Electrical usage for your house???

[EddieWalker]

My electrical bill has always been on the high side and I'm really wondering if I'm using more electricity then normal. It's almost like there is a motor or something running 24/7 that's running the meter, but I don't know what it could be.

Last month, I used 2,632 kWh. I was in a mobile home last week and they used 892 kWh for the same month. Their mobile home is bigger then my house, but I find it hard to believe that they have better insulation or a more energy efficient AC unit. My home is new and all my appliences are energy star, which are also new.

From looking at my yearly chart, I average over 2,000 kWh per month over the course of the year. November, December and May are my low usage months, but they are still over 1,800 kWh per month and I know we're not using the AC then. For whatever reason, Jan was almost 2,300 kWh. We have electric heat, but never use the heater from the HVAC system. We plug in small space heaters to heat the family room, when we're in there, but turn them off at night and during the day. Winter is just two months long here and it's not that cold during the day. We found that the bill was $100 less per month by heating this way.

If I knew how many kWh other people use, and it's allot less then what I'm uisng, then I think there is a problem, and will search for it. If you use the same or more, then it's just what I'll have to live with, or work on ajusting our lifestyle and energy use.

We just got hit with a $6,000 suprise for orthodontic work, plus an unknown amount for oral surgery before the orthadontist can even begin his work. It's time to cut spending and save money to get her teeth fixed.

How many kWh do you use in a month and how big is your house?

Thank you.
Eddie

[billbill1]

The wife and I live in a 1500 sf home, you have two more people in your home. Our hot water is propane, everything else is electric. We run the AC 24/7. Last month we used 1332 kwh and the year before was 1519 kwh.

[rus_geek]

Your post got me to thinking. I've never looked at my electric bill in terms of KWH for the month, so I had no idea what that number would be. Turns out my most recent month was 273 KWH. Back in February, it was 434KWH.

The house is about 5,000sf, but we don't have central air, and use propane for heat and hot water, so I may not be a good case study for you. But we're still running lights, ceiling fans, furnace and wood stove blowers, oven, fridge, freezer, garage doors, computers, printers, occasional power tools, etc.

-rus-

[billbill1]

One other thing, that hot tub uses a lot of electric.

[dmccarty]

Eddie,

Also ask how many CUBIC feet are in the house. And how many windows. What temperature do they keep the house. How many lights? What type and wattage of lights. Well, there are lots of variables here.

I would have to look up my usage at home since I have tracked the power usage every month since we moved into the house. I can't tell you exactly but our power costs 10 cents per KWH including fees and taxes. Our power bill averages $112ish though this year might be a bit higher because we had to use the heat pump this winter.

At average of $112 would mean 1100 KWH hours. I think we had a bill of $179 so call it 1800 KWH hours. We have had 900 KWH months.

The house is 2,400 sf feet with 10 foot ceilings and LOTS of windows and doors. The windows and doors kills our AC bill. We also have 80+ can insulated can lights in the house. All running 22ish watt flourescent lights. We use a lot of lights. Each of the bedrooms has four can lights but they only consume what one 100 watt incandescent would use so its not so bad. If we had four incandescents it would make a difference.

We heat with wood so windows/doors does not matter so much. In the summer we will let the temp go to 82ish on the thermostat which is right above the TV. I really screwed up placing the Tstat in that spot. The rest of the house will be 78-80.

Our city house was 1250 sf with only enough 36x72 METAL windows to meet code, i.e., one window per bedroom. The power bill there was the same as our new house which is twice the size and well over twice the size in cubic feet. AND we have to power the well.

You have kids. I would look at the clothes washer and dryer. Don't you have "city" water? If so the power to the well is out. We got a front loading clothes washer and that cut our water bill drastically. I would guess it helped our power bill since the clothes were wrung out dryer as well. Our power bill would be higher if we had our old top loader since it required more loads to wash the same amount of clothes AND much more water.

Hot water is a big expense if it is electric.

Maybe an HVAC motor is running all of the time?

I really can't think what would cause that high of a bill unless you are keep the house at 60 degrees in the summer.

I used to used to heat the oil on my truck during he winter when the temps got into the 30's. The truck would start but with a 15w40 oil it was not a happy sound. Switching to a 5w40/0w40 was much better. The truck heater is think is 1500 watts and it takes 3 hours to warm up the engine. 4500 watts is 4.5 KWH which is 45 cents. Not much but if I did this 20 days a month that is $9. 9 dollars a month in of it self is not much but if the power bill is $100 that is 10%! $9 a month over the winter can buy me a lot of expensive synthetic motor oil!

So maybe you have something running that is not that big of a deal but its adding up. Do you have new fridges and freezers? I know that most powered devices today draw power when turned off but I don't see how that is causing your bill to be so high. Big wattage outside lights? Or lots of high wattage incandescent indoor lights?

Later,
Dan

[dmccarty]

Forgot to add that you can get the kill a watt meters to check power usages on devices. There are devices you can stick on circuits as well but they are more money.

Saw the post about the hot tub....

If that bad boy is staying warm all of the time and/or being use with the jets, I think we have a clue.

Might be time to get a solar hot water heater! In NC they give me 35% of my money back and the Feds another 30%.

Later,
Dan

[BarryinMN]

2000 SF house here, shed etc. 288 KWH avg it peaks in the Fall at 600 KWH as I run a 220V space heater instead of lighting the propane boiler. Propane HW as well. The house is energy star appliances, CFL lights and front load W/D.

It has an AC but I pick the hot afternoons to bush hog with the air conditioned tractor

[EddieWalker]

Thanks, it's shocking the difference in usage!!! I'm using twice as much electricity or more!!

I have an electric water heater,but changed it a few months ago without any change in our usage.

The hot tub is drained and the circuit breakers are turned off.

The house is 1,000 sq feet with 8 ft ceilings except the family room, which has 11ft ceiling at the peak. There are a total of five windows in the house. Each bedroom has a double pained 3040 window, the kitchen is a 2030 and the family room has a 5040 window. The house is well insulated and shouldn't be very hard to hear or cool. Those space heaters work great and after we take off the chill, will often just have one on to keep us comfortable. The AC is set for 78 most of the time, but Steph does get hot and will lower it to 74. I know that uses more power, but it's not extreme and it shouldn't be adding that much to my energy usage.

My dad is staying in his RV behind us, but the difference in usage from when he's not here to when he is here is minimal and I've accounted for that.

I have a refrigerator and a freezer in my shop that are running 24/7. There was a refrigerator that we had in there that we thought might be using allot of electricity, but it died and for a few months, we just had the freezer going without any noticable change in energy usage. Now with a new fridge, there still isn't any significant change in our usage.

It seems to me that we have these things that should use a normal amount of electricity, but somehow, we're using twice as much as we should, probably three times as much, but I don't know that for sure. It does seem that something is burning allot of power in this house and I don't have a clue what it is.

Could the heat pump or HVAC system be using it all up? What would you look for or how would you test it?

Thank you,
Eddie

[MossRoad]

Eddie,
Have you thought about buying one of those kill-a-watt devices and testing everything to see how much power each device? I'm thinking of getting one myself.

I don't look closely at the bills, as my wife pays them. I will try to start. I know we use way more electricity in the summer than in the winter. In winter we only have a furnace fan. In summer it is the fan + the air conditioner compressor, plus the attic vent fan, plus the swimming pool pump, plus the salt water chlorine generator, plus the kids are home during the summer and running the computers, T.V., stereo, room fans, guitar amp, game consoles, etc... I think we save money by sending them off to school!

[MossRoad]

Here are some links to the kill a watt things I'm talking about.

Amazon.com: P3 International P4480 Kill-A-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor with Electronic Graphic Timer: Electronics

Amazon.com: P3 International P4460 Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor: Electronics