Electric Bill Comparison

[magic clean]

FPL not too bad....yet

For total electric 2500 sq. ft. home 8-3 through 9-1. a/c @ 77f, 24/7. $204.66 for 2108 kwh. 6-8 loads or laundry per week, 4-5 dishwasher loads per week, with light cooking. Meaning cooktop and oven in use less than an hour daily. Utility is warning that rates will go up thanks to hurricanes and increased production costs etc.

 

[westtexman]

Hot West Texas Weather . . .

For my 2 bedroom/2 bathroom duplex (1110 sq. ft), my utilities were:

Gas (Furnace and Water Heater):

8/4/05-9/7/05
$24.97

Electric & Water (On same bill) (8/16/05-9/19/05)

Electric:
Previous Reading: 90211
Present Reading: 91800
Consumption: 1589 KWH
Sub-Total $139.03

Water: $16.83
Taxes, Fees, Sewage and Garbage: $29.79

Total Bill: $185.65

Total Utilities: $210.62

What's sad about this is I'm single, live alone, and I'm NEVER home! I keep my A/C at 70 degrees all day long. I guess I need to start adjusting the thermostat when I leave the house every morning.

Tex

 

[jaxsunst]

Tex,
Programmable thermostats are the best thing I ever put in the house. It turns the air conditioning up to 85 when we are not there and the heat down to 60. I have them set to go to normal temps about a hour before we get home. It works really well, and I noticed a big drop in the power bill the first month after I installed them.

 

[petek]

Geeze I can't believe how little electricity I'm using compared to everyone else. I don't have a/c so that may be a good part of it. How many of you have converted most if not all of your lighting to compact fluoresents etc? I like the fact that I can have about 4 or 5 of them turned on for the consumption of about 1 75watt regular light bulb.

 

[toggleswitch]

Nothiong like a programmable clock-thermostat.

Bryan / Tex:

70*F all day? OMG my bills woudl be astronomical!

Summer:
Mine is at 77*F when occupied and 85*F when not.
Dehumidifier runs in basement spring, summer and fall 10pm to 10am. (It gets cool here at night but the high humidity makes if feel like "H" "E" double hockey stix.)

Winter:
Settings are 70*F when occupied and 60*F when not.
The basement is kept at 64*F all winter to keep the floors warm. (and the birds alive!) Luckily my house doesn't need much heat till it gets below 40*F

 

[DADoES]

Thermostats

I've had a programmable 'stat for YEARS. Added a retro-fit for the Honeywell "Round One" at my first apt. It had very primitive programming, but worked well enough. Put the original back when I moved out, still have that programmable stashed in a drawer somewhere.

Then installed a deluxe White-Rodgers at my first house. Liked that one a lot. It allowed the blower to be programmed for on or auto in each setback period. Gave it to my sister when I replaced the A/C system with a Lennox heat pump, which required a specific 'stat for being a heat pump.

New house has a programmable Carrier on the heat pump.

And yes, contrary to popular belief, setback thermostats CAN be used with heat pumps, if they are specific for that application. Those 'stats have a special ramp-up recovery function that raises the heat temp slowly over about 1.5 to 1 hour time so as to not trigger the auxiliary unnecessarily. I found (in both cases of old house and new house) that the auxiliary still was triggering for a short time at the end of the recovery period. But ... Lennox and Carrier have an optional outdoor temp sensor that serves both to display the outdoor temp on the 'stat, and to lock-out the auxiliary unless the ambient is lower than a specific (adjustable) temperature. So that solved that issue.

 

[toggleswitch]

That's really using power....

Venus:

Just HOW big is your unit?

4543 KWH
divided by 30 days is
151.43 KWH per day.
divided by 24 hours, that is 6.31 KWH per hour.

YOU ARE USING AN AVERAGE OF 6,310 watts per hour. Constantly.

6,310 watts divided by 220 volts is 28.68 amps so figure a double pole 30-amp line.

*GULP*

 

[DADoES]

Maybe she's keeping the RCI-59 hot-and-ready 24/7?

 

[gansky1]

Maybe it's Austin using the dishwashers, washers and vacuums!

 

[westtexman]

Can't Wait For Winter!

Toggle:

I used to live in a much bigger, older house (with poor insulation) before moving to the duplex. There, I would HAVE to keep the thermostat at 76 degrees during the summer, and even then my electric bill was close to $300/month from about June to September.

DADoES/jaxsunst: Thanks for the advice. I have thought about getting a programmable thermostat, but have hesitated because I am currently renting. I think it would save quite a bit of money, however, to do so, so I just may go to Home Depot this weekend and check them out.

TBH, I am VERY READY for winter. I only turn my heater on MAYBE 10 times during the winter. The rest of the time my house stays between 60-65 degrees, which is PERFECT for me. I'd much rather sit under a blanket or wear a sweater in the winter as opposed to turning the heater on. The summer, however, is a different story. This big boy NEEDS A/C! If I had my way, I would keep it around 65 in the summer, but that would be just a tad too expensive! (Okay, maybe a LITTE more than a TAD!)

Tex

 

[DADoES]

Venus, you're using THREE TIMES more power than I am, and I have electric water heating. You have three more people in the house (and some critters), but geeeze and sheesh!

Tex, your system can keep 70°F in Texas August? You may want to reconsider a setback 'stat, recovery back to 70°F could be a challenge.

 

[parunner58]

OK all,

Here are the cost from Easton PA, oposite side of the state from Pittsburgh.

This is what the entire summer cost was and it was a hot summer here ( we cool our house to 74 degrees in summer. I have a two bedroom ranch with a full basement and it is fully heated and central air on main floor and basment/garage (each level is 26 feet by 44 feet built in 1955). the furnace 2yrs old (gas) water heater 11 yrs (gas) central air 5 yr with Puron not freon. We had an electric water heater and repalced it and cut the electric bill in half. We have all thermal doors and windows. I have no idea how much insulation is in the walls.

Electric bill (stove, ac, lights and 3 TV's)
5/10 - 6/10 $36.91
6/10 - 7/10 $52.15
7/10 - 8/10 $88.29
8/10 - 9/10 $72.64

Gas (heat, dryer and hot water, we are on the 12 month budget Sep to August)
6/19 - $101
7/19 - $101
8/21 - $159($101 for budget & $58 for furnace maint contract)
9/20 - $120 ( budget went up $19 for the new season )

Water is quarterly
Mar, Apr, May - $26.50 (7 wash loasds and 4 dish loads per wk)
Jun, Jul, Aug - $42.40 (daugher home from college, mom re-washed everythig she brought home, washed more dishes and more showers)

Sewer is based on home much water you use
May, Jun, Jul - $76.37

 

[DADoES]

EEEEWWWWOOOOO!! $100+ for gas during summer months!

 

[westtexman]

I've always heard.....

That if you adjust the thermostat too high during the day, then it does use quite a bit of energy to recover. I guess I could always go back to 76*F even when I'm home, but to be honest, I work HARD and enjoy the little luxary of having cool air in my house. For now it's worth the expense, but I'm planning to buy a house soon, and I'm sure at that point I will have to reconsider.

Glenn - What temperature is your thermastat set during the day? What about the evening?

I LOVE being a Texan, but perhaps it would be nice to live one summer somewhere up north, where is it not SO HOT!

Tex

 

[parunner58]

Dadoes,

That is not what gas we use durning the summer it is being built up for the winter, it is being accumulated in our account to go towards paying the winter heating bill. if we were on the 10 month budget, in the summer it would be either no bill in July or just say $17. We just opted to splitting it up in 12 month installments. The $120 is just an estimate. If it is a warm winter in Jan they usually reduce it and it they feel we will come up short in the late winter they will increase it.

 

[jmm63]

And here in the lovely Garden State of New Jersey.........

September electric = 951 kw = $124.62
August electric = 1169kw =$154.85
July electric = 1095kw =$146.80

We cool our 2500sf house with 4 window units (2 built in + 2 windows) and several well placed fans. The house is always comfortable, and it was a scorcher here in the East this year. Now GAS is another story. 30 year old hot water boiler (3 zones at least) but LOTS of insulation in the attic as of last fall

January Gas = 298cf = $359.76
Thats about what we average in the cold months, the rest of the year its not much, only gas dryer and water heater.

 

[toggleswitch]

Be an Energy-star!

Tex:

Clock-thermostats are now very inexpensive.

Thermistors (themal sensitive transistors) instead of mercury in a tube.

Lately of the electronic type, "LUX" brand are doing better here than "Honeywell".

If you have a heat-pump you will need a special one and it will cost more, but still very reasonable.

 

[jaxsunst]

I have a "LUX" downstars, it is just electric heat and air, and a "Hunter" upstairs for the heat pump. Neither one was expensive, I do remember that the heat pump did cost quite a bit more, but it paid for itself years ago. I think I got them at Lowe's.

 

[48bencix]

Sacramento California costs

Electric includes hot water
July Highest cooling load
1106 kwh
$131

Aug
868 kwh
$92

Sept Fairly typical month (no cooling, no heating)
726 kwh
$70

Gas Typical no heating just runs dryer and central heat
4 therms
$6.00
Highest month last year January
104 Therms
$130

I have municipal electric (SMUD) and investor owned gas (PG&E. Don't try to figure out the price per kwh, they charge us 8.7 cents for the first 700, then 15 for the next 300 then 16.8, to try to encourage conservation, plus there is a $5.00 monthly charge and taxes.

My home is 1800 sq. ft. and I am running a pool filter and spa. I am the only one here during the week, on the weekends my partner drives up from the Bay Area, where he works. So that's part of the reason it's fairly low. I manually adjust the thermo to OFF when I'm not here. In the summer it may get up to 85 if it's 100 outside, so I turn it down to about 78 when I get home and I sleep with it at 75. I expect the gas to go up at least 50% this winter, and plan to keep it OFF when I'm not here, and set to about 62 and less at night, unless my partner is here then maybe 65. I will be using an electric bed pad to heat the bed, turn it off when I go to bed.

I do make an effort to keep lights off in rooms that I'm not using. I have fluorescent bulbs (3-way) in my Great Room where I watch TV. I also keep my satellite system switched off with a power strip. (It uses 25 watts or 18 kwh per month if kept on). In the kitchen I usually only have a 15 watt fluorescent over the sink and 60 watt light over the stove on. But I do use all of my appliances, washers (top loaders), dryer, dishwasher, vacuum, and most of our meals are cooked and eaten here.

 

[DADoES]

Tex,

82°F from 10:45 AM to 11:45 PM, Mon-Thu. 10:45 AM to 6 PM Fri.
77°F rest of the time. No change on Sat & Sun. 5°F difference, not that much of a setback (setup?), really. I should go another degree or two. Sometimes I nudge it down a degree or two for sleeping if I'm feeling stuffy, particularly when the weather is mild and there's less run-time for humidity control. I loved, loved, loved the two-speed Lennox at my old house. Excellent for humidity control.

Winter temps are 60°F and 70°F.

As I understand the general rule, larger temp changes for setback and longer time periods always make for more savings, even if there's a somewhat long run-time for recovery. As the indoor temp creeps more toward a balance with the ambient, there's less indoor/outdoor differential and less run-time. If the ambient is 100°F, it takes less run-time to hold an indoor of 86°F than 80°F. Turning the system completely off would garner the greatest savings ... but most people are reluctant to do that. Long run-times for recovery are actually more efficient than short-cycling, keeps the gasses and air flowing.

I can't imagine running 70°F inside when it's 102°F out! Do you actually get 70°F or does the indoor temp creep up a bit during the day and settle back down at night? I have no point of reference for how long a recovery from 82°F to 70°F would take. Only way to tell is try it. Even raising to 78°F would be of some benefit. If your system has to run continuously to hold 70°F, it'd likely cycle on/off at 78°F.