How much energy do you use at home?
 

As I was looking over my first full month's electric bill and heat bill for my new house I had to wonder how it ranks among other people here, granted not everyone else lives in a place that has been -10F for the last week but we all use electricity and I've found that almost all of my friends use more then I do, of course I tend to turn lights off at their house's and tell them how much they could save if they didn't leave a few 60 watt incandescent bulbs on all night as night lights (going to sneak some CF's in soon), I have two meters, one for the lower half of my house where no one is living (duplex style) and one for the upper half, the lower half gets the bill for the electric water heater and natural gas furnace with it's forced air blowers igniter's and all that stuff, the upper half has a fridge, electric stove, chest freezer, electric tea pot, lights, and a radio, all of this is shared by 3 adults, the bill for the lived in space is about what I suspected it would be, 93KWH of electricity coming to $8.52 and after taxes and surcharges it comes to $17.31, the other bill comes to around $50 just to run the water heater and run the furnace.
In the plans are a timer on the hot water heater, a gas range in the kitchen, a more efficient furnace, more LED lights (installed one LED in a floor lamp today) and to replace the rest of the incandescent bulbs with CF's as well.

Hard to compare, since I'm in a place this winter that's ALL electric: normal stuff, but also electric hot water heater and electric baseboard heating.

So far averaging 18.2 kWh/day, or about 550 kWh/month.

Squeezing the most from a tiny, old apartment - EcoRenovator

I am all electric. The water heater is turned off except for a few hours a day, the heat is turned off for all but 3-4, and im on time of use.

I used 760 KWH last month :-\ In November it was 350kwh. temperature is a big part of i guess.

Last year I was double that.

OH, zip code is 53024. I am probably one of the colder areas in the US (off the lake)

Haha! Colder areas of the US. Yeah, I guess so, but I would never consider it cold if record lows were positive numbers. Just saying :)

I think if I look at all the usage for the past 3 years, between roommates and different homes/apartments I'd average 250kwh in the summer to 350-400kwh in the winter. I think the last one for Nov. was around 350kwh for the wife and I. When I was living with roommates we topped 600kwh once, and managed to keep it below 500kwh from there on out. I think our lowest (fully moved in) was 320kwh in the summer, no AC A/C suckers.

it was -10 all last week butthead :p -40 with the windchill.

1130kWh/month in winter, 610 in summer.

Everything is electric and the house is 100m². The outside temperature are freezing/near freezing nowadays.

As I decided one month ago to note every day our daily/nightly consumption, we detected a misconfiguration of one of the heat system programmers : its clock was 10 hours in advance. The max week was at 49kWh/day before correction. The 2 last weeks were at 37kWh/day after a few optimizations :
When do you heat your house in the winter? - EcoRenovator

I have always to identify the source of around 100W consumed continuously... ie 80kWh/month.

To comfort myself, our 1130 kWh/month in winter are used by 3 people ;) and we are using 13% less since the baby is here :)

Denis.

I have to laugh at the optimism in the poll options. Seriously, how many of you have families of 5 or more and are using anywhere near or below 1000kWh/month?

I hope not many of us have families of 5 or more.

I can run under 200 kwh/mo excluding my electric heat.

Also, I once had a friend point out to me that it is a bit redundant to say "hot water heater". Ever since then I also find it not redundant so much as just incorrect.

Why would you need an appliance to heat hot water? I use my "water heater" to heat cold water, exclusively.

lookit the name of the website.

Daox's utility bill tracking - EcoRenovator

Personally, I have 7 people in my household and I'm in the 300-500kWh range even in winter. Of course, I do have gas forced air and gas heated water. If I had electric heated water or heat I'm sure that would be blown out of the water. But, there is still a lot that I can and will be doing.

My year-round average is just under 2,000 kwh / month. ALL electric. Texas summer, then it changes overnight to winter, then in March it changes overnight to summer again, with nothing in between. My house could use better insulation, too.

I think Daox is spot on here. There is a HUGE difference between all electric households and those that use gas. We are all electric here, and I actually made up a spreadsheet for the power draw of everything in our house down to the exact number and wattage of each light, and the reality is that lighting is a tiny fraction of our bill at about 200-250 kWh, and other small appliances including our fairly liberal use of the oven barely add another 200-250 kWh, which basically leaves the remainder to heating, cooling, and laundry, with the latter being the smallest slice of the three. Water heat however is without a doubt the largest part of the bill.

If we were to switch to gas, we would easily knock our electric use down to less than half if not a third.

I'm really interested in seeing how sharply I can make my bills drop, it's hard of course to truly compare month to month without a year to look back on, but already we've been turning the thermostat down as low as 50F while not at home, plastic on a bunch of the windows and the rest of them soon, new entry doors in the end of February (old ones are ill fitting wood doors that feel cold all around them), water heater now has a timer on it turning it off at mid night and on again at 7am, but I'd like to get more tabs for it to turn it off from say 8am to 3pm as well, my logic on the times to have it turn off right before we might be using hot water and not needing it hot again for many hours, 50 gallons of hot water is plenty for a shower, so one room mate likes live music and showers at 1am after coming home, at 1am it will still be plenty hot but without the timer the water heater would click on at 1:30am and reheat that entire 50 gallons.

We get a real bill only once a year. We pay 10 times a year based upon estimated bills. To optimize our consumption I began to look at my daily consumption.

I'm noting my daily consumption since end of September, every 3-5 days first, then daily since end of October. We have peak and off peak hours, so both values are noted. This permitted us to detect an error in the heating programmer :) With a simple spreadsheet I'm calculating a yearly forecast with the last 26 days before switching on the heating and the days since. We used 12MW last year, I'm forecasting a 10MW use this year ie a 16% saving :) At last real bill (beginning of December) they refunded us 750kWh.

We optimized our consumption in different ways :

• heat less : lower temperature.
• heat less bis : fewer hours. Stop the heating sooner as the cooling is slow (think pulse & glide ;)). Here we leave the home at 9AM so we stop the heating at 8AM.
• heat less ter : ceiling fan on winter position and lowest speed. I can't say how much it saves but the thermometer at head height displays 1°C less and we have less often a sensation of cold. This works as the thermostats are at the bottom at the radiators, ie half a feet high. We use the more silent fan when in house (the second is too noisy even if it's at the other side of the house) and both when nobody is at home.
• heat differently : if you have off peak then use that. Here off peak is up to 6:30AM so we start to heat at 6AM. Daily we use a little more energy but the total cost is lower.

The heat programmer manages 2 zones : living room & kitchen (in fact single room) and the other rooms. As these 2 zones have different temperatures and heat time, the doors are kept closed between these zones.

The water heater starts only when it receive the off peak signal :)

The dishwasher is used only during off peak hours, so we start it when we go to bed.

Finally I'm using a WattMeter to measure different consumptions. From that we changed our old fridge (500kWh/year saved) and I changed 2 computers (used 24x7) with 2 laptops (1.2MWh/year saved). We identified the next appliances on which we'll have the more saving. We have CFL since years and I calculated we are saving at least 75% of lighting bill, ie 440kWh/year.

This summer we didn't used our portable AC. We placed shades over the terrace and the two 2x4m (6x12ft) windows :cool: and of course used both ceiling fans in summer position and fastest speed.

Enough for tonight ;)

Denis.

We are a family of 4 living off the grid. We don't have many panels and our batteries were free (not too many amp hrs!), so we use less than 50 KWH per month. We typically keep one CFL on in the evening hours, and sometimes have 2 or 3 on for various activities. We try to use our loads in the daytime when we have solar power to reduce the loss of power from putting the power into the batteries. We use a danby dtt 420 washer (which is 120V ac for those on the grid). It uses very little power. It is all manual so you decide the cycle length. We vary it based on how much power is available and how dirty the laundry is. It is a twin tub, so you have to move it from the agitation tub to the spin tub. We also use a 12 V radio which draws about 10 watts and the laptop which draws about 65 watts. We heat with wood, cook with wood in the winter, and heat 2/3 of our water with wood in the winter. At any given time we have 10 gallons of boiling water available on the cook stove. We have an on demand hot water heater, used only a little, for baths. This amounts to maybe 1 20 lb tank every month or month and half. We also run a small chest freezer, which I sometimes run as a freezer, sometimes as a fridge. We keep a cooler inside of the freezer storing all the food, which allows us to turn the freezer off all night and maintain frozen food. When I want to use the chest freezer as a fridge, I just turn it on for 10 minutes at the warmest thermostat setting in the morning and eve and keep the food in a cooler inside. During Nov dec and parts of Jan, we have to use a generator if we want to use the freezer. This uses maybe 3 or 4 gallons a month when the freezer is on. In the future we want to get a super efficient 12 V freezer, so we dont lose power to the inverter, and fill it up with food that we grow here so we dont have to drive to the store as often. Also new batteries and one more panel so we can get the generator use down to 1 gal/month or so.

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?:rolleyes:

A timer on garage lights sound like a great idea, they would let you leave them on as you walk away with your arms full, or use a motion detector light switch, hey also tend to have a timer on them.

Well I actually tried the motion sensor switch in the garage, but I ran into a problem with the flourescent lighting. Unfortunately the cheaper motion activated switches don't like CFLs or whatever kind of balast I have in the 48" tube lights, so they end up ruining the flourescent tubes/CFLs. A switch rated for that type of use costs nearly $50.

So the question is, how long would it take for that investment to payback if the lights are left on an average of 4-8 hours per day and an average of 50-100W? That answer is: A long freakin' time at about 9 cents per kWh. Fortunately I think 4 hours may be on the high side of the real average, but it seems like they are on more than that. Maybe it's just me. :P

A simple push button 5-10-15-30 minute timer might make more sense. They seem to work pretty well for the bathroom fans during showers. Of course we are all in the habit of just pushing the 30 minute button though.

Regardless, it is still undeniable that our lighting use constitutes only 20-25% of our electrical use at worst. The majority of the rest comes from water and space heating.

We typically are always over 1000KwH each month... usually between 900KwH and 1500KwH. Small house, but the ceiling boards are what hold up the tar&gravel roof... that is, there is absolutely no space for insulation between the living space and the roof. Freakin' hot in the summer and cold in the winter... thankfully the temperatures are fairly "reasonable" (110*F to 30*F range).

All electric except the furnace, since the place was built back when electric was the "right choice".

One day, the place will come down and a much more efficient home will be built in its place... one day...

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 ...

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.

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

Like my house...only a little different
 

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":rolleyes:

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

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.

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

:eek: 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.

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. )

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.

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.

Hello -

We have gas for heat and water, so that's not part of this :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-cf...-july-2008.jpg

If you "convert" the gas to kWh, I'm sure it puts us in the 300-500 zone, so that's what I voted. There's definitely room for improvement.

Just two of us and two kitties in a 900+ sqft home. We don't use much electricity, but the cats play Wii constantly, ;) .

CarloSW2

Good one Frank:D

She has no income.

I do have to say that she is good about doing laundry and using the oven during off peak hours.

High cooling costs are just a fact of life here, especially if someone is home all day. Some of my friend's/coworker's monthly usage would really make you head spin.

The motion sensor switch in the garage might not be a good idea since the switch may not sense your body heat or motion from distances involved. Ever been sitting on the can in a public rest room and had the lights go out? In a garage (mine anyway) this could be dangerous. The timer switch would be the way to go IMO.

Good point. I never really had an issue with turning off at a bad time when I did have one in the garage, except when the temperature was 98F, but I also have a couple of 4' florescent fixtures that are plugged into unswitched power with pull strings that get turned on if I am doing any real work out there.

FWIW and for Frank to marvel at, my usage for 23 Jun-25 Jul was 1385kWh.