Patriotic Stabilist
Platinum Member
We read and looked into solar and decided anything out there wasn't cost effictive. So we just made our home tighter, and more energy efficient. We upgraded the AC and now our gas furnace is going on 16 years old I'm going to price one of the new ones that are 95% efficient. There are a lot of ways to cut utility usage through conventional means, and at this time are much less expensive. I don't see alternatives as being affordable and having a decent payback time yet.
My electric usages the last 4 months are 709,801,832, and 630 kwh's, they, in the past had been as high as 2500 kwh's per month in the summer. Now we likely won't have AC on till June or July with the Tech Shield and I lower the furnace temp to 69 at night and use an electric blanket in the winter, that made a huge difference in amount of propane used. The first bill is December and I have 300 foot of Christmas lights down my fence that I leave lit 24/7. In the past the bill was over $200, a couple years back I changed to all LED bulbs and it hardly adds anything to the bill, amazing.
We went from usage over 8 years ago of 22,500 kwh's a year to around 10,000+. This was due to adding insulation, Tech Shield roof decking, and new appliances over a period of several years. New exterior doors and frames, the steel core doors. Front load W/D showed a dramatic change, over 40% less water, detergent, and way less electric. A large double door fridge that is HE, along with the dishwasher. My stove, water heater, and furnace are gas. Have reduced those usages also, last year just 3 tanks. We have a 2000 sq ft house, lots of windows with dual pane, low E glass, 5 TV's, yeah, I know, 2 to 3 computers on most of the time. I also sealed all openings, not weep holes of course, with caulk and our 35 year old house is pretty tight. Of the TV's 3 are the flat screen wall mounted, they use little. 1 is a small one in my sewing and ironing room, the other is an older flat screen larger TV in the living room. I went to all the lower use light bulbs in everything. The last upgrade we can do is the furnace. We are adding DD her own bathroom and she will have a small electric water heater for that so I expect that to raise our bill, also that room, and my new closet will add some sq footage to heat and cool, so I expect some increase. And of course hubby says our water well pump uses quite a bit. But doing these things made more sense to us and we have seen dramatic decreases in our bills even with rising prices.
My electric usages the last 4 months are 709,801,832, and 630 kwh's, they, in the past had been as high as 2500 kwh's per month in the summer. Now we likely won't have AC on till June or July with the Tech Shield and I lower the furnace temp to 69 at night and use an electric blanket in the winter, that made a huge difference in amount of propane used. The first bill is December and I have 300 foot of Christmas lights down my fence that I leave lit 24/7. In the past the bill was over $200, a couple years back I changed to all LED bulbs and it hardly adds anything to the bill, amazing.
We went from usage over 8 years ago of 22,500 kwh's a year to around 10,000+. This was due to adding insulation, Tech Shield roof decking, and new appliances over a period of several years. New exterior doors and frames, the steel core doors. Front load W/D showed a dramatic change, over 40% less water, detergent, and way less electric. A large double door fridge that is HE, along with the dishwasher. My stove, water heater, and furnace are gas. Have reduced those usages also, last year just 3 tanks. We have a 2000 sq ft house, lots of windows with dual pane, low E glass, 5 TV's, yeah, I know, 2 to 3 computers on most of the time. I also sealed all openings, not weep holes of course, with caulk and our 35 year old house is pretty tight. Of the TV's 3 are the flat screen wall mounted, they use little. 1 is a small one in my sewing and ironing room, the other is an older flat screen larger TV in the living room. I went to all the lower use light bulbs in everything. The last upgrade we can do is the furnace. We are adding DD her own bathroom and she will have a small electric water heater for that so I expect that to raise our bill, also that room, and my new closet will add some sq footage to heat and cool, so I expect some increase. And of course hubby says our water well pump uses quite a bit. But doing these things made more sense to us and we have seen dramatic decreases in our bills even with rising prices.
