Electricity Price Increases

[WinterDeere]

It just seems crazy now given everything is "energy star compliant", all super low wattage LED lighting, etc, yet the average consumer uses more. It's got to be all the gadgets and chargers plugged in these days that add up.

I also see people being much more flippant with their energy usage, thanks to the impression that things like LED's don't use enough energy to even worry about. Neighbors never used to leave their outside lights on all day, in the days of incandesecent, but now several do! No one left a CRT burning all day with no one watching it, but now many do with OLED's and other flat-panel displays.

Also, our parents had one refrigerator, one TV... and maybe one computer. I have six refrigerators, more TV's than I care to count (10?... maybe?), and I'm looking at 6 stationary computer monitors and 3 laptops right now.

 

[JTKub]

How big is your refrigerator? Those big side by sides seem to use a lot of power.
Conversely I have found that my freezers use very little power. Only one is running now, but deer season starts soon.
They are kept relatively full and only opened a couple of times per week, so the temp remains constant. They also are not self defrosting, a feature which I believe takes a fair amount of power to run.

Fridge is a pretty basic Whirlpool unit from about 2012. Bottom freezer. I blow the coils out and clean under it somewhat regularly. The little chest freezer in the basement is ~20yrs old.

 

[JTKub]

I also see people being much more flippant with their energy usage, thanks to the impression that things like LED's don't use enough energy to even worry about. Neighbors never used to leave their outside lights on all day, in the days of incandesecent, but now several do! No one left a CRT burning all day with no one watching it, but now many do with OLED's and other flat-panel displays.

Also, our parents had one refrigerator, one TV... and maybe one computer. I have six refrigerators, more TV's than I care to count (10?... maybe?), and I'm looking at 6 stationary computer monitors and 3 laptops right now.

Truth on that. I see so many businesses and commercial properties where they retrofitted or swapped out all their outdoor lighting to obnoxiously bright LED fixtures and seemingly doubled the number of them. I swear you could see some of these places from space. Out in the country-ish where I live, it's not that big of a deal, but there are residences nearby that are all it up because of this.

Then on the flip side of that, the power company changed out all the roadway lighting to LED 3-4yrs back and these lights don't do squat out in the country.

 

[Oaktree]

Also, our parents had one refrigerator, one TV... and maybe one computer. I have six refrigerators, more TV's than I care to count (10?... maybe?), and I'm looking at 6 stationary computer monitors and 3 laptops right now.

When I bought my first house in the mid 70s, I don't think I used more than 60-70 kwh/mo. It was a fairly small house (under 1000 sf), I was single at the time and we didn't have all the electronic gadgetry we have today.

It's got to be all the gadgets and chargers plugged in these days that add up.

So-called "vampire power usage" is a real thing. Almost everything today uses at least a few Watts (and some considerably more) even when turned off/not running, and it adds up.

 

[gsganzer]

I also see people being much more flippant with their energy usage, thanks to the impression that things like LED's don't use enough energy to even worry about. Neighbors never used to leave their outside lights on all day, in the days of incandesecent, but now several do! No one left a CRT burning all day with no one watching it, but now many do with OLED's and other flat-panel displays.

Also, our parents had one refrigerator, one TV... and maybe one computer. I have six refrigerators, more TV's than I care to count (10?... maybe?), and I'm looking at 6 stationary computer monitors and 3 laptops right now.

I'm constantly following my wife around turning off lights or TV's. She'll leave the TV on 16- 18 hours a day, just for background noise. Or, she thinks she turns the TV off, but it's actually still on.

I was raised to turn off a light when you leave a room. We also line dried our clothes and just threw them in the dryer to fluff them.

 

[lman]

Whoa! I'm happy when we only use 10x that!

View attachment 4287265

Oh, and we heat the house with wood and oil, not electric!

Wow, we have an all electric residence and only use about half of that with geothermal heat.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm trying to figure out how I use so much @ ~600-800kwh per month.

Gas stove, gas heat, gas dryer, gas water heater. One refrigerator, one small chest freezer in the basement. City water, so no pumps. ~2800sq/ft home, with 5 people. No a/c aside from one window shaker in the master bedroom that hasn't been used in a month or so.

Home I grew up 2400 square feet, single pane windows scant insulation with electric cooking and dryer…

Pretty much 10kWh day in day out summer and winter… no A/C

 

[ponytug]

How big is your refrigerator? Those big side by sides seem to use a lot of power.
Conversely I have found that my freezers use very little power. Only one is running now, but deer season starts soon.
They are kept relatively full and only opened a couple of times per week, so the temp remains constant. They also are not self defrosting, a feature which I believe takes a fair amount of power to run.

Yes, not having self defrosting will save a lot of energy, and your frozen items will store better as they aren't being warmed by the automatic self defrosting.

I think it is worth remembering that older refrigerators and freezers use quite a bit more power than newer ones. When we last replaced our fridge, our power usage dropped by half. (Ok, it was pretty old, as in 25 years old.)

@WinterDeere how do you use so many refrigerators?

All the best,

Peter

 

[kenmbz]

I thought I was bad with 3 refrigerators in two locations.

 

[Jstpssng]

I thought I was bad with 3 refrigerators in two locations.

I have 3 full sized freezers but it's been a few years since all 3 were running. On the other hand the only reason I have a full sized fridge is because it was a scratch and dent priced accordingly. The only damage I can find is a quarter sized dent in one panel... that's where my calendar hangs.

 

[WinterDeere]

Wow, we have an all electric residence and only use about half of that with geothermal heat.

See @gsganzer's comments about following his wife around, turning things off. Then add two kids who follow mom's lead, and the fact that I spend long hours either in the shop or outdoors, and there we have it! Every damn time I come through this house, I find nearly every light on every floor turned on and left on. Everyone has grown tired of me yelling about it, so I just quietly turn them off anymore. But when they've been home all evening and I'm just rolling in from the shop or coming out of my home office at midnight, the damage has already been done.

My wife's favorite move is plugging in a 1500 watt electric iron, and leaving it run all day, with the intent of ironing. Very little ironing seems to get done, but she'll jiggle the thing to wake it up every 30 minutes all day long, meaning to come right back to it. This is a daily routine.

 

[WinterDeere]

@WinterDeere how do you use so many refrigerators?

Big'un in the kitchen, then a smallish one up in the 4th floor kitchenette, and another small one under the counter in the butler's kitchen. There used to be another big'un in the garage, but I wanted to reclaim the floor space for bicycles, so I replaced it with three more under-counter units under a counter that runs along one garage wall.

So, it's really just one large, one smaller, and four more like collegiate size. With his 3 full-size units, I'd bet @Jstpssng has similar total volume.

 

[Carl_NH]

I'm trying to figure out how I use so much @ ~600-800kwh per month.

Gas stove, gas heat, gas dryer, gas water heater. One refrigerator, one small chest freezer in the basement. City water, so no pumps. ~2800sq/ft home, with 5 people. No a/c aside from one window shaker in the master bedroom that hasn't been used in a month or so.

Most of us are 1-2 people in the house - WinterDeere has 5 and a big rambling/remodeled farmhouse, and you have 5 people, so it's a lot of little things that add up. Lights in Bedrooms, fans in Baths, motor in washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc. Then the microwave, coffee maker, TV's all add up to more usage when there are 2X the people in the house.

Our garage and barn steady state with a Fridge, a freezer and lights is 130 KWH a month which is about the minimum a normal house would consume with no occupants. Then add 150 KWH per person and this is a guesstimate on what is "normal" without electric heat and DHW. The electric DHW can run $60-80 a month alone.

 

[ponytug]

See @gsganzer's comments about following his wife around, turning things off. Then add two kids who follow mom's lead, and the fact that I spend long hours either in the shop or outdoors, and there we have it! Every damn time I come through this house, I find nearly every light on every floor turned on and left on. Everyone has grown tired of me yelling about it, so I just quietly turn them off anymore. But when they've been home all evening and I'm just rolling in from the shop or coming out of my home office at midnight, the damage has already been done.

My wife's favorite move is plugging in a 1500 watt electric iron, and leaving it run all day, with the intent of ironing. Very little ironing seems to get done, but she'll jiggle the thing to wake it up every 30 minutes all day long, meaning to come right back to it. This is a daily routine.

I feel for you. I'm the same way these days, even though I know that the pair of LED lights that I'm switching off are only about 1.3 cents per hour even at peak rates. I should just get over it..., but I don't.

Timed motion light switches? (Personally not a fan, but...)

If it were me, I'd put a motion outlet switch on the iron outlet for fire safety reasons alone. I'd probably also upgrade the under pad to something 100% non-flammable. It is nice to have someone else do the ironing, but Yikes!

All the best,

Peter

 

[lman]

Most of us are 1-2 people in the house - WinterDeere has 5 and a big rambling/remodeled farmhouse, and you have 5 people, so it's a lot of little things that add up. Lights in Bedrooms, fans in Baths, motor in washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc. Then the microwave, coffee maker, TV's all add up to more usage when there are 2X the people in the house.

Our garage and barn steady state with a Fridge, a freezer and lights is 130 KWH a month which is about the minimum a normal house would consume with no occupants. Then add 150 KWH per person and this is a guesstimate on what is "normal" without electric heat and DHW. The electric DHW can run $60-80 a month alone.

I grew up in a house with 9 kids and our parents. We only had one refrigerator and no TV. Even with that many people in the house we didn't use much electricity. We were only in the house to eat meals, outside doing farm work the rest of the time. No AC also.

My heat pump water heater uses about $10-$12/month.

 

[WinterDeere]

I should just get over it..., but I don't.

lol... same. I've learned to choose my battles. I won't pretend I always choose wisely, but I have gotten at least a little wiser, over the years.

 

[Oaktree]

It is nice to have someone else do the ironing, but Yikes!

How much ironing needs to be done these days? Other than when my wife's working on a sewing project (primarily quilts), it's rarely used.

 

[BackRoad]

The Quilter strikes again...mine has a hot iron going 8 hours a day!

 

[Omega Woods]

Whoa! I'm happy when we only use 10x that!

View attachment 4287265

Oh, and we heat the house with wood and oil, not electric!

Dude, that's crazy. We have 3000 sq feet with a heat pump. Two fridges and three freezers. Leave the house lights on the front of the garage burning 24/7/365. Electric stove, bread maker every day, wife that bakes a lot, every meal at home, electric coffee maker, electric tea kettle. Our highest usage month was less than 2200 kw last February when we were cranking out freeze dryer batches more or less continuously. We average more like 1300 per month and I'm always walking through the house flipping the lights off.

 

[gsganzer]

I'm interested to see what the electricity bill on our new place is. The homeowner has shared their bills and it looks like their utilities (LP and electric) run $80/mo. more than what we spend in our current house. The house is newer, but slightly bigger. They also have a water treatment system, hot tub and a pond aerator. The hot tub is probably a pretty good draw and those aerators can be $10-30/mo to run.

I really wanted gas heat, but they have (2) heat pumps instead. I decided I was fine with that, because they also have a backup generator and after I run the utility numbers, I might add solar with battery storage and there's were the heat pumps work well. They have a buried 500 gal LP tank, but the only thing that runs on LP is the on-demand water heater, stove top, and (2) vent free gas fireplaces (one indoors and one on patio) and an outdoor kitchen.

I plan to have a fireplace contractor give me a quote to change the living room ventless gas fireplace to a wood burning fireplace with 2 zones. I'm not a fan of ventless gas fireplaces indoors, due to the humidity and combustion biproducts. Obviously, we'd need to route flue pipe, but I think the flue chase already exists or is easy to do. I really like a wood fire, have access to free dry standing oak and like the added energy diversity. With the way the house is laid out, the heat/cooling has 2 clearly defined zones. The master suite, kitchen, dining and living are all on one zone and could easily be heated with a 2 zone fireplace. The other zone includes the spare bedrooms/bath and bonus room, with a pocket door dividing the 2 zones.