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How much do you pay for electricity per month?


heidiiiii

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I am not being super nosy just want to see how much we all pay for electricity in our homes each month? Do you have extra things that make it cost more? Like a pool, hot tub, etc.

How many people in your home using the juice? Is there someone always home so there is always something running?

I am sick of my family`s energy consumption and I am going to do something about it. I also want to see if you all wanted to join me in a test.

We have a washer, dryer, and a deep freezer (they are all energy star rated). There is basically always someone home at any given time so the juice is always running!

First off I will tell you that our electricity bills have averaged $200 a month...more in the summer. I do live in CT and our rates are highway robbery compared to other states. It should not be because we have nuclear power plants but it is what it is and there is nothing I can do about the company. I have to do it at home.

So here is my plan. UNPLUG! I am going to unplug the video game consoles, dvd players, plug in smelly things (fred does that!), chargers for phones, computer printer, coffee pot, toaster, the extra lights in the basement (they are fluorescent that hang from hooks and plug into sockets in the ceiling), the microwave...If it is not completely needed to be plugged in..I am unplugging it! I will attach tape to each plug and write with a Sharpie what they go to..make it easier when we need it.

So this month my bill was $200 an change. I am going to go around the house today and do this. I will come back next month when the bill comes and tell you if there is a difference and by how much.

Anyone want to join me? Are you sick of your utility bills? Do you want to have some extra money for minis? Join me and Unplug!

I wanted to say that all of our light fixtures are fluorescent so we do not have to change that.

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I would love to lower my bill more. I am crazy about turning lights off and such, but I have energy eaters. I run a large waterfall 24/7 because of the fish. I have started to put timers on the freestanding fountains - they don't need to run all night, but I like to see them during the day. I did lower mine $100 by using the timers and buying a more energy efficient pond pump. I pay $450-650 a month. (The higher is in the summer from air conditioners).

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We average about $150/month...which is still too high. There are two of us here all day. We do have flourescent lights wherever possible, and I'm pretty rigid about keeping lights off unless absolutely needed.

But you're right -- all those "things" that are still running, even when they're turned off really soak up the power! I was reading this morning about buying surge protectors for all that stuff, plugging them in to the surge protectors. Then it's a simple matter of throwing the switch on the surge protector, rather than having to struggle to plug stuff in. So we're going to start doing that for the TVs. And I need to remember to do that with the computer, too. I really don't need it on ALL the time (although we do turn it off at night.

(I'd really freak out if we were paying $450 a month!!! Yikes!!)

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Mine skyrockets in winter, but I'm not on the average plan... it's definitely more manageable in the summertime. We also have a load control switch on the hot water heater... so it only works on off hours. In three years it was only noticed once! Not bad...

I have baseboard heating, so we close off a few rooms in the winter and they remain rather cold... But I have a cat door to the garage for litter boxes so that sucks out some heat.... but I put weather tape around all the windows and that seems to help a lot. Getting newer windows would certainly be a good idea, but I don't have that kind of cash!

I'm always looking for new ideas for conserving so if anyone has any, speak up! :lol:

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That's a great savings Deana! I will need to go look up what we pay on avg., but I think it's around $150 now? We are all home most of the time. Even DH works from home most of the time, now. We actually tried unplugging things for a while (at least a month) and didn't see much difference. I still do it when I think about it, but it got to be a pain to plug in the microwave every time, and we sort of got away from it. That said, we don't leave chargers, games, etc. plugged in anyway, just when we are using them. And we use compact flourescents in most lights.

I know I lowered our bill significantly starting last summer by hanging our laundry up to dry. We saved $40 the first month, and it was actually more than that because it was the same month that our rates were supposed to go up 18%. I think it dropped another $10 the next month, too.

We live in a neighborhood with covenants against laundry hanging where it can be seen from the street, but the back yard is not visible from the street. I have heard of people fighting those covenants in other areas and winning the right to hang laundry. I haven't put up a clothesline yet. We have 2 rolling garment racks from Target that I use with hangers, and 2 old fashioned wooden folding racks. I take them out to the back porch in nice weather, and hang them in the exercise room when it's wet or too cold out. On windy days, I have used boxes with phone books in them to weight the garment racks down, or have used extra dog collars to hook the wooden racks to our porch railing to keep them from blowing over. Remember, no one else can see them, and I am more about function than form. :)

I do toss them into the dryer for about 2-3 minutes to soften them before I fold them. The whole process probably only takes me about 10-15 extra minutes a day, and I find that I really enjoy it. I thought the family would balk at the roughness, or different smell, but they like the smell, no one thinks the clothes are rough, the towels are more absorbent now, we are saving a lot in elec., dryer sheets, our clothes are not wearing out as quickly, and I'm pretty sure our dryer was dying last year, but it's still running fine.

And we still crack up whenever DH says "Mother Nature, she's such a sucker!" (for drying our laundry for free)

I know, :lol: but he's really cute when he says it!

Best of luck Heidi, I'd love to hear how it goes for you!

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Our electricity bill is about $150 a month. Almost everything stays off during the day except the TV. It used to be higher until we got an LCD TV. I am hoping that with moving into the house that our bill will not go higher. Our heating bill (Gas) is about $100 a month in the winter and less then $20 a month in the summer time. I am a real stickler for turning off the lights, the kids have all learned to turn them off before leaving the room.

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Our electric bill runs about $80 a month year round. But we don't have an air conditioner and we use our wood stove for heating the house.

There's usually someone home so something electric is always being used. That, and we have a ceiling fan that is on 24/7. We also have flouescent lights in most of the house.

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Our electric bill is about $250 a month. Compared to $400 last summer before we moved closer to my work. There is 5 people at my house all the time and we have compact flourescents in ever room in the house. The only thing that does not have CFL's is our headboard and my wifes dresser I just got her for V-day.

We were drying our clothes on a clothes line before we moved and it dropped our bill almost $60 a month. I wished we could do it were we are at now cause I loved the smell of our clothes after they came in from drying for about 30 minutes.

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Highest bill at one bedroom condo has been about $80 this winter. House in Virginia where daughter lives by herself most of the time looks like it will average $300 a month for the year - could use heat pump upgrade.

Best return on investment for energy improvement is increasing ceiling insulation (think IRS is giving an energy tax credit this year so it is a good year to upgrade). If I remember correctly, without a tax credit, payback on ceiling insulation is about three years. Worst improvement in terms of payback is replacement windows, all the advertisements from the industry are BS. If replacement windows are installed think of it as an aesthetic not an energy upgrade. Return on investment of replacement windows is something like 30 years.

Quick and easy money savers that can really make a difference. If you have a central heating system, replace filters monthly. Lowering the thermostat on hot water heater to 130 degrees is also an easy money saver, factory setting is most often 140 degrees - some people say 130 is too low, but if you think of it the main time water temperature matters is when you're taking a shower. If you're like me, when taking a shower you turn the hot water all the way on first and then mix the cold water in to an acceptable temperature. So if the hot water temperature is lower, you just mix in less cold water. Again, if I remember correctly this saves about $10 monthly.

Some unexpected energy hogs are aquariums and water beds (for you old hippies out there). Lights do not have as big an effect on light bills as most people think - if you ran an 18 watt compact flourescent constantly for a month, at the average US cost per KWH, it costs about $1.60.

Intrinsicat - the hot water switch benefits the utility, not your bill directly. Supposedly in the long run the hot water switch will save you money because the utility will have to pay less to increase their system. If you put a timer on your water heater, you would save money and it is actually a pretty good investment.

Sorry to go on and on, but by now I guess you can tell that in one of my lives I worked for a utility.

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I have only one lonely clothesline so I do not have alot of room on there to do lots of clothing. We only have the one area to hang the line. I wish I had more so that I could hang more. I have the curtains in the wash now and I will be hanging them up. I figure I can hang light things that dry quicker.

I have a surge protector on the tvs. Here is the thing. When you turn off the cable box, it takes FOREVER for it to re-do itself so you can watch television. I guess I could just plug that into the wall and leave it going and just use the protectors for the tvs. I have one for the computer and I turn that off too.

They keep raising the rates (and everything else) and I am sick of it. I am also thinking of getting rid of the DVR option on the cable. It will save me about $30 a month just for that option and the rental boxes will go down by $5 each.

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John,

I unplugged the heater on the fish tank about two weeks ago and I unplugged the light to the tank too.

I agree with you about the windows. I like my old windows and it is so much cheaper to just put up plastic!

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There are two of us in the house during the week, then us two adults and 2-3 kids on the weekends.

Average bill is between $55-95.

I've found the greatest savings for us is keeping the filter changed on the central air unit and keeping it no higher than 76 in the winter (we're in TX, anything less than that is COLD!) and 80 in the summer, and using ceiling fans only when we're home. We've saved up to $40 in a month due to this.

Other than that, we always turn off lights we're not using, and we don't have any real energy suckers. We run a washer and an electric dryer for about 7 loads a week, and we only own 1 TV/DVD/Cable setup. We usually run the laptop 24/7. There are no other TV's or computers in the house.

We do have a few DS consoles that we charge when we need to, plus our cell phones, those are charged when we need to, and we do unplug those when not in use, but that's just because we can't stand looking at the cords.

Good luck with your experiment

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We use about $60.00 per month. Some things that may help are. Always unplug items not in use. The juice is in those cords up to the appliance even when turned off. Do not use long extension cords, you're paying by the foot, and don't leave them plugged in with nothing at the other end, for the sake of convenience. If you leave a room, turn off the light. Also,clear lower watt bulbs give off same light as the cool soft white ones with higher amps. If possible replace with spiral florescent bulbs, they do save you money, although they cost more to buy originally. If possible put your AC on a timer, so it takes breaks. Use the microwave as much as possible, as the oven in the stove is the biggest consumer. These are just a few that I know, I'm sure there are more ways to help with the costs.

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I live in an old house that was turned into apartments - two bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living room, with a long downstairs hallway and staircase that lead up to my apartment. During the winter months my electric bill runs between $60 and $75. During the summer months it tops $100 because of the air conditioner running (Tennessee summers are HOT!).

I am all about saving money any chance I can. I drive David crazy unplugging stuff. Google "phantom load" and see how many of your appliances pull energy even while you're not using them. I mean when was the last time that you really used your VCR? I had mine plugged in so I could see what time it was, but then it was such a pain to switch when daylight savings time came around. If we're not using it then at my house it's unplugged. You plug in the microwave before you use it each time (there's no reason to leave it plugged in just to power the clock). I work for a cell phone company and another bad one are cell chargers. Some people leave them plugged into the wall even when they're not charging their phones. If that little light is on then your charger is pulling electricity. I also have those circuit breaker extension cord things plugged into tv's and computers so you can just simply switch them to off. Anything that has a remote control to it will never shut completely down, it's always pulling energy so that little sensor knows when you hit the "on" button on your remote. Did you know that even when you shut down your computer most still are in a sort of stand-by mode? Look at the back of your computer the next time you shut it down and see if there isn't a small light still on.

I do have an aquarium and that has to be plugged in at all times for the turtles and of course the fridge and my alarm clock. I've read articles though that estimate that "phantom loads" can be up to 15% of your yearly electricity cost.

The economy has been bad for a while and David has been out of work since last September so we've been a one income household for a while. We turned off our cable last October or November because it wasn't a necessity. I also turned off my gas heat in February because it got to be over $130/month. We cover windows in plastic and curtains that have thermal backing. I also have blankets that hang in the doorway to the living room to shut out the cold air from the hallway. I shut the vents in the hallway becuase there was no point in heating an area we are rarely in. We do use small space heaters as needed, but my electric bill still stays very low.

As far as cable I don't even miss it. We still have our internet service, which is less than $60/month. Any show you can name on television I can show you where to watch it online for free - and most movies too. You do have to be careful with movies though - because some sites put them up illegally. The only thing I haven't found online yet is live sporting events, but trust me I'll find it. You can find plenty of live news programs and I have a site saved with links to hundreds of nationwide newspapers.

I recently got a recipe for homemade laundry detergent from a friend online. She has children (i.e. does lots of laundry) and seems to be a very frugal person. She's got it down to something like 0.28/cents per load and I think she said they do 20 or more per week in her household. She says it works as well any brand name detergent so I'm thinking of trying it out.

My Mom and I also split the cost of a Sam's Club card and often shop together. Everything there you buy in bulk, but when we take it home and split it up I end up spending less than I would have at Wal-Mart or the regular grocery store. Another place we frequent is the local farmer's market/fruit stand and the local bakery. Not only are things fresher and cheaper, but it supports the local economy.

I have lots more ideas for saving money and it helps to read what other people are doing too.

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Our bill in the townhouse was about $250, because it was so hard to cool the upstairs. This new house has the double pane windows, and is energy efficient. With 6 of us here right now, it's running about 140 for water, electric, sewer and trash, which are all the same city owned company. However, when we were living in Austin in a 100 yr old house, it was nearly 500 every month. So I guess all that energy efficient stuff really works.

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When our heat wasn't working, we were paying around $70 a month for utilities.

Now we have baseboard heaters and we paid $142 on our last bill. Yikes. (I know, that's relatively low for most of you, but DH just got laid off at work b/c they have a policy that you can't stay out sick for more than 2 days and he got a bad cold that he's STILL trying to get rid of after 3 weeks so they fired him so now I'm the only one that works and I'm in school so I can only work part time) We will definitely be unplugging things!

We have a surge protector to use for our tv, vcr, dvd player - we just have a laptop, and that and my sewing machine are only plugged in when needed. We don't use a lot of electric, we turn the air/heat off when we're gone during the day, plus the lights.

So hopefully our bill will come down a bit once we start unplugging things. I'm interested to see how much it helps!

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In our small total electric mobile home just the two of us the bill averages around 110. I have seen it little lower and a lot higher though. We use the compact light bulbs in a few of our lamps but we need to get more. I only do two loads of laundy a week and I am lucky enough to have a clothesline. Hubby is home everyday but he mainly uses just his computer. Just a side note for everyone...turning your computer off when you aren't using it overnight and then turning it back on in the morning could possibley damage your computer. When it runs, all the heat inside warms the solder on the circuits. When it gets shut down, the solder then cools. Start it up..warm, turn it off..cool. It could cause the solder to crack and loosen connections. While it may save energy, it would be more costly replacing or repairing your computer. Ok, back on subject. I don't do much cooking these days (thanks to the boss who keeps giving me yucky hours) so the stove isn't on much. Coffeemaker has a clock and an auto timer. Sorry I can't give that up. I think I work hard enough to pay for that convience. :yes: Keeps us posted Hiedi.

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You win, Lisa. :yes:

If I were building a house I'd look into every green product available. I'm not an environmental nut, but it's really cost effective in the end. I was watching a program one time about digging channels beneath the basement for air circulation that cuts down on heating and cooling even in northern climes. Also, in the next few years IKEA is going into the solar panel business to make them more accessible and cost effective.

That said, I live in an electricity sucker. It's a 100+ year old house that has practically no insulation (walls are lathe and plaster) and everything runs on electricity. We have no natural gas. Our bill averages $70-$120. Funny this was brought up today. The electric company hadn't read our meter for four months, estimating every bill then BAM they read it last month and it was almost $300. They were a bit nasty and we requested a reading every month (tried to do the self-reading and they won' t accept it) and they said by law they only have to read the meter once a year. They're permitted to estimate it however much they want. So now after complaining I wonder how much longer they'll go before reading our meter again.

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