How much energy do you use at home?

[trikkonceptz]

Well looks like I am @ 940Kwh, I'm all electric, family of three, 1800 sqft home, with the spouse staying home all day. Thanks to this thread I just educated myself as to what the peak hours are for my power company. We will now make adjustments to our power usage to compensate. Off peak power usage saves us $.03 per KWh

So once again thank you ...

[Peter7307]

South of the equator...
Electricity 240 Kw Hrs / month. (Lighting , TV , computer etc Microwave)
Gas 1057 Mj total / 3 months billing. (Water heating , cooking and building heating.)
Water 50 ltres / day.

Late Summer here just now and temps around the low 30 C with peaks in the 42 C range.

Cheers , Pete.

[trikkonceptz]

Originally Posted by trikkonceptz

Well looks like I am @ 940Kwh, I'm all electric, family of three, 1800 sqft home, with the spouse staying home all day. Thanks to this thread I just educated myself as to what the peak hours are for my power company. We will now make adjustments to our power usage to compensate. Off peak power usage saves us $.03 per KWh

So once again thank you ...

Well looks like my usage for January has gone down to 779KwH, which means a bill of $97.00 instead of the usual $137. This is so cool ..... Hypermiling a house ... LOL

[taredog]

Originally Posted by Snax

Right now, my oldest is playing the Playstation2 on 27" TV, virtually every light in our downstairs is on, mostly thanks to our 4-year old, the refrigerator is currently running. I SWEAR I'M GOING TO PUT 15 MINUTE TIMERS ON EVERYTHING IN THIS HOUSE!!! Grrr . .

2600 kWh this last month.

Any takers on betting my garage lights actually got turned off at all during the day today?

I come home from work, every light in the house is on, all ceiling fans, all exhaust fans, a 21 and a 27 in TV and at least one computer. The garage lights are off only if no one went out there while I was at work.

The difference: family of two. Three counting the dog but she doesn't turn on electrical things and I believe thinks they are "evil" at some level. She does seem to enjoy lying under fans and A/C vents.

The timer switch for the garage light is a great idea that I've never gotten around to. Timer switches for the exhaust fans good idea also. I installed a programmable thermostat but someone quickly discovered how to over ride that so always set at 77 tho the agreed on compromise was 78. I am constantly turning up the temp in the fridge when I find things partially or fully frozen. I could go on, and just might.

Just letting you know you are not alone Snax. Maybe I need to start a thread titled: "How to educate other members of the family to conserve without a fight and/or being accused of abusiveness"

Latest bill was 1978 kW. Lowest this calendar year in Jan 968. Interestingly May this year 1200 while wife was away, last year 1900.

[Cd]

Reminds me of the time I went to my sisters house.
She leaves a 100 Watt light on in her shoe closet at all times. The door remains shut - sometimes for days.( Light stays on )
I tried to at least get her to switch to a CFL bulb, but she doesn't like them for some reason.

[Who]

I considered 20 KWH per day (600/mo) good when I was in Canada with a typical family of 2 adults and 2 kids.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by taredog

I come home from work, every light in the house is on, all ceiling fans, all exhaust fans, a 21 and a 27 in TV and at least one computer. The garage lights are off only if no one went out there while I was at work.

The difference: family of two. Three counting the dog but she doesn't turn on electrical things and I believe thinks they are "evil" at some level. She does seem to enjoy lying under fans and A/C vents.

The timer switch for the garage light is a great idea that I've never gotten around to. Timer switches for the exhaust fans good idea also. I installed a programmable thermostat but someone quickly discovered how to over ride that so always set at 77 tho the agreed on compromise was 78. I am constantly turning up the temp in the fridge when I find things partially or fully frozen. I could go on, and just might.

Just letting you know you are not alone Snax. Maybe I need to start a thread titled: "How to educate other members of the family to conserve without a fight and/or being accused of abusiveness"

Latest bill was 1978 kW. Lowest this calendar year in Jan 968. Interestingly May this year 1200 while wife was away, last year 1900.

WOW, that would power my house a whole year!!! Not exaggerating!!!

I think I may have the solution to your problem! Make her pay the bill.

[Cd]

For those with kids, how about giving them the money that you normally spend on the bill ?
You could calculate the energy usage of each room, and when you get home you could see which rooms have the lights and such on.

It could be sort of an 'Eco-allowance'.

Splitting up the rooms so each kid has a fair share would be the hard part.

( A problem with this though is that they would just turn everything off the moment you get home. You would have to monitor the bill to make sure they aren't up to any tricks. )

[Frank Lee]

Your sis could use a door jamb switch ala fridge.

Have to admit, I've never seen one. A guy might hafta get clever and make it.

[Snax]

Speaking of family leaving lights on and such, it's worth noting that with younger children, the strict off/sense/on type of motion sensors simply do not work, as inevitably they decide it is better to slide the little switch over to the always on position and leave it there instead of relying on their body heat to trigger the light! Might as well save the $20 and not have the damned things at all!!!

The SOLUTION to this problem is the slightly more expensive version of motion sensing switch, where one must push a momentary button upon entering the room regardless - with no option to just leave it on, the timer starts and continues to reset until no more motion is sensed. They simply will not turn on without the button press however. Most of these types of switches are also compatible with CFLs as well, whereas the other version is not and will burn out both the switch and the CFL in short order.