostat says it's a comfortable temperature.
Part of this is electric heat. It's really not a bad heating method, but it doesn't FEEL as warm. Fired heat sends out pretty darn hot air (for a shorter period of time) and feels toasty warm. Electric heat (or at least a heat pump) sends out air that is just a few degrees warmer than the room itself, so it feels drafty.
I have the same problem using a wood stove and using the HVAC fan to circulate. The low temperature differential feels drafty. I solve it by wearing more clothes. ;)
I have electric everything, gas-powered nothing. The house has high ceilings and is hard to heat, so it always feels cold even when the thermostat says it's a comfortable temperature.
Part of this is electric heat. It's really not a bad heating method, but it doesn't FEEL as warm. Fired heat sends out pretty darn hot air (for a shorter period of time) and feels toasty warm. Electric heat (or at least a heat pump) sends out air that is just a few degrees warmer than the room itself, so it feels drafty.
I have the same problem using a wood stove and using the HVAC fan to circulate. The low temperature differential feels drafty. I solve it by wearing more clothes. ;)
interesting! I never thought about this but now that you mention it, I do notice it in our house (air source heat pump) compared to other places I've lived. I think for us another issue is that the vents are in the ceilings... it works well when it's 110 out and we have the AC running, but not so much in the winter :(
I look at graphs from RRDTool every day :). What's your homemade monitor?
My average daily usage (30day, 90day and 1 year floating averages) from my less-than-perfect home made monitor...
I look at graphs from RRDTool every day :). What's your homemade monitor?
My average daily usage (30day, 90day and 1 year floating averages) from my less-than-perfect home made monitor...
I have electric everything, gas-powered nothing. The house has high ceilings and is hard to heat, so it always feels cold even when the thermostat says it's a comfortable temperature.
Part of this is electric heat. It's really not a bad heating method, but it doesn't FEEL as warm. Fired heat sends out pretty darn hot air (for a shorter period of time) and feels toasty warm. Electric heat (or at least a heat pump) sends out air that is just a few degrees warmer than the room itself, so it feels drafty.
I have the same problem using a wood stove and using the HVAC fan to circulate. The low temperature differential feels drafty. I solve it by wearing more clothes. ;)
interesting! I never thought about this but now that you mention it, I do notice it in our house (air source heat pump) compared to other places I've lived. I think for us another issue is that the vents are in the ceilings... it works well when it's 110 out and we have the AC running, but not so much in the winter :(
Ceiling fan, on low, reverse mode. We have the same issue with our 10’ ceilings and wall-mounted heat pumps above the 6' windows. Ceiling fans are really easy to install yourself, though a lifter/helper is good if you're not very strong.
Ugh. My oven desperately needs to be cleaned, and I was going to use some oven cleaner I have on hand to avoid having the oven on for 3-5 hours for self-clean, but I just read that oven cleaner can destroy the special surface of a self-cleaning oven. I guess I'm stuck wasting the power. :(
I have electric everything, gas-powered nothing. The house has high ceilings and is hard to heat, so it always feels cold even when the thermostat says it's a comfortable temperature.
Part of this is electric heat. It's really not a bad heating method, but it doesn't FEEL as warm. Fired heat sends out pretty darn hot air (for a shorter period of time) and feels toasty warm. Electric heat (or at least a heat pump) sends out air that is just a few degrees warmer than the room itself, so it feels drafty.
I have the same problem using a wood stove and using the HVAC fan to circulate. The low temperature differential feels drafty. I solve it by wearing more clothes. ;)
interesting! I never thought about this but now that you mention it, I do notice it in our house (air source heat pump) compared to other places I've lived. I think for us another issue is that the vents are in the ceilings... it works well when it's 110 out and we have the AC running, but not so much in the winter :(
Ceiling fan, on low, reverse mode. We have the same issue with our 10’ ceilings and wall-mounted heat pumps above the 6' windows. Ceiling fans are really easy to install yourself, though a lifter/helper is good if you're not very strong.
yes! we actually do this sometimes because although we rent we are fortunate to have ceiling fans in almost every room. the only downside is that depending where you are sitting in the room it can feel a little drafty, but it does seem to distribute the heat better!
I have electric everything, gas-powered nothing. The house has high ceilings and is hard to heat, so it always feels cold even when the thermostat says it's a comfortable temperature.
Part of this is electric heat. It's really not a bad heating method, but it doesn't FEEL as warm. Fired heat sends out pretty darn hot air (for a shorter period of time) and feels toasty warm. Electric heat (or at least a heat pump) sends out air that is just a few degrees warmer than the room itself, so it feels drafty.
I have the same problem using a wood stove and using the HVAC fan to circulate. The low temperature differential feels drafty. I solve it by wearing more clothes. ;)
interesting! I never thought about this but now that you mention it, I do notice it in our house (air source heat pump) compared to other places I've lived. I think for us another issue is that the vents are in the ceilings... it works well when it's 110 out and we have the AC running, but not so much in the winter :(
Ceiling fan, on low, reverse mode. We have the same issue with our 10’ ceilings and wall-mounted heat pumps above the 6' windows. Ceiling fans are really easy to install yourself, though a lifter/helper is good if you're not very strong.
yes! we actually do this sometimes because although we rent we are fortunate to have ceiling fans in almost every room. the only downside is that depending where you are sitting in the room it can feel a little drafty, but it does seem to distribute the heat better!
I want to make sure I'm reading these comments correctly so I can give this a try. I have a 14' ceiling in one area of my house (it's a townhouse-style loft with a high sloping ceiling, all very open) and there is a ceiling fan over the downstairs part. If I turn on the ceiling fan, is it going to distribute the heat better? Or keep it more focused downstairs? This is where it is hardest to heat, because the heat seems to go right up over the loft toward the highest part of the house.
8 kWh per day for February, down from 12 kWh per day from February 2013.
I'm curious about how often the really low electrical users are home. I used 18.6 KWH per day, but my wife works from home and I'm a stay at home dad. I keep the house at 55-62 (depending on who's home) during the winter so she has to kick on a space heater in her basement office, I try not to look at the Kill A Watt on that one too often.I'm with you--it doesn't help that we're in a very non-mustachian house, but my wife is at home with the kids all day, so that definitely adds to the power draw.
...
Otherwise I'm pretty happy with 615 KWh for a family of four in the dead of winter that's almost always home.
Wow, someone needs to go and tell MMM to hang his head in shame, according to what I've read here 10 Kwh/day (his average usage) is totally gluttonous!!! Even thought the bills don't lie I find this numbers hard to believe, how can you average 10 watts or less a day (MMM territory) running A/C. Am I missing something here?
Shoot! I pulled out my bill when I saw this topic. We used 25 kWh last month. On top of that, we pay $32.21 per month for the monthly charge to have electricity to the house...unfortunately the barn is on a separate account with it's own $32.21 charge. Rural living, I suppose.
you use <1 KWH per day?!? HOW are all of you doing this?!? you use less in a month than we use in a day :(
Shoot! I pulled out my bill when I saw this topic. We used 25 kWh last month. On top of that, we pay $32.21 per month for the monthly charge to have electricity to the house...unfortunately the barn is on a separate account with it's own $32.21 charge. Rural living, I suppose.
you use <1 KWH per day?!? HOW are all of you doing this?!? you use less in a month than we use in a day :(
LOL Did I miss putting /per day after my 25 kWh?? I must also be trying to conserve words. :-)
I just checked ours. For mid-Dec through mid-Jan, we averaged 32kWh/day...Latest bill: about 22.5 KWh/day. Quite a difference from December! I'm excited to see our hopefully-much-smaller gas bill this month. With the (finally!) warming temperatures and lengthening days, I'm anticipating that we'll see a dramatic reduction in our utilities through June.
8 kWh per day for February, down from 12 kWh per day from February 2013.
7 kWh per day for March, down from 9 kWh per day from March 2013.
switching off our modem/router at night
switching off our modem/router at night
Good idea. That will also keep our network less available. Starting that today!
My wife and I are electricity gluttons. I leave a computer (and network equipment) running 24/7 as a media/web server, and we have plenty of lights on, and she uses a blow-drier daily, and our power consumption is 5-8kwh/day. We live in a small house in Silicon Valley, so we don't really need to heat or cool our home since we wear sensible clothing for the current weather.
Do you use much less than this? Much more? How do you do it?
First bill in the new house came in. 581 kwh for March. Gas furnace, gas water heater, electric range. we're swapping the range for a gas anyway, but that was about 25% higher than expected. Big part of this is 4 damn computers running from 4-9 every night for studying and homework. Not sure how to fix that but I started swapping out lights for LEDs and am looking at buying some timers for appliances.
A desktop computer probably only uses 100W, maybe 150, if it's not being thrashed. A laptop uses under 50W, usually. Even 4 computers running at 150W for 5 hours is only 3kWh a day.
I just ordered a Kill a watt to play with....we have so many devices plugged in curious to see which is sucking the most watts!
Read Date Usage # Days P/day Charge Temp
11/13/2013 800 29 27.59 $127.93 47.6
10/15/2013 801 29 27.62 $128.06 59.5
9/16/2013 944 32 29.5 $148.09 69.6
8/15/2013 1030 29 35.52 $160.12 72.8
7/17/2013 1221 33 37 $185.17 76.5
6/14/2013 896 30 29.87 $140.69 64.7
5/15/2013 706 29 24.34 $114.25 55.1
4/16/2013 963 33 29.18 $150.02 42.8
3/14/2013 908 29 31.31 $142.37 36.2
2/13/2013 935 29 32.24 $146.13 28.2
1/15/2013 1089 33 33 $171.35 34.5
12/13/2012 902 30 30.07 $147.29 38.6
11/13/2012 741 29 25.55 $123.86 50.8
10/15/2012 866 31 27.94 $142.07 58.7
9/14/2012 917 30 30.57 $149.47 70.8
8/15/2012 1059 30 35.3 $170.15 75.6
7/16/2012 1138 32 35.56 $178.77 75
6/14/2012 831 30 27.7 $132.75 66.6
5/15/2012 833 32 26.03 $133.04 57.3
4/13/2012 746 29 25.72 $120.82 50.2
3/15/2012 790 30 26.33 $126.99 40.6
2/14/2012 809 29 27.9 $129.68 34.9
1/16/2012 945 33 28.64 $155.21 35.2
12/14/2011 791 29 27.28 $137.60 43.2
11/15/2011 595 29 20.52 $107.47 47.7
Smarch!
Month--------Avg Usage(kwh/d)--Total Usage-------Avg Temp---#d>90---#d>80
July ----------33.83kwh/day---------1016----------------83----------22--------29
August-------33.00------------------990-----------------82----------13--------30
September---32.52------------------1008----------------78-----------3--------30
October------25.17------------------755-----------------69-----------0--------17
November----21.00------------------588-----------------51-----------0---------3 -under 50* = 19
December----19.07------------------572-----------------56-----------0---------0 - under 50 = 21
January------23.68------------------805-----------------54-----------0---------1 - under 50 = 25
February-----19.38------------------562-----------------51-----------0---------0 - under 50 = 26, under 40 = 18
March--------22.79------------------638-----------------54-----------0---------1 - under 50 = 23, under 40 = 11
April---------18.55------------------612-----------------61-----------0---------7 - under 50 = 16, under 40 = 5
May----------19.80------------------594-----------------71-----------0--------15 - under 50 = 2
June---------33.45------------------1037----------------78-----------3--------30
July----------31.81------------------986-----------------82-----------7--------31
August------40.28------------------1289----------------82-----------12-------30 - 32 billing days
September---29.97-------------------869----------------80----------12--------29 - 29 billing days
October------22.43------------------673-----------------71-----------0--------15 - under 50 = 0, 30 billing days
November----17.36------------------486-----------------60-----------0--------2 - under 50 = 16
December----22.12------------------708-----------------56-----------0--------3 - under 50 = 24, 32 billing days
January------22.25------------------712-----------------49-----------0--------1 - under 50 = 28
February-----21.03------------------652-----------------50-----------0--------2 - under 50 = 27
March--------18.03------------------523-----------------54-----------0--------1 - under 50 = 21
29 billing days pretty much makes up a full month. As I've said before, my goal is to keep our average daily usage under 20kwh, so March was a success in that respect. I'm not sure what is using all this power so maybe its time to start thinking about finding a kill-a-watt and going to town. The next few months should not show much increase over that 500-600 kwh range I hope. Its June I have to worry about, and that's when I will find out if the Nest is going to help or not. Forecast says we're going to start hitting low 80s this week.
I have gas heat.
I have gas heat.
Adam, you are making some progress, but 18/day is still pretty high. We do cfl s, 68/62 in the winter and 78/84 in the summer in a 2400+ ranch and are way under that. We are strict about lights, turn off zombie tv and modem whenever we can, etc. Have you looked at your utilities conservation suggestions? Wishing you well.
I have gas heat.
Adam, you are making some progress, but 18/day is still pretty high. We do cfl s, 68/62 in the winter and 78/84 in the summer in a 2400+ ranch and are way under that. We are strict about lights, turn off zombie tv and modem whenever we can, etc. Have you looked at your utilities conservation suggestions? Wishing you well.
I really think its the wife running the washer and dryer all the time. If I could get a day by day breakdown of kwh used I bet I could prove it. Guess I need to start reading the meter on my own.
I have gas heat.
Adam, you are making some progress, but 18/day is still pretty high. We do cfl s, 68/62 in the winter and 78/84 in the summer in a 2400+ ranch and are way under that. We are strict about lights, turn off zombie tv and modem whenever we can, etc. Have you looked at your utilities conservation suggestions? Wishing you well.
I really think its the wife running the washer and dryer all the time. If I could get a day by day breakdown of kwh used I bet I could prove it. Guess I need to start reading the meter on my own.
haha. if my boyfriend said this about me, my response be THEN HOW ABOUT YOU DO THE LAUNDRY?!? ;)
I really think its the wife running the washer and dryer all the time. If I could get a day by day breakdown of kwh used I bet I could prove it. Guess I need to start reading the meter on my own.
It also gives us a ranking in terms of efficiency. Out of 100 neighbors we were at #19 in Oct, now we're #7!
I don't know how you guys get such low numbers. I've started being really stingy with the power, with furnace turned off and for the last 3 days we used 29, 28 & 30kwh/day, and these are cheap days. Input would be great.
...
We plan on doing a meter test this weekend by turning everything off to see if we have an electricity leak. Everything is electric so no gas. It seems like many posters have a gas component...does this explain why your usage is so low?
This has got to be our biggest area of suck-itude. We average about 41 kwh per day, something I really just have come face-to-face with. It's extra bad when you factor in gas, which powers a lot: heat, water, much of the cooking stuff. One electric oven, one electric drier, a hullova lotta lights and - wait for it - four full sized cooling boxes (fridges or freezers) make up the bulk of the consumption. We are looking at investment payoff timeframe for LED lights...and I may attempt an unplug your fridge challenge at some point. It's good to have a starting point.
So WAY back in October 2012, I said this:This has got to be our biggest area of suck-itude. We average about 41 kwh per day, something I really just have come face-to-face with. It's extra bad when you factor in gas, which powers a lot: heat, water, much of the cooking stuff. One electric oven, one electric drier, a hullova lotta lights and - wait for it - four full sized cooling boxes (fridges or freezers) make up the bulk of the consumption. We are looking at investment payoff timeframe for LED lights...and I may attempt an unplug your fridge challenge at some point. It's good to have a starting point.
And since then, this thread has become super huge! I just wanted to check back in and brag a bit to my MMM peeps for progress made.
So, about 18 months ago we were using 41 kWh per day. Our latest calculations are that, after a few lifestyle changes and upgrades to LED lighting, we are now averaging 15.5 kWh/day, and are on track to generate roughly 100% of our annual electricity usage via grid-tied solar panels we just installed on the roof.
Happy dance!
8 kWh per day for February, down from 12 kWh per day from February 2013.
7 kWh per day for March, down from 9 kWh per day from March 2013.
8 kWh per day for April, down from 9 kWh per day from April 2013.
5 kWh per day for May, down from 7 kWh per day from May 2013
I don't know how you guys get such low numbers. I've started being really stingy with the power, with furnace turned off and for the last 3 days we used 29, 28 & 30kwh/day, and these are cheap days. Input would be great.
We just had our broken smart meter replaced so I've only got about 2 weeks of energy usage to reference on this house which we moved to last August.
We have a 3K sqft house, 1/2 basement - walk in rancher style and the vents are blocked in the currently being reno'd basement. We have a computer that is on but in sleep mode all the time. We have at tv and 3 game systems that are turned off, but not at the power source (sometimes I remember to turn the switch off before heading out to work).
We have an electric furnace which we switched to only use 10,000Watts instead of the 20,000watts. We have LEDs and CFLs. Lights off all day while we're at work or kids at school. Since jumping on the MMM bandwagon I bought a programmable thermostat and set it to go to 59 at night and during the day and max was 65 in the morning (an hour) and evening (a few hours). My husband gets home early afternoon tho and he turns it up to 68...grrrr. Where it sits till 5 when I get home and turn it down. I know how much that bloody furnace costs us so I try to avoid using it much.
We have a dishwasher which I run once/day or every other day, with no heat dry. We do a lot of laundry, as a general rule only cold (but again my husband washes his gi in warm). We're only just getting the laundry line set up so we've been using the dryer way more than I'd like.
We have a water pump for the well, 12 year old hot water tank...which I turned down to 120, a heat exchange unit which doesn't always run, I might turn it on in the evenings when I'm cooking. Fridge, 2 smaller chest freezers. Also right now I have a tomato grow op with 4 fluorescent lights on all day.
I don't know what is drawing the energy. Even when nobody is home and the furnace is turned OFF, it's still using ~0.5kwh/hr. When we're home it ranges to 2.5-4.5kwh/hr.
We plan on doing a meter test this weekend by turning everything off to see if we have an electricity leak. Everything is electric so no gas. It seems like many posters have a gas component...does this explain why your usage is so low?
ok, ready for this?
in september we averaged 100 kwh per day. I honestly don't know how. a/c I'm guessing. it was a hot september.
momo5, this has gotta be a record! 45Kwh per day is very unusual. I would look into your utility company's website and start following their suggestions. Explore having an energy audit to see what is going on.
Put a Kill a Watt on your refrigerators and see what they are costing you. Do you really need two? Are you running a cyclotron as part of home schooling?
I think I just had my lowest electric bill ever since moving into my house --$41! Normally at this time of year it would be nearly double that. Usage was 296kwh over the measurement period, or about 9kwh/day.
I think I just had my lowest electric bill ever since moving into my house --$41! Normally at this time of year it would be nearly double that. Usage was 296kwh over the measurement period, or about 9kwh/day.
The two main differences were that I didn't turn on my central air at all (not even the fan), and I replaced my (dead) full-sized fridge with a very efficient 3.5 cu.ft. dorm-style unit (supplemented with another one I already had in the basement).
Another option (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/14/the-worlds-most-efficient-air-conditioner/).
There's certainly an upper limit beyond which it's necessary to use AC no matter what. I just thought it may be a relevant post for everyone from more temperate regions of the world, especially since its older and so many readers may have missed it.
Anyone have good ideas for reducing the cost of outdoor security lighting? The bulbs are 60 watt equivalent CFL's in standard fixtures at all the doors.
What I have heard of is motion sensors which turn on the lights inside the house, which is always alarming to a criminal to think that they had awaken someone, and that someone is walking around.
Having lights on outside for security is a sad myth. Here is some reading material about outdoor lighting:
Lighting and Crime (http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/crime.html)
Outdoor Lighting Guidence (http://www.darksky.org/outdoorlighting/guidance)
Thanks for posting those links. Poorly aimed outdoor lighting (light pollution and glare) is a waste of energy and money and may create more hazard than it fixes. As a residential designer I try to convey these concepts to my clients, some listen better than others.I'm going to try fighting my HOA (I know, might not be mustachian) on their policy for alley lights. Right now they want every house to have their alley light on all night. When the community was built all houses had a photosensor attached to automatically turn on the light. Unfortunately these have all broken and 7 of the 10 houses in my alley have their lights on 24/7. I want to replace mine with a Honeywell light switch which can have your lattitude set and then will turn the light on/off with the sunset AND you can program in the curfew time, such as 11pm, for when the light should be shut off.
The worst lighting in my area are the large "yard buster" mercury vapor lights with diffusers. They throw light about 1/4 mile sometimes. And the glare is unbelievable. I always tell my clients that if you can see the light source, the bulb, then it's a bad fixture. Still, most front door lights in the USA are this way. *shakes head*
Our latest bill - 9 kWh daily average in April, for two humans and two cats :)
(http://i.imgur.com/OBICxPC.jpg)
It still gets me every time I look at my energy bill - look at the drop in December. That's the month we turned our hot water heater down 5 degrees Celsius, somehow that equated to us saving a huge chunk of money. Guess we should have turned it down sooner!
I live in Ontario (Canada) and my bill is over $100 a month. I don't know what our usage is... I'm going to check tonight. We have "smart meters" and they are awful. Our bill went up even though we only run the dishwasher and laundry during the "cheap" time.
8 kWh per day for February, down from 12 kWh per day from February 2013.
7 kWh per day for March, down from 9 kWh per day from March 2013.
8 kWh per day for April, down from 9 kWh per day from April 2013.
5 kWh per day for May, down from 7 kWh per day from May 2013.
Wow, this thread is enlightening. My husband and I have been living quite fancy with our electricity usage. O_O
We rent an 1100 square foot apartment (top floor) and everything runs on electricity. I work from home, so two laptops are running during the day, and two ceiling fans with lights are also on most of the day. We already have the a/c on too. I'm good about turning of the lights and electronics (TV, soundbar, PS4, etc.) when not using them. My husband not so much, but I notice and ask him to go turn them off. I'll admit that I do use the dryer more than I should; I hang dry workout clothes, bras, and pants/shorts (shrinkable things), but pretty much dry everything else. I do wash with cold water for everything except the one load of whites on hot. I know there's nothing we can do about the fridge (2006 model, not energy star) and the stove/oven. I have also lowered the hot water heater to it's lowest temp setting and switched the dish washer to air dry (but maybe I should hand wash more?). I'll admit, that we don't shut down the computers and just put them to sleep. We have a modem, router, and land line phone (for work) that are always on. A wireless printer too. Small electronics, like cell phones, are typically charged during the night. We don't keep small kitchen appliances plugged in (well, except the microwave).
Month Average kWh/day Comments December 35.45 heat on, 70F day, 68F night January 39.32 heat on, 70F day, 68F night February 36.73 heat on, 70F day, 68F night March 28.59 mix of heat & no heat April 28.31 no heat, no a/c, CFL switch May 30.87 a/c on, 76-77F with fans June ? lowered the water heater temp to "Hot" (lowest on the dial...)
I want to start hang drying more clothes and consistently opening windows and doors in the morning. I should look into the vampire electricity and get one of those Kill-A-Watt meters (it sounds cool and useful!). Are Smart Strips worth it for the TV area?
We have room to improve! Tips on what we can do next in our rental?
I had a feeling that it's the air conditioning. I will start bumping the temp up and adjust to a warmer house. Thank you for the freezer tip - it is not particularly full, so I'll add some water jugs to freeze. PSU=power strips, right? I think I can handle turning them off...we only have 3. ;) Also, when you say the TV and Playstation are on standby, are you saying they're not really off when I turn them off? (Might have something to do with being able to turn them on with remotes, eh?) Thanks for the tips, daverobev!We have room to improve! Tips on what we can do next in our rental?
Well, the AC is likely the biggest culpret. If the fridge or freezer has much space in it, you can put jars or something in to stop the cold air 'falling out' when you open the door.
Laptops, printer probably don't use much. I mean, better to turn them off and turn off the PSUs but don't stress. Modem, router ditto. PS4 and tv probably use more on standby than a laptop does powered up, depending on what kind of tv.
Laptops, printer probably don't use much. I mean, better to turn them off and turn off the PSUs but don't stress. Modem, router ditto. PS4 and tv probably use more on standby than a laptop does powered up, depending on what kind of tv.
QuoteLaptops, printer probably don't use much. I mean, better to turn them off and turn off the PSUs but don't stress. Modem, router ditto. PS4 and tv probably use more on standby than a laptop does powered up, depending on what kind of tv.
I just bought a couple of power bars that switch off power to all secondary devices when the primary device is turned off. I have one plugged into my computer set up, so when I turn off the hard drive, all the monitors, printer, speakers everything powers off. I have the other one set up in the "entertainment" area, so that the tv is the primary set up and when it turns off the power is cut to the game systems.
I plugged these suckers in last Thursday, and see a trend of using ~ 5kwh/day less than I was before. Before I got them my passive (nobody home) energy use throughout the day was about 0.34 kw/hr, now it's dropped to about 0.18kw/hr. Not a huge money saver, but i'll be averaging about 17$/month savings which will pay for those power bars in a few months. I could probably do better if had tv set up to turn off rather than go to standby as the primary.
I know it's easy to just turn off a regular power bar, but I was forgetting more often than not on both set ups.
I'm assuming that turning on the main device will reactivate the strip?
That sounds pretty neat, I use two power strips for my setup, the biggest culprit in it was my subwoofer, but I guess if I left the pi on along with it's hard drive it probably would have taken quite a bit. The thing about the subwoofer is that it doesn't have a standby and uses energy just sitting there with no sound.I am so glad you mentioned this. We have a subwoofer behind the couch that is always plugged in. I think I'm going to unplug it and see if we miss it. :)
Adam, are you satisfied with your usage?
Adam, are you satisfied with your usage?Sometimes I wish the wife would do less laundry, or maybe air dry.
Adam, are you satisfied with your usage?Sometimes I wish the wife would do less laundry, or maybe air dry.
It may have been said elsewhere, but don't forget that a good argument for air drying is how it is easier on clothes, letting them last longer / be damaged less often. Buying a nice drying rack might make this easier- I bought a $40 rack off of amazon, but it is metal, solid, yet light and foldable- and it can dry so much more than the little standard wooden racks.. (making laundry much easier)
Just got my first bill through since switching to a new supplier and setting all the boiler thermos etc.Careful with that. Could give you a serious illness if germs dont die /grow too much. You should ask a professional (or look it up, whatever) before messing with water.
Average daily usage
Gas this month
£0.45 (7 kWh/day)
Electricity this month
£0.68 (5 kWh/day)
Gas is a bit high considering its only heating the shower every morning and a bath every other evening. Might try turning the timers down so it only goes for 30mins preheating instead of the current hour.
Careful with that. Could give you a serious illness if germs dont die /grow too much. You should ask a professional (or look it up, whatever) before messing with water.
I've made some exciting progress without feeling like we are depriving ourselves of comfort.
July 2011 - 1292 kWh
July 2012 - 1244 kWh
July 2013 - 1364 kWh
July 2014 - 608 kWh
I was interested in this article, as not only does the local utility increase their rates as pointed out in the article, but they do that on a fairly regular basis that goes unnoticed by many. The company's normal billing cycle is 28-31 days, but they often go to 35 days. For those of you who aren't familiar with our rates, they charge more (fuel surcharge + then your taxes go on top of all that - 17%) for anything above 1,000 kwh. That means that in the summer almost everyone gets above that 1,000 kwh number due to the extra load of air conditioning. I've checked my bills and the time that they go to a 35 day cycle is in the middle of summer!
Anyway, in reading the article I was shocked by the quote from the lady on how much her bill was. $500 a month! Whoa....that's ridiculous! I just got my highest bill at $258 and that was having 2 guests, with a total in the house of 7 (5 teenagers). Add a pool and spa to that as well.
I'm afraid to see what my bill will be next month. We're using A/C a lot more. 2 of our ceiling fans broke this month. One is simply coming loose from the bracket, but I have to pull the power to it to safely adjust (and the bedroom and both offices are on the same circuit, so it's a scheduling problem. Need it to be light out to complete, but not when people need to be using the computers). The other one is on the same circuit as the TV, so easier to kill power to it. However, it's not fixable. Motor is completely bound up. Going to do a replacement, but having a real hard time finding the right one. Need a low headroom (max it can safely hang down is 10.5") with the lighting above the blades. Seems like that style has disappeared... Everything these days has the low dangling lighting that I'll hit my head on in that room... :-/
Get a fan that works WITHOUT lights and get a tall lamp with the money you save.
You don't want flickering lights behind fan blades anyways.
Yeah, probably going to have to go the lamp way, still can't find a top lit one. The one my parent's had in their old house you didn't notice any flickering as the lighting came out the sides up above and gave the room a nice amount of light all around.
Yeah, probably going to have to go the lamp way, still can't find a top lit one. The one my parent's had in their old house you didn't notice any flickering as the lighting came out the sides up above and gave the room a nice amount of light all around.
Go to http://www.hansenwholesale.com and filter on ceiling fans with uplights.
This is an old post, but still relevant I think. On a normal day, we're averaging about 6KwH
I'm a newborn Mustachian with a dumb question about electricity. From some of the comments on this thread it sounds like turning appliances off at the wall isn't enough. Do I need to unplug them to stop them drawing power? I'm at an average of 12kwh/day and high prices here in NZ so I better get busy sorting this out.
You have switches in the wall where you plug in?I'm a newborn Mustachian with a dumb question about electricity. From some of the comments on this thread it sounds like turning appliances off at the wall isn't enough. Do I need to unplug them to stop them drawing power? I'm at an average of 12kwh/day and high prices here in NZ so I better get busy sorting this out.
Nah, turning them off at the wall is sufficient. It's just that most houses in the States don't actually have switches installed in their wall-sockets - so if it is plugged in, it is switched on. Hence the advice to 'unplug'.
Also, don't get hung up on their prices. We pay through the nose for electricity here (weirdly), and 12kwh/day is actually not bad given that we're just coming out of winter (depending on what size house you have and what you are using it for)
You have switches in the wall where you plug in?I'm a newborn Mustachian with a dumb question about electricity. From some of the comments on this thread it sounds like turning appliances off at the wall isn't enough. Do I need to unplug them to stop them drawing power? I'm at an average of 12kwh/day and high prices here in NZ so I better get busy sorting this out.
Nah, turning them off at the wall is sufficient. It's just that most houses in the States don't actually have switches installed in their wall-sockets - so if it is plugged in, it is switched on. Hence the advice to 'unplug'.
Also, don't get hung up on their prices. We pay through the nose for electricity here (weirdly), and 12kwh/day is actually not bad given that we're just coming out of winter (depending on what size house you have and what you are using it for)
How does that look?
I have never seen that.
btw: If you think you pay much - can you beat average german prices of ~28€ cent per kWh?
I'm a newborn Mustachian with a dumb question about electricity. From some of the comments on this thread it sounds like turning appliances off at the wall isn't enough. Do I need to unplug them to stop them drawing power? I'm at an average of 12kwh/day and high prices here in NZ so I better get busy sorting this out.
Nah, turning them off at the wall is sufficient. It's just that most houses in the States don't actually have switches installed in their wall-sockets - so if it is plugged in, it is switched on. Hence the advice to 'unplug'.
Also, don't get hung up on their prices. We pay through the nose for electricity here (weirdly), and 12kwh/day is actually not bad given that we're just coming out of winter (depending on what size house you have and what you are using it for)
[/quot
Thanks HomeHandyMum, hubby and I share an 80 sqm villa with 2 preschoolers in Wellington. I'm home with them most of the time but am stingy with the heat pump, never use a dryer and use all energy saver lights, plus have gas hot water.
Our last bill was 18kw-h/day. That means we're using, on average, 750 watts. We've had a cold month, so the furnace blower has been running more often, but that can't account for more than an average of 125 watts (50% duty cycle, 1/3 HP motor). We *do* have two fridges plus a deep freeze, but my wife really appreciates having two fridges convenient in the kitchen when she's cooking for our family of 8. Our kids still need to work on turning off the lights, but we're almost 100% CFL at this point anyway.How old are the refridgerators? After measuring the draw on my old fridge, I discovered it was consuming 2.5kwh / day. My newer fridge only draws 1.5kwh / day. I ditched the old fridge (my kegerator) for a chest freezer that draws less than .5kwh / day and even got a rebate check from the utility company for recycling the old fridge.
For the curious: a standard power outlet in NZ:Australia gets pretty close to Germany price wise in some parts (maybe some overtake it I'm not sure). I'm not sure if Germany has supply charges but mines 75.79 Australian cents a day. For the last quarter I averaged 3.78kWh a day. My heatings on gas so that keeps costs down. I expect it to be more over summer.
http://no1guide.co.nz/about-new-zealand/electrical-plugs-738.html
And for prices, I'm paying about 23c per kWh, so yeah, you win that one, Germany! (about 0.15Euro)
If it is what I think it is - most people pay between 6 and 10 € a month additional to the usage fees. Can be higher of course for "unnormal" low or high usage.For the curious: a standard power outlet in NZ:Australia gets pretty close to Germany price wise in some parts (maybe some overtake it I'm not sure). I'm not sure if Germany has supply charges but mines 75.79 Australian cents a day. For the last quarter I averaged 3.78kWh a day. My heatings on gas so that keeps costs down. I expect it to be more over summer.
http://no1guide.co.nz/about-new-zealand/electrical-plugs-738.html
And for prices, I'm paying about 23c per kWh, so yeah, you win that one, Germany! (about 0.15Euro)
How old are the refridgerators? After measuring the draw on my old fridge, I discovered it was consuming 2.5kwh / day. My newer fridge only draws 1.5kwh / day. I ditched the old fridge (my kegerator) for a chest freezer that draws less than .5kwh / day and even got a rebate check from the utility company for recycling the old fridge.The older one is 9 years old, freezer-on-top. The other is a french door fridge we picked up from our next-door neighbors when they moved. I *did* measure the power usage on the older one, and it's still pretty low (as I remember, I don't remember the exact number). I haven't measured the newer one yet.
My guess is furnace blower motor(s). Could be 1-4A depending on age of furnace (multi-speed, single speed, draft inducer fan, etc).
That gives about 100 Watts of unexplained usage 24/7 ... What we have RIGHT NOW and i took readings - Microwave, Fridge which i already know it's 2 kWh a day, Oven and cooktop, 4-5 manual lamps spread around the house which had readings of 0 ... router and modem ... and thats it!Sounds like it's time to start flipping *breakers* until you find that phantom 100W. Flip a breaker, run out and watch your meter. Flip the next breaker, do the same, repeat 20 or so more times or until you find the culprit, and you get your exercise for the day at the same time!
That's not the first time I've seen the suggestion for charging the phone at work or in the car, does that really make a difference?Yes, its theft (at work) and you can get thrown out for doing it.
Life is all about being grateful for everything you have, right? For example, I'm very grateful to work for an employer whom absolutely doesn't give a damn if I choose to charge my personal cell phone in my office. I mean, technically it is stealing electricity from my employer, but I struggle to think of a douchier reason to terminate a great employee.That's not the first time I've seen the suggestion for charging the phone at work or in the car, does that really make a difference?Yes, its theft (at work) and you can get thrown out for doing it.
Lucky for you. There are people who have been fired bc of this. Or for eating something (after closure) that would have been thrown away.Life is all about being grateful for everything you have, right? For example, I'm very grateful to work for an employer whom absolutely doesn't give a damn if I choose to charge my personal cell phone in my office. I mean, technically it is stealing electricity from my employer, but I struggle to think of a douchier reason to terminate a great employee.That's not the first time I've seen the suggestion for charging the phone at work or in the car, does that really make a difference?Yes, its theft (at work) and you can get thrown out for doing it.
Lucky for you. There are people who have been fired bc of this. Or for eating something (after closure) that would have been thrown away.Life is all about being grateful for everything you have, right? For example, I'm very grateful to work for an employer whom absolutely doesn't give a damn if I choose to charge my personal cell phone in my office. I mean, technically it is stealing electricity from my employer, but I struggle to think of a douchier reason to terminate a great employee.That's not the first time I've seen the suggestion for charging the phone at work or in the car, does that really make a difference?Yes, its theft (at work) and you can get thrown out for doing it.
For reasons like this (or people getting jailed for taking edible things out of the waste) its no wonder that there is a "capitalists are assholes" view. Because quite a few are.
Any ideas on where to get a whole house clamp type current meter? I like the idea of shutting everything off then flip one breaker at a time. If I had the meter on the main wires coming into the house then I would be able to read it right at the panel. Not sure what the meter might be called.
to use an amp clamp you need to clamp it over only one wire which would necessitate stripping the 1st layer of insulation off the main. very very much NOT recommended!!!
Any ideas on where to get a whole house clamp type current meter? I like the idea of shutting everything off then flip one breaker at a time. If I had the meter on the main wires coming into the house then I would be able to read it right at the panel. Not sure what the meter might be called.
check Efergy monitors or the Owl ... although you can probably do the same with an amp clamp
OMG!
I'm ashamed to say that on a GOOD day, I can get our daily consumption into the 60 kWh range <sigh>.
OMG!
I'm ashamed to say that on a GOOD day, I can get our daily consumption into the 60 kWh range <sigh>.
You use in a month what our 2 person household uses in a year - and that includes a 24/7 running computer.
You really need to see where that usage comes from.
If the fridges and freezers are old, tahts maybe the point. Especially see if you really need 2 freezers. I cant imagine why. Do you live 50 miles from the next supermarket?
If you are a so big family then you need to shop every (2nd) day anway, so I see no reason to store lots of frozen things.
OMG!
You use in a month what our 2 person household uses in a year - and that includes a 24/7 running computer.
You really need to see where that usage comes from. .
Completely disagree :) Stockpiling meat and other food when they are on sale is worth so much more money than the cost of running the freezers.
When I am not able to get bread made,You ever considered a bread machine?
2 chest freezers - one is 9 years old, the other is about 15 years old. [...]
1 32 cubic foot fridge, bought new a year ago - 1 10 year old fridge in the basement for milk, etc
they use alot of energy all day long your fridge uses the most along with your washer and dryer you shoul check out this website electricsaver.com they say they have something that can save up to 20% on your electric bill is that true??
let me know what you think.
After seeing this thread I had to check on our usage: Average 46.4 kw/day over last 2 years. Looks like we are way out there with energy gluttony. I am on the hunt for reduction of mindless expense so this goes on the list. Some notes:...
...
- 2 electric cars that get charged every night (no face punches please! its a whole different topic, and oddly enough there wasn't significant change in usage since these were acquired.)
Usage around 1800 kwhs in the winter.
What helps keep me on track is knowing that in our state, electricity is produced primarily by coal, so electric conservation means less carbon dioxide, mercury, and sulfur in the air.
What helps keep me on track is knowing that in our state, electricity is produced primarily by coal, so electric conservation means less carbon dioxide, mercury, and sulfur in the air.
Not anymore after the IL EPA tightened air quality standards a few years back. A lot of coal plants have closed. Crawford, Fisk, and Stateline in the Chicago area for sure, not sure how many downstate.
http://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=IL
That was part of the reason ComEd had a rate increase a couple years ago. Due to the plants shutting down, they had to make changes to the grid to compensate for lack of generating capacity (loss of var control) and the increase in var on the system (less incandescents [resistive load] and more CFLs [capacitive load] and cheap LEDs (bad power factor (PF) correction) in addition to other things.
I just got the first electric bill for my new apartment: $220. Ouch! But the heat is electric baseboard, the refrigerator and stove are quite old, and it's not the most well-insulated space (old brick rowhouse).
Watch out if you're thinking about replacing them, the Warm White tubes are so yellow that they look like Sodium Vapor lamps. The Cool White look like Warm White incandescents. I'll take the WW to another store and see if I can exchange for Cool White or Daylight to compare.Thats not quite right, because the naming can be misleading and anyway you had different light color in the old incan bulbs anyway, depending on W usage.
I'm pretty sure you've got it backwards. Lower kelvin = more yellow/orange and higher kelvin = more blue. Think about candlelight vs. a gas lamp for example.Watch out if you're thinking about replacing them, the Warm White tubes are so yellow that they look like Sodium Vapor lamps. The Cool White look like Warm White incandescents. I'll take the WW to another store and see if I can exchange for Cool White or Daylight to compare.Thats not quite right, because the naming can be misleading and anyway you had different light color in the old incan bulbs anyway, depending on W usage.
Look at the Kelvin. 3000K is normal "warm white" like a sunny day (and mid range incandescant), 2700K is not really warm white but named so. Everything with less K is blue (often named cool white).
blue - yellow - red
For normal living 2700K or 3000K is appropriate. For evening light try to get the redder ones. "Blue" low Kelvin light is midday light and can disturb your sleep if you have it on before you go to bed. Never use blue LED for your "reading before sleeping" bedlamp. On the other hand, "morning get up bathroom light" could use them.
I think my max ever month averaged around 153kwh per day during the coldest winter months. Once my water heater goes I plan to convert it to a heat pump water heater. The resistance heater no doubt uses a ton of electricity. No choice other than propane though - no natural gas in these parts.
I think my max ever month averaged around 153kwh per day during the coldest winter months. Once my water heater goes I plan to convert it to a heat pump water heater. The resistance heater no doubt uses a ton of electricity. No choice other than propane though - no natural gas in these parts.
HO. LY. SHIT! There are months your electric bill approaches my mortgage!
Ever looked into geothermal? Initial cost is high, but reoccurring costs are low.
Actually, "daylight white" is more like 6000K. It's much cooler in appearance than what people find attractive inside a home.Watch out if you're thinking about replacing them, the Warm White tubes are so yellow that they look like Sodium Vapor lamps. The Cool White look like Warm White incandescents. I'll take the WW to another store and see if I can exchange for Cool White or Daylight to compare.Thats not quite right, because the naming can be misleading and anyway you had different light color in the old incan bulbs anyway, depending on W usage.
Look at the Kelvin. 3000K is normal "warm white" like a sunny day (and mid range incandescant), 2700K is not really warm white but named so. Everything with less K is blue (often named cool white).
blue - yellow - red
For normal living 2700K or 3000K is appropriate. For evening light try to get the redder ones. "Blue" low Kelvin light is midday light and can disturb your sleep if you have it on before you go to bed. Never use blue LED for your "reading before sleeping" bedlamp. On the other hand, "morning get up bathroom light" could use them.
My solar system doesn't get installed until early next month.
My solar system doesn't get installed until early next month.
This made me wonder what planet you were waiting moving to after solar system gets installed.. How many light years away?
Arg. And I was trying SO HARD not to post something like this. I already had typed half a sentence.My solar system doesn't get installed until early next month.
This made me wonder what planet you were waiting moving to after solar system gets installed.. How many light years away?
My local Menards is closing for re-building (knocking it down and building a two-story) and they're having a 20% off sale. I was finally able to pick up LED G25 bulbs for a good price as well as Feit 4' LED Tubes for the garage (man cave/workshop).
Watch out if you're thinking about replacing them, the Warm White tubes are so yellow that they look like Sodium Vapor lamps. The Cool White look like Warm White T12 tubes. I'll take the WW to another store and see if I can exchange for Cool White or Daylight to compare.
Our electric is balance billing $240 a month, $20 is the outside light, about $20 is for taxes. Usage around 1800 kwhs in the winter. [...] We could cut some but I don't think the bills are that high for what we use.
We had a bad month this month, 809 kwh. I don't know why! I have been hang drying the laundry and we have almost all CFL / LED lights. No second fridge, no freezer, wth!
Our electric is balance billing $240 a month, $20 is the outside light, about $20 is for taxes. Usage around 1800 kwhs in the winter. [...] We could cut some but I don't think the bills are that high for what we use.
I think your usage profile is a good example of very efficient micro-choices (what kind of appliances, etc.) combined with big-energy-using macro-choices (size of house, dryer, amount of laundry) and the limits of that strategy. What's worked for me is going in the opposite direction. I don't worry too much about my three remaining incandescent bulbs, but I do live in a small cosy-ish house, dry clothes on a rack or line, and usually take navy showers. I've dropped my usage almost in half (to about 9 kwh/day) and my bill by about a third (to $40-something a month) since mustachianism. Now to do something about my pig of a fridge.
Different strategies for different lives!
I just got the first electric bill for my new apartment: $220. Ouch! But the heat is electric baseboard, the refrigerator and stove are quite old, and it's not the most well-insulated space (old brick rowhouse).
Compared to winter last year i am using 5 or 6 more Kwh per day. I'm trying to figure out why this is the case.
A few things have changed. My wife now works from home full time and is on her laptop pretty much all day during the day. With her being home, obviously lights would be used more and the thermostat is left a few degrees higher with her at home compared to last year where i set it to 59 degrees.
Compared to winter last year i am using 5 or 6 more Kwh per day. I'm trying to figure out why this is the case.
A few things have changed. My wife now works from home full time and is on her laptop pretty much all day during the day. With her being home, obviously lights would be used more and the thermostat is left a few degrees higher with her at home compared to last year where i set it to 59 degrees.
MMMdude, I know that I am home all day with 5 kids and homeschooling. 2 of the older kids use computers full time for schooling and the other 3 and myself hop on and off during the day with various activities. We also have to keep a little heat on to keep us comfortable and functioning well. There's also cooking at home during the day, opening and closing of the fridge, the lights, opening and closing of outside doors and perhaps other hidden power draws. My power usage is a lot higher than many here, but I know that this is why.
I imagine that if you had NOT replaced your furnace, your daytime power usage would be a fair bit higher with the less efficient furnace now that your wife is working from home. Probably a good thing you got that done!
What do you do with your rechargeable tools? If I unplug the charger, they are never charged when I need them but the chargers are using electricity all of the time.
Last year I replaced all (6) kitchen ceiling lights with LEDs, I think that is why my usage has dropped about 0.75 Kwh/day this year. But it is still at 9.27/day.What do you mean with rechargeable tools?
After reading this thread I FINALLY unplugged a VCR that has not been used for at least a year. The plug was easy enough to reach but finding the right plug on the strip was not. So, I just let it go. As of about 5 mins. ago it is unplugged.
What do you do with your rechargeable tools? If I unplug the charger, they are never charged when I need them but the chargers are using electricity all of the time.
Wow, this thread was a big face punch for me. Our usage was horrible the last 2 months, average 100kwh per DAY and a $425 bill. Yikes!OMG. You are using more then 4KW on average! I dont have electric heating (or cooking) and I would be hard pressed to get that high even if I start everything. I think I cant even go up to that, my cutout(?) would jump at 3.5KW I think.
Wow, this thread was a big face punch for me. Our usage was horrible the last 2 months, average 100kwh per DAY and a $425 bill. Yikes! It's been cold here so I blame a lot of that on the heating. We have a 2100 square foot house that is all electric, 3 people home almost all the time, 2 of whom are little kids who don't seem to care and 1 of whom is my rather un-mustachian husband who likes his creature comforts and is always wandering around in a t-shirt complaining about how cold he is. The house doesn't seem to be very well insulated and I've been going around figuring out the ages of things... the fridge dates to 1997, the heat pump to 1990 and the water heater to 1992. No wonder we have problems. Even in the summer our electric bill has been about $200 (interestingly, it doesn't go up much in the summer versus spring/fall, but winter is ridiculous).
Things I'm contemplating:
Replacing one or more of those horribly old items
Putting in a whole house fan to save on AC usage during the summer
Adding more attic insulation
Turned off the ice maker on the fridge to see if that improves its effectiveness (still waiting for that number on the Kill-A-Watt)
Putting in curtains on the east side of the house to use during the summer mornings--but we have a lovely eastern exposure that we will still want to sometimes enjoy
Getting better insulated curtains in general
We do a lot of laundry (all in cold except rags and diapers) because little kids are messy, and it's a real pain to hang up a ton of tiny clothes when you have kids nipping at your ankles. I do want to try to do some more line drying. But really I feel that we have large things that are inefficient and I don't want to get too hung up on tiny changes and lose sight of the big ones, something I have a history of.
I can't sell my husband on the "turn it way down and use long underwear" approach, but at least this morning I managed to advance the notion of "if we accidentally leave it off too long, don't put it back on with a big temperature jump or the strips will come on." Grar.
Gets expensive trying to experiment to find what cuts the electric bill down though.
My new real-time energy monitor arrived in the mail today! I was so excited! hahaha
It was super interesting to get the initial readings as we turned on things like the dishwasher and the dryer -- WOW! did the usage ever jump! More than doubled from 23 kw/h to 56 kw/h! I couldn't believe it! You'd better believe I got my butt out there and hung 2 loads of laundry today -- one inside and one outside on the line.
If you have a serious problem with huge power bills, I'd highly recommend a device like this in your home! Link is upthread.
This is the exact energy monitor I got. It is compatible with our power meter outside the house. It was on sale for $35 when I got it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BGDPRAI/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/178-2563505-3440551?fp=1&pc_redir=1427995351
I have a feeling we could turn it down further if I blew cellulose into the walls which would keep them from radiating the cold making the rooms feel warmer.
@MrSal, You seem to have mastered this stuff of watts and kw/h!
Funny question, but in the spirit of Reddit, would you be willing to ELI5 (explain it like I'm 5)? Maybe there are others who don't really understand these basics ... or maybe I'm the only one :-(
I can read my bar graphs and see when my usage is down. I can read my new minute by minute energy monitor as the kw/h's fluctuate up or down depending on how much electricity is running at that moment but I don't actually understand what it means.
Sorry if I'm unclear!
The fish tank?
I had my daughter go count all the lights in the house, top to bottom and garage. We have 42 lights total. Most of them are cfl currently. Most are not used for weeks at a time, like the basement lights. So does i make sense to switch them all to LED at once?$ wise it makes no sense to change from CFL to LED, the difference is quite small. However LED often have better lights and dont take time to get to full light.
Where do you get the best price for LED?
I had my daughter go count all the lights in the house, top to bottom and garage. We have 42 lights total. Most of them are cfl currently. Most are not used for weeks at a time, like the basement lights. So does i make sense to switch them all to LED at once?
Where do you get the best price for LED?
I;ll check those out. I hate the "yellow" light. My CFL are all daylight bulbs.
March is one of the warmer months of the year here in tropical India, followed by intense heat in April and May. Our bill for the month of March came to less than 10$ for 190 units (kwh). We pay 5cents per unit, which is not very expensive. We are an upper middle class family that more or less lives on american middle class standards in terms of what we own and use. Our house is 1700sq ft in area.
Let me know if anyone's interested in knowing the details of how we achieve low bills.
My solar power system was installed last month and has been generating around 14 kwh per day on average since then, which has reduced our consumption cost by nearly half. We now try to use high power appliances during periods of peak generation to take best advantage of the system.
If anyone is interested, the following is a link to the pvout website with stats for my system http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=37052&sid=34002 (http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=37052&sid=34002). Due to problems I was having for a while feeding correct consumption data to this website, these statistics are only useful since I fixed it on 09 Apr15.
My solar power system was installed last month and has been generating around 14 kwh per day on average since then, which has reduced our consumption cost by nearly half. We now try to use high power appliances during periods of peak generation to take best advantage of the system.
If anyone is interested, the following is a link to the pvout website with stats for my system http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=37052&sid=34002 (http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=37052&sid=34002). Due to problems I was having for a while feeding correct consumption data to this website, these statistics are only useful since I fixed it on 09 Apr15.
how much did it cost? 14 kWh a day would be enough for us and still sell almost 4 kWh a day!
Funny looking LED - Mark thinks its good and cheap
http://boingboing.net/2015/04/13/philips-dimmable-led-bulb-for.html
The first time I have ever seen this shape.
I'm into my 2nd year of tracking/reducing our power usage. Last year, we were down 13% for the year, so my power company sent me a cheque for $75 (it was a contest to reduce usage by at least 10%).
This year, I am down another 1%, 6 months in but we still have ahead of us: reducing use of summer a/c, hanging more laundry loads, and NOT using heat until late in the fall.
I am still really enjoying my little power usage device (mentioned upthread) that shows how much we are drawing in any given second ... good automatic feedback. As an example, I can't believe how much MORE power my oven uses on convection mode vs. regular baking mode!
How do you figure out whether solar is a good idea for your budget? How long do you all think it takes to see a return and how long will the panels last?Its really all about your local situation. Thats one thing where you need a "specialist" or spend weeks doing nothing else then get informed about it. It depends on your yearly sun hour (can be quite different between spots only 20 miles away from eah other), the horizontal and vertical degree you can use, if you can clean the modules (and how!) and very very important the shadows. Dependig on how its made a single shadow from a street lamp can reduce the energy production to nearly nothing.
How do you figure out whether solar is a good idea for your budget? How long do you all think it takes to see a return and how long will the panels last?
How do you figure out whether solar is a good idea for your budget? How long do you all think it takes to see a return and how long will the panels last?
You need to run an ROI calculation, which most solar power companies are happy to do for you but there are also some free independent ones out there in googleland, to see if/when solar power pays for itself. ...
My solar power system was installed last month and has been generating around 14 kwh per day on average since then, which has reduced our consumption cost by nearly half. We now try to use high power appliances during periods of peak generation to take best advantage of the system.
If anyone is interested, the following is a link to the pvout website with stats for my system http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=37052&sid=34002 (http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=37052&sid=34002). Due to problems I was having for a while feeding correct consumption data to this website, these statistics are only useful since I fixed it on 09 Apr15.
My solar power system was installed last month and has been generating around 14 kwh per day on average since then, which has reduced our consumption cost by nearly half. We now try to use high power appliances during periods of peak generation to take best advantage of the system.
If anyone is interested, the following is a link to the pvout website with stats for my system http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=37052&sid=34002 (http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=37052&sid=34002). Due to problems I was having for a while feeding correct consumption data to this website, these statistics are only useful since I fixed it on 09 Apr15.
Hi Ozstache,
How are you uploading your consumption data to PVoutput? I upload my generation data PVoutput but not currently my consumption.
Thanks,
Steve
Our energy usage confuses me. We average about 14kWh a day, but it will sometimes spike up to 30kWh. This past weekend I figured we'd see another spike. I did 4 loads of laundry on Friday and cooked a decent amount on Sunday while having the AC set less than normal. Both days our usage wasn't to high. I'm not sure what's causing those spikes.Well, I didn't have any more 30kWh days. Just got our bill for this month. $85 down from $135 two months ago! Our usage went down to what we were using in the winter.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
March is one of the warmer months of the year here in tropical India, followed by intense heat in April and May. Our bill for the month of March came to less than 10$ for 190 units (kwh). We pay 5cents per unit, which is not very expensive. We are an upper middle class family that more or less lives on american middle class standards in terms of what we own and use. Our house is 1700sq ft in area.
Let me know if anyone's interested in knowing the details of how we achieve low bills.
Yes, please.
Advice Wanted!Yes, you have issues. Our house (2006) is almost twice the square footage and we peak at about 1,800KWh/mo.
Advice Wanted!
We are using up to 3,000 kWh per month in the winter and up to 1500 kWh in the summer -- YIKES! What should be some next steps?
~Family of 5, 1890 sq ft single family home with no basement. 1974 house w/a thin layer of batting insulation under housewrap and plywood siding. Attached garage is totally uninsulated/no HVAC. Attic has quite a lot of batting.
~We live in Virginia, USA. Swampy summers and cold winters.
~All electric utilities. Baseboard heaters and central a/c. We had a propane fireplace that heated 2 rooms, but it was costing $300+ to fill twice per winter so we've turned it off.
~We don't have the right wiring for programmable thermostats. So we turn them all down/up daily.
~10 loads of laundry washed and dried per week. I've tried to reduce this, but we exercise, have multiple kids in sports, school uniforms come home muddy every day, and DH is VERY picky about cleanliness (and clean sheets, towels, etc.). Washer and dryer are HE bought in 2012.
~Our house and yard are HEAVILY shaded with oaks and hickory -- I have tried hanging laundry out and it is filthy after a few hours with all of the dirt, pollen, insects, and other debris that falls from our 100+ year old trees, plus there isn't much sunlight.
~Lots of lights on all day because with our heavy shade, it is DARK inside of our house during the day. Can't see to cook, read, play, clean etc. without lights on.
~Youngest child and I are home all day, older 2 kids are home all summer, and DH often works from home too. He runs a server with an uninterruptible power supply, we keep a Disney Circle on for filtering, we have frequent use of 2 laptops, 2 phones, 1 ipad, 1 kindle, and Amazon echo and some TV and Playstation. Kids also run in/out often which means doors are opened frequently.
~Hot water heater and fridge/oven were new in 2005, dishwasher was new in 2012. I cook/bake all of meals from scratch so use the kitchen appliances daily. Dishwasher runs 2 full loads per day. No second fridge or freezer.
~1 outdoor light (porch light) on a motion sensor.
~Solar seems like it isn't an option with the limited sunlight that reaches us.
Heat pump and new siding seemed like obvious steps to us, but 2 different neighbors who have the exact same model house upgraded to these and tell us they had no measurable difference in utilities. It's possible they don't pay close enough attention, but that was discouraging.
Heat pump and new siding seemed like obvious steps to us, but 2 different neighbors who have the exact same model house upgraded to these and tell us they had no measurable difference in utilities. It's possible they don't pay close enough attention, but that was discouraging.
Are the trees on your property? A skilled arborist should be able to selectively open and prune or remove trees to allow adequate light to your house. Winter sun makes a substantial difference to comfort.
One kid has a fan running 24/7, he keeps his window closed so I don't see how it actually does anything.
Do you have a smart meter, where the electricity company tracks your usage hourly?Those are some good suggestions for tracking. The meters are electric but I'm not sure where mine is exactly, I'll have to ask the building maintenance. I've ordered a kill-a-watt meter to start tracking different things.
I just got my electric bill in... I live in an 850sq ft apartment and last month used 564kw of electricity! I think it's because it is summer. I live in Maryland. The range monthly is between 300-600kw.
I have a computer that is fairly heavy duty that runs a lot but I can't imagine it uses that much. Then again it's a 750w power supply, plus a bunch of external HDs and a NAS.
All my bulbs are LED except for a few up in the ceiling that I need a ladder to change (I haven't yet because it would involve buying said ladder). I also have two florescent bulbs (w/ ballast) in the kitchen that runs pretty much constantly.
I use my dryer maybe ~3 hours a month. I know I could save by having a clothes rack, but there really isn't space. My hot water heater and range are run by natural gas.
A/C is set at 82 during the summer months daytime, and only turns on (down to 75-76) at night.
I'm honestly not sure where all the electricity use is going. Anyone have suggestions?
Our electric bills are £32 a month, which is pretty cheap (I pay them by direct debit every month and get 3% cashback in my account too)..
We use the electric shower daily, appliances etc etc. However, I make a point of switching the tv and other devices off at the wall switch when done, it only takes a second.
Appliances left on stand by can really add to your bill, switching them off kills the bill.
Doesn't that mean your laptop costs you like $5 per year to charge? Seems low and definitely seems not worth unplugging it every day for.
Doesn't that mean your laptop costs you like $5 per year to charge? Seems low and definitely seems not worth unplugging it every day for.
5/year is 1% of your energy bill.Doesn't that mean your laptop costs you like $5 per year to charge? Seems low and definitely seems not worth unplugging it every day for.
But that would be 1/8 of my yearly energy bill. I just flip the switch on a powerstrip. Also feels safer...
You also still pay the premium for a laptop and your components still die sooner from the higher heat (potentially much sooner if the laptop vents through the keyboard, as it will be even hotter closed than open).Doesn't that mean your laptop costs you like $5 per year to charge? Seems low and definitely seems not worth unplugging it every day for.
Probably... laptops compared to desktops are super efficient! 10 W is very likely when the thing is on ... It;s ridiculously low! I have a desktop and when on it probably is using 10-15x that!
I think once my Desktop goes I will go laptop - a good one. I hate laptops though... but a few months ago I found this:
(http://p.globalsources.com/IMAGES/PDT/B0774082710/Wertical-notebook-stand.jpg)
why the hell didn;'t i ever think of this... in essence it still looks good as a desktop but still have the flexibility to take the laptop with you!
Why? It's 115F outside.