Where does it all go!

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

I just buy bread when it's on sale and fill the freezer up with that. Mondays and Tuesdays are best for that (and marked down meat etc) If they get too much in for the weekend. It's often still inside the best before date, by a day or two, but they know they won't shift it before about thursday, and it will be out of date by then, so monday or tuesday they mark it down.

[bobc455]

Here's something to consider. A/C units draw a LOT of power, and are actually quite inefficient. (The inefficiency is a result of trying to pump heat from a low-heat location to a high-heat location).

For the sake of argument, let's assume your air conditioner runs at 33% efficiency. That is, for every "watt" of energy that the air conditioner cools your home, it requires three watts of electricity.

Now let's assume you turn on a 60W light bulb. That 60W bulb is actually a 100% efficient heating device, throwing exactly 60W of heat into your house. Now in order to cool that 60W of heat, the air conditioner must consume 3X60W = 180W of power (averaged over a long period). So that 60W light bulb is now costing you 240W of electricity!

This is the reason that you have to be REALLY careful about unplugging things like power chargers, VCRs, TVs, etc. They may only consume 5-10W apiece, but when you sum those up then multiply by four the power consumption becomes quite large.

Obviously, things like fluorescent light bulbs are worth their weight in gold too. And if your fridge is old, and consuming (for example) 300W instead of 200W, you can see how that will drive your A/C usage skyward.

Also, the time of day at which you run your clothes dryer (if it's located inside) can have a huge effect because you have to cool all of the "makeup" air.

-Bob C.

[dkjones96]

Interesting thing I saw on my online billing for PNM:


As it gets more comfortable I turn the AC/Heat off more and open windows.

[The Toecutter]

My first electric bill was $8.26, here in Texas with some of the highest per kWh costs in the country. I typically average around $15-20/month in the warmer months and $30-40 in the winter months(using electric heating). Conservation rules.

Air conditioning is a very large drain on your wallet.

[JanGeo]

I pay from $10 - $18 per month for a small fridge and laptop and HDTV usage (55 watts) with a cell phone charger and a 12 volt charger on the scooter in the back hallway. Typical bill is for 19 last year April not here at all to this year 56kwh April with me here all the time and a high of 65kwh in March 09 for some crock pot use - they use a lot of power to cook in. Now don't tell me about high electric rates!

[dkjones96]

It's gotta be the AC. My usage peaked again this August like it did last year. I've been analyzing my electric bill today and come up with some interesting information like the fact that if my computer and my fridge ran 24/7 the computer would actually consume 33% more power than the fridge.

These are the stats I have for last month so far, I haven't really been cooking at home so I left it out:
Total Billed - 18Kw/day

Computer - 4Kw/day 22%
Lamps - .44Kw/day 2.5%
AC Blower - 2.5Kw/day 13.9%(approximation based on 7 hours of constant fan usage per night and not much cycling during the day)
Refrigerator - 1.2Kw/day 6.6% (still logging)
Chargers(Wall-warts) - .12Kw/day .7%
Other stuff - .35Kw/day 2% (this of for my soldering and stuff on the weekends)

This totals 8.61 Kw/day, there is still almost 10 unaccounted for! It's gotta be the AC unit on the roof. Most of the stuff I've logged never changes and during nice months of the year where my windows stay open a lot and I don't run the ac/heat my usage drops to around 10Kw/day.

[Jay2TheRescue]

The 10 unaccounted for is probably your hot water heater...

[dkjones96]

Central gas boiler system.

[bowtieguy]

we had a local utility company take a politician out to dinner, OVER SEAS! makes me wonder about rate hikes.

ALL proposed rate increases for THAT electric co have been suspended.

[jmf]

carbon busters
This is a great book for finding all your power losses. It has a lot of things I didn't think about checking in my home. It's also the first place I read about the civic vx.