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Ryland · 11-21-09, 06:16 PM

I've owned my house for just over a year now so I can now start to compare my utility bills with what I had a year ago, last year it was 28.8KWH per day and this year it was 15.3 KWH per day for the month of October, I realize it's still pretty high but last year it was only two adults in the house this year it was 4 adults.
We have an electric hot water heater, electric range, electric tea water kettle, 50 gallon electric water heater, fridge, smallish chest freezer, dehumidifier in the basement and a natural gas hot air furnace with a fan for the sealed combustion and a fan to move the air around the house and this year we turned the heat on 4 weeks earlier then last year.

So now I'm looking for more ways to cut back,
The dehumidifier is energy star rated and is near the top for a household size and it's set at 60% so it kicks on a few times a day for maybe 30 minutes, more in the summer, it was running non stop before we fixed the drainage problems around the house and got gutters.
The hot water heater now has a water heater blanket on it, it also has a timer that kicks it on at 5am till 7am and 3pm till 6pm, I've also replaced the old 3/4" iron water pipes with 1/2" pex for faster hot water delivery, this has also cut down on our water usage in waiting for hot water to take a shower with, last week I finely got around to replacing the 2.5gpm shower head with a 2gpm shower head, I might try to find a 1.5gpm but they seem harder to find.
Other areas of seem pretty low use, so I'm not really sure where else to cut back, my electric car is once again put away for the winter and it was only using a 3 to 4 kwh per day as it was, we have no TV (15 watt Asus EEE laptop and a Mac Power book of one of the room mates... not sure how much the power book uses) The radio is only on a few hours per day, we do cook but only bake once or twice a week, lights are all low wattage CFL's in the 7 watt to 13 watt range and one 3 watt LED and non of them seem to get left on if they are not being used.
The room mates all want hot water in the morning and in the evening and it's already at a reasonable temp, the basement needs to stay dry for food storage and that my co-home-owner does not like mold, mildew, or dampness and pays half the bills.

So any ideas?

11-21-09, 06:16 PM	#1
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	I've cut my electrical useage, now what? I've owned my house for just over a year now so I can now start to compare my utility bills with what I had a year ago, last year it was 28.8KWH per day and this year it was 15.3 KWH per day for the month of October, I realize it's still pretty high but last year it was only two adults in the house this year it was 4 adults. We have an electric hot water heater, electric range, electric tea water kettle, 50 gallon electric water heater, fridge, smallish chest freezer, dehumidifier in the basement and a natural gas hot air furnace with a fan for the sealed combustion and a fan to move the air around the house and this year we turned the heat on 4 weeks earlier then last year. So now I'm looking for more ways to cut back, The dehumidifier is energy star rated and is near the top for a household size and it's set at 60% so it kicks on a few times a day for maybe 30 minutes, more in the summer, it was running non stop before we fixed the drainage problems around the house and got gutters. The hot water heater now has a water heater blanket on it, it also has a timer that kicks it on at 5am till 7am and 3pm till 6pm, I've also replaced the old 3/4" iron water pipes with 1/2" pex for faster hot water delivery, this has also cut down on our water usage in waiting for hot water to take a shower with, last week I finely got around to replacing the 2.5gpm shower head with a 2gpm shower head, I might try to find a 1.5gpm but they seem harder to find. Other areas of seem pretty low use, so I'm not really sure where else to cut back, my electric car is once again put away for the winter and it was only using a 3 to 4 kwh per day as it was, we have no TV (15 watt Asus EEE laptop and a Mac Power book of one of the room mates... not sure how much the power book uses) The radio is only on a few hours per day, we do cook but only bake once or twice a week, lights are all low wattage CFL's in the 7 watt to 13 watt range and one 3 watt LED and non of them seem to get left on if they are not being used. The room mates all want hot water in the morning and in the evening and it's already at a reasonable temp, the basement needs to stay dry for food storage and that my co-home-owner does not like mold, mildew, or dampness and pays half the bills. So any ideas?