Electricity usage

[ponytug]

I consider my electric clothes dryer to be a solar dryer if being powered by the solar panels.

So is ours, though perhaps without the fresh air smell.

I just prefer to use 0.7kW, instead of 5kW, freeing the solar power up for other uses.

 

[newbury]

Just looked at the bill today and 50 cents is baseline with 62 cents per kWh over base usage.

Add to that city taxes, etc…

I’m sure a dollar a kWH is in the future…

it’s already $80 a month for natural gas hot water and Saturday gas clothes dryer… at 2.46 base and 2.98 per therm natural gas not including city taxes and fees.

Dang, my place in Mississippi is on TVA, ~$20/month plus
As of August 1, 2025, $0.11853/KWH. Way up from when we moved in IIRC it was ~$10/mo and $0.10/KWH.

 

[JRH02]

It's interesting how many places are having this same conversation. The subject on rates and ever increasing fees, extra charges and taxes is getting a lot of grumbling. Gee, what will it be like when it gets bad?

 

[ultrarunner]

A few I know already living without utilities…

It happens when you have a balance that is not paid…

Number one is no water service and number 2 is no gas service or electric service.

I asked a 20 something couple how can they live without water… he said even with the water turned off enough water comes through to fill the toilet tank 3 of 4 times in 24 hours…

They both work as security guards but he had medical bills for ruptured appendix…

They showered at work and filled water bottles…

 

[dj1701]

I live alone with my dog now, so I can run or not run what I want. It takes a long time to fill the washer with dirty clothes when your single. Lights don't get left on for no reason, and air conditioning is not a necessity this time of year. I will have to service the coal stove soon, cause cold is coming, but it's still cheaper than air conditioning. Also, I keep small appliances unplugged when not in use.

Dave

 

[riptides]

I have/had four women on the farm.

Family members (they know better right?)... my electric company loves our property. Just a few minutes ago I turned off the heat in one building (heat?) and turned off some outside lights and a stairway light. Usually those things would normally be turned off after one progresses inside and up the stairs.

But see first sentence. LOL.

 

[Oaktree]

For the long winters it’s nice to have spacious inside space…

More inside space also = higher heating costs.
Our place is ~1600 sf, just right for the 2 of us.
Some of the newer houses with needlessly huge rooms seem just such a waste of space.

Speaking from experience, high efficiency washers and dryers made a huge difference to our energy consumption. (Front loaders use less hot water, and high spin cycle gets more water out of the clothes, and a heat pump dryer uses a small fraction of the energy in a standard electric dryer. So less hot water gets used, less of it ends up in the dryer, so we save energy several ways. But then we have solar, but it is not unlimited, so energy use does matter, at least to us.

We live in northern N.H. and use only cold water for laundry. Modern detergents don't need hot water...ours always come out clean.
Never had a dryer. Clothesline when possible, otherwise a clothesline on the porch or drying rack inside. Bonus; your clothes last longer.

 

[jk96]

It's interesting how many places are having this same conversation. The subject on rates and ever increasing fees, extra charges and taxes is getting a lot of grumbling. Gee, what will it be like when it gets bad?

Our co-op recently implemented monthly demand charges. They reduced kwh rates but added the monthly on and off peak demand service fees. In theory the bill should be about the same if your using any amount of electricity but I'm pretty sure this was all about getting money out of their 10% of customers on solar. Prior to the change we rarely paid more than the connection fee of $46. Now even if we are a net producer and sending more back to the grid than we use we still get hit with the demand charge. They take your highest 1 hour kwh usage of the month during on peak time and multiply it by $7.50 and highest 1 hour of usage during off peak by $1.50. There are times we are getting billed an extra $100 or more a month for demand charges even though we may send more to the grid than we use.

 

[ponytug]

Our co-op recently implemented monthly demand charges. They reduced kwh rates but added the monthly on and off peak demand service fees. In theory the bill should be about the same if your using any amount of electricity but I'm pretty sure this was all about getting money out of their 10% of customers on solar. Prior to the change we rarely paid more than the connection fee of $46. Now even if we are a net producer and sending more back to the grid than we use we still get hit with the demand charge. They take your highest 1 hour kwh usage of the month during on peak time and multiply it by $7.50 and highest 1 hour of usage during off peak by $1.50. There are times we are getting billed an extra $100 or more a month for demand charges even though we may send more to the grid than we use.

Ouch!

I understand the need to pay for wires and infrastructure, but the way that charge is created must be really hard on folks with no solar and AC or electric heat.

We have demand charges on our Ag power that works in a similar way, giving us $5/kWh power averaged out for the whole bill.

All the best,

Peter