Author Topic: Average Electricity Consumption  (Read 3329 times)

YoungGranny

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Average Electricity Consumption
« on: July 20, 2018, 06:16:32 AM »
Years ago when I was still in college MMM wrote: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/10/ill-show-you-my-electricity-bill-if-you-show-me-yours/ - to be honest at the time I was living in an old house paying $250 in rent a month; my share of the electric bill was never much over $40 so I didn't worry about it too much. Then I bought my own house a few years back saw the surprising up-tick and then worked to lower my consumption over the past few years.

So after making it a goal of mine in the past few years I got my average electricity usage over the past 12 months down to 328kWh which is still better than the 2016 National Average of 897kWh a month but I feel like I still have work to do. For context my house is ~1700 sq/ft with a finished basement. I live in Michigan so I can live without running my AC and in the winter my gas bill goes up (average of 5.6Mcf mostly concentrated in the winter months).

I would like to get my electrical usage even lower but I feel like I'm hitting a floor. I've already done the easy things: lightbulbs, rarely use the dryer, unplug TVs when not in use (most of the time). Figured I'd set up a post to see if anyone on here has some other tips I haven't thought of :)

CurrentDrunkFutureBrewer

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2018, 07:44:08 AM »
Hopefully this thread will have some good data and tips!

We are in high use season due to our bedroom window a/c unit and ceiling/box fan use.  We could live without the a/c many nights, but the birds adore to wake us at 4am.  With that said we hit 283 kWh for the past bill.  I think you could flush out some more detail of who lives in your home and your usage habits. 

For example, we are a two family home and spend most time together in the same room, so that means 1 light/television are on at a time.  We have an electric stove which is used 99% of our days.  We have outdoor lights but never use them.  We do not have any desktop computers and I have not plugged in a gaming system in sometime. 

Our boring, mostly known tips
-Our cable tv and router are attached to the same surge protector.  When at work/asleep I turn this off. It is a good practice to reboot your router every so often, and not having wifi on in bed discourages lounging in bed for too long.
-I charge my phone and rechargeable AA batteries at work.  I turn my phones brightness all way down so it doesn't drain at home and I don't use it for much anyways. When not expecting calls or when I leave it on, I place it in airplane mode.
-When I work from home (2 days a week), I bring my work laptop home fully charged and keep it on power saver mode with brightness down.  It will last the day without needing a charge.
-I wash our clothes in cold water and only do full loads.
-We only run the dishwasher when full.
-We choose medium dryer settings, typically some clothes have dampness - so we air dry to finish.

Anon in Alaska

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2018, 07:58:02 AM »
I apparently use about 314 kwh a month. This varies wildly by season, but this must be the electric companies estimate of the average, since I am paying $68/month level payment; and my rate is about $0.1911/kwh + an $8 account fee/month.

My main "trick" is only heating the room I am in, only heating it to 65 while awake, and about 48 while asleep. I also don't have a washer and dryer in my condo, so some large fraction of the $27/month I spend on laundry is also for electricity.

bacchi

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2018, 09:18:03 AM »
In non-heat and non-AC months, our base load is about 150kwh.

What's plugged in/on all the time:

2 Laptops + 1 monitor
Router+modem during the day (usually off overnight, like CurrentDrunkFutureBrewer suggested)
Oven (gas) clock/standby mode
one digital clock
fridge

Everything else is turned on via a strip or switch as needed. If I'm working, I may have a stereo on and of course we use lights at night. A desktop is sometimes used at night.

How old is your fridge? Put a kill-a-watt on it.

Also, the electricity for 2 clothes loads (cold, regular cycle) and 1 dryer load (it's gas but electricity obviously makes it spin) for an energy star washer and dryer was 0.4kwh. Not much but you should check your own appliances.

Syonyk

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2018, 11:13:15 AM »
In general, we use about 800-2000kWh per month, though I've had higher months during cold spells (peak was 2333kWh during a really cold month).

It's a 2000 sq ft manufactured home, so fairly energy efficient but not "exotically efficient" by any means, and we have a pretty wide range of temperatures during the year - over 100F in the summer, down below 0F in the winter.

We also have a somewhat deep well (I think water is around the 230' mark, though I should probably put something on to monitor that) that all our water comes from, including irrigation for the gardens and such.

Our house is "pure electric" - so hot water is electric, heating is electric (we have a heat pump that covers most of our needs, though it will kick the backup coils on in the winter months - I should see if I can find the performance curves for our heat pump because I may be running it below a COP of 1 in the winter some mornings), backup heating is electric ("coils"), we pump our own water, etc.

Given that our power is super cheap (50% hydro, and otherwise cheap), our power bills aren't particular expensive - the 2.3MWh month was only $200 for the power bill.  Given how well the Nest runs our heat pump vs the dumb thermostat that came with it, I'm convinced the Nest paid for itself in that first winter alone.

There's another 5-10kWh/day that goes to my office, but that's off solar, so it doesn't impact our power bill (my office is entirely off grid, and is pure solar for most of the year, with about 5-7 gallons of gas for the generator and around 5 gallons of propane used for power and heat in the winter).

I'm planning to reduce our power use somewhat, but not really for "saving money on the bill" reasons - more for redundancy and anti-fragility.  Eventually, I want a wood stove in the house for backup winter heat, as well as for heating on those really cold days when the coils are running.  My wife is a fan of radiant heat and roasting herself (her parents heat with wood, and run the house uncomfortably warm by my standards, so I get where she's coming from), so adding that capability is a nice creature comfort as well.  New wood stoves are incredibly efficient compared to older ones.

I'm also putting solar on the house next year (well, on the property - ground mount), which probably won't pay off as I'm doing a DC coupled off grid capable system - but I'll be able to run off grid for long periods of time as well.  I'll probably (eventually) interconnect my office and home systems so they can support each other as needed.

I may play around with some of the window insulation stuff this winter, but our windows are fairly efficient to start with and I'm not sure there are huge gains to be had insulating the windows.

TheWifeHalf

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2018, 11:43:09 AM »
The bill says 753 average monthly usage. I'm assuming average for a year.
Appliances are about 5 yrs old, some older, most newer.  We turn the thermostat down at night in the heating sason, but really don't touch it in the hotter weather.
I am home all day.

Slow&Steady

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2018, 12:21:29 PM »
We use a LOT of electricity.  Electricity usage and groceries are my 2 biggest frustrations, both environmentally and financially. 

We are a family of 6, in a 2700 sqft house.  Fully electric (water heater, HVAC, stove, dryer, etc) and I drive an electric car (with an awful commute).

The solar monitor shows that we averaged around 3,000 kWh/month in the last year, the electric car accounts for probably 900 kWh/month. Averaging 2100 kWh/month is still a lot.  However, I believe that the average is skewed heavily by winter usage.  We have a geothermal HVAC and our house is an earth contact house, I assumed those 2 things would lead to a very efficient house.  I was correct for summer (when temps are regularly 90-100+) but very very wrong for winter.  Apparently our geothermal unit does not like temps below freezing, at all.

If I look at just the last 3 months, we averaged around 2,200 kWh/month, the electric car still accounting for about 900 kWh/month.  That would bring us down to 1,300 kWh/month.  That is more reasonable, I think but I would still really like to see it much lower. 

I had not thought about plugging the kill-o-watt into the fridge, it is about 8-10 years old so works well but might be a killer for electricity.  The dryer is 10-12 years old, wonder how much it uses.  I know the tankless water heater uses a ton of electricity but it is only used for a short period of time everyday.  The stove/oven also create a big spike on the solar monitor but it is only 7 years old and I know it was an energy star model.  We also have a chest freezer (lots of kids, they eat a lot).  I really want to add insulation in the attic too but making this list I am not sure how much that would help. 

bluebelle

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2018, 12:38:02 PM »
we use between 575-650 during the cold winter months, and 875-925 during the stupid hot humid summer.  We averaged 696/mth over the last year.  BUT, alot is powered via natural gas (cooking, heating, hot water, dryer).  I think we have a lot of 'constant'  drain, approximately 1/2 Kwh per hour even when we're not home.  I won't win the battle with DH, and it's not the hill I want to die on, he's not going to agree to power the TV or ceiling fans.  We have two fridges and a freezer (we eat 99% of our meals at home, and I try and stock up when there are sales).

Hats off to you folks that have sub 200Kwh months.

bigchrisb

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2018, 12:54:59 PM »
We average 6kWh/day of consumption for a family of three (two adults and a 10 month old).  My solar averages about 23kWh/day generated, so our net bill is about -17kWh/day.  Electric (evap) cooling, heat pump hot water etc.  Gas for space heating, cooktop, bbq.  Gas averages 75MJ/day in winter seasons and about 8MJ/day otherwise (Cooking, bbq etc).

MMM98

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2018, 08:54:41 PM »
Monthly kwh comparisons are useless.  We all live in different places, climates, expectations, alternate power (gas), age and sizes of homes.  What you need is a sense energy monitor.  299.00 on amazon. 10,000 samples of your power use each second.

With it you can track your vampire load.  You can decide what power draw is worth chasing and worth eliminating.  What, you say your doorbell is 2.00 a year?  But swapping out the transformer on your hvac saves 15.00?  No wait let me address an old router at 36.00 a year.  Be aware You can't speak about this in public!  You are safe here, though.

You can easily cut 25% from your bill by just measuring what you use and what is using it.
Using the monitor I have reduced my use to 79% less than the average user in Florida. 

MMM98

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #10 on: July 22, 2018, 01:34:39 PM »
All electric home, 2015 model 2,000 sq. ft.  Data from Sept to present.  Monthly consumption  Low 436 kwh, high 1513

Constants:
Fridge 33kwh
Fridge defrost 7.5
50 gallon water heater 75 ave
Vampire load at 117 watts, 84 kwh

Top uses 2018 ytd:
HVAC (ac/heat pump) 47.5%
Not specifically identified 13%
Vampire 11.7%
WH 12%
Dryer 5.5%
Fridge (including defrost) 5.5%
25 other consumers of electricity tracked,  they consume the remainder but none above 1.3%
« Last Edit: July 22, 2018, 01:39:52 PM by MMM98 »

Abe

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2018, 10:48:06 PM »
We live in a 2-bedroom house in Southern California. Average use is ~275kW between two adults and a baby. Our baseline load for fridge, phone chargers and router is 280 watts (looking at hourly readings at night). I'm guessing that's mostly the fridge. It's kind of old, but we are in a rental so can't change it out. 

YoungGranny

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #12 on: July 23, 2018, 07:18:25 AM »
Awesome I've definitely gotten some great tips from you folks. Since someone asked it's just my DH and I in our house. He works from home the majority of the time so we typically have 8+ hours of a dual monitor computer running, our fridge, a freezer, and the stove plugged in at all times.

We typically do a load of laundry a week. I air-dry most of my clothes or do a partial dry then air-dry. We don't watch much television but maybe a couple hours a week. When not in use I unplug it. The biggest thing has been running our AC/Heat less. It's super cliche but turning off the AC and living with a fan has been a huge, noticeable savings from a few summers ago when we ran the air much more. We had to replace our fridge last year so it shouldn't be too much of a drain.

A few tips I did pick-up:
-Turn off router/modem when not in use
-Order a kill-a-watt reader on amazon


I will say at this point it's not really for the savings more-so to not use energy I don't need to.  It's kind of become a game for me at this point since just from being more aware of my usage and unplugging things when not in use I've reduced my average monthly kWh by 33%. My summer bills have been right around $65 for gas and electric so pretty minimal monetary gains at this point anyway but it feels good to have killed my $150 average from a few summers back =)

drudgep

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #13 on: July 23, 2018, 11:20:33 PM »
We used 340 kwh last month in a 1k sq ft place. Still the bill was 53 bucks! Most of it being a delivery charge. Ugh, so frustrating idk even know why it is so expensive to deliver!

YoungGranny

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #14 on: July 24, 2018, 06:02:11 AM »
@drudgep - I used 330kWh last month and my bill was $58.45 - I do pay an extra $.01 per kWh to have my energy come from the solar field our energy company installed. Our service fee is $7 so our price per kWh must just be higher...

Syonyk

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #15 on: July 24, 2018, 10:17:44 AM »
Ugh, so frustrating idk even know why it is so expensive to deliver!

Because a reliable power grid is one of the more complicated and gigantic bits of machinery humans have invented so far.

Slow&Steady

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #16 on: July 24, 2018, 12:04:45 PM »
Ugh, so frustrating idk even know why it is so expensive to deliver!

Because a reliable power grid is one of the more complicated and gigantic bits of machinery humans have invented so far.

+1, and people that go out (most of the time at crappy weather/times) to re-establish power cost a good deal of money, along with the people that have to go around a trim trees so that the power keeps flowing.  There are a lot of cost into getting that power to your outlet, not all of it is covered in the kWh rates.  Additionally, as more people install solar/wind/etc to offset energy usage while remaining tied to the grid (myself included) the "connection fee" is probably going to continue to increase because even if those people can produce more than the amount of power they use and therefore do not pay a kWh fee they are still enjoying the benefits of being tied to the grid and that grid needs to be maintained.

Radagast

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Re: Average Electricity Consumption
« Reply #17 on: July 24, 2018, 01:57:02 PM »
Just looked it up, looks like we average as low as 120kWh per summer month to as high as 250 kWh per peak winter month. Average about 180-190 kWh. I am a little surprised at how much more we use in winter. We certainly get more screen time, cooking time, light usage, and other indoor electrical activities in the winter, but I didn't expect it to be so big a difference. Maybe our furnace blower is going bad?

We have a 1000sf perfectly square floor plan house with unfinished basement and 1 wall touches another unit (about 20% of the house perimeter). So small surface area. Gas for hot water and hot air, electric for cooking. I am surprised we are among the lowest posters, I never felt we were energy savers. We make copious use of the electric dryer and electric range, have a desktop and two laptops, and a host of other little electric devices. Refrigerator is a 2010 model that sits in a walled-in fridge enclosure that is supposed to harm efficiency. Often we have 2-3x more lights turned on than we need. We make little effort to cut back.

So, my only big tips are about not using AC.
1) live in an area with a large day/night temperature difference. Sure it is 100F outside now, but just six hours ago it was 60F and we pulled all that cool air inside with a $20 box fan from the local supermarket. That's why our inside temperature ranges from 70-80F in the summer.

2) Pay attention to sun angles and air flow paths. Place fans in just one or two co-located windows. Prioritize opening windows on the north and east sides of the house where it is cooler (not so in Australia).

3) Closets, pantries, and cupboards trap hot air. Open them at night to let hot air out, and then close them in the morning to trap cool air inside. This makes a difference on the order of 1degF to 1degC in my house.