I live alone and my bill from the electricity supplier tells me my usage compared to other single member households. Usually I use less than half the average and it’s not because I am trying to be frugal.
At the moment it is 8.30pm the only things running, other than the fridge and freezer, are the computer/monitor/modem/speakers and one 8w fluorescent light bulb. I’m wearing a thick jumper so I haven’t bothered heating the place. Last summer I turned on the A/C twice when I had someone staying. The rest of the time I just use a fan, close up during the day and open up at night. I found that once I stopped fretting about controlling the climate indoors it became easy to cope with the cold and the heat. During the week I can’t be bothered trying to do anything because there is barely time to heat or cool the place before I go to bed anyway.
I make a lot of use of a 1400w turbo oven for cooking and never use the real oven anymore. But that’s by choice. I love my little turbo oven. I hardly ever watch TV and don’t own a dryer or dishwasher but other than these few things I think my power usage is pretty average. As I said I made no effort to be frugal and only discovered how low my usage is when my supplier changed.
Our solution was to disabuse ourselves and the kids of the notion that humans can only be comfortable at 73 degrees (or similar).
I contend that humans can be completely comfortable and nonstressed anywhere in the 60-80 degree range. I refuse to spend a lot of money maintaining an unnecessary temperature differential across my house’s outer walls. The house is allowed to climb to 80 in the summer and to cool to 60 in the winter. We use AC/Heat only to keep it within those limits. Otherwise, the occupants can change their clothing as needed for comfort.
We have zoned and timed thermostats, so the house heating/cooling equipment remains off during weekdays (while it’s empty).
A strange fact for me. In the summer, if I set my ac at 79 or under, I get chilly, but in the winter time, if I have it set over 71, I get hot. I wish I had an explanation for that. I know it’s not in my head because I can see the thermometer on the ac controller.
Possible explanation - the thermostat is picking up the heat from somewhere close to or even in, the outside wall. Thus if the temperature outside is very much colder (i.e., in the depths of winter), the temperature at the wall itself is being pulled down sharply by the differential and the heating works harder to pull the temperature at the wall up to 71 … but at the time the temperature in the middle of the room, where you are, is more like 75. Reverse the process in summer.
We have exactly the same thing in our house, and this is my explanation for it. I always set the thermostat higher when it’s hot out.
[QUOTE=AaronX]
Is it common to leave the A/C on when nobody’s at home?
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We don’t have a programmable thermostat here, so my options are leave the
AC on, or come home to a 90 degree house that will take four hours to get back to under 80.
My husband can drive me nuts because in the summer he wants the thermostat set at 73, and in the Winter he isn’t comfortable unless its 75.
I have it a 69 in the Winter and 80 in the Summer (actually, its off all summer unless the outside temp starts reaching 90. I lived with fans and my kids can too.) And he works all the time anyway. The kids are told to suck it up - I’ll let him turn on the air if it gets to 80 on the weekends.
I leave my AC on all the time. I turn it up higher when I leave, but I can’t come home to a hot house or I go straight into bitch mode. But I have noticed that if I set the thermostat for say, 73, the bedrooms will be chilly and the living room will be 76 or so, which means the unit runs all day trying to compensate. So I installed a window unit in the living room and keep it turned up a bit higher. Also I keep a fan in the hall, which seems to help as the bathroom and hallway are cooler than the living room.
My bills get that high in the winter sometimes, so I feel your pain.
This is the answer. Spend as much as comfortable on new, efficient appliances. They are your power hogs, especially AC. If you can’t replace, try to rely on them less. Wash the dishes in the sink, dry your clothes outside, turn down your water heater, turn up the AC temp, etc.
I never turn the heat down or turn the AC up. 99% of the time either myself or my sister are home (I work at home and my sister tends not to go places evenings), and when no one’s home it’s not on a regular schedule. I have a programmable thermostat but it stays locked at 77 in the summer and 71 in the winter. Plus I have three cats that probably wouldn’t appreciate a hot or cold house.
In my experience central air conditioners seemed to be sized less for the space relative to room air conditioners. People want to walk into the room, turn it on, and have it cool down in minutes, but it seems to take hours to make a subtle change with central units.
Thanks for all the suggestions - and keep them coming!
Our bill during the winter months is about $65-80 per month - it is only summer that it jumps up to the $300 mark.
We did indeed buy new fridge and dishwasher in the past couple of years - and that made a huge difference! Much more energy efficient.
Our dryer and water heater are gas…yes, they need electricity to turn on, but the heating elements are all gas.
We are good about lights…usually only three lamps in the living room all night and no other lights on in the house.
I think our plasma TV sucks a lot of electricity - plus throws off a lot of heat - but that was top of the line when we bought it. Will most certainly be looking for a more energy efficient TV next time around!
I don’t think our pool pump is a huge waste of electricity - it runs the same amount of time, year round, even in the winter - so when those bills are low, it is still a part of the equation.
So it is the air conditioner that makes the big leap…and with temps in the 100’s pretty much every day from June through August, there isn’t much option. We are in the minority with setting the temp to 81 degrees - most co-workers have theirs set at mid to low 70’s…then again, I have some co-workers who have bills closer to the $400 month mark.
Yeah, a new air conditioner would probably be the best idea - but they are quite pricey and I really don’t have the bucks to rip out the old and put in a new one.
For minimizing the cost of running the AC, of course the most important thing to do is to use it as little as possible (turn it off when not home, use a programmable thermostat, etc), and to use an efficient unit. But there are also other things you can do, e.g.:
[ul]
[li]Make sure the insulation in the attic is intact.[/li][li]Make sure the attic is properly ventilated.[/li][li]Make sure all the windows and exterior doors seal well.[/li][li]Close the AC vents in rooms that aren’t used.[/li][li]Minimize the amount of sunlight that enters the house. Close the shades during the day, apply tinted film, etc.[/li][li]Anything you can do to reduce electricity & heat usage inside the house will pay you back double, by also reducing the load on the A/C. So follow all the tips given in this thread (get rid of incandescent lights, etc). [/li][/ul]
No cites handy, but I could have sworn I’ve seen several studies that prove that hand-washing is one of the least efficient ways to clean dishes, since you’re using all that water to wash one. dish. at. a. time.
Forget LED bulbs - their time is really not here yet IMO. Last year they were $40-50 each at Home Depot, this year they’re $20-30 each. They’ll very likely cost half as much next year and drop under $5 within a few years. CFLs are a few dollars each, or if your electric company offers incentives they’re easily under a buck. You can likely replace every bulb in your home with CFLs for the same cost as only a few LEDs and start saving a comparable amount of electricity right away. Look back at LEDs when the CFLs start burning out in a few years.
Buying a new AC unit to save electricity?! Has anyone recommending this approach priced high efficiency whole house AC units? I bought two 13 SEER units (which is minimum legal efficiency in the US) last year for $9k, two 16 SEER units would have cost $24k with the electric company offering $3,000 in rebates for a total of $21k. Speaking to a mechanical engineer I found that the payoff would be well over 20 years. When these units get destroyed by hail or die of old age in around 15 years I’ll feel pretty smart for not spending en extra $12k to “save” $8k or less.
My favorite energy saving device is my wifi connected programmable thermostats. I paid about $100/each and I can program them or change the temperature from my phone or computer. It’s a much better and more intuitive interface than what is available on the screen of the actual thermostat.
I also have a radio connected power meter which allows me to see my daily energy usage on my electric company’s website. I checked my usage early in June and saw that I was using a little over 100kwh/day and my bill estimate was at $425. It appears that someone had set one thermostat to hold 76 degrees and the other to 74 for the week prior. I set it to run the program and made some changes and with only a few days left in this billing cycle I’m down to $350.
