Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?

[galliver]

Got our electric bill yesterday. Apparently we are averaging 10.4kWh/day for Sep/Oct. Funny enough, it gives us a 'last year same time' comparison (even though we didn't live there then...) apparently the previous tenants burned through about 29kWh/day! I would be shocked by how one can use 3x as much electricity in the same apt, but I think our last bill was around 378 kWh/20 days so closer to 20/day. Major changes since then included switching out 5x 60W bulbs in the dining room fixture for 25W bulbs (couldn't find LED's that fit), and realigining the fridge door! May also have helped that our AC went out during the heat wave and only got replaced once we didn't need it anymore. But really, we don't do anything extreme: we turn off lights when leaving a room and wear sweaters in the evenings when it's cool. We don't unplug our electronics or switch off the water heater. I suppose we do work outside of home most days, which probably helps. Especially on hot days.

[Disclaimer: SoCal, all-electric (stove, water heater), 1BR/744 SF, 2 people]

[BlueMR2]

Got a letter from our power company a couple days ago.  Offering us $30 a month flat fee power.  Said our usage puts us in a special category where they can offer this.  I don't think I'll take them up on it.  I doubt they're offering it out of the goodness of their hearts.  :-)

[Raay]

If you live in California, you may be interested in http://www.hea.com, which is a website that collects and analyzes your home energy (smart meter and gas) usage data, shows time series and comparisons with your neighborhood and generates recommendations about saving potentials based on the discovered "energy profile" and some surveys. It's a crowdsourcing effort to find out where the actual energy leaks are without actually attaching meters to every single device.

[adam]

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
April----------17.43------------------523-----------------64-----------0--------11 -  under 50 = 9
May-----------23.48------------------681----------------74-----------6---------22 - under 50 = 0
June----------34.16----------------1093-----------------81----------19-------32
July-----------38.74----------------1201-----------------83----------19-------31
August-------37.29-----------------1156-----------------84----------20-------30
September---30.17------------------905-----------------80----------10-------28
October------19.90------------------596-----------------71-----------1--------15

What a difference a month makes.

Although I just ran some rather disappointing numbers.  What you're about to see is the last 9 months, I got a Nest thermostat for Christmas last year.  The 'prev avg' column is all the previous months above, but for jan-jun there was only one previous month, so its not really an avg.  Anyways:

Month--kwh--prev avg--dif
jan------712-----805----93
feb------652-----562----(90)
mar-----523-----638----115
apr------523-----612-----89
may-----681-----594----(87)
jun-----1093----1037---(56)
jul------1201----1001---(200)
aug-----1156---1139.5-(16.5)
sep------905----938.5---33.5
oct------596------714----118
         
TOTAL difference (1) kwh.  That's negative one.  July this year killed me (It was a very hot summer overall, stretching into September).   Either way, it seems a wash, doesn't it?  Maybe I could have been more aggressive in my scheduling.  After all, there's only about 4 hours per day when nobody is home, and even then, the dog is still there, so I couldn't really set it as low/high as I wanted to.

[Captain and Mrs Slow]

This is an old post, but still relevant I think. On a normal day, we're averaging about 6KwH

that's around 200 a month which is quite impressive. I'm assuming gas dryer and water heater?

I live in an apartment (no dryer) and hot water is metered separately and our average is 200 a month.  Will be down next year as it was a cool summer

[KiwiSonya]

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.

[homehandymum]

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)

[LennStar]

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?
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?

[MoneyCat]

Over the past year, we averaged about 13 kWh per day, but lately we've been a lot lower than that.  In the New Year, we'll have solar power, so that will help a lot with costs.

[Cinder]

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?
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?

We do have switched outlets some places in the US... usually the intent is they are for floor lamps or other such things... 

But yes, most of the 'unplug' comments come from devices that have some sort of capacitive drain or standby mode.  TVs, AC to DC adapters, etc...   If you sever the power to them (via unplugging or flipping a switch) that will usually do.  I just flip the switch that is on the end of my surge protector for all the tv stuff. 

[homehandymum]

For the curious: a standard power outlet in NZ:

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)

[KiwiSonya]

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.

[zolotiyeruki]

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.

[FrugalSpendthrift]

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.

[agent_clone]

For the curious: a standard power outlet in NZ:

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)

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.

[LennStar]

For the curious: a standard power outlet in NZ:

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)

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.

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.

[zolotiyeruki]

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.

[KiwiSonya]

I was excited to get an email from my electricity provider congratulating me on using 5 percent less electricity in the past month than energy efficient homes of our size. Our use was 457kwh, efficient homes were 482 and the average was 945!. Feeling good as our house is far from efficient but we've been wearing clothes instead of using the heatpump and have eliminated the standbys.

[Ozstache]

Now that micro-inverters have come down so much in price, I am getting solar power installed on my sometimes partly shaded roof in the next few weeks. Thanks to the Efergy energy monitoring device I have had installed for nearly a year, I was able to produce the following graph which shows when I used electricity on average each hour of the day over the last year, to help me work out how best to optimise the solar system's orientation and output.



The biggest changes I can make is to move using the dishwasher from the early hours of the morning to the middle of the day and to use any power hungry device, like the dryer, iron, vacuum cleaner, in the middle of the day, when solar generates maximum output, as much as practical. I will also move my oven cooking an hour or two earlier to take some advantage of the setting sun. This should give me at least a 50% direct solar output use and 50% feed in to the grid (at a measly 1/5 payment rate of what I pay to get it out again), giving me about a 40% reduction in power bills for an ROI for the system of around 7 years.

Regardless of the financial benefit, the system I am getting will produce overall about 20% more than I currently use over a year, which is comforting from an environmental impact perspective.

[BlueMR2]

I'm hoping to see if my "new" computer helps any.  I received a free, used ASUS eeePC.  Built like a laptop with low power components (laptop hard drive, 1.6ghz Atom processor, etc).  Sounds like it should be slow, but it's quite snappy running Linux, in fact performs much better than the couple year old dual core, Windows 7 based IdeaPad laptop I had tried briefly to use as desktop replacement (but was too horribly slow).

[jba302]

This is ours. We have gas heat, gas hot water, gas dryer, and electric range / oven -



With the November cycle resulting in an $82.70 bill. Over the summer our A/C unit had to be replaced which I think was mid June and the reason we came down from the all neighbors a little. We also replaced a bunch of lights in the house with LED at some point in the last month, which I think is what's happening here. We put 55 bags of cellulose in the attic as well, but since we have gas heat that isn't being reflected here. I need to get that number figured out as well, one of the things I've been doing when I work from home is using an electric heating pad for my feet (50 watts) and turning down the house from 70 to 65.

Still 22 watts a day though, that can be improved on. We have so many damn electronics on all the time. 4 phones, 2 ipads (school issued), and a computer. We're looking to replace our very old coil range at some point as well, though I'm not sure if we're heading towards gas or induction.

[MrSal]

Ours for December 2014 was a usage of 389 kWh for the full month.

I was living abroad and 'wifey' still had incandescents and such and was energy hog. I came in and changed everything in middle of November switched all lights from a total output of 1200 W to 200 W in the whole house for lights.

Bill for November came back to 298 kWh ... I think if we had the full month with the lights we could do 260's or so.

Then came Christmas holidays... with lights and such. The lights outside the house and freakin power hogs!! Our average jumped from 8-9 kWh a day to 16 a day!! I checked the usage of those lights with a energy meter and one set was using 280 Wattshourt and another one was using 900!!! ... and this for 7 hours a day! Oh well it's just 3-4 weeks of the year...

My house uses gas for heat and water heater. Everything else is electric.

Our fridge is old... either from 1977 or 1987 according to its serial number. It runs 2 kWh a day which surprisingly isn't that much when I saw that an efficient model used about 1-1.5 a day so it doesn't pay to buy a new one...

Something that I don't get is... we have about 4 kWh a day of idling energy which I haven't been able to figure where it comes from! We've been out for weekends and my meter always displays 6kWh of usage in a day where the house is empty!

We don't have many appliances connected to outlets... there's the stove... there's the lamps... etc.

I've got readings of all i could think of and none explains that idle energy of 140 watts constantly being used - this is the usage when we are asleep excluding the fridge. We have the aquarium which is negligible at 2 Wh ... I usually turn off the strip for the TV and media center but even if I forget the standby usage is like 3 Wh ... Other than that we have nothing other than cell phone chargers sometimes that we forget in the wall but even those... when there is no phone connected to it the meter reads 0.2 Watts so again negligible.

I thought it might be the pump in the basement and radon pump but already checked and for 4-5 days that the meter was reading... it recorded 0 Watts usage ... so I really have no idea!

Currently we're paying 0,093 cents per kWh + 0.03 cents for distribution and a 14 usd customer charge.

Usually our bill is in the 48-50 usd region.

[LennStar]

Take a good day and try to disconnect everything (yes, even a old fridge can do without for a hour or two if you keep it closed). Go from room to room and get everythign out.
Your idling energy is about what I use with use! Including a 24/7 computer. That isnt just "idle" energy.
You sure the aquarium is not using it? I dont know much about these things but I know most are very energy consuming.
Do you have any energy-producing things? You could have either a misreading (in-out) or it is the energy the electronis for this use or this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power#Reactive_power

[MrSal]

I've done it already...

Microwave when idle is 1.5 Watts ... Aquarium is 2.5 Watts ... I found a lamp that was using 4 watts so add that ... Router and Modem total 8 Watts.

There is nothing else connected at any point in time... other than water heater which is gas and it reads 1.2 Watts ... There's the furnace which i can't read because there's no outlet - it's probably directly wired but i assume it's in the ball park of the water heater like 1-3 watts.

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!

[Cinder]

Do you have a wired in transformer for a doorbell? Attic ventilation fan? another potential little sucker!

[bzzzt]

My guess is furnace blower motor(s). Could be 1-4A depending on age of furnace (multi-speed, single speed, draft inducer fan, etc).

[MrSal]

My guess is furnace blower motor(s). Could be 1-4A depending on age of furnace (multi-speed, single speed, draft inducer fan, etc).

Even when furnace is idle?

The furnace at night is not working usually... I think the blower/fan of the furnace is around 400-500 watts if i'm not mistaken.

So at night... it still doesn't explain those 125-130 watts being used

I have no bell ...as for attic fan... i am not sure although i'm pretty sure we don't have one... For the life of me this is frustating... not that it's that expensive (only 9 usd a month) but 125 watts 24/7 still it's around 110 dollars per year that we could save.

Its just that this turned into really just having my mind at peace where that is coming from... kinda like treasure hunt ahha

[bzzzt]

Unless your house is extremely well insulated and you literally turn the heat off, I would bet on it. Although, this is coming from a Chicago dweller (hovering around 0* this week) and I've been listening to my furnace run at least twice an hour lately. I can't believe it goes all night (coldest time of the day) without running. My old furnace has a 1/2HP single speed blower so it should run ~400 watts (theoretically 1HP = 746W).

If you're really interested, get a clamp-on or finger ammeter and test the wiring to your mains and then each branch circuit at your panel.

[zolotiyeruki]

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!

[b4u2]

My house is still using too much electricity. I should try and shut breakers off and see what/where the draws are. I have a kill-a-watt but it still didn't take care of everything. Our bill per month is insane.

[alberteh]

I'm going through 40 KWH/day but i live in a very rural area of Northern Canada with kids nearest walmart is 130 miles away. This means we handle pumping our own water and sewer, exterior lighting and since it is basically the arctic outside i have to plug in my work truck every night (1000 watts for 6hrs/day). We also have an HRV that filters the air with a HEPA filter (allergies) so that's another 200 watts 24 hrs/day.

All lighting is LED, house is extremely well insulated and extremely well sealed (built it myself and took the time to do it right. this includes about 1000 hours researching energy efficient building, solar gain, occupant gain etc. etc.) the house is designed to maximize solar gain, while minimizing solar gain in the summer (3ft eaves allow all winter sun in but block 80% of summer direct sun infiltration at MY LOCATION. The numbers will change depending on where you live)

We can definitely cut down on the energy usage but the tradeoffs may not be worth it (less usable life out of the work truck if it is always started cold, greater probability of crime if no exterior lighting etc)

[Bardo]

Even after moving to a bigger place last year I was able to reduce electricity consumption a good bit by relatively painless actions:
 - usually hand-washing dishes
 - turning off the power strip for the television and dvd player on weekdays
 - trying to charge the phone at work or in the car
 - switching most laundry to cold water
 - using drying racks instead of the dryer
 - active temperature management instead of just setting the thermostat and leaving it:  Don't turn on the heat until you are cold, or the AC until you are hot
 
I've averaged about 7.8 KWh/day which I'm pleased with.  August can be double that however.

[Anti-ComplainyPants]

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?

I'm also guilty of shamefully using the dishwasher more than I should... a less-than-mustachian habit I picked up from my fiance. There's little chance of me convincing her to back off the dishwasher and dryer usage, but if I stop using them, it should definitely help and make it possible that she follows suit at some point.

[LennStar]

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.

[Anti-ComplainyPants]

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.

[LennStar]

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.

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.
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.

[ohyonghao]

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.

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.
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.

I guess it depends at what type of company you are working.  Ones where they are dealing with very low margins, or are in the habit of treating employees as crap then perhaps.  I've seen fast food places that refuse to let employees eat anything that was made wrong, or even give it free to the customer (Taco Bell is fairly liberal in this and I've seen their policy abused by people who order a supreme taco without tomatoes, then the next person orders something with tomatoes on the side, then once they get their meals the first comes back and complains about tomatoes on their supreme taco and get to keep the "mistake" and a new one, whereas another local restaurant will take the bad item back and throw it straight to the garbage).  I've worked at call centers, and talk about punching the clock, I had to punch out for bathroom breaks, and punch back in, only lasted there for a week.  But for any office job what do they expect us to do with our cell phones?  Let them die during the 9 hour day (8 hour + 1 hour for lunch)?

I charge my phone at work, but I also don't drain it at night so I can save some money, I charge it then too.  If my employer ever complained about it I would find another employer that treats their employees better instead of fighting over petty things like cell phone charging while having no problem with desktops running 24/7.

[jshannon]

Monthly kwh use for single person in 500 sq ft apt

2014: Jan (22), Feb (18), Mar (19), Apr (13), May (18), Jun (21), Jul (63), Aug (93), Sep (78), Oct (39), Nov (15), Dec (23)

2013: Jan (17), Feb (15), Mar (16), Apr (16), May (17), Jun (26), Jul (33), Aug (61), Sep (46), Oct (16), Nov (13), Dec (26)

2012: Jan (27), Feb (24), Mar (16), Apr (18), May (27), Jun (27), Jul (47), Aug (89), Sep (25), Oct (16), Nov (16), Dec (20)

2011: Jan (24), Feb (28), Mar (14), Apr (16), May (23), Jun (34), Jul (29), Aug (228), Sep (84), Oct (67), Nov (62), Dec (35)

[LennStar]

wow. Do you even use a fridge? Mine alone takes nearly 20 kwH a month, and its already an quite efficient model.
Or are you just there to sleep and your usage are the 30 minutes book reading every evening?

[b4u2]

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.

[MrSal]

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

[alberteh]

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!!!

[MrSal]

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!!!

isnt the main only hot wires to go in the breaker box?

You are right regarding one wire when it is appliances or other circuits but isn't the circuit in the breaker box the main comes with just hot wires and then the other side of the breaker box gets the neutral and ground?

[Cinder]

There is some good information at this site
http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/

They may have specifics of how to hook up the clamps, the same logic would apply to a regular ammeter clamp, it just only goes to it's built in display. 

Lots of good info on this page http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/buildingblocks/

[nawhite]

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

I actually just got an Efergy monitor for Christmas. http://smile.amazon.com/Efergy-E2-Wireless-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B003XOZG0Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421774231&sr=8-3&keywords=efergy

It works great but because of the electrical code in my area and the way panels are set up (outside with no access ports) I can't set it up long term safely. The cords from the clamps to the transmitter end up touching exposed main rails and I don't trust that to not eat through the insulation on the clamp wires over time. If anyone wants it, let me know. $85 OBO.

If I get no takers, I'm getting solar panels set up in the next few weeks and can probably convince the installers to put it on the solar leads while they are installing it.

[jba302]

Electricity went up $10 for the month of December. I started working from home in mid/late November so that's definitely the cause. On the plus side, our fuel budget was significantly under so we are in the green energy wise on that front!

[veloman]

we use about 11kwh/day during non ac months. All heating and cooking is gas. We have a housemate who leaves TV, fan on all day in his room. All night too I think. That's prob half of our consumption. We have ev motorcycle and scooter and bike so if its not sunny, I use a few pennies to charge them sometimes.

I wish we could get near 5kwh. But not when you have a housemate who uses so much. We get TX wind power, so at least its clean.

One of my past houses I lived in with 4 others, we used 120kwh/day in summer. Old house in TX summer. Plus an ac unit in the garage too! ugh, so much waste.

[1967mama]

We use SOOOO much electricity :-(

I've worked hard to get it down, but we have a large family. So consume more than the average family, I think. We live in the relatively mild PNW, so we benefit with that.

I'm ashamed to say that on a GOOD day, I can get our daily consumption into the 60 kWh range <sigh>.

Big house, lots of users (we homeschool, so its busy here all day long).

I am going to see if our library has a kill-a-watt meter so I can do some sleuthing. I have 2 fridges and 2 deep freezers. Oven and range are electric. Also, a dishwasher, washer and dryer, all electric.

Following this post with interest to try and get our usage down.  50 kWh range would be a dream come true and 40 kWh range would be a real stretch goal for us, in this season of maximum home occupancy (full house!)

[LennStar]

I'm ashamed to say that on a GOOD day, I can get our daily consumption into the 60 kWh range <sigh>.

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.
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.

[homehandymum]

I'm ashamed to say that on a GOOD day, I can get our daily consumption into the 60 kWh range <sigh>.

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.
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.

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.  You clearly have not had to deal with the logistics of shopping for and feeding a large family on an ongoing basis.  Running to the store every day or two is going to cost you A LOT more than having a well stocked pantry and freezer and cooking from that.

1967mama, imho the chest freezers are unlikely to be huge power sucks.  An upright freezer with poor seals would be well worth investigating though, as would the fridges.

With people home all day (and we're in the same boat), it is likely things like lights, bathroom heaters and fans being left on, the dishwasher running twice a day with its heating/drying cycle, lots of phone and electronics chargers being left plugged in etc.  I was surprised at the amount of power our electric oven uses.  And of course, the tumble dryer is a massive massive user.  Do you use electricity for any heating at all?  Anything that generates heat or has moving parts (fans etc) is a good place to start with your investigations.  Then tracking down your phantom usage.

A kill-a-watt would be a great place to start.

Our winter usage is easily 50 to 60kwh per day, but we use electric heatpumps to heat our house.

We have our TV, DVD, Wii etc all plugged into the same power strip, which we only turn on when in use.  Our phone chargers and ipad etc are likewise all plugged in to a power strip which is only turned on if needed.

Good luck!