electric bill ???

lock&load said:

have had a p_43 for a number of yrs now ,have not changed anything ,heats the house good ,last yr this time I had electric usage of 28kw this yr its 36kw ,running the stove the same ,any body else see there bill go thru the roof , where talking 50$ I know the rates went up ,but not that much , same settings as last yr on stove ?

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Yes, I made the mistake of signing up with North American Power when they were advertising low rates last year. Apparently the fine print says it's a VARIABLE rate. Wonderful. I'm now paying .15/kwh! Robbery. And I can't switch until February. My bill this past month was ridiculous.

I will say that my use also when up mysteriously. Still trying to figure that one out.

Its probably not linked to your stove. Is your hot eater heater electric? Whats its age?

I'll second skibladerj and suspect another appliance such as your refrigerator. A couple years back I had to replace the refrigerator and noticed a big drop in the bill. I used a watt meter and performed an audit all my major appliances to keep tabs on their usage.

lock&load said:

have had a p_43 for a number of yrs now ,have not changed anything ,heats the house good ,last yr this time I had electric usage of 28kw this yr its 36kw ,running the stove the same ,any body else see there bill go thru the roof , where talking 50$ I know the rates went up ,but not that much , same settings as last yr on stove ?

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That's roughly an 8000watt difference. It'd be like having your igniter on all the time. Is there an electric heater on somewhere? Do you have a kill-a-watt meter to check things?

Thats a lot. Go check the meter in the morning and the evening and see what consumption is. Also do you have a digital meter or manually read? Maybe it was read wrong maybe your last bill was estimated. If it was your pellet stove the igniter would have burned out by now.

Nutmeg Warrior said:

I'm now paying .15/kwh! Robbery.

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I would kill for 15 c. / kwh. Im paying about .22 these days. In a two person household with LED lights in every socket and energy star everything, and a wife that happily stumbles around in the dark, I have yet to see a bill under 100 bucks a month. Was 180 this past month with the pellet stove going nearly full time, and a small oil filled electric space heater used a couple hours a day to get the one room the pellet stove cant quite reach.

Oh, and as for that band that practices, depending on the equipment, your probably only talking a few hundred watts. I dont think that could skew your bill more than a couple bucks a month, unless junior leaves the stack amp on with the tubes glowing all month long.

GuitsBoy said:

I would kill for 15 c. / kwh. Im paying about .22 these days. In a two person household with LED lights in every socket and energy star everything, and a wife that happily stumbles around in the dark, I have yet to see a bill under 100 bucks a month. Was 180 this past month with the pellet stove going nearly full time, and a small oil filled electric space heater used a couple hours a day to get the one room the pellet stove cant quite reach.

Oh, and as for that band that practices, depending on the equipment, your probably only talking a few hundred watts. I dont think that could skew your bill more than a couple bucks a month, unless junior leaves the stack amp on with the tubes glowing all month long.

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.22 cents all in? I mean including transmission, service charge green charge etc..?

I'm charged 0.075 generation charge but once you throw all the rest in its up to around 0.15 KW/H

Yeah, all in. Whether its a 100 dollar bill or a 400 dollar bill, it averages out to be around .21 to .22 per KwH. The breakdown is .085 /kwh for power, .091 / kwh for transmission, .006 / kwh for renewables, .36/day for residential service, and ~$15 worth of tax and miscellaneous extortion. My folks moved up to the Adirondacks and pay less than half what we pay down on new york's weener.

GuitsBoy said:

Yeah, all in. Weather its a 100 dollar bill or a 400 dollar bill, it averages out to be around .21 to .22 per KwH. The breakdown is .085 /kwh for power, .091 / kwh for transmission, .006 / kwh for renewables, .36/day for residential service, and ~$15 worth of tax and miscellaneous extortion. My folks moved up to the Adirondacks and pay less than half what we pay down on new york's weener.

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wow that sucks, my wife and in the fall have 60 dollar electric bills. 3000 Sq/ft house.

Winter around 100 bucks due to the stove.

AC in the summer bumps it up to around $275.

Im actually surprised everyone feels the stove impacts the electric usage that much. I have a kill-a-watt meter I've been meaning to try, but I'm more concerned with keeping the stove going with few interruptions. I know they pull a handfull of amps on startup when heating the ignitor, but the blower motors cant use that much, can they?

CT seems to be the lucky ones, and CL&P is jacking the prices. Our service delivery fees EQUAL our usage fee, and they raised the rate over 20% per kW.

GuitsBoy said:

Im actually surprised everyone feels the stove impacts the electric usage that much. I have a kill-a-watt meter I've been meaning to try, but I'm more concerned with keeping the stove going with few interruptions. I know they pull a handfull of amps on startup when heating the ignitor, but the blower motors cant use that much, can they?

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Uhm, no. I have a kill-a-watt meter on my stove and the igniter uses about 300 watts. The augur uses 25 watts, the convection fan uses about 20 watts, and the room blower varies depending on the setting, but the highest setting is 80 watts.

GuitsBoy said:

Im actually surprised everyone feels the stove impacts the electric usage that much. I have a kill-a-watt meter I've been meaning to try, but I'm more concerned with keeping the stove going with few interruptions. I know they pull a handfull of amps on startup when heating the ignitor, but the blower motors cant use that much, can they?

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assuming stove is pulling around 150 watts and electric is $0.20 a KW/H

150 watts = 0.15 KW

24 hours usage = 0.15*24 = 3.6 KW/H a day

3.6 * 30 = 108 KW/H a month


108 KW/H * $0.20 KW/H = $21.60 dollars a month...

Most people will see it but its minimal...

chken said:

Uhm, no. I have a kill-a-watt meter on my stove and the igniter uses about 300 watts. The augur uses 25 watts, the convection fan uses about 20 watts, and the room blower varies depending on the setting, but the highest setting is 80 watts.

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wow thats pretty low thats good!

chken said:

Uhm, no. I have a kill-a-watt meter on my stove and the igniter uses about 300 watts. The augur uses 25 watts, the convection fan uses about 20 watts, and the room blower varies depending on the setting, but the highest setting is 80 watts.

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So figure around 3 KwH a day for normal operation. Thats 20 bucks a month for me, call it $25 including ignitor time. I might burn 200 bucks a month in pellets during a cold spell, but im cutting my 800/month oil bill in at least half. Its gotta be saving everyone else at least as much.

Last year I was using on the electric budget plan $123 a month this year it is $90 and the electric heat is not even on. Over the summer it was about $45 a month. I asked an energy audit from the West Penn power my electricity company. They were here today. Culprit bad water heater and refrigerator. They both have to be changed. I was not aware that a refrigerator and water heater could go bad.

DamienBricka said:

I was not aware that a refrigerator and water heater could go bad.

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Sure, anything that causes lower efficiency in a fridge will result in it trying to compensate with longer compressor duty cycles, which is the bulk of your power consumption. So dirty coils and a blocked fan intake can easily raise your electric consumption. Older fridges are much more power hungry than newer ones which use smaller compressors and longer duty cycles by default. As for the water heater, it may simply be old and inefficient, rather than losing efficiency with age.

GuitsBoy said:

So figure around 3 KwH a day for normal operation. Thats 20 bucks a month for me, call it $25 including ignitor time. I might burn 200 bucks a month in pellets during a cold spell, but im cutting my 800/month oil bill in at least half. Its gotta be saving everyone else at least as much.

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In central Maine, we pay around 14 cents a kWh, so for me, I figure it's about $12 a month. 120 watts is what I normally see on my killawatt, given that I have the room fan on high. The 300 watt igniter is only on for about 10mins a day, after I do my daily clean, which adds about $2 a month, so $14 altogether. It's not immaterial, but it shouldn't add $50 to anyone's bill, unless the igniter never turned off.

GuitsBoy said:

So figure around 3 KwH a day for normal operation. Thats 20 bucks a month for me, call it $25 including ignitor time. I might burn 200 bucks a month in pellets during a cold spell, but im cutting my 800/month oil bill in at least half. Its gotta be saving everyone else at least as much.

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Sounds right. I figure for every ton I burn, I save about $220 in oil. So, if you cut your oil in half and add the amount of pellets you are right in that ballpark.

My total bill is averaging $40 a month. I use around 260-320 kWh a month. Just me though. Service charge is $15 a month. I'd have to look at a bill to see if that works out but it's not much. No choice up here for a power supplier.

GuitsBoy said:

So figure around 3 KwH a day for normal operation. Thats 20 bucks a month for me, call it $25 including ignitor time. I might burn 200 bucks a month in pellets during a cold spell, but im cutting my 800/month oil bill in at least half. Its gotta be saving everyone else at least as much.

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I was around the same 800 a month in oil. My stove is undersized and i would say cuts my oil usage close to 70% as i still use oil for hot water.

Makes a huge difference!

chken said:

Sounds right. I figure for every ton I burn, I save about $220 in oil. So, if you cut your oil in half and add the amount of pellets you are right in that ballpark.

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Have had a Harman P61A since November...
Electric has gone up around 20.00 month and we use room temp/auto all the time.

hermancm said:

My total bill is averaging $40 a month

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That is the kind of bill that I would like to have