Was able to Reduce Electric Bill!

[dbchris]

I stopped using my electric dryer. I also began unplugging the microwave, tv's, and turning off computer and monitor at night. What a difference! You folks probably know this but I am amazed! Some difference between last year and this are:

Been warm. Oil furnace not on much because of Pellet stove & warm weather.
Pellet stove on to zone heat when we are down stairs. (most of the day)
More Christmas lights than last year.
Air dry clothes when ever possible.

My family complains about stiff clothes, having to plug in and UNPLUG the device, and shutting down the computer. I moved into this home three years ago. Our last house had NG everything. NG is not an option here. So I just realsized the differences when doing simple things.

 

[ChrisN]

Beth, Congratulations!! nice work. I stopped using my electric dryer about a year ago and noted a drastic drop in my electricity usage. during these winter months I am drying things inside on clothes racks. A load a day here ( teenage boys!) and I am able to keep up. Have you made the switch to CFL bulbs too? they make a big difference. I've been mulling over putting the TV on a power strip, but with the boy's schedule I'm not sure I could come close to controlling the TV

 

[MrGriz]

Great Job! I have all electric baseboard heat in our house. The wood burning insert has made a huge difference in the amount of electricity we use.

I'm not sure that I will ever be able to get my wife to give up the electric dryer though. I did switch almost everything over to CF bulbs also.

I do wish that NG was an option for me, but there isn't any run to the house and it woudl be too costly to do so. I will continue to chip away at the electric usage though.

 

[dbchris]

Yes we to are switching to the CF bulbs as the others burn out Amazing what a difference this stuff makes. I've been waiting for the electric bill to come to measure what changes were happening. I was pleasantly surprised. Makes you smile when you know your efforts are paying off.

 

[DriftWood]

I My family complains about stiff clothes, .

I do the laundry around here and hung cloths in the basemment for years and always the same complant. Wife and kids always complained the clothes are to stiff when dry. I guess we are getting soft. She found a used electric dried and deplaced the old 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111950s one that was with the house when we came here in the 1990s. I mean to say this place was set up for line drying, 5 30 foot clothes lines in the basement and a drying area with a set of clothes lines out back. The problem is the planting of trees in the past that placed this area in shade. I had long lines of clothes strung between trees . I would move the drying lines chasing the suns rays through the seasons to keep the sun on the clothes. Dodging rain storms was fun to. A lot of times cloths got a extra rinse. Now my wife stated the lines in the basement are going. The line stands out back were moved for a backyard wedding and never replaced. My sister in law a nurse still line drys on sunny days as she says" It is the only real way to kill germs" Have fun!

 

[jjbaer]

I stopped using my electric dryer. I also began unplugging the microwave, tv's, and turning off computer and monitor at night. What a difference! You folks probably know this but I am amazed! Some difference between last year and this are:

Been warm. Oil furnace not on much because of Pellet stove & warm weather.
Pellet stove on to zone heat when we are down stairs. (most of the day)
More Christmas lights than last year.
Air dry clothes when ever possible.

My family complains about stiff clothes, having to plug in and UNPLUG the device, and shutting down the computer. I moved into this home three years ago. Our last house had NG everything. NG is not an option here. So I just realsized the differences when doing simple things.

So, please tell us...what was the electric bill before and after implementing these conservation procedures?

 

[dbchris]

So, please tell us...what was the electric bill before and after implementing these conservation procedures?

Avg. daily usage Current Month: 32.9
Avg. Daily usage Last Month: 34.1
Avg. daily usage Last year: 44.7

Used 1154 kwh this bill. $166.53 I don't have the numbers from last year.
The graph that comes with bill is down. Yippee! It's nice to see changes like this.
I'm not sure if the $$ rates have gone up or down, but my usage has dropped

 

[jjbaer]

So, please tell us...what was the electric bill before and after implementing these conservation procedures?

Avg. daily usage Current Month: 32.9
Avg. Daily usage Last Month: 34.1
Avg. daily usage Last year: 44.7

Used 1154 kwh this bill. $166.53 I don't have the numbers from last year.
The graph that comes with bill is down. Yippee! It's nice to see changes like this.
I'm not sure if the $$ rates have gone up or down, but my usage has dropped

Yes..your usage is down based on last year but you said your daily usage for the current month is 32.9 but said you used 1154 KWhrs this bill. 1154 for a 30 day month implies about 38.4 KWhrs avg daily use, not the 32.9 you stated.......

 

[velvetfoot]

I found that my TV & DVR consume 60 watts when turned "off".

 

[jjbaer]

I found that my TV & DVR consume 60 watts when turned "off".

Yes...at even 10 cents/Kwhr, that's $4.32 per month....for me it's about 7% of my monthly electric bill

 

[dbchris]

Yes Castiron, just typing what the bill says. Also I didn't notice until your post that this was a 35 day billing period. Sorry to have mislead you. Why do they do that? They read the meters electronically now. You would think they would be consistant now. Was last year also a 35 day period i wonder out loud.

 

[zzr7ky]

Hi -

I've got the TV/VCR on a wall switched circuit. It did make a difference.
Mike P

 

[dbchris]

Interesting on everyone’s techniques I'm seriously trying to reduce my bills. We use way too much electric. Between the lights on, the pool pump in the summer, and the furnace/pellet stove in the winter, I'm game for eliminating the dryer for now. Driftwood, your nurse sister-in-law is probably correct about the sunshine killing germs. And it's free Even though I do not use the dryer, and hang a load indoors daily, and have a humidifier on the oil forced air furnace, I still have to run 2 humidifiers in the bedrooms. My skin is really dry now

 

[TMonter]

My bill last month (North Idaho) was:

Electric:

CONSUMPTION 600 KILOWATT HOURS @ .05627 $33.76
CONSUMPTION 83 KILOWATT HOURS @ .06397 $5.31
BASIC $4.00

Gas: (Water Heater Only)

CONSUMPTION 28 THERMS @ 1.16175 $32.53
BASIC $3.28

Total - $78.88

We consumed a lot more electric this year because of weather, NG was about equal.

I've reduced my usage by almost half from when we first moved in by the following:

Turn everything off when not using it.
Replace old light fixtures with florescent ones when possible with high power factor electric ballasts
Use CF lamps where possible
When purchasing appliances especially electronics look at the manual for "standby" power usage. My new AV receiver consumes just 0.5 W in standby

 

[Mo Heat]

I found that my TV & DVR consume 60 watts when turned "off".

Good grief! I've got 7 TV's if you count computer monitors. No wonder my CF's haven't lowered the bill that much. And I'm about to replace my capoot radon mitigation fan that's been saving me about 90W's continuous usage.

I had no idea that phantom loads (instant on stuff, MW clocks, etc.) drew so much juice.

 

[BrotherBart]

If I could just find a way to burn spam email I would never have to cut a tree or pay for heat again for the rest of my life. And if I could burn it in a lamp my electric bill would be zilch.

 

[KarlP]

Great Job! I have all electric baseboard heat in our house.

I did switch almost everything over to CF bulbs also.

Incandescent light bulbs just electric heaters where the element gets so hot it glows brightly. For every watt you don't send to the light bulb you need to send an extra watt to the heater to maintain the same temperature. Obviously this works the other way in the summer, but CF bulbs or turning off the DVR/computer/microwave do nothing during the heating season if you're heating with electric anyway.

 

[velvetfoot]

I just thought I'd chip in with this little tidbit. My Sony DVR as well as Toshiba TV came with "TV Guide On Screen" which receives program information and of course advertisements when the unit is turned off. Alas, "turned off" still consumes the amount of power described above. In my experiments with a timer to turn off all power to the units, I lost the programming. It appears that the local TV station that carries the TV Guide signal didn't for a time. I learned that the station could on its own just discontinue carrying the signal anytime it wants. Anyway, that wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that the Sony DVR requires the TV Guide signal to set the unit's clock-there is no way to manually override this! So, the DVR becomes essentially valueless to me if the TV Guide signal is no longer available. Luckily the signal came back after about four days; maybe my calls to Sony and the station helped, but who knows.

Anyway the moral is, if you get a device that depends on TV Guide, try to get one with a manual override.

I'm burning 60 watts 24x7 now, but I could try again.

 

[jjbaer]

I just thought I'd chip in with this little tidbit. My Sony DVR as well as Toshiba TV came with "TV Guide On Screen" which receives program information and of course advertisements when the unit is turned off. Alas, "turned off" still consumes the amount of power described above. In my experiments with a timer to turn off all power to the units, I lost the programming. It appears that the local TV station that carries the TV Guide signal didn't for a time. I learned that the station could on its own just discontinue carrying the signal anytime it wants. Anyway, that wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that the Sony DVR requires the TV Guide signal to set the unit's clock-there is no way to manually override this! So, the DVR becomes essentially valueless to me if the TV Guide signal is no longer available. Luckily the signal came back after about four days; maybe my calls to Sony and the station helped, but who knows.

Anyway the moral is, if you get a device that depends on TV Guide, try to get one with a manual override.

I'm burning 60 watts 24x7 now, but I could try again.

are you saying that your monthly electric bill is only about 43 KW-hrs because that's what 60 watts x 24 hrs x 30 days yields? Unless you're living alone in a small apartment (and even then it's hard to imagine consumption being so low), 43 KW-hrs seems like a way, way too low consumption rate......check your last bill and see if it's "actual" or "estimated" and tell us what it says......

 

[velvetfoot]

60 watts just for TV.

 

[jjbaer]

I found that my TV & DVR consume 60 watts when turned "off".

Good grief! I've got 7 TV's if you count computer monitors. No wonder my CF's haven't lowered the bill that much. And I'm about to replace my capoot radon mitigation fan that's been saving me about 90W's continuous usage.

I had no idea that phantom loads (instant on stuff, MW clocks, etc.) drew so much juice.

Hi Mo.......hey, that means you have about 3 computer monitors and the CRT types suck a lot of energy....as they die you can save $ by going to LCD monitors........

 

[jjbaer]

60 watts just for TV.

I see...we were all envious there for a moment...........so, your TV consumes 43 KW-hrs per month.....that's about 9% of an average 500 KW-hr bill going to TV's.......

 

[velvetfoot]

I did look at my electric bill the other day, I do think it averages 450 KW-hrs.
As I said, I might try again, but it's a tightrope act with the above constraints as well as Mrs. VF.

 

[jjbaer]

So, please tell us...what was the electric bill before and after implementing these conservation procedures?

Avg. daily usage Current Month: 32.9
Avg. Daily usage Last Month: 34.1
Avg. daily usage Last year: 44.7

Used 1154 kwh this bill. $166.53 I don't have the numbers from last year.
The graph that comes with bill is down. Yippee! It's nice to see changes like this.
I'm not sure if the $$ rates have gone up or down, but my usage has dropped

What do you have that's electric that's driving you bill so high........? 32.9 KW-hrs per day for a 30 day month is almost 1,000 KW-Hrs per month.....a very high bill unless you have electric heat and/or a deep well pump or are running a home-based business that consumes a lot of electricity or have several children that you're constantly running the washer and dryer for. My bill for my wife and me in our 1700 sq ft house (kids at college) averages 550 KW-HRs per month. We have two sump pumps, electric dryer, washer, microwave, smooth-top range, dishwasher, fridge/freezer, two TV's, two DVD players, two VCR players (I turn the TV, and DVD and VCR players off when not in use but I don't unplug them), two computers (one with LCD monitor, one with tube type monitor), 10 outside security lights (5 sets with 2 bulbs per set), a radon fan that's on 24/7/365, a 2.5 ton whole-house air conditioner, a furnace fan that I leave on 2 hrs per day (even when the furnace is off) to circulate heat from the Buck Stove. Guess what I'm saying is that unless there are extenuating circumstances, you could cut your bill in half.......

 

[velvetfoot]

I got the kill-a-watt gadget discussed on a previous thread and found it handy for this sort of stuff:
http://tinyurl.com/2wqnnu (Tiny by Mo. Too much scrolling! I've got one of those BTW.)