energy use

I got an e-mail from a friend today asking what our energy use was last month. They had just gotten their bill and it said they used. 1600Kwh and the bill was about $150. They were thinking that it was a bit much.
So, I looked at mine.
972 Kwh, and about $86. 8-) nearly 1/2 of my friends!
Finally PROOF that all my energy conservation efforts are not being wasted.

This person is someone who normally gives me a hard time about my "green" efforts, but had to admit to me this morning that he was impressed. :mrgreen:

So, how do I compare with y-all?

I am in South Dakota, in a 2400 square foot home. from 6-6 to 7-6 used 972 Kwh.
my green efforts are line drying laundry, all compact florescent bulbs, unplugging items I don't use, and no air conditioner.

my electric bill ranges from 25-30 dollars a month. I do use round the clock AC but I have it set to 78 and rarely go lower than that. But I don't use it year around, I usually run it from about mid April/May to mid September/October...it is for the most part, hot here year around but I prefer open windows unless it's really hot. I do use a dryer, run a dishwasher and haven't switched to flourescents yet, only because of the mercury rumors that surround them.
I live in a very energy efficient building and that is a huge plus.

Hmm, I'll have to check ours. I'd be curious now with our new geothermal system.

I think you also have to take into certain factors if you go by expense, being that different companies charge different prices - at least around here - depending on if you are on a co-op, live in town or on a country system. But going by usage would be the same.

We couldn't go w/o air conditioner. We did that for a week and everything in our cabinets melted. Literally. No joke. We are in a valley area, where it just doesn't get windy or a breeze like it does even 1/2 a mile down the road from us where my parents live (not in the valley area). I am always amazed at the temp difference at their house compared to ours and how much of a breeze they get that we don't. We are smack dab right out in the middle of the sun with no trees around our house to provide any shade.

you should seriously look into the florescent bulbs. From what I have seen the mercury rumors are blowing things way out of proportion, and it is my understanding (not being any sort of light bulb specialist) that MORE mercury is used in the production of conventional bulbs than is in CFLs. making them actually WORSE for the environment. Plus you can take the CFL's into nearly any home improvement store for disposal.

There is no way I could not use the A/C, when we were without power for 20 hours after a bad storm my fruit went bad on the counter! And that was before the temps we've had for the last month.

Anyway, we're about 2400 SF and our usage was 2534kw....I'm sure the majority of it is the constant A/C (doesn't even cool down enough at night to not use it, I think it's set at 78 though). My dryer conked out so I didn't use it at all in the last bill cycle. Makes me wonder though, we use all flourescent bulbs and I'm diligent about lights being turned off, using power strips for computer/printer and tv/dvd/wii etc but I'm sure there has to be a way to cut back.

holy WOW Mon. I wonder what is normal for people in your area.

We have been pretty lucky, i have been able to keep the windows open and keep the house fairly tolerable. We did use AC 3 days so far this summer, because the temps in the house were around 87. But generally, this summer our hot days put our indoor temp at 82 -ish by evening, then things cool down to the 70's at night.

it has been so cold and rainy here lately that I actually had to close the windows and put on a sweatshirt yesterday.

I'm VERY curious now, I'm going to have to ask both my neighbors.

I'd give anything to be cold right now.... It used to make me grouchy but now when I go to Walmart or the movies and it's freezing cold, I just relish it through my chattering teeth

I need to nag DH more about getting the house sealed up....I'm sure at least some part of our usage is total waste that gets leaked out. I noticed it for sure in the winter when I could feel the cool drafts and mentioned it but had forgotten about it when I couldn't feel it so much.

Our overnight lows have been "struggling" to get down to 80, after a 100+ day it doesn't even help, what've youroutdoor temps been?

the past couple days 68-72 ish.
today the high is 78. we haven't seen really anything higher than 85 more than 2 or 3 times all summer. We are having record lows, like 48 at night. its unheard of. we are usually in the high 90's low 100's this time of year.

Ryan said ours was 2398 kwh used - this was the last bill we got before putting in the geothermal. We won't get that bill until next month. We had 2 weeks of 95 degree heat in that month. Our house is about 2400 sq feet - house is only 9 years old too so our house is pretty tight. We keep the air at 75.

I usually do not use my dryer in the summer months, but I've had to more than normal this summer due to rain, etc. Otherwise we use the airdry system, as well as we try to use all the new bulbs, turning lights off when we don't need them, etc. Heck Dh would just sit in the dark all the time if he could, lol. We do use our dishwasher almost daily, though. All our appliances are energy efficient, etc.

I know most of my neighbors use more than what we use. They keep their houses like freezers!!!

Again, I'm curious to see how ours will be when we get the new bill for the geothermal system. I've definitely noticed the meter outside not spinning as fast as it used to.

ETA: DH just sent me what we've used this year each month. January must have been COLD

January 3592
February 2166
March 1855
April 1805
May 1952
June 2693
July 2398

This post has been edited by coasterqueen on Jul 21 2009, 11:05 AM

Karen, your house sounds comparable to mine, about the same size, age etc.
Just our of curiosity, do you close your window shades in the summer? We have south facing windows, so we get TONS of sun in esp. in the winter time, which is great because that passive solar really helps, but it sure heats up the house in the summer time. I close the blinds on the south side, but it also hinders with the breeze.

Our bill was high this month, but my fault, AC really could have been set higher I was just trying to keep DH comfortable during the day while sleeping.

Last month 2004
Month before 1156

2000 sq. ft house, and heat just about like Monica's so our AC runs a lot.

We have those curtains/shades that have the panels on back to keep heat/sun out. They are closed 24/7.....unfortunately. I'd LOVE to have the sun in my house at all times, but DH likes them closed 24/7 for the reason of keeping the heat out.

BTW, are you all electric at your house?

We have those curtains/shades that have the panels on back to keep heat/sun out. They are closed 24/7.....unfortunately. I'd LOVE to have the sun in my house at all times, but DH likes them closed 24/7 for the reason of keeping the heat out.

BTW, are you all electric at your house?

we have duel fuel, so it switches from gas to electric automatically. I used 2 units ( what ever they are) of gas last month, the bill was like $8. we apparently use gas in the winter and electric in the summer.

We have those curtains/shades that have the panels on back to keep heat/sun out. They are closed 24/7.....unfortunately. I'd LOVE to have the sun in my house at all times, but DH likes them closed 24/7 for the reason of keeping the heat out.

BTW, are you all electric at your house?

we have duel fuel, so it switches from gas to electric automatically. I used 2 units ( what ever they are) of gas last month, the bill was like $8. we apparently use gas in the winter and electric in the summer.

Ah. I was just asking because Ryan said make sure I was comparing apples to apples as if you use propane or natural gas, that can make a difference as well.

So all your appliances are electric or are they propane/natural gas? All our appliances are electric.

That's weird, I've never heard of using one at one time and another at another. I know those around us who use gas stoves, water heater, etc - you are using electricity and gas all year round. If you have all electric appliances around here, but use your furnace, you are still using both, but no gas during the months you aren't using a furnace. With our geothermal now we use no propane at all, which is nice.

This post has been edited by coasterqueen on Jul 21 2009, 11:34 AM

We have those curtains/shades that have the panels on back to keep heat/sun out. They are closed 24/7.....unfortunately. I'd LOVE to have the sun in my house at all times, but DH likes them closed 24/7 for the reason of keeping the heat out.

BTW, are you all electric at your house?

we have duel fuel, so it switches from gas to electric automatically. I used 2 units ( what ever they are) of gas last month, the bill was like $8. we apparently use gas in the winter and electric in the summer.

Ah. I was just asking because Ryan said make sure I was comparing apples to apples as if you use propane or natural gas, that can make a difference as well.

So all your appliances are electric or are they propane/natural gas? All our appliances are electric.

That's weird, I've never heard of using one at one time and another at another. I know those around us who use gas stoves, water heater, etc - you are using electricity and gas all year round. If you have all electric appliances around here, but use your furnace, you are still using both, but no gas during the months you aren't using a furnace. With our geothermal now we use no propane at all, which is nice.

I don't really know how it works. All I know is that in the summer time our gas bill is always $8.00 (I figured it was just the base cost to have it directed to our house, ) and our electric bill is usually near $100 or so, and in the winter it flips. The electric is usually really low, and the gas is near $100 or so. we have electric appliances.

Ok Karen, you made me feel a little better

My washing machine is not energy efficient but is getting replaced in the next few weeks, and I never close the blinds on the south side of the house. I'm curious to see how much difference those two things make...might even line dry after I get my new dryer just for the comparison sake.

eta: I also run the ceiling fans and two regular fans 24/7 in the kids' rooms upstairs. Otherwise, it would be way too hot for them to even think about going up there. On nights it's too hot to even make them sleep up there I do turn them off though.

Our last bill was well over $300, it'd be great to knock some of that off.

This post has been edited by luvmykids on Jul 21 2009, 03:02 PM

I am in PA, in about 1,000 sq ft, and ours was 912 kwh. Probably a bit high for a house of our side, but we are guilty of having the TV or music on all day long and the A/C running most of the time.

My usage was 2268 from 6-4 to 7-6.

I live in the deep south where we've been having REALLY hot days for weeks so the ac runs most of the time, although I do keep it higher during the day since we arent home.

I live in about a 2500 sq foot home and we also have a 600 sq foot "man house" in the yard that DH and I hang out in a lot & it uses power when we run the ac.

Oh and my husband keeps it WAY too cold. I am currently in sweatpants and a blanket in JULY bc "its too hot"

I also have 6 people living in my home and my dishwasher and washer and dryer and TV run A LOT And I try to keep the lights off but the kids arent too great about remembering. We have soooo much laundry and frankly I dont have the time or energy for outdoor laundry and even if I did, DH would never go for it, he hates the way it makes the clothes feel, even when you "fluff" them.

The month before that was 1780, then 1544, 1598, over 3000 both months before that...

The lowest it ever has been was April 08 and it was just over 1k Wonder why it was so low?? It was probably a really mild month and I was able to get away with barely running the AC.

We get our energy bill every 95 days. I just checked our last bill, we used 740kwh for the 95 days.

Wow ours is a lot lower than I thought, compared to last August we used 2353 last August of 2008 and since we've had such mild temps this year we only used from 7/11-8/10 1995kwh. Back in February we only used 792 and we have a 2600 total square foot house (includes basement finished side). We keep the A/C and heat on all the time too so I guess our house is pretty energy efficient. Our bill was only $143 this month. I saw my gas usage we only used 19ccf this month, anyone notice gas usage. Back in the colder months we used between 110-154ccf...guess because our heat is gas heat! WOW! I never paid much attention Tara