Last year for the month of July I really did not pay attention to how much electricity we were using. I received a big shock when I received the final bill for the year which is at the end of July. During the previous year we used 88Kwh of power and my bill for the month of July alone was $388! I also had a final adjustment for the year that required me to pay an additional $605! We are on an equal billing plan and were not paying enough each month. My total bill for the year was $1881 to run the pool pump, the AC and the regular lights and the furnace fan etc. This post is about how I reduced my electricity use.
Need less to say I was shocked and upset, so from that time on I resolved to manage our electrical usage more carefully. We are on the smart meter program so if we can avoid using power during the day we save 5 cents / kilowat / hour. If we do not use the power at all, we obviously save money too.
Well this year our final bill total for the year was $1467 compared to $1881 , a savings of $414! Our equal billing plan was raised because of the previous year so we paid more each month and now the hydro company owes us money! One last point, the rates we pay for power also went up as well, so our savings are even greater. Sometimes it takes a shock to get you focused on reducing the use of electricity. Hopefully this post will help you before it hits your wallet.
How I Reduced My Electricity Use
Here is a list of things that we did to reduce our electrical usage and make use of non peak rates which run from 7pm to 7am during the week and all weekend.
- Run the clothes dryer at night after 7 pm
- Turn the lights on after 7pm, although they really do not use much power
- Convert to fluorescent lights and LED’s throughout your home
- Run the dishwasher after 7pm
- Operate the pool pump for 4 hours at night, beginning at 7pm and off at 11pm
- Run the pool pump from 7am in the morning until 10am
- Turned up the AC during the day and down at night for sleeping
- Turned off the AC as much as possible
- Set the furnace fan to auto instead of always on
What are the Big Power Users?
The big power users are things that have motors and heaters such as the dryer and the washing machine, the dish washer, the furnace, the air conditioner, the pool pump and the jacuzzi. There may be others, however these are the main culprits for high energy use. If you can avoid using them or shift their use to between 7pm and 7am you are going to reduce your energy bill and your energy foot print.
Obviously turning lights off also helps, however once you convert to fluorescent lights or LED’s the savings will be less significant. Running things such as multiple TV’s, multiple refrigerators and freezers also contribute to power usage. Turning of any and all of these devices or at least turning up the temperature a bit will always save energy can cut down on your electrical costs.
Keeping Our Old Chest Freezer
We have an old chest freezer for example which we only use at Christmas time. We have more food in the house and there are more things that we need to freeze so we plug it in and use if for a month or two. It is obviously an energy hog, however the cost to buy a new more efficient freezer is far more expensive than the money we would have by getting rid of it. So we will continue to run our 35 year old freezer until it does not work any longer. We only use the freezer for 1 to 2 months of the year so it makes sense for us.
How Much Money Will We Save this Year on Electrical Charges?
The rates have gone up again so if we run everything exactly the same as last year we are likely going to pay more in electrical costs. The next best thing would be to generate our own power which I would like to look into as a means of reducing our electrical costs this year and in future years.
We saved over $400 last year compared to the previous year. We are unlikely to get the same thing this year, however even if we break even, it will demonstrate a reduction since rates have increased. Why not try this out and see how much you can save.
August 16th, 2012 on 7:31 am
this is really great. I am going to do these things as well to reduce my electricity load. we use a lot of AC so we can save a great deal by following some of these steps to reduce electricity.