Average daily electricity useage
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Highbeam
Minister of Fire
I am imagining the typical PNW construction method of a ventilated crawlspace under your home. Then you should have floor insulation between the joists. For some reason your contractor didn't insulate the water system under the house? Wow. That's ridiculous. Not just for energy loss but for freeze protection. The energy loss issue is made much worse by your HW recirc system. Once you properly insulate those pipes I wonder if the crawlspace will no longer be 40-50 as it is now. Better be sure to insulate both hot and cold.
You don't have to worry about U shaped heat traps if your water heater tank is above the crawlspace. The fact that your water lines run out of the tank and then down is like a huge heat trap built in.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
We turn on our hot tub every winter and when we do the power consumption for our home doubles. We tend to get visits from the power company in June when we shut it off. Have a nice new meter too!
The house has about a 4' stemwall with maybe a foot or so above grade. All the floor joist are insulated. Here's the other crazy thing I don't understand. The furnace ducting all runs under the house. It's all properly insulated. But the "hub" under the furnace as a vent in the side of it which would blow warm air under the house. I guess a novel idea of I used the furnace but it hasn't been on in a few weeks. Seems it would have been easier to insulate the pipes rather than heat the under side of the house.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
So the crawlspace has those screened vents every 10 feet or so too right? It should. What you describe is very common in the PNW except for the supply vent in the crawl, that sounds like a builder's special.
I like the rubberized foam pipe insulation with the preapplied glue. It will go on fast if the copper pipes are actually hanging down under the insulation. I would precut in the garage and bring down a 5 gallon bucket full of those little chunks. Cut them a little big so that they cover all the copper.
Wanted to thank everyone for the assistance and high beam for pointing me toward the well. Leak is fixed, HWH super insulated, and all pipes insulated. The well was 99% of my problem but the other things didn't hurt to do. In addition I went on a caulking craze and $5 in caulking raised my rear rooms 4-5 degrees in temp. I went from an average of 82kwh a day to the last 8 days using 30-40 with only 1 day around 80 because we did laundry and cleaned all day (including the oven on self clean mode). Sufficed to say I am ecstatic and now that I watch the meter everyday I've become the light and turn every thing off police! I think I might become obsessed to see how low I can get it.
maple1
Minister of Fire
Might give this one a read too:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/monitoring-electricity-use.121772/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/monitoring-electricity-use.121772/
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Geez... just stumbled on this thread. Read the first and last page of posts, so I missed the middle, but you were burning 340 kWh per month, and suspected a problem? That's an amazing catch. I'm happy any month we're under 2,000 kWh.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Holy carp! That's a different story. I just saw the 340 kWh number listed in your first post, missed that later statement. Assuming my local rates, you're talking $400+ months, there.
Luckily power is cheap here. The advantage of living with in 100 miles of Bonneville! We pay 8.8 cents a kWh.
velvetfoot
Minister of Fire
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Our listed "price to compare" is about 9 cents, but our all-in dollars per kWh is around 16.8 cents, after figuring taxes and delivery.
I'm on a co-op and we just pay a flat $23 service charge whether you use 1 or 10000 kWh.
we are 1900 sq ft, 4 people and a dog + nanny share at our house for 4 kids during the day. Keep the house around 65º
in 2015 we were averaging 18.46/day and in 2016 we average 16.7/day.
When we bought the house in 2014, the bill for may was for 1644, just for MAY!... ours in may of 2015 was for 637. 2016 was 455.
we put solar on the house, which doesn't really have any effect, but we also redid all the windows, doors, programmable thermostat, stopped using space heaters in every room, did some insulation, and added the wood stove. Not to mention we swapped out most of the bulbs for LED.
On the other hand, we also installed an electric on demand water heater, got a second freezer, had a second kid (3x laundry), have people in the house all day, and are not super good about turning off lights. Overall, we could do better, but we are pretty happy!
We have a 300 sq ft cottage with all new insulation, doors, windows, electric baseboard heat, and electric water heater. For the last 2 years, the average there has been 5/day. They also have a washer and dryer in the unit, and tend to keep it closer to 70º.
Our townhouse is 1800 sq ft, with solar that produces the majority of our power, but the average usage there was 10.3/day over the last 2 years. That place has decent insulation, all new doors and windows, and gas furnace. we never run the AC, but had 4-5 people living there.
in 2015 we were averaging 18.46/day and in 2016 we average 16.7/day.
When we bought the house in 2014, the bill for may was for 1644, just for MAY!... ours in may of 2015 was for 637. 2016 was 455.
we put solar on the house, which doesn't really have any effect, but we also redid all the windows, doors, programmable thermostat, stopped using space heaters in every room, did some insulation, and added the wood stove. Not to mention we swapped out most of the bulbs for LED.
On the other hand, we also installed an electric on demand water heater, got a second freezer, had a second kid (3x laundry), have people in the house all day, and are not super good about turning off lights. Overall, we could do better, but we are pretty happy!
We have a 300 sq ft cottage with all new insulation, doors, windows, electric baseboard heat, and electric water heater. For the last 2 years, the average there has been 5/day. They also have a washer and dryer in the unit, and tend to keep it closer to 70º.
Our townhouse is 1800 sq ft, with solar that produces the majority of our power, but the average usage there was 10.3/day over the last 2 years. That place has decent insulation, all new doors and windows, and gas furnace. we never run the AC, but had 4-5 people living there.
The OP has some problems, prob big ones that are easy to find....my money is on the HWH + circulator + uninsulated HW pipes. The cost estimate on the tank and the circ pump DOES NOT INCLUDE heating the great outdoors for hours through those pipes. Those circulators are notorious energy wasters when the pipes are insulated AND in a conditioned space. The OPs case...triple threat.
Try turning it off for a few days (and still use the HW with the annoying wait) and see what happens.
For comparison, my 2200 sq ft house + 4 people (two teens), all electric including all heat and AC (70°F year-round) + 9000 electric car miles/yr
Our average daily usage is 50 kWh/day.
Try turning it off for a few days (and still use the HW with the annoying wait) and see what happens.
For comparison, my 2200 sq ft house + 4 people (two teens), all electric including all heat and AC (70°F year-round) + 9000 electric car miles/yr
Our average daily usage is 50 kWh/day.
velvetfoot
Minister of Fire
Issue solved. See post 83. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/average-daily-electricity-useage.159381/page-4#post-2144454
maple1
Minister of Fire
I had forgotten about that one. Had to go re-read. (Post 66 for those keeping score).
Sounds like there would definitely be some kwh being lost there also - even if the pipes were to get insulated.
(Did the pipes get insulated?)
Our master shower/bath could benefit in one way from a recirc pump - the hot has a ways to travel & there is a wait for it. But the minute or so wait for it seems small pennies compared to how much heat & kwh that would be wasted the other 23 hours and a half it would be running with none being used. Suspect it is less than a minute actually, never timed it - just seems like longer when you're standing there ready & waiting to get hot & soapy.
Sounds like there would definitely be some kwh being lost there also - even if the pipes were to get insulated.
(Did the pipes get insulated?)
Our master shower/bath could benefit in one way from a recirc pump - the hot has a ways to travel & there is a wait for it. But the minute or so wait for it seems small pennies compared to how much heat & kwh that would be wasted the other 23 hours and a half it would be running with none being used. Suspect it is less than a minute actually, never timed it - just seems like longer when you're standing there ready & waiting to get hot & soapy.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Because of this thread I decided to pull out an energy bill and see how our house compares to others when it comes to electricity usage. Ill have to admit I was a bit apprehensive because we just moved in back in August. So naturally September was our highest month with both the 5 ton and 2.5 ton ac units working. It came to 1600 for the month. I began replacing all the lights in the house when we moved in to LED and did a few each evening because I didnt want to worry about keeping the house dim to keep the bill low. Im still not done and I think I have replaced over 150 lights. Last month was our lowest at 700 kw. I honestly was surprised because we have at least 25 bulbs going at any given time, and probably more like 35-40. Our boiler/hydronic system has quite a few pumps that are on quite a bit and my wife works from home now so God only knows what she has on during the day, except the stove/oven. I dont think she knows where that is, but it wouldnt matter anyway because its NG.
velvetfoot
Minister of Fire
maple1
Minister of Fire
He seems to have something in common with the fellow who posted right before him.
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