Kilowatt hours used

[Tiny]

Holey Moley! 1300 Kwh! I use between 250 and 275 Kwh during the 2 months a year I don't have A/C or Heat going. I use about 650 Kwh during the hottest month of the year. I have fewer big draw appliances and gas hot water...


But, seriously and I hope helpfully:

Does your electric provider have a website with info on other users like your self? or some sort of 'estimate' guide for trying to determine if you are indeed in line with other people's usage? I can compare my usage by my 'household' and my 'type of house based on square footage and building material' and and by answering some generic questions (do i have a pool, do I have an electric stove, etc) to other similiar electric customer's usage.     You may be able to narrow down where to look for the Energy Hogs with info from the Electric company's website.


I'd check your freezers and fridges you've got 4 of them! Fridges/freezers are the top appliances for consuming energy after A/C and Heat.    if they are over 10 years old and/or are NOT energy star appliances they could be using alot of energy. I checked new fridges (mine is 16 years old Energy Star) and a similiar brand new fridge (size, energy star) uses 1/2 the energy my old one does! Also my new HE energy star washer uses barely any electricity. My 8 year old machine top loader with an agitator used nearly 5 times as much. I doubt your HE washer and dryer are useing alot of power.

I also doubt the TVs are big drains - unless they are the old big screen heavy box type ones. The new flat screens aren't bad (mine's not - but again I bought an energy star one...)

I'd maybe check the 'trickle' to the motor home... that might be using more energy than you think.

Happy Energy Hog Hunting!!

[Tiny]

Here's some interesting facts:


www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3

How much electricity does an American home use?

In 2012, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,837 kWh, an average of 903 kilowatthours (kWh) per month. Louisiana had the highest annual consumption at 15,046 kWh and Maine the lowest at 6,367 kWh.

Maybe you aren't too far off for useage for your area. 

[Blonde Granny]

2-18 to 3-19 our electric bill was 665KW used. We do have gas heat and water along with gas cooktop. I wash clothes on warm and usually use the dryer (elect). Freezer in garage, fridge/freezer in kitchen. I have an electric oven that I don't use much. Normally do 1 dishwasher load every other day and I include heat dry cycle. 4 TVs, 2 computers.

We're likely using a little more that the a/c runs a few times during the day. 1700 sf all brick house.

on edit: I just noticed this bill includes a 12 month average usage, 512 KWH per month.  And thanks for the topic, I just changed the elect. to level monthly billing and I changed the gas bill to level billing this week also.

[resolution]

It is probably in line with the size of your house and all those electrical items that you are running. Also keep in mind you have two people that are at home all day using power.

You can probably get your power company to come out for free and do an efficiency audit of your home and make recommendations for improvements. In our area they will bribe you with some fluorescent light bulbs to let them into your house.

Mine ran 662 kwh last month. That is for a 1200 sf house. I have some of the same items you do, dehumidifier, hot water heater, extra freezer in the basement, running one computer all day along with a window a/c unit. I am home full time as well, so I use power during the day when other people are at work.

[bean29]

I want to add a dehumidefier in my basement.  We used to have one, but IDK what happend to it.  Could be at our rental, MIL's house or could be at MIL's rental.  I know there was one at MIL's rental and the tennant did not want to use it b/c she claimed it pulled too much energy.

I bet you don't need a 60 gallon hot water heater even when your DH is home (unless you have a whirlpool).  I have a 30 gallon hot water heater and it recovers in a half hour.  If I ho up to a 50 gallon hot water heater most of the recovery times are around an hour.  Even when we have 5 people in the house we rarelyy all are on the same schedule so I don't have issues with no hot water.  I have the High Efficiency Hot water heater - they are expensive so it may be a trade off to buy a smaller one to save incremental amounts on your electric bill.

Wow.  I just printed my bill out of curiosity.  We used 837 Kwh last month.  4/23/14-5/22/14 it says 29 heating degree days.  I would think we had some heat in that time period...it has been slow to warm up this year.  We have had very little need for the A/C yet.

We have the High Efficiency Heater and Hot water heater.  We have 2 stoves, 2 diswashers (the new ones in the basement have not yet been used) 2 built in micowaves (DD uses the basement microwave once in a while) 2 Full Size refigerators and a bar refigerator.  We have 6 TV's (5 LED's and a Plama) but probably never use more than 3 at a time.    I also have the HE Washer and Dryer.

We tend to leave our outside lights on a lot more often/a lot later into the night than the neighbors and we occasionally have lights on at the end of the driveway that draw a lot of energy.

Do you have a well pump?  I live in the city so that might make a difference.

I will need a new washer/dryer soon.  I was loking at consumer reports and apparently as the energy standards have increased the HE machines now take like 1.5 hours to run through.  I though mine were inordinately slow already!  It only takes 40-60 minutes to run through a load (Whirlpool Duet C2003?).  I wonder how they can be more efficient if they take 50% more time to run?

[Blonde Granny]

Since we don't have kids, or do yard work outside, I use the quick wash setting on my front load Samsung. That's takes about 27 minutes.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

May 9 - Jun 9 ....   868 KwH
Apr 9 -  May 8 ...   730 KwH
Mar 11 - Apr 8 ...   893 KwH
Feb 7 -  Mar 10 ...1013 KwH   (hot tub)
Jan 8 - Feb 6 ......1037 KwH   (hot tub)
Dec 9 - Jan 7 ..... 1098 KwH   (hot tub)
Nov 6 - Dec 8 .....  995 KwH    (hot tub)
Oct 8 - Nov 5 ......  696 KwH  
Sep 9 - Oct 7  ....   669 KwH
Aug 8 - Sep 8 .....  976 KwH

For us, a certain amount of month KwH usage is for our swimming pool pump to run 6+ hours a day, every day. And even though we try not to use the a/c "too much" in the summer, we DO use ceiling fans, other fans, and our whole house fan regularly. There is also power being used for alarms, and dusk-to-dawn outside lighting. We note a decided increase in power usage in the winter with out hot tub ... but it's worth it (for us.)

Oh, two people ... 2,600 Sq Ft house

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I used anywhere from 300-600 kWa/mo when I lived in KY.  I had a 900 sq ft 2 BR fully electric apartment and none of my appliances were energy efficient.

The higher end of my power usage was in the middle of summer or winter, where my heat or a/c is on.

The last year, when I was not there, just the refrigerator and minimal heat/a/c used around 100/mo.

[truthbound]

Jun 13, 2014 15:55:14 GMT -5 Tiny said:

Here's some interesting facts:


www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3

How much electricity does an American home use?

In 2012, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,837 kWh, an average of 903 kilowatthours (kWh) per month. Louisiana had the highest annual consumption at 15,046 kWh and Maine the lowest at 6,367 kWh.

Maybe you aren't too far off for useage for your area. 

With all that stuff running they aren't off at all.

[marvholly]

Pat
There is a device that you can attach to any electric consuming item to determine how much power it uses. I orget the actual name by my library has 2 that an be checked out on a resident card. I have not done it & I really should but most of my big user appliances have been upgraded to more energy efficient in the last 2 years.

[Deleted]

I'm in a 3200 square foot house in the country with a barn and a security yard light on every night.  Winters are higher (I think) because of the tank heaters for the livestock, shorter days, and maybe the furnace blower.   Most of my appliances are about 14 years old.  I have a chest freezer, but that's the only extra thing.  Water heater is gas.  Dryer is electric.

6/13 - 770
7/13 - 881
8/13 - 732
9/13 - 626
10/13 - 580
11/13 - 868
12/13 - 1323
1/14 -1227
2/14 - 1124
3/14 - 928
4/14 - 651
5/14 - 674

[Sam_2.0]

Jun 13, 2014 16:11:25 GMT -5 resolution said:

It is probably in line with the size of your house and all those electrical items that you are running. Also keep in mind you have two people that are at home all day using power.

You can probably get your power company to come out for free and do an efficiency audit of your home and make recommendations for improvements. In our area they will bribe you with some fluorescent light bulbs to let them into your house.

Mine ran 662 kwh last month. That is for a 1200 sf house. I have some of the same items you do, dehumidifier, hot water heater, extra freezer in the basement, running one computer all day along with a window a/c unit. I am home full time as well, so I use power during the day when other people are at work.

Ours wont come out to the house, but the do have a very intensive online calculator that gives great information as long as you take the time to fill out the data.

1,300 seems fairly reasonable given what you've described about the house and your usage habits, Pat. Have you looked at your average usage over the months to see what a normal May bill is? Our bills show comparison to last month, last year, and 12-month average.

[Sam_2.0]

The dryer is a BIG culprit! If you are running that often then it could drive up your bill. Can you line-dry some items? When was the last time you had the vent completely cleaned out from the dryer all the way through?

[Sam_2.0]

Jun 14, 2014 6:27:05 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Pat
There is a device that you can attach to any electric consuming item to determine how much power it uses. I orget the actual name by my library has 2 that an be checked out on a resident card. I have not done it & I really should but most of my big user appliances have been upgraded to more energy efficient in the last 2 years.

Kill-A-Watt is one name brand of these

[Iggy aka IG]

Usage is 656 kWh for the month of May for our 9 year old, 1750+ square foot home, just DH and me.  Our most recent bill indicated we used less energy than our neighbors.  Whatever that means.     We averaged about $130 last year for gas/electricity.  Electric dryer.  We run an air filter and humidifier for 9 hours every night, and the master bedroom ceiling fan during summer nights.  Dishwasher is set to air dry.  Natural gas forced air central AC.  I process 6-8 loads of laundry on weekends.

When I became ruthless about $$ several years ago, the one thing which made a HUGE difference ($20 month) is unplugging the old fridge/freezer in the garage.

[Peace77]

Pat, 

You could use a folding drying rack.  You can get them from Target or Ikea.com.   You can use them inside when the weather is bad or outside when the weather is good.   I like to put towels or jeans in the dryer for a few minutes to soften them and then let them finish drying on the rack.

You might try vacuuming the dryer vent from both ends inside at the dryer and outside where the vent exits the house.  Flylady.net sells vacuum attachements and brushes in the Dryer Cleaning Kit.

Do you really need 2 freezers?

Can you adjust the temperature down on the water heater?  Does the water heater have an insulation blanket?

[marvholly]

Jun 16, 2014 13:05:27 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Jun 14, 2014 6:27:05 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Pat
There is a device that you can attach to any electric consuming item to determine how much power it uses. I orget the actual name by my library has 2 that an be checked out on a resident card. I have not done it & I really should but most of my big user appliances have been upgraded to more energy efficient in the last 2 years.

Kill-A-Watt is one name brand of these

Kill-A-Watt is exactly what my local library loans out.

[Deleted]

A couple weeks ago, I took the cover off the back bottom of my refrigerator and vacuumed it real good. I've vacummed what I can reach without taking the cover off (it has some horizontal openings in it), but that was my first time taking it off. OMG! That crap was SO thick and furry, I'm surprised my refrigerator still works at all! I could tell something was wrong because it wasn't really cold inside the refrigerator side and you could feel heat coming from the refrigerator when you walked past it.

Now it's not generating all that heat, the fridge is back to cooling inside like it's suppose to and so far I haven't needed a repairman. I wonder how much it was running up my utility bill because it was working so hard because it was so dirty back there.

I also just fussed at my daughter yesterday for running my washer and dryer just 1 or 2 pieces of clothing. Especially the dryer. I can look at my usage history online (it goes back 2 years) and accurately tell which months my daughter lived here or spent a lot of time here.

When I first saw this thread, I looked to see how many kwh I use. I've forgotten what it was though.

[Sam_2.0]

Pink - the same thing happens to your air conditioning unit. Some of it you can clean yourself, some you may need a service person to do. That will really save a bit!

[Iggy aka IG]

Jun 16, 2014 17:00:04 GMT -5 @patstab said:

Yes, I cleaned the dryer vent. It runs from the middle of the house out. I used a ceiling fan brush far in as I could reach. Then I ran a long piece of pipe in while it was running and got quite a bit of lint out of it.

We have not been here but a year so hard to compare. I do notice they were higher then last year at this time.

What bothers me is heat and air were both off and still that much.

I do use the dryer a lot, but supposed to be high efficiency. No I would love to have a clothes line. I wish hubby had time to put me one up. That 1300 was $147, plus $22 for security light, plus $12 for sales tax.

Pat, have you cleaned the vent outlet?  DH did that to ours last year, per my request, because I heard rustling noises.  Not only was there a lot of lint built up, the bird had begun to build it's nest in it. 

[Deleted]

Jun 17, 2014 13:50:49 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Pink - the same thing happens to your air conditioning unit. Some of it you can clean yourself, some you may need a service person to do. That will really save a bit!

Yeah, a friend of mine that does HVAC cleaned mine a couple years ago. He talked about me pretty badly, saying he'd never seen one that dirty.  He fussed pretty much the entire time. If the a/c system was as bad as or worse than the back of my refrigerator, I understand why he was fussing at me.

I change my a/c filters regularly, but I think part of the reason the a/c system and the back of the refrigerator were so dirty was because I had 2 large dogs living in my house for several years. The bullmastiff use to shed like crazy and the other dog was a standard poodle. Dog hair, dander and other assorted doggie dirt adds to the normal dust accumulation in out of the way places. 

[princessleia]

PatStab, Your dehumidifier and extra freezers (in the garage & basment) are the guzzlers. I once ran the dehumidifier along with my AC and my bill was double (of the month when AC runs alone). These days, I leave the vents open in the basement so that the AC or the furnace (whichever is running) get to it and it does a good job of dehumidifying it without me running the dehumidifier. On 'good' days, I leave the basement windows open to freshen up. 

Fyi, my latest electrical consumption is ¼ of yours (with some AC running). 

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Another thing to consider is that your fridge and freezer in the garage are going to be drawing more power than they would if they are in the house, especially now with the temps increasing.

They have to work harder to get temps to freezing from 90 deg than 75 deg.

[NoNamePerson]

How much do you pay per kw? Not much point in comparing since different power company and different rates. Mine is higher in summer mainly from use of a/c. But it can reach 500 a month and I wouldn't care as long as I am cool    But that would be offset by really low in winter since don't use a/c and/or heat very much.

[DagnyT]

My house is 2200 square feet and almost 12 years old. Great insulation and energy efficient appliances. Frig and washer/dryer are only 6 years old. That sounds close to ours when we don't use any heating and air conditioning. We are all electric.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Welcome, Dagny

[kadee79]

Ok, I had not noticed this thread before....sorry to be late to the party.

Last month, had 2 teenagers here for 3 weeks, 1 taking one shower a day and the other one taking 2 showers a day...they were in training for long distance running. 

That also meant cooking every night for me, full meals, no microwave stuff.

That meant extra laundry, about 6 loads a week more than my normal...and dryer....it's been too blasted hot out there to hang on the line, 100º+ with heat index from 115-120º!

This also meant that there were more lights on than usual and boy had a game hooked up to a tv normally not in use.

There were also 2 VERY spoiled little dogs that required baths and cooking special foods for them and extra dishes there...I was sometimes running my dishwasher twice a day with all of them.

We have A/C going all the time down here, too humid not to and also been way to hot.

We used 1676 kwh.

I have both front loading washer & dryer, I have a chest freezer, I have an upright freezer and while they were here we plugged in another refrigerator on the front porch to hold all their water & other sport drinks and some foods.

Some things we do to save under normal conditions, I hang out laundry, we have a timer on our water heater....no reason for it to cycle when hot water isn't needed like the middle of the night, we don't have a security light...we have motion activated lights on all corners of the house...I don't like lighting up the area for the thieves to see what they want!

We have 5 ceiling fans that we use when we are in those rooms, except the living room one stays on all the time.

We are all electric and since we built the house ourselves...it is WELL insulated!

[Sam_2.0]

Our new house is about 3,000 sq ft. From 7/18 to 8/18 we used 1,084 kWh. We have had a pretty mild summer here, but we keep the thermostat at 78 and use ceiling fans to circulate the air, and bump it up to 82 when we will be gone all day.

For comparison, last summer at our 900 sq ft house we used 1,088 kWh during the same time-frame.

So nice to have a newer, more efficient house and HVAC system! Our utilities are the same or even lower (water) at the new house as they were at the old one.

[Deleted]

1296 in July and 1144 in August.  3300 sq ft house.  A/C on 24 hours a day, set to 72.  gas stove, gas oven, gas hot water heater.