Comments on: Reducing Our Electrical Usage: One Year Later

By: Fas

Fas — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:41:37 +0000

I am an energy saving nerd but not to the point where I am uncomfortable and have to make drastic changes in my lifestyle.

1) Ok, if you have a hot water heater, please know that this appliance is without a doubt the most inefficient thing in your house. All the hot water heaters I’ve seen can have there thermostat adjusted by simply unscrewing a plate towards the bottom and adjusting the gauge (normally with a screwdriver). So perform this test. Go into your bathroom and turn your tubwater on as hot as it will go. If you cannot comfortably hold your hand under it, chances are it doesn’t need to be that hot for your showers, washing machine or dishwasher. Over the next several days, adjust the temperature on the heater and do the test again until you find a good temp. For mine, I have it as low as it can go and it is plenty hot for me. In the winter, you may have to adjust it back up if preferred or if you have several kids that use alot of water.

2) If you have a dishwasher, do not select the auto-dry or warmer or whatever it is called. If you simply open the dishwasher after running it, the warm dishes will dry pretty fast, thus avoiding the 30 minutes of running that heating element.

3) If you have an attic, you may find it very much worth your while to invest in a $100-150 attic fan. If you are handy, you can install it yourself easily. If you have a fan, you can open some windows on the bottom floor of your home and the fan will draw air from the outside (usually at night after it has cooled off), thru your home, up to the attic and out the vents in your roof. This effectively gets rid of all the 100 degree air that is trapped in your attic after a hot day. Run the fan for several minutes, close the windows and then your A/C will have an easier time cooling the house.

By: MoneyNing

MoneyNing — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 01:10:13 +0000

All these articles really scare me because I’m trying to buy a house and my electrical bill for my apartment is only $40 right now.

By: nickel

nickel — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 23:59:42 +0000

Average over the past year was 1921 KWh/month (yikes!), and the median was 1722 KWh/month (a freakishly high February skewed things a bit).

As I noted above, our house in entirely electric, so this includes running our furnace in the winter, our hot water heater, and our clothes dryer. Also keep in mind that there are six of us, which means more bathing, more dishes and more laundry. And my wife is home full-time so we can’t get away with cutting back on heat/air during business hours. Not to mention that our house is 1200 sq ft bigger than yours.

But… It sounds like our power is way cheaper than yours.

By: Livingalmostlarge

Livingalmostlarge — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:50:52 +0000

Please, tell me how many kwh you use? We have a 1800 sq ft house, two people, and we pay $180/month. We only use 600 kwh on average a month, I have two years of statements, and it used to be $150, but rate increases have pushed it up. I know I pay a lot but what’s your usage for $165?

By: nickel

nickel — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 19:30:31 +0000

Michelle: What comment? The only things that I delete (or never get posted in the first place) are spam comments or those that contain graituitous self-links without adding to the discussion.

Oh, and no… I don’t want to “pollute my food chain.”

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 19:14:07 +0000

Why did you take down my comment? Do you WANT to pollute your food chain?

By: Nicole Bruno

Nicole Bruno — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:25:59 +0000

If you haven’t already done so — look into putting an insulating blanket on your hot water heater — I work at an electric company and that is one of tips we are supposed to pass along to people when they call about energy conservation. I bought one at Lowe’s a few months ago when my husband and I bought our first house and it was under $15 – and not hard to put on.

By: nickel

nickel — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:30:00 +0000

@MITBeta: Yep, you read my mind no the tax credit. It’s 10% of the cost of the door (not including installation) up to $500 total credit. I just need to go online to the manufacturer’s website and get the form substantiating the energy efficiency. As for the degree days, you’re right that I could adjust for it, but I’m not sure that it’s worth the trouble. Might be interesting to do if I end up with time to kill at some point.

@Lulu: We use some solar lighting outside, but hadn’t really considered it indoors. Neither of our main bathrooms are particularly bright (on has no windows) so I’m not sure how well they’d work.

By: Lulu

Lulu — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:20:44 +0000

You might want to look into using solar lamps for some of your lighting needs. They are pretty cost effective in my opinion. You can get four for $14.99 at Walmart and if you put two of them in the bathroom then you do not need to turn on the lights when you go in there at night. They also make great night lights if your children are young enough to want those.

By: MITBeta

MITBeta — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:17:31 +0000

Forgot to include the link:

http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/produc.....gree_days/

By: MITBeta

MITBeta — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:16:59 +0000

You should be able to find data that compares heating degree and cooling degree days on average as well as for the recent past. Check out this link. If you need help deciphering/analyzing I can oblige off-line.

Also, you can probably get a tax credit or reduction for that energy efficient door.