Help me lower my electric bill ARGHHH

[Sometimeswedrown]

Rent so the major things new windows, insulation and major things like that are out of question.

Will replacing my old ten year old bulky televisions help?

Low wattage light bulbs? I tried the new energy efficient ones made a very small difference.

Thermostat is at 79 degrees.

Small two bedroom trailer home but utility bill is over 200.00 a month??

[Wounded Bear]

1. Good luck...

Many of the newer flat screen TVs actually use more power than the old ones.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Are you talking winter heat bills or summer cooling bills?

And are you in a high priced area for electric?

What do you use for cooling the place?

[Sometimeswedrown]

3. Well been asking around

The fellow next door with a seven room home and four teenager averages 203.00 a month he states most of that is cooling and yard lighting around pool 24/7

We have a heat pump ac manufacturer date 2010 looks well made and professionally installed.

[NewJeffCT]

4. Depends on what sort of TV you buy, but it's not a big difference

the LED TVs use less power than LCD. Plasma really sucks the power, though they may have gotten better in recent years.

However, even a monster 65 inch plasma only uses $81 of electricity/year, though that's 4x what a comparably sized LED TV uses.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33199_7-57579932-221/what-you-need-to-know-about-tv-power-consumption/

My guess is that an old bulky TV is probably on a par with a plasma of similar size, but I could be wrong.

I'm guessing that insulation and windows are probably what you really need.

[RebelOne]

8. Not mine. Fortunately, my house is surrounded by tall trees,

which keep it cool in the summer. Sometimes, I have to turn the AC off because it gets too cold. And in winter, 2 small electric heaters keep it warm.

[jakeXT]

6. Standby Power ?

Use a switchable power strip for clusters of computer or video products. That way you can switch everything to zero with one action.
http://standby.lbl.gov/

[RebelOne]

7. Unbelievable. I live in a 2-bedroom mobile home,

and my electric bill is never more than $140 in the winter when I run electric heaters, And in the summer when I run 2 window A/Cs, it never hits $100. And my A/C is usually set at 65 to 70 degrees.

[politicat]

9. Electric water heater? Do you leave things plugged in all the time?

What's your site orientation -- are you getting a lot of late afternoon sun through windows?

There are timers you can put on an electric water heater so it only heats for a few hours (say in the morning.) Most water heaters have enough insulation that if you need hot water later in the day, you'll get some. This requires either discipline (all showers, all dish washing, all shaving) be done in one discrete block of time, or making multiple trips to trigger the water heater manually (which serves as its own discipline.)

For summer, windows should be covered during the heat of the day. (In winter, you reverse this and uncover during the day to let in as much passive solar as possible, then cover at night to retain as much heat as possible.) if your night time temps are below where your thermostat is set, you should be opening windows and using an intake and exhaust fan system to exchange the warm air inside for the cool, night air, then closing windows during the day.

What color is the roof? A dark roof will absorb heat, which makes the heat pump work harder. A light roof reflects light. You can't change this, but knowing what you're up against helps you make the necessary decisions.

Everything that is plugged in is siphoning a little electricity. If it's not in use, it should be unplugged.

Vacuum the refrigerator coil. A dusty, old refrigerator uses much more energy than a clean one. Also, keep it filled on both sides (use recycled bottles of water to fill voids if you don't like keeping lots of food frozen or won't consume enough perishables.) filling the voids with low-energy (cold) fill also means that in the case of a power outage, everything will stay cold longer (and you'll have emergency water.)

Vacuum out the clothes dryer, too, or stop using it altogether and get a drying horse or a clothesline.

This article goes into much detail on what's sucking the most energy -- cable boxes are one of the worst.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Does the bill come to you in your name?

Or to the landlord?
Sometimes landlords pay utilities and then get re-imburshed by tenants.
I had a landlord who ripped us off doing that....he moved some relatives into the basement apt. which was heated by the same oil heater as our upstairs part of the house, then charged us for all the heat.

If you are living in a small and old trailer, with no trees close to it, you are essentially in a solar oven.

We just got our bill for July electric, 2,000 sq. ft house, and 2 outside A/C units, all electric appliances including washer/dryer, plus a nighttime window A/C and running a box fan all day...198.00.
highest it has been is 280.00 during a scorcher summer.

[Grey]

11. Have you tried Bubble Wrap?

Not a joke, My daughter also lives in a two bedroom trailer. I insisted she cover all her windows and the back door, She doesn't use it, with bubble wrap ( the bubble side against the glass) summer and winter. Put it up with clear packing tape. It cut down her heating and cooling bill substantially. The light still comes through. Cut a dinner plate size opening in the wrap so you can look out the window if needed, She only has one small opening, to see who may be at the front door.
The power strip is also a good idea, unplug any thing that you are not using this minute. Each item is a small drain even when not in use.
Is there any way you can glue cheap survival blankets, the kind found in camping supply stores, to your roof? Foil side up to reflect heat. Possibly silicone sealer? Just a bead around the edge and pressed in to place?
I bought a roll of "water heater insulation" and cut to fit in the bedrooms of our house. You can use the foil side to reflect heat or use the white side out and it looks like curtain lining. It also doubles as 'black out' shades.
Can you take down any window frames and use spray foam insulation to fill any cracks or leaks? The spray comes in tins at the lumber yard.
That is all I can think of for now, good luck.

[pipi_k]

12. Wow!

I live in a two bedroom, two bath house...about 1400 sq. feet, with finished basement and full of lots of electronics and other goodies.

The typical bill here is about $145 per month, although it's going to be higher because the AC ran almost two weeks straight when usually it's only on less than one week in mid-August.

Do you have access to the electrical meter? I would have someone stay in the house and unplug stuff one by one to see if the meter slows down significantly. If not, then shut down the main breaker to see if it's still running. Quite possible someone has tapped into your meter, I guess...

[intaglio]

13. Television definitely

needs replacing - just remember to completely turn off an LCD replacement. No device, TV or computer or whatever should be left on stand-by.

Light bulbs - fluorescent low wattage only save money if replacing those left on for long periods. If they replace intermittent use bulbs then saving is minimal. If you can go for 7 Watt LED "halogen spotlight types" or LED indirect lighting, there is little electronic ballast soaking up power.

Washing machines - if you have a washer/dryer then, if you can, dry outside. Over here when people cannot dry outside then it is often cheaper to go to the laundromat for drying only than to use the drying cycle on your sparkling new machine.

I strongly suspect the real criminal is your AC. Old AC will eat power even at high temperature settings. Only switch your AC on when you need cooling. The other alternative might be possibly leave it turned off and get a portable modern AC that you use only in rooms where you are at the time.

In all events learn to read your utility meter for yourself and see when it is flying round. You can also check if there is some wastage of which you are not aware.

[leftyohiolib]

14. i wonder if the power could be leaking into ground somewhere there

you could try shuting the main to the house and watching the meter to see if it movesl

[hedgehog]

15. I dropped my bill by about $20 a month just by getting everyone to turn off the lights when

they left the room.

[kiva]

16. It's my nighmare.

This last month I've finally had to turn on the AC - been getting by with swamp coolers before that - and I'll be happy if it's only $400. I have an old house and it leaks like a sieve.

[A Simple Game]

17. The trailer we used to live in had aluminum wiring.

The leads coming into the breaker box would loosen up occasionally and when they did the bill would start climbing. Tighten up the leads and the electric bill would go back down. Something you could check if you feel comfortable doing that sort of thing.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

18. After the central air...

...(and the small server farm in the basement) the biggest kW-hr hog is usually the frige. Is the frige yours or the landlord's?

You may want to get: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001

I found this chart of power usage for some typical appliances:
http://www.efficiencyvermont.com/for_my_home/ways-to-save-and-rebates/appliances/refrigerators/general_info/electric_usage_chart.aspx

[mcar]

19. Does your electric company offer an energy survey?

Mine does and I did it several years ago. It's worth checking into. I was able to save quite a bit using their recommendations - including getting rid of an older refrigerator I had in the garage for extra groceries. We use ceiling fans and a programmable thermostat but our AC system is 20 years old and I'm a woman of a certain age so I don't handle heat too well .

Your bill sounds quite high for such a small place and I'm speaking from steamy Florida - 3 BR, 2 BA, all electric. My electric bill in the summer usually doesn't run over $180 and I work from home on a computer all day.

[WCLinolVir]

20. Good suggestion about shutting off breakers one by one to try to isolate drain.

Could be refrigerator. The water heater needs a timer. I used to just shut off the breaker at night to the water heater. I would heat water every other day. But I wash clothes in cold water.

Petsmart has these silver bubble wrap "envelopes", about 2'x3' that their fish are shipped in. to provide insulation. They are great to be used against the sun and insulate windows from the heat. I get them out of the dumpster. They do not stink, are very strong, and free. They have a lot of uses. They work great for moving and storing stuff too. One could use them for grow insulation as well. Here in Virginia they throw them out on Tues or Wed.

[ConcernedCanuk]

21. I rarely keep my hot water heater turned on.

.
.
.

I use minimal lighting most of the time - compact florescents.

Gather rainwater for laundry, bathing, plants etcetera so not using my 220 volt well pump that much.

Don't have a TV yet, but when I do it will be a flat-screen low consumption one.

Also, only use laptops for computers - take much less hydro than a desktop or tower.

Have a small 5000 BTU A/C window unit - only uses 400 watts at full bore -

most it ever cost me so far in hydro-electricity is 32 cents in a day

I read my hydro meter every morning to gauge my usage.

My actual usage in a month has never been over 10 bucks, but then they add in "delivery" charges of 40 bucks, taxes - and rounds it up to about 55 bucks a month.

Not bad though

oh - 'nuther thing - if you need electric heat, get someone to install a 220 volt baseboard heater where you feel the need.

Those plug-in 110 heaters cost over 4 times the electricity than a 220 volt heater for the same amount of heat. That's why houses with electric heat as their primary source of heat are always 220 Volts.

Besides that - baseboard heaters are quiet.

CC

[Digit]

22. I had something like this going on once

I began investigating my huge electric bill after comparing my neighbor's bill which was much lower than my own.

I had: Brand New 12 seer AC
New Maytag fridge (not a side by side and nothing fancy)
GAS dryer
2 year old washer
2 people in household (one adult, one teenager)
Triple pane low E windows, low argonne
175 square feet more space
I had added insulation to attic (blown in)

Neighbors had:
20 year old original AC
17 year old washer and SAME AGE ELECTRIC dryer
Large side by side fridge
old freezer in outdoor shed (being used)
Original windows
We had the same heating system (gas) and gas water heaters
3 people in household (2 adults, one teenager)

We pay our electricity to our town which they surcharge HYPO which is the reason I was doing so much to get my electric bill down.
I was treated like I was an idiot and told you cannot compare "apples and oranges". I was totally brushed off as a silly old woman which pissed me off royally.

I would plug and unplug items, checking the meter each time....I could not find the drain.
After 4 different electricians, one found what I recall him saying was a "corroded ground" in the electric box. He said it amplified my usage. Once he fixed that, my electric bill dropped.

Seriously, just the comparison of the AC alone...a 20 year old dinosaur vs a 12 seer in the summertime should have demonstrated something was drastically wrong.

Of course my issue was unusual but I wanted to add one more thing to check if all else fails.
Oh and if anyone can explain how this would manage to amplify usage, please explain.

[Sometimeswedrown]

23. Thanks all

I am like a mad man shutting off lights behind these two females hehe

[avebury]

24. Have you tried turning up the themostat and

then use fans blowing on a pan with ice cubes?

[Sometimeswedrown]

25. OMG READ THIS!!!

I was in 7th grade and god love my Dad but he was the guy that drove around in his spare time saying "Look some one threw out a perfectly good washing machine??" he saw sitting on the curb. Then he would stop to investigate options to replace the lid, fix the rust holes, or defend himself as my Mom was raking him out.

Anyway one day I come home from school (deep south) and my Dad was no one to buy an expensive air conditioner. I walk in and he has a fan sitting in front of a thirty gallon wash tub full of bagged crushed ice. To make it worse he is on the phone telling my girl friends Dad (a mechanical engineer) what a brilliant idea he had!!!


OMG Thanks for bringing back a now found memory

[avebury]

28. I had not thought about using that much ice.

I am curious - how did it work out?

[Turbineguy]

33. The advatage of ice is it has a latent heat of 144 BTU's per pound

Last edited Mon Jul 29, 2013, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)

but if you are using the freezer inside the house to make it, it's a net thermal gain.

[RebelOne]

34. Many, many years ago, when I lived in Miami,

not everyone had A/C including me. My husband bought a water-based air cooler. I would put ice cubes in it and it helped cool the house.

[Turbineguy]

26. Electric

water heater? set temp to 120 or less. take shorter showers

dryer? Make sure it stops when clothes are done. Make sure it vents to outside.

oven? use microwave

dishwasher? turn off heat dry (but use heat for washing dishes)

range? use electric kettle and/or microwave

It's not the lightbulbs, it's the big consumers to watch out for.

Also, and this is a biggie, try to reduce humidity buildup in the house. Humidity skyrockets energy use in the A/C.

[REP]

27. Incandescent bulbs are surprisingly huge consumers

It costs about $4.30 a month to run a single 60W incandescent bulb; it costs under $2.00 a year to run a similar LED bulb. Replacing the bulbs in my house with LEDs cut the bill by nearly half; my last bill, which including a couple weeks of 90s and 100s (we have air conditioning) for my 2440 sqft house was $150.00.

[avebury]

29. Electric - additional ideas

oven? use crock pot in addition to microwave

dryer? If it is warm enough and you have a place - line dry where possible

[DebJ]

30. A few ideas here:

Our 30 yr old fridge was draining electricity at the rate of $50 a month. Hubby wouldn't let me replace it;
he can never see past his nose and the next 5 minutes. Finally, it totally died, when we had no cash, and
I had to buy a cheapo $400 not really energy efficient replacement. The electric bill dropped $50 a month instantly. I was so ticked off to realize that I could have bought a $2000 top of the line fridge for the electric
use of the past three years alone.

To save energy, time, and lots of dishwashing (which also uses power to heat water, etc), I always cook
big batches of whatever I can. I am my own frozen dinner supplier. My husband likes to have turkey burgers
twice a week. I buy a 3lb package of ground turkey, then make 12 patties out of it, and cook and freeze them individually. Come dinner time, I just nuke it for 2 minutes. No dirty pans to wash, no standing over the stove flipping. No turning on the gas oven 12 times, just once and I'm done. I do this for every type of every meal possible. I can't stand to eat turkey burgers anymore myself after having to make them so often for ten years...so I will make enough stuffed peppers and other items for myself for 6 weeks, and nuke them too. Fast and clean, uses less energy, SOOOO much less dishwashing using less soap, water, energy to heat the water.

Do you have a decorative quilt you could hang on a bedroom wall like a piece of art/tapestry, that would also help the heat exchange through the walls? We have a large piece of blueboard behind our bed, the thickest possible, and we drape an old quilt over it. Looks like a headboard, and insulates us from the cold in the winter that just pours right through our brick walls. .... dumb me, I didn't realize that in the 1950s, brick houses were built with no insulation....just plaster over brick,brr.

When nights are cooler, like right now, I get up extra early just to open all the windows and doors for an hour or two, then go back to bed. Let's in the air that is cooler outside than inside. Then I shut them before I leave, and open them at night before bed for awhile when the temp drops again.

Good luck. I know our electric bill will be hideous next month. In the first 11 days of this cycle, during which time the heat wave hit, we used as much electricity as the previous 33 day cycle... and we were out of town for four of those days and had the AC set to high 80s (because otherwise it takes 2 days for the house to cool back down and we have health concerns at such high temps).

[haele]

31. Replacing the TV will help some.

Do you have a DVR hooked up to cable? Turn it off when you're not using it and don't worry about any recordings you have scheduled (it will turn back on for those). If you don't turn it off, it keeps recording the channel you have it on 24/7, which makes a significant mark on your electric bill. The kidlet cost us $10 a month minimum when she kept forgetting to turn hers off.
Most electric companies put a surcharge on usage during certain hours when everyone else is using electricity, too - I found I knocked another $15 off a month just running the dishwasher and doing the laundry after 8pm or before 9am.
Do you have an electric oven? Use your microwave and a toaster oven for snacks and leftovers - don't use it unless you're doing major cooking. That also can save a good amount of cash.

Use fans rather than air conditioning whenever you can - here in SoCal, they suggest you only have the AC on an hour or two before you go to bed. Even a swamp cooler uses less electricity than air conditioning.
Don't have a lot of turn on/turn off cycles for your lighting; if you're going to be in, say, the kitchen or bathroom off and on during the evening hours and have energy efficient bulbs, turn them on and leave them on as soon as you need the lighting until it's time to go to bed. Whenever you turn a light on, unless you are using LED bulbs, there is still just a little bit of surge, and these things add up.
Arrange the food in your refrigerator for easy egress and replacement; don't hang over the open refrigerator door staring at whatever is in there for minutes on end, and ensure it closes properly. (clean the seal areas, and replace the seals if the magnets are not keeping it closed.) This is especially difficult if you have teenagers or people who recreate via reality-altering substances.

Hopefully all of these things help.

Haele

[No Vested Interest]

32. Not an electrical engineer here, but trying to be practical while comfortable-

Just remember that anything that heats or provides heat is costly to use; curtail excess usage as much as possible;

That includes adjusting household temps when occupants are out of the home. - Turn down (sometimes turn off) heat a few degrees or more when leaving; when you return turn up heat gradually - a degree or two at a time until you're at or near desired setting.
Reverse for AC - turn up temps a few (or more) degrees when leaving, then adjust a degree or two at a time until at desired temp.

Keep throws - (small blankets)- available near where you watch TV or otherwise lounge in place.

Yes, turn out lights when leaving a room, but always provide enough light when moving throughout the house, to avoid falls, especially if older.