Want to use under 400 kWh of electricity a month? Here are my notes on trying to get my electric use count to this small goal. Even if these ideas don't work for you, there might be a tip or two in here you can adapt for your own family.

Using Less Electricity - My Case Study

What do you do, or have heard of someone doing, to really get their electric bill down?

Jilly,

You're so full of good information. I hate to think of the electric we waste. It seems I am always complaining about charges that are not unplugged, lights that are left on, etc. I wish we had solar and wind powered everything!

Dear Jilly,
I live in a 3 1/2 apt.Tonite outside it will be -13,tomorrow all day -1.How cold does it get ,when it gets cold where you live.
Here we have average nights -20 to -25 degrees ,sometimes -40 .
My electicity bill came in today. For the 2 coldest months of
winter it is $168. canadian. exactly 56 days and that includes the 15 % tax we have to pay on electricity and everthing that has
been manufactured,except food.

You talk of solar system ,they are expensive,would it be worth the savings?You talked of a generator ,these work on petrol,where is the savings.Just to know, how much your 400 watts goal will cost you per month?

Just asking.

loong

Me Too !!!

Dear Jilly,

In my last post,i asked how much your electicity bill would cost at 400 kwh.Mine cost me $ 30.79.

So if you have time could you answer my question .

With friendship in mind,

a simple buddhist called
loong

Loong, this is from the Altestore.com:

"Generally speaking, solar electric systems take from 12 to 20 years to pay for themselves depending on your location and what your local utility charges for electricity...That said, more and more states have very aggressive rebate programs and tax credits for both individuals and businesses to reduce the initial cost of the system."

My recent bill for 561 kWh is $48.61. I saved $15 by being in the low income energy support program at 26% saved.

I would save 30% at under 400 kWh a month. I expect to get there once Dan leaves - this is an amount for two people, one of whom (dan) has a heavier electrical use style than i do.

Last April my lowest energy bill was 206 kWhs with a bill of $18.20.

I don't plan to have a full solar system - my plan is to find a cheap kit, like the amazon one i recommend in my article, and only use smaller appliances with it. For heating, I want to plan on using a woodstove (and found burnables). For cooling, I plan to camp in the mountains for the three hot months.

I realize these are more radical ideas than is feasible for most people, but experimenting is fun, and i might give someone some ideas.

Lyn and Burt, thank you. I've found for that for turning off appliances at it's most simple level, a surge protector outlet is worth it's weight in gold. I wrote my ideas about using those here: using power strips to save energy and money!

Tonight i am looking around in my studio and noticed I have 5 CF bulbs going inside, and one burning as an outdoor light.

These are all using around 15 watts, which isn't bad, but LED bulbs would be even better. From looking around, the LED screw in bulbs are around $20. I can't afford those just yet, but can save up and try to replace them one by one.

For the lone outdoor light, I'd like to find a way to have that run purely on solar.

I unplugged my CFL outdoor light last week and am now relying on my one dollar (from walmart's gardening area) LED solar light stakes to guide me around at night. I have them lining the driveway and going up to my front door.

Total cost - $6 to buy and no electrical fees ever. They are $1 each from walmart (total of six). LED lights do not have filaments to burn out and solar power lasts indefinitely. Installation fees also zero - you shove the pointed poles into the ground.

I also have found some interesting low-watt USB devices that I am exploring. I found a 2.5 watt USB table fan. It's small, but if you are sitting in front of the computer you can point it at your face and feel a nice little breeze.

I've also been looking into USB powered heating devices. With summer coming, I have some time though.

I don't keep my coffeepot plugged in when not in use, to save money on phantom energy. Right now my coffeepot is sitting there plugged in, just to keep my coffee warm. This is a pretty bad use of energy. I tend to slowly drink my decaf over a series of hours, and the coffeepot just sucks away 1200 watts as it goes.

It's a bad allocation of my limited money.

I even have some very nice vintage Stanley thermoses somewhere (found at thrift stores). I need to get my butt out of this chair, go find one, and pour my hot coffee into that. And then unplug the darn appliance!

It's just a matter of making small changes and new habits. I am going to look for a thermos right now.

Too bad it's going to wake the kitten.

I did manage to find the thermos I was hoping to. Excellent! I almost had to give up looking for it and then i randomly found it. It was moldy inside so i am letting it soak tonite in a strong bleach solution.

One non-essential heating unit down!

I was thinking that tomorrow when i make coffee, I am going to take a look at the electrical meter and see how fast it makes the wheel turn. When i was running a clothes wash, it was spinning merrily along. Most of the time it's a very slow movement.

I am learning to read my electric meter and have been writing about this in these forums.

This link mentions some of this in my how to keep cool without AC thread.

Here is a link for my posts about learning to read your electric bill

OK, i got a coffeepot that uses less watts, and am now looking at other appliances. If i can't get a more energy saving appliance in total, i can at least work on my user practices.

I am experimenting with -

- handwashing clothes (I already handwash dishes)
- using the fridge less often and with better awareness (i started a thread just on cheaper fridge practices)
- not using the AC until it reaches 100, and using a lot of fans strategically instead (this is the focus of a few of my threads here)
- using solar devices and solar chargers for everthing i can think of - solar lights inside and in the yard, solar USB chargers, a small solar panel for charging a portable marine battery for misc indoor and outdoor uses. (I also have some hand crank devices for emergencies, but don't plan to crank for my electric unless i have to)
- changing out lightbulbs. I have only compact florescent bulbs in everything at this point, but am exploring going even better with LED bulbs. At home depot the LED screw in bulbs are about 7 to 9 watts, which actually isn't worth buying yet. My CFL bulbs are only 13 watts. A 9 watt bulb isn't a huge difference, especially when said 9 watt bulb costs $10 or more. The 7 watt bulbs are a better watt savings but those cost $20 each.

While I wait for those prices to go down, I use less lights. Right now all my outdoor lights are the one dollar solar ones from walmart. I have one light on inside over my desk, using 13 watts. When I move over to read in bed, I will use that bulb, or even better, read from my kindle with a one watt led booklight.

I keep a solar powered three bulb LED mini-flashlight by the front door, so I can grab that to see by outside if I need focused light for something. It cost me $1.70 i think on Amazon and gives me free light whenever i want. It's better than squinting around using my cell phone as a night light anyway!