Author Topic: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?  (Read 240070 times)

N

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #150 on: April 05, 2013, 10:44:14 AM »
the problem is that *I'm*" the one huddled under covers, wearing pajamas, and he is happy as a clam. (in the summer, with the a/c blasting).

we have baseboard radiator heat in the winter, and even with the thermostat OFF, and no heat coming thru them, the temperature in our condo is still 75-80 degrees. all winter long we mostly wear shorts etc inside.

in the summer, its actually not too bad during the day, even if its hot outside, but it gets so hot in here later in the afternoon and night...we have fans...and I could deal with it, but husband doesnt want to.

we'll see if I can convince him to try some stuff before we max up the a/c this year...

Iron Mike Sharpe

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #151 on: April 25, 2013, 11:47:01 AM »
Hmmm.  Got my first full month electric bill today.  Bought a 8-9 year-old townhouse.  1250 sq ft / two stories.  Gas heat, and water heater.

317 KWh for the month. 

But I live alone and am not home much.  I need to remember to turn my entertainment center power strip off when not in use (TV, Blu Ray, sound system and Xbox360).  I need to get a clothes drying rack too and air dry mostly with a touch of dryer at the end for my shirts.  And I need to just wash my dishes after dinner.  That way I don't need to use the dishwasher once a week.

daverobev

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #152 on: April 25, 2013, 12:55:29 PM »
We seem to be averaging roughly 300kWh a month.

2 bed, 1000 sq ft. I'm home all the time (work from home) but very power-sensitive so everything is off when not in use.

We have gas heat, but everything else is electric.

Freda

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #153 on: April 25, 2013, 01:24:30 PM »
About 400/day.  Hmm.  I bet I can do something about that.

adam

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #154 on: April 30, 2013, 07:08:10 AM »
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

33 billing days for April and it turned out to be my lowest average daily usage.  Weather has been fairly mild, we put up the electric fireplace in the bedroom and haven't really used the one in the living room at all.  I think there was maybe 2 days in there where we had to turn on the AC at night to ~74.  So the question is, did that front storm door I installed help us keep the AC off for those 7 days over 80?  Maybe, but its going to take a bit longer to pay for itself.  We have noticed that the master bedroom is always warmer, or colder, than the rest of the house by about 3*, so I might need to get up in the attic to take a look at the insulation over the bedroom if I can.  Also, I could have avoided those handful of nights we wanted the AC if the ceiling fan in the bedroom was working, so I finally managed to call up the Hampton Bay customer service line (which is basically Home Depot).  They're sending me a new capacitor free of charge when I described how it wasn't working, and this was for a fan I bought when I first bought the house, back in 2006.  So that was nice of them.  Hopefully with that fixed we'll be able to keep the AC off for a little longer.

Ottawa

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #155 on: April 30, 2013, 06:46:20 PM »
Here's an update from us in Ottawa...This is a 1200 sf house with 600sf basement (total 1800sf).  The last seven months we've been much more mindful of using less electricity. Our average is bang on 300kWh...The average usage for the same seven month period the year before was 475kWh.  This is a 36% reduction...
For instance we implemented the changes below:
1) No clothes dryer usage
2) Second 'basement beer fridge' recycled
3) Less television
« Last Edit: April 30, 2013, 07:00:31 PM by Ottawa »

BWholehearted

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #156 on: May 06, 2013, 05:10:15 PM »
Until this month I've had no idea what our electric usage has been for at least 4 years living in employee housing, all I know is that everything was electric (heat, cooking, etc) and our bill was at the most $80 in the winter and probably around $40 in the summer for a 450 sq ft, drafty cabin on a mountain pass, keeping the house at around 68 degrees most of the time for the pansy (me).  Note: 68 on the main floor meant at least 10 degree less upstairs in the loft/bedroom and we turned it down to 58 at night.  We live in the land of cheap hydro power; many thanks to the dams, sorry salmon.

We (two of us) just moved down hill to more moderate climates and got our first bill today. 1,024 Kwh for the month, (again everything is electric: heat, cooking, etc), so about 34 kwh per day, which was a $35 bill.  The new place is about 800 sq. feet, no programmable thermostat just three forced air heaters around the house. It also has a wood stove which we haven't used because we didn't have wood stocked up but if we stay through next winter we will definitely use that as our main heat.  We've had temps as low as 28 degrees in the last month and snow falling and last weekend it got up to 80 degrees during the day, so we haven't had the heat on for the last couple days.  Without the heat on the house warmed up to 71 degrees at the highest and got down to 63 in the morning.  I used the dryer a decent amount the first month since I hadn't set up our drying line yet, but I did that this weekend.  I haven't been able to dry clothes outside in ages, too wet and cold at our last place. It was amazing to have things totally dry in a matter of hours, in the past it took a couple days hanging inside and filled all the windows with condensation. 

It seems hard to compare my number to most folks with bigger houses or non-electric heat.  Do these numbers seem reasonable?  I can't say that we try super hard to keep them low but we try not to be wasteful either.

Now that the temperatures are warming and I'm hanging clothes outside to dry, I'm looking forward to seeing our usage drop.  Hopefully we can handle the heat without buying a fan or window AC unit. 

adam

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #157 on: May 07, 2013, 01:35:34 PM »
$35 for 1024Kwh?

That seems remarkably low.

acroy

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #158 on: May 07, 2013, 02:10:36 PM »
We average 30kw/day wainter, 50 summer  :(

7 people in the house. gas heat, gas water. Lots of clothes, electric dryer, no good place for air drying and Dear Wife is adamant she does not like the feel of air-dried clothes.

And a pool, which uses about 5kw winter, 10 summer. We treat the pool as our outdoor entertainment, as local outdoor fun opportunities are limited & far away. So we invested in the pool and party outside 8months out of the year.

Spork

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #159 on: May 07, 2013, 03:16:04 PM »
... and Dear Wife is adamant she does not like the feel of air-dried clothes.


I thought the same thing... but... it's an adjustment.  Now that air-dried clothes are 'normal'... I actually like the feel.  (And I've always preferred the smell of air dried clothes.)

And if you absolutely can't take the feeling... you can toss line dried clothes in a warm dryer for a couple of minutes and they're magically transformed into fluffy machine dried clothes.

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #160 on: May 08, 2013, 11:39:57 PM »
What is everyone's take on raising the AC temperature during the day, and lowering again at night?  I had always heard (thought?) that any efficiency saved raising the thermostat was lost in recooling the house again later.  But I see lots of advice about programmable thermostats and such, which seem to suggest that this instead saves energy.  Maybe this is an outdated theory, like that a car uses more gas turning on and off than it does idling for a small-ish period of time.

nktokyo

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #161 on: May 08, 2013, 11:56:19 PM »
Power is cheap in Japan. Thank god for that because come summer that aircon is going ON

JamesAt15

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #162 on: May 09, 2013, 12:14:40 AM »
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.)

Baylor3217

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #163 on: May 09, 2013, 12:54:12 AM »
Can someone point me to the original mmm electricity post?  I couldn't find it.

nktokyo

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #164 on: May 09, 2013, 01:14:58 AM »
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.)

Hmm, maybe it's because the houses are so small. Even in the height of summer I never really go over 5000 yen for power.

CanuckStache

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #165 on: May 09, 2013, 02:06:32 PM »
We only used $25 last month...Pretty great considering we both work from home, meaning our computers are on all the time and all that. But, we've been doing our best not to turn on the AC this year. So far we only turn it on if we have guests over who ask for it. Otherwise, it's windows open and hope for a draft.

daverobev

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #166 on: May 09, 2013, 03:41:40 PM »
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.)

Do you pay a standing charge, though?

Our bill here in Canada is about half 'electricity' and half 'a whole load of other stuff we are splitting out to make the electricity look cheap' - debt retirement charge, green energy adjustment (which actually gives back pretty much what the debt retirement charge takes away); from next month, a new fee for managing the data from the smart meters...

JamesAt15

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #167 on: May 09, 2013, 07:41:34 PM »
There's a base fee of 1365yen per month. (call it $13...) Charges for electricity used are added to that.

earlyFI

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #168 on: May 09, 2013, 11:33:44 PM »
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.


Thank you for this advice! I have an electric water heater (would like to covert to gas, but the heater is in a silly location and only a short water heater will fit in the space).

I use an ave of 15-20kw/ day. I have a small townhouse that holds the heat or cold well. Would love to lower the bill, but with the electric water heater it has been hard.

Baylor3217

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #169 on: May 11, 2013, 02:42:41 PM »
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.

oldtoyota

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #170 on: May 11, 2013, 06:14:21 PM »
I want to thank everyone who posted here. I read through most of the posts and learned a lot. As soon as I can, I'll be reviewing our kw usage--and I've already unplugged the TV and microwave.

As embarrassing as it is to say this...it never occurred to me to use my mobile as an alarm clock at home. Normally, I use it only when traveling. The mobile is already going to take power, so it's probably more efficient to use that than to have a clock AND a mobile sucking up electricity. I know that example is small potatoes, but it's just something that I overlooked despite how obvious it was.

We went six months with no dryer. I really liked those times and felt so in tune with the weather as a result. We ended up buying a new dryer, but I think I'd like to get us to a point where we're using lines inside and/or outside to dry our clothes.

nktokyo

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #171 on: May 12, 2013, 06:54:10 PM »
That's a $5 problem to solve.

1. Go to craigslist
2. Buy a used indoor clothesline

Total time invested: 3-4 minutes.

oldtoyota

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #172 on: May 14, 2013, 09:45:57 AM »
Actually, it is less than $5. I already have lines and drying racks from when I used to not use a dryer.

Inquizator

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #173 on: May 14, 2013, 08:27:49 PM »
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.

Quick use of the "Search MMM" feature for "electricity" and "condition" gives:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/10/ill-show-you-my-electricity-bill-if-you-show-me-yours/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/07/18/how-not-to-use-your-air-conditioning/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/14/the-worlds-most-efficient-air-conditioner/

Mustache Fatty

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #174 on: May 16, 2013, 12:27:37 PM »
We've been working on our power bill and here are the results so far.  For context, this is for a 3800 sqft house plus a 640 sqft pool house (plus a pool). 

We began the effort in earnest in February.  Normally, we heat the house with gas so the numbers for February and March from last year did not include heating costs.  This year, our gas heater broke in the living room so our energy costs for February and March included heating, as we just used the heat pump and turned off the fireplaces. 

February:

Last year: 1863 kwh (plus a gas bill)
This year: 1469 kwh (no gas bill)

March:

Last year: 1761 kwh (plus a gas bill)
This year: 1198 kwh (no gas bill)

April:

Last year: 2678 kwh
This year: 1148 kwh

May:

Last year: 3198 kwh
This year: 1001 kwh with 5 days to go until the final reading.

These numbers are pretty high, I know; but for us we are making some pretty serious progress.  It's been fun seeing how much we can cut.  We are definitely not suffering at all, at least not yet.  We'll see what we can do as we enter into an Alabama summer.

workathomedad

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #175 on: May 18, 2013, 08:38:19 PM »
I'm pretty bad compared to most of you! My cheapest bill has been $215 (including Gas) with an average of 30 kwh/day used. I'd like to reduce that if I can. In the Summer we hit more like 60-90 kWh/day usage.

oldtoyota

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #176 on: May 19, 2013, 05:11:02 PM »
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.




daverobev

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #177 on: May 20, 2013, 12:25:25 PM »
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.

belgiandude

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #178 on: May 20, 2013, 01:50:47 PM »
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

oldtoyota

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #179 on: May 20, 2013, 07:12:48 PM »
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.

Newish fridge. Electric range. About 1200 sq ft. Maybe ours is not that bad then.

mpbaker22

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #180 on: May 20, 2013, 07:22:01 PM »
I don't pay my electric bill anymore ... my roommate does in exchange for an extra month's rent.  But it looks like I used 7-10 kw/day when I did.  That was all electric, everything.

dcheesi

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #181 on: May 27, 2013, 12:44:06 PM »
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.
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).

belgiandude

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #182 on: May 28, 2013, 03:43:44 AM »

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).



daverobev

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #183 on: May 28, 2013, 07:22:52 AM »
Electric water heater = 3kW per shower, I think. For an old electric heater. So if you shower every day... if two people shower every day... that's a lot.

Turning our heater from 60 to 50 has helped a bit, as has the water coming in starting to be a bit warmer!!

killingxspree

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #184 on: May 28, 2013, 10:19:17 AM »
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.

Do you have momentum where you are? Thats who we're with. Our rate is:
Electricity: $0.6849 per day supply charge, $0.2075 per KW/h, plus GST 10%.
All-inclusive rates: $0.7534 per day supply, $0.2283 per KW/h.

Last electricity bill for 68 days for 2 people was 191.99

On the back of the bill it says in autumn average household usage is 9.1 KWh for 1 person. lol. We use 8.6kWh a day for 2 people and looks like plenty of mustachians use less. We ran our air-conditioning all through that bill (February and March) because it was so hot and humid.

adam

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #185 on: May 31, 2013, 02:07:48 PM »
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

30 days in the billing period vs 33 for April, which is why my total usage is lower but my daily usage is higher.  Had lots of guests this last month so we turned on the AC to a bone chilling 74.  I have since re-set it to 76 or 78, I can't remember.  Given all the guests I'm surprised the total bill wasn't very high (it was lower than April) because of gas usage, but depending on the meter read date I might end up paying for some of that next month.

I'm not sure what to expect when it really starts warming up, hopefully I can keep it under 1000 :(

BC_Goldman

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #186 on: June 29, 2013, 12:30:19 PM »
One of my goals this month was to see if I could lower my electricity usage. Based on the MMM post about his electricity bill, I set my goal at 200kwh for the month. Just got my bill today and used 204 for the billing cycle but it went from May 22 to June 24 so there's an extra day or two. Made my goal but want to get it lower. I live in a 3br condo that's about 900 sqft. Looks like my water heater is probably my biggest usage but I have no way of actually measuring it. The tag says an estimate of 4910 kWh per year which if over 400 per month so i'm definitely not using that. There don't seem to be specifics on how they arrive at that number so I'm guessing based on 3-4 people showering daily. I replaced my 2.5 GPM showerhead with a 1.5 one last week so we'll see how that affects things next month. Reducing my shower costs by 40% should help a little. I didn't think about the hot water savings at first since my monthly water usage is about 1k gallons with a minimum charge of $11 for the occasional months when I use '0'.

Partway through the month I also dialed back my fridge settings. Looks like an estimate of 38.5 kWh/mo thanks to kill-a-watt measurements. Maybe slightly less as I just adjusted my freezer temp by one notch last night. I replaced my living room chandelier with a fixture that can take cfls so that cut 75% of the usage of that fixture. Only slight dryer use to finish and soften loads. No AC used.

My electricity is  about $0.18/kWh plus $2.44 monthly service charge. Total for electric this month was $38.85. Gas use annoyed me though. I used a whopping 1 therm last month (gas stove/oven). That one therm only cost me $0.98 but then there's the $5.99 monthly fee for gas. Total gas bill: $6.97. That's going to be higher in the winter with gas heat but it chafes me to be paying that monthly fee for such little use.

oldtoyota

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #187 on: June 29, 2013, 09:38:43 PM »

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.

N

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #188 on: July 03, 2013, 08:26:13 PM »
here is a picture of my energy usage for the last two years

oldtoyota

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #189 on: July 05, 2013, 10:34:32 AM »

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*)

Thank you!

CompLB15

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #190 on: July 17, 2013, 01:46:36 PM »
Hi all, new to the form.

Our electric overindulges.
House 1950 sqft + basement 900 sqft.

adam

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #191 on: July 23, 2013, 07:20:23 AM »
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

edit: the following is from my June post, since I was the last one in this thread I just decided to edit this with July's numbers as well
Here comes those $200 bills :(

Putting in the storm door to get some air flow through the house worked great through the month of May, but we had to turn on the AC in June.  You can see what happened.  I fixed all the ceiling fans in the house just recently, hopefully I can keep the energy usage at least down to 1000kwh.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2013, 09:14:50 AM by adam »

adam

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #192 on: October 30, 2013, 07:03:53 AM »
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

October is awesome weather wise. Its been three months since I updated, August was bad, but as you can see, my energy costs are primarily driven by AC usage.

netskyblue

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #193 on: October 30, 2013, 07:11:01 AM »
I do well in the summer - if it were just me, I'd never set the AC under 80 (if I use it at all).  But I'm not there all day, and BF likes about 75.

Winter's a different story.  I'm literally bundling up in sweaters and blankets when the house is under 77 degrees.  Under 74 and I can't bear to have my hands out from under the covers.  I wear a winter coat and run a space heater all summer at work, where it's usually 74-75.

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."

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #194 on: October 30, 2013, 08:14:16 AM »
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."

Interesting. I'm just the opposite.  I grew up in the South and the summers there pretty much sapped all of my energy--and I wasn't even living in the Deep South.  Of course, I'd prefer to live in place where it's 72 degrees year-round, but I'll take the cold over the heat any day, especially now that I live in a place where the roads actually get plowed when there's a snowfall. :)

rocksinmyhead

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #195 on: October 30, 2013, 03:11:26 PM »
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?!? Even for October, when I don't think we ever had the AC on and it seemed like we barely had the heat on, we averaged 39 KWH/day (we live in Oklahoma, if you are wondering what kind of perverse climate results in both the AC and heat possibly being used in the same month).

Some thoughts...
- Our house is a rental, built in 1918 with original single-pane windows. I think some of the panes may have been replaced with plexiglass. Not even joking. So this is a big problem with heat and AC (but still doesn't explain the horrifying usage in October...)
- Everything is on electricity (heat, hot water, central air). Our landlord did replace our water heater last year with one that is much smaller and I assume more efficient, but I haven't really looked into that.
- We do a shit ton of laundry. I often say that once we have kids I have no idea how it will be humanly possible to process the amount of laundry because the two of us already have SO MUCH. We do both exercise most days so I am going to blame some of it on workout clothes... not sure where the rest comes from because I'm honestly pretty gross about rewearing things many times before I wash them. I was also good this summer about line drying things but have gotten super lazy about it lately.
- We have two old CRT TVs, one of which we honestly pretty much never use so I should probably just unplug it. And then give it away. (to be fair I did get it on Freecycle in the first place)
- We have a heat pump... I literally have no idea what this means or how it works (I grew up in Minnesota where we always had a furnace, and in Pennsylvania I had oil heat... which I guess ran... a furnace? can you tell I'm just a wee baby Mustachian? haha) I actually only found out what a heat pump was when one day I thought to myself, "waaaait a minute... there's no furnace in our basement! Where is the furnace?!?? IS THIS HOUSE BEING HEATED BY MAGIC?!?!?" Then I used Google to find pictures of the thing sitting outside our house that I thought was just an air conditioner. Whoa. I still have no idea where the "auxiliary heat" comes from but I seem to be hearing that that is very inefficient/expensive, so new life goal is to make sure that light comes on as rarely as possible this winter.
- My boyfriend takes unrealistically long hot showers. Not sure how big of an effect this has, and I hate to ask him to cut back because I know they make him really happy and he finds it really relaxing, buuuut maybe something can be done :)

Current plans:
- Look into that water heater timer thing someone mentioned, and/or just flip the breaker on and off
- Put plastic over our windows and get draft blockers for our front and back doors (you can actually see light under them)... I was already planning on doing these, but now that I know how out of line our electricity use is I really have a fire under my ass.
- Work on not running the dryer so much (maybe dishwasher too, but I think dryer use is more out of control/a priority)
- Unplug some shit

Any other suggestions for a renter?? I love reading about everyone else's badassity, it's inspirational!

BlueMR2

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #196 on: October 30, 2013, 05:43:25 PM »
Finally got one of my summary bills.  We're down to 10kwh/day average now from 11kwh/day last year.  Swapped a few light bulbs, have taken some conservation steps (using laptop instead of desktop computer more).  Probably would be even better, but my wife lost her job this year and is now home with the TV and computer running all day long.  :-)

JoshuaSpodek

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #197 on: November 06, 2013, 11:13:38 AM »
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.

rocksinmyhead

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #198 on: November 07, 2013, 10:45:03 AM »
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.

Hey, tell me about it!

It looks like it's at least half non-coal (not sure what the purchased power sources are): https://www.psoklahoma.com/global/utilities/lib/docs/factsheets/PSOFactSheet2013.pdf
Still environmentally horrifying and also, it's costing me almost $140/month :( I can't imagine how we use this much power either!! That's what I'm trying to figure out!

I did just realize/remember that we have a dehumidifier in our basement. It was there when we moved, in so I assumed it was basically required by our landlord so that the basement doesn't turn moldy/nasty (it's actually rare to have a basement around here, and I hear it's because there are often moisture problems). I sent an email to the landlord yesterday asking about it, and if we should be doing maintenance to it or possibly upgrading to a more efficient one... we'll see.

I also bought a Kill-a-Watt so I could see how much the dehumidifier and other things are actually using. I'm so excited!!! I do feel like buying new shit to fix your problems is not very Mustachian, and I should have waited and looked for a used one, but it was $20 and man this electric bill is OUT OF CONTROL.

Quote
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...?!

lithy

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Re: Why do you use so much electricity?!?!?
« Reply #199 on: November 07, 2013, 12:39:59 PM »
In our 1000 sq ft house with two people (and a dog, but he's pretty good about not leaving lights on), we are on track to use under 4200 kWh in 2013 an average of 350/month.  We have gas heat and hot water, everything else, cooking, clothes dryer, A/C is electric.

We made a huge adjustment in A/C use between last year and this year, and it is pretty comical to see the bars from last year towering over this year in the comparison chart.

The goal this winter is to begin replacing key lights with LEDs or CFLs.  I would like to get under 3000 kWh for 2014.