We moved in on June 1. We *just* received our first bill for 2.5 months of electric.
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$30.46
I thought surely this couldn't be correct but I checked the Kwh and the dates and it is. WOW! I was worried that the $120 I set aside for the bill wouldn't be enough. Now I have extra to boot over to savings.
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and I will refrain from saying how much I envy you... our electric bill for 2 months is significantly higher
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My last bill was $320. I want to know what you did Now that does include our water since we're on a well, and we do have an irrigation system (gotta keep the grass nice to sell the house!!), but I figure that those only account for maybe $50 of the bill.
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What's plugged in?
Kitchen: Stove, fridge (small but ancient), vitamix, toaster. One CFL. Occasionally the crockpot.
Dining Room: Small freezer, one CFL.
Living Room: One-two CFL's (usually just one), energy star laptop, small printer (rarely on). Occasionally the battery charger.
Hall: One CFL. Rarely turned on.
Bathroom: One CFL. Occasionally DH's hair clippers.
Kid's Room: One CFL, radio, fan while they are in there, fiber optic nightlight.
DH & My Room: One CFL, fan while we're in there, energy conserving alarm clock.
The fans are moved into the living room when it's hot.
Whole house: Air conditioner. We run it 0-3 times a day for 2-5 minutes each time. Within two minutes the apartment is significantly cooler.
Power tools: Lots. LOL Not used everyday but enought to make a difference.
What we don't have: washer & dryer, hairblower, extra kitchen gadgets (wish I could toss the toaster!), electronic toys, electronic gadgets (I could do w/o tv, but dh enjoys it). Double computers, televisions, etc. We have an iron but it's very seldomly used.
We put blankets over the windows when the sun is shining directly on them. HUGE difference in temperature. Turning on a light is less expensive than turning on the air conditioner.
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Very cool! Thanks for posting that. Our usage is down to 920 KwH. We do have a washer, propane dryer (but still uses elec), hot water heater (propane but still uses elec), old upright freezer in the basement, satellite receivers for tv, one tiny tv and one projector, radio, satellite radio receiver, laptop plus desktop (desk is rarely on) and some non-CFL track lighting in the living room. Otherwise pretty much the same as you. Oh and we have a fan + light in the bathroom - when the light is on the fan is on, always. I hate that!
I don't even know what it all means, but I looked up our kWh consumption and it says from July 5th until August 2nd we used 199? So our daily average is 7 kWh daily. I guess we're doing pretty well because our equal monthly payments are just $41 monthly!
Kerri
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Gawd, so why the heck is ours 920? Ack. Dh just disabled some of the electricity to the chicken coop...poor wiring and arcing can use up electric and we have to wonder if that's some of our usage...when we moved to this house our usage doubled.
I just realized your 320 KwH is for 2.5 months! Holy cow! You should be very, very proud. That's incredible.
Gawd, so why the heck is ours 920? Ack. Dh just disabled some of the electricity to the chicken coop...poor wiring and arcing can use up electric and we have to wonder if that's some of our usage...when we moved to this house our usage doubled.
I just realized your 320 KwH is for 2.5 months! Holy cow! You should be very, very proud. That's incredible.
Yes, 2.5 months. I looked at our previous bills and we were averaging 145Kwh in the last house with the washing machine, larger (but energy star) fridge and a non-electric stove. We ditched our desktop, a huge energy-suck. We had a gas stove, furnace & water heater in the last house and it was a freestanding house.
The energy saving factors here: We are very well insulated. We're on the bottom west-facing side of the building. The upstairs neighbors run their A/C all day and night, helping cool us too. There is an open hallway through the middle of the apartment (8 apartments, 4 top, 4 bottom, split down the middle) and the hallway is very cool even on the hottest days.
Was your house built by a previous owner? When someone inexperienced does the electric it can lead energy loss. It's a downside to DIY. I feel very fortunate to have the husband I do. He's been doing electronics for 14 years and is a jack-of-all-trades. The last landlord loved us because she got lots of free labor from DH.
Another factor in the low bill: we're in campus housing so we don't have a direct account with the electric company instead we pay directly to the school. We don't pay all of the individual fees, just usage.
Remember my canning spree last month? I was terrified of the bill from it.
not encouraging to look at my history...
least amount we've ever used...1034
in july, 1717 kwh at 8.9 cents.
highest ever was 2412 (feb)
we keep our air at 78. one TV and one laptop. 1500 square foot house. we keep all lights off during the day and just open the blinds...but that does make the AC come on a little more probably. need to do more to get this down though!
Well, I just got our electric bill. $320 again (2nd month in a row) though it's been in the high 90's here. It's starting to cool down though, and I did turn our air back up (it was down to 76 for the day, and 72 at night for my hot pregnant self - my kids were freezing at night! lol). Also figure our water/well is in there too - so maybe $50 towards that.
There is an open hallway through the middle of the apartment (8 apartments, 4 top, 4 bottom, split down the middle) and the hallway is very cool even on the hottest days. 
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