Gas Bill!!

[eekster]

Just recieved gas bill today.. $29.00 bucks! Feb. was cold here, ( not near some of your temps on this site) , but compared to
2 years ago can"t complain. Need to drop electric bill OUCH! Hot tub online this year and whole house electric, and house much warmer temps (blowers running more it Hurt) Just been lurking in the green room and I need to accomplish what some of these guys are doing! Just curious, how are others gas bills?
Keith

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[Eric Johnson]

I think my last one was about $20. That's the service charge and 6 therms for the clothes dryer. Beats $800, which is what ours was in Feb. of '04. And that was before nat. gas prices doubled. For some reason our electric bill was also way down last month. I'm thinking it must be the new CFL bulbs and DHW from the boiler. Still feel broke most of the time, but it could be a whole lot worse.

 

[eekster]

I"m putting my DHW on line this spring for sure, with 3 women in the house I hope to drop that by $50.00 a month. Do you think the CLF bulbs make that much of a difference? I replaced 9 of them in my recessed lights, have more to go. I figured it can"t hurt!
Keith

 

[88rxn/a]

im paying $300 right now (in process of putting system together) and HOPE to have gas bills that low next winter. having said that, my girlfriend pays the gas bill so i wont see the diff. in my check!

 

[Eric Johnson]

I doubt the CFLs made that much difference, but it's about all I can think of at the moment.

So the GF is going to save $300 a month, thanks to you. That ought to be good for the relationship. What will be even better is a warmer house and unlimited, free hot water. Women seem to like that, too.

 

[Tony H]

The bulbs can make a big difference in your lighting cost saving using 20% to 25% of the electricity of an incandescent bulb. You do have to factor the additional cost of the bulbs and reduced heat output along with the longer life. For estimated residential savings the Dept of energy says you should save 12% to 15% off your monthly bill ? Don't know how they get that with all the variables involved.
I suggest you calculate the bulb hours per day you use ie watt hours convert to kilowatt hours (1000) hours and then to therms 1 kilowatt hour = 0.034 129 563 407 therm [U.S.] and then times your utility billing rate to see your actual savings. You could also do like I do and just assume I am saving money any be happy with that thought. :lol:

 

[Tony H]

88rx n/a - A sneaky fellow might try to realign who pays what in advance of the savings kicking in on that gas bill.

 

[Willman]

Be aware of the issues around broken CFL's as well as proper disposal practices.

Will

 

[solo40]

Last year I was burning 20+ gallons of propane a day when it was cold. This year with
my Tarm 40 installed I am down to 1 gallon a day. I have a propane
dryer and propane fireplace which is why I am still using 1 gallon a day.

Ethan

 

[88rxn/a]

88rx n/a - A sneaky fellow might try to realign who pays what in advance of the savings kicking in on that gas bill.

lol, yeah
i told her today what savings were posted on here and what we have in store. her reply when i asked what she's going to with the money she is saving every month, "i guess i can go shopping"!

So the GF is going to save $300 a month, thanks to you. That ought to be good for the relationship. What will be even better is a warmer house and unlimited, free hot water. Women seem to like that, too.

indeed, another step to make our life a little better, besides all the wood i get to cut but hey, the older you get the harder it is to stay in shape and i figure this would help!

 

[Telco]

When I first went to CFLs, I dropped my power bill by 40 bucks a month. Been using them ever since, and am really looking forward to a viable LED bulb that will provide the same lighting I get now, including ambient lighting (don't like spotlights). My power bill is normally about 60 a month in the winter, 120 a month in the summer. I'm hoping to see a lower power bill this summer as late last summer (right before the temp drop for fall) I added another foot of insulation to the attic. It did make a huge difference in my heating bills as before the insulation my natural gas bill was 250-300 a month, the next winter with the insulation it was averaging 140-160 a month and that's with a higher cost per cubic ft.

I'm hoping for less than 100 a month power bills this summer. Course, I'm also doing other things to save, like replacing the 2400 watt/day refrigerator with an Energy Star model, and this weekend we are replacing the water bed mattress and heater with a new setup that has two smaller bladders (allows individual firmness control) with two smaller heaters and will be laying insulation under the bladders at the same time. I may also paint the walls inside the house white to cover the depressing mud tan walls we have now, which will also let us use smaller/fewer lights to get the same brightness.

I wish I could do some sort of wood heater, but the HOA Nazis banned anything that makes smoke other than BBQ grills. I don't think I can even do solar power with the rules they have, at least not without a lot of added expense like hiding the panels from the road, ect. Then the house just to the south is a 2 story, I have a 1 story and the houses are about 15 ft apart. As soon as the kids move out, we'll be right on their heels. SOBs even called the cops on me once because I had one tire of my truck slightly off MY driveway in MY grass! They'd have had to walk into MY yard to tell! Cop was pissed too, said he was tired of being sent out on BS like this instead of being out doing his job. Seig Heil! Heil HOA!

Eekster, on that hot tub I've heard a LOT of good things about using a solar water heating setup to heat water, one of those panels can take in cold water and spit it back out near boiling, when I do build a house I'm planning to use a solar heating setup to heat water in a very large storage tank and use that to heat both the house and the DHW. Also planning on a couple of loops for the waterbed and, if anyone gets one to work well, possibly a clothes dryer.

 

[slowzuki]

Enjoying off-roading, it is interesting some stories I see about HOA fights in the US. They sure don't like you swapping axles in your driveway with welders and torches. While visiting friends in Calgary they were going to call the cops because the neighbour was swapping engines in his old ford pickup. They were a little ticked at me for saying, hey he's on his own property what is your problem? I guess I've been in the country too long!