Your average kilowatt-hour (kWh) usage? Anyone care to post theirs?? - Page 5

[Hey Mama!]

For October we used an average of 32 kwh a day! I did't know it was that high, yet we have lower light bills then most people we know. We are all electric except a gas heater, approx 1300 sq feet 5 person family. We don't have a freezer or dishwasher, there is one computer on 24/7, we have one TV that is on pretty much all the time during waking hours. I sah at the moment so I suspect our consumption is higher because of that. Our kids are horrible at keeping lights on in unused rooms, but are getting better because I send the youngest on "light patrol" to turn them off.

[dsaucone]

In our apartment we had electric water/stove/dryer and the like. Gas for the water baseboard heat. And we used around 800 a month.

Now, we have electric stove/dryer and gas heat/water and use about 500 a month.

Same sizes = around 1,000 sq ft

[sunnysandiegan]

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan

Another note of possible interest is SDG&E has partnered with Google and our power usage can be seen on Google. I just opened a free account and linked our SDG&E account to it (free, also). I haven't played with it, yet, but the idea is I can view our hourly usage. This way I can make changes and see the results fairly quickly! I may not even need to buy a device now! (It has taken me awhile to type this reply with all my research and phone calls, etc. ) Maybe you, too, can sign up for this free service??? I went through my power company's website and it was listed as a "savings tool".

To follow up, I had to wait for the ability to see the info until today. (There was a message stating no info would be available 11/30- 12/5.) Now, though, I can see the daily usage back to the beginning of the current billing cycle (12/1). Oooooo! Ahhhhhhhh! I am such a numbers geek...

Tomorrow we get to play with plugging and unplugging things. DH is finally on board with the idea of *possible* "phantom" loads. Or he is merely interested from a technical, geeky side and is indulging me....

[Ygle]

Well, it (our meter) doesn't spin when everything is shut off... I haven't really gotten much of anywhere beyond that to figure out how we are using so much. We did notice it spins like crazy when the drier starts up... besides that, nothing really major... the stove does seem to use up a lot (not like when the drier starts up though) and I am cooking constantly, so maybe that is just why our monthly usage is so much higher than others. I tried searching to find a way to see if our meter is calibrated correctly but couldn't really come up with anything. As far as I can tell our usage has been pretty consistant (between about 30-47kwh/day... the highest is when we use ac) since we've lived here.

[eclipse]

I'm trying to get my kwh under 800 for 60 days - so 400.month or around 13.33/day. That's what it needs to be to not be considered a "high consumer" by the Mexican government - when you are a high consumer, you no longer receive a subsidy from the government and it translates into something like 1000 pesos difference on the bill ($80 or so). Anyhow, my last bill was around 14.6/day, 20 figuring how to cut about 1.5 kwh a day will save me around $40/month. I've been on my kids' cases to shut down the computers when not in use and turing off the monitors at night. We have two computers and one laptop. . .do you think that would be enough?

[Kyamo]

Originally Posted by eclipse

I'm trying to get my kwh under 800 for 60 days - so 400.month or around 13.33/day. That's what it needs to be to not be considered a "high consumer" by the Mexican government - when you are a high consumer, you no longer receive a subsidy from the government and it translates into something like 1000 pesos difference on the bill ($80 or so). Anyhow, my last bill was around 14.6/day, 20 figuring how to cut about 1.5 kwh a day will save me around $40/month. I've been on my kids' cases to shut down the computers when not in use and turing off the monitors at night. We have two computers and one laptop. . .do you think that would be enough?

If your computers already go into a "sleep mode" when they are not in use, then turning them off instead of having them in sleep mode will not be nearly enough to save 1.5 kWh/day. Sleep mode uses less than 15W, so lets say you eliminate 8hrs of sleep mode per day, you will save 15*8/1000 = 0.12 kWh/day.

[HeatherAtHome]

Just read our meter (it's digital) and compared it to our last bill... looks like we're at a whopping 80kwh/day. I'm scared to think of what it will be like in the dead of winter...

[yeahwhat]

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome

Just read our meter (it's digital) and compared it to our last bill... looks like we're at a whopping 80kwh/day. I'm scared to think of what it will be like in the dead of winter...

I looked at last year's winter bills. Our nov/dec average was 84/day. Jan/Feb was 118/day. Apparently I was optimistic earlier. Heating drafty old homes is expensive.

[HeatherAtHome]

Originally Posted by yeahwhat

I looked at last year's winter bills. Our nov/dec average was 84/day. Jan/Feb was 118/day. Apparently I was optimistic earlier. Heating drafty old homes is expensive.

I know. I told my mom I feel like we're in a sinking ship and I'm trying to plug all the holes... and losing.

[steffanie3]

November bill this year
52.19 kWh / day
$0.0784 / kWh

November last year
46.39 kWh / day
$0.0746 / kWh

We have a propane water heater, everything else is electric including two freezers. 2 adults, 2 children, heat lamp for chickens

Just this past week we have started using a propane heater, we will see if that helps much or not, propane here right now is really cheap, but the winter is off to a cold start

I am a stay at home mom and DH started his own business so he is home a lot now too.

[ParisApril]

I finally recieved my bill so I can post it here. I was very curious to see how we compare.

We are a family of 4 living in 850sq feet + basement + 300 sq feet garage workshop. We have a dehumidifier, woodstove, gas water heater, gas stove, air conditioning but don't use it, gas furnace but don't use it.

Oct 15 to Nov 13 - 30 days
210.95 kwh - for the month
7.03 kwh a day

That is pretty low! In our history 8 months of the year are very close to that. Nov, Dec, Feb, Mar, April and Oct were between 200-250. May and June were under 200.

Jan, July, Aug, Sept were higher. In Jan the basement flooded a bit and we had to heat it and run fans and the dehumidifier. In the summer we have to run a dehumidifier because the basement is damp. Aug was the highest month at about 450 kwh which would be 15 kwh a day.

I know next month is will be quite a bit higher as DH has been working on the garage using lots of power tools!

[Sharlla]

We used a lot more than we did before since our heat has an electric fan (gas heat) Normally the bill is around $16 a month but this month it was $32 (440 kwh for 35 days). Both my gas and electric went up quite a bit.

After gas/electric and water/sewer the bill was $105 The last place we lived we didn't pay water and sewer so the bills were so much lower this time of year. I guess I shouldn't complain that much considering our mortgage is $272 so we still save money by living here vs renting.

[Purple Sage]

We use about 20/day in winter and up to 60/day in summer. Our bill is easily $150 more in the summer. I love winters in TX!

[HeatherAtHome]

We've had quite the chilly week (-20C) and I've declared war on the cold. Making draft stoppers to go in front of doors, hanging thick curtains and closing off sections of our home. My Dad said we could have his old woodstove, just need to figure out stovepipe/chimney insurance/safety issues.

I'm so not looking forward to our next hydro bill. 80kwh/day is too much and if we don't do something, it will just get higher. I hope we don't have long stretches of -40 this winter.

We didn't have time to insulate everything we wanted to this fall. We just have to do what we can and hope it doesn't get too bad.

[ParisApril]

Opps double post!

[ParisApril]

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome

We've had quite the chilly week (-20C) and I've declared war on the cold. Making draft stoppers to go in front of doors, hanging thick curtains and closing off sections of our home. My Dad said we could have his old woodstove, just need to figure out stovepipe/chimney insurance/safety issues.

I'm so not looking forward to our next hydro bill. 80kwh/day is too much and if we don't do something, it will just get higher. I hope we don't have long stretches of -40 this winter.

We didn't have time to insulate everything we wanted to this fall. We just have to do what we can and hope it doesn't get too bad.

80 kwh a day, ouch that has to hurt. Is there anyway you could live in just part of your house for this winter and next year gets lots of good insulation?

I wasn't feeling great yesterday so I didn't do much cooking/baking. Our little fireplace insert had a hard time trying to heat the place. I almost turned on the furnace. I can't wait until we get a bigger woodstove for the basement.

[HeatherAtHome]

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Just got our new hydro bill. From October 31-January 5 (67 days) we used 93 kWh/day. Our total bill came to $512.

We're trying to plug all the holes from the inside this winter but need nice weather to do some work from the outside. It's all about the heating. Everything else is just a drop in the bucket. I actually thought it might be higher than that moneywise so it's not completely awful. I guess now is the time to tell myself we have such a low mortgage payment it all equals out...

Since I have the bill in front of me, here are the details:

Fixed charge: 67 days x .04064 = 27.23

Total Consumption: 6230 kWh
-First 30kWh/day: 2010kWh x .0545 = 109.55
-Remaining consumption: 4220 kWh x .0746 = 314.81

GST 5% = 22.58
QST 7.5% = 35.56
Admin fee = 2.44

Total: 512.17

I feel embarrassed that we can't use less electricity! We're massive polluters! We had a long cold spell the week or two before Christmas but it looks like Jan will be toasty so our next bill shouldn't be too awful...

We've been doing a lot of insulating but I guess we're no where near done.

ETA: Wanted to say that we can afford to pay this bill so we're not up **** creek but I totally see whey the previous owner on a fixed income sold the house.

[my2girlz]

For the month of Dec. we averaged 26.76 KWH per day. Not too bad. I think we can do better though.

That's for a family of 5 in a 2500sqft home. DH works from home and I'm a SAHM.

[azmomtoone]

For DEC, 900 sq. ft. house, 3 people, gas heater & water heater... 14.94 kw hrs per day if I did it right? 463 for a 31 day cycle. Higher than the last two months because I've been home pretty much 24/7, along w/ the little guy, all month. And LOTS of TV, movies & computer time. (had surgery on my right foot
Dec 1st, so couldn't drive or walk)
About double that in the summer when we have the swamp cooler going.

(Our gas usage, on the other hand, was nuts last month....we need to seal!!)

[yeahwhat]

My latest bill. Nov 5 to Jan 11 (68 days) (borrowing formatting from above)

Fixed charge: 68 days x .04064 = 27.64

Total Consumption: 5200 kWh
-First 30kWh/day: 2040kWh x .0545 = 111.18
-Remaining consumption: 3160 kWh x .0746 = 235.74

GST 5% = 18.73
QST 7.5% = 29.50

Total: 422.79

And my drafty old house has an excellently insulated basement, front wall is good, and 1 side wall is good. The back wall is terrible though. The kitchen especially is a drafty mess; it is our spring/summer project. No way am I tearing it up in winter. It's cold enough with what limited insulation it has now.

1000 sq ft-ish, 100+ year old house main floor plus basement. 6 people, electric everything. The second floor is a separate apartment and is on a separate meter.