Electricity Price Increases

[WinterDeere]

It just seems crazy now given everything is "energy star compliant", all super low wattage LED lighting, etc, yet the average consumer uses more. It's got to be all the gadgets and chargers plugged in these days that add up.

I also see people being much more flippant with their energy usage, thanks to the impression that things like LED's don't use enough energy to even worry about. Neighbors never used to leave their outside lights on all day, in the days of incandesecent, but now several do! No one left a CRT burning all day with no one watching it, but now many do with OLED's and other flat-panel displays.

Also, our parents had one refrigerator, one TV... and maybe one computer. I have six refrigerators, more TV's than I care to count (10?... maybe?), and I'm looking at 6 stationary computer monitors and 3 laptops right now.

 

[JTKub]

How big is your refrigerator? Those big side by sides seem to use a lot of power.
Conversely I have found that my freezers use very little power. Only one is running now, but deer season starts soon.
They are kept relatively full and only opened a couple of times per week, so the temp remains constant. They also are not self defrosting, a feature which I believe takes a fair amount of power to run.

Fridge is a pretty basic Whirlpool unit from about 2012. Bottom freezer. I blow the coils out and clean under it somewhat regularly. The little chest freezer in the basement is ~20yrs old.

 

[JTKub]

I also see people being much more flippant with their energy usage, thanks to the impression that things like LED's don't use enough energy to even worry about. Neighbors never used to leave their outside lights on all day, in the days of incandesecent, but now several do! No one left a CRT burning all day with no one watching it, but now many do with OLED's and other flat-panel displays.

Also, our parents had one refrigerator, one TV... and maybe one computer. I have six refrigerators, more TV's than I care to count (10?... maybe?), and I'm looking at 6 stationary computer monitors and 3 laptops right now.

Truth on that. I see so many businesses and commercial properties where they retrofitted or swapped out all their outdoor lighting to obnoxiously bright LED fixtures and seemingly doubled the number of them. I swear you could see some of these places from space. Out in the country-ish where I live, it's not that big of a deal, but there are residences nearby that are all it up because of this.

Then on the flip side of that, the power company changed out all the roadway lighting to LED 3-4yrs back and these lights don't do squat out in the country.

 

[Oaktree]

Also, our parents had one refrigerator, one TV... and maybe one computer. I have six refrigerators, more TV's than I care to count (10?... maybe?), and I'm looking at 6 stationary computer monitors and 3 laptops right now.

When I bought my first house in the mid 70s, I don't think I used more than 60-70 kwh/mo. It was a fairly small house (under 1000 sf), I was single at the time and we didn't have all the electronic gadgetry we have today.

It's got to be all the gadgets and chargers plugged in these days that add up.

So-called "vampire power usage" is a real thing. Almost everything today uses at least a few Watts (and some considerably more) even when turned off/not running, and it adds up.

 

[gsganzer]

I also see people being much more flippant with their energy usage, thanks to the impression that things like LED's don't use enough energy to even worry about. Neighbors never used to leave their outside lights on all day, in the days of incandesecent, but now several do! No one left a CRT burning all day with no one watching it, but now many do with OLED's and other flat-panel displays.

Also, our parents had one refrigerator, one TV... and maybe one computer. I have six refrigerators, more TV's than I care to count (10?... maybe?), and I'm looking at 6 stationary computer monitors and 3 laptops right now.

I'm constantly following my wife around turning off lights or TV's. She'll leave the TV on 16- 18 hours a day, just for background noise. Or, she thinks she turns the TV off, but it's actually still on.

I was raised to turn off a light when you leave a room. We also line dried our clothes and just threw them in the dryer to fluff them.

 

[lman]

Whoa! I'm happy when we only use 10x that!

View attachment 4287265

Oh, and we heat the house with wood and oil, not electric!

Wow, we have an all electric residence and only use about half of that with geothermal heat.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm trying to figure out how I use so much @ ~600-800kwh per month.

Gas stove, gas heat, gas dryer, gas water heater. One refrigerator, one small chest freezer in the basement. City water, so no pumps. ~2800sq/ft home, with 5 people. No a/c aside from one window shaker in the master bedroom that hasn't been used in a month or so.

Home I grew up 2400 square feet, single pane windows scant insulation with electric cooking and dryer…

Pretty much 10kWh day in day out summer and winter… no A/C

 

[ponytug]

How big is your refrigerator? Those big side by sides seem to use a lot of power.
Conversely I have found that my freezers use very little power. Only one is running now, but deer season starts soon.
They are kept relatively full and only opened a couple of times per week, so the temp remains constant. They also are not self defrosting, a feature which I believe takes a fair amount of power to run.

Yes, not having self defrosting will save a lot of energy, and your frozen items will store better as they aren't being warmed by the automatic self defrosting.

I think it is worth remembering that older refrigerators and freezers use quite a bit more power than newer ones. When we last replaced our fridge, our power usage dropped by half. (Ok, it was pretty old, as in 25 years old.)

@WinterDeere how do you use so many refrigerators?

All the best,

Peter

 

[kenmbz]

I thought I was bad with 3 refrigerators in two locations.

 

[Jstpssng]

I thought I was bad with 3 refrigerators in two locations.

I have 3 full sized freezers but it's been a few years since all 3 were running. On the other hand the only reason I have a full sized fridge is because it was a scratch and dent priced accordingly. The only damage I can find is a quarter sized dent in one panel... that's where my calendar hangs.