How much is your electric bill rising? Ways to save

[pigletto]

I swear I was told that it was actually better to use a cheaper, thinner filter than a fancy thick one because the furnace has to work that much harder to push it through. I don't know how true that is. Anybody know?

 

[xlxo]

I have one of those "smart meters". It allows me to see my consumption without waiting until the end of the month.

If there's a way, check out your regular consumption.... then check your consumption when everyone is on vacation. You can quickly see what percentage of your electricity is racking up when there is NO ONE in the house (ie refrigerator).

If you don't have a smart meter, you can achieve some approximate numbers by taking note of the meter readings yourself.

 

[lauradis]

When it comes to your heat/Ac, I find it worth the money to have the tech come out once a year and do a check up on the unit. They will clean it out, test everything and do what's needed to get it working at peak efficiency. Also useful to diagnose small problems before they become huge.

Get good filters and keep them clean.

Keep a clean house. You'd be surprised how much dust, dirt and pet hair can make it past even the best filter and get into your heat/ac unit. If you keep things clean, you lessen that.

Clean under and behind the fridge and any chest freezers. Vacuum off or dust the coils. Again, pet hair and dust can really clog things up and drag down the efficiency.

Empty the lint filter on your dryer regularly, and clean out the hose leading outside. Again, not only money saving, but safety related as well since lint can cause fires.

It's not always about turning things off, but it's also about keeping things clean so they work in the most efficient was possible.

Yep when we first moved here 11 years ago we had the vents cleaned out before we replaced the whole furnace.

OMG the crap that came out of it was amazing. Im lucky I know someone that does hav work and has the big vent machine, so we barter lol

 

[usnuzuloose]

Our bill was over 300 , i swore to get that down. It has been hot here an in a drought. But by leaving the air off and using fans, that bill got down to 175. We are still hot. But during the winter I will use the electric blanket more and the fire place , on burn days.

 

[NinaBella]

When I lived in Korea the winters were very cold and the windows were not high quality. We used heavy plastic to cover the windows to keep out drafts. It worked great.

I didn't compare my bills but the majority of light bulbs in our house are now CFL light bulbs which is suppose to lower the bill.

We recently paid to have our dryer vent cleaned out (because it was L shaped and exited on the second floor) which is suppose to lower our bill. We had a clogg in the L shape bend and it was taking several cycles to dry clothes. Now it takes one cycle again. This is also recommend to prevent home fires. Our washer and dryer is only a few years old.

Our a/c is four months old as the old one we fixed too many times so we broke down and got a new a/c unit that is suppose to be even more energy efficient. It's huge and loud. LoL. We have a programmable thermostat to change the temperature during the day when typically no one is home.

The two windows that face the hottest sun of the day have Roman Shades with room darkening lining on them. I love them! They keep the rooms cooler in the hot Florida sun when closed. But I bought them mainly for privacy as these are also the two front windows of the house and are kids bedrooms. At night if they are in their room with all the lights on, you can tell from the outside that any lights are on at all. It literally will look like no one is home if we have them closed. Our privacy fence blocks viewing the side windows of the home.


Now we live in Florida so not many winterizing issues here. It's more about telling the kids to turn off all their lights before they leave for school. If our electric goes up there is not much else we can do to reduce it. I already leave lights off when I am home during the day and just open the blinds for light since every room has a window. I am curious to see if anyone has tips that would work for a Florida home. Our home was built in 2003 so not much else needs to be upgraded.

 

[Dawnlight]

I'm in MA, too, and the rate hike scares me. We heat with oil, and that's costly enough, but we often supplement with small electric heaters due to our inefficient, drafty 114 year old house.

We do have a gas stove and dryer, so that saves a bit on electricity costs, but I am at a loss on how to conserve even more. Candlelight?

It's downright ridiculous that this increase is happening.

 

[nrsldy]

I live in north central florida. The utilities here are outrageous compaired to the Midwest. I just bought an older home, with new windows and insulation. My first electric bill was almost 600. I had the utility company come out and do an energy survey. I need to update my air conditioner. but for the size of my house they could not tell me why I use so much energy.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

OP here. We are reading all of your replies, thank you.

We are pretty good about turning lights out.

We got a new, highest quality furnace (gas) and central AC unit recently, so those are energy efficient. Most of our appliances are relatively new, if not brand new. We do have three refrigerators as we have our own, which is super small, and a second one; then because we have an In Law apt, we have a third, plus utilities over there, including an electric dryer (also new) and a portable AC unit (new). I know all of those use an awful lot of power.

Does anyone remember the commercial in the 80s that talked about leaving lights on outside for "pennies a day"? Well we always did, but I'm beginning to turn it on when we turn in, rather than when it gets dark. I'm sure it's more than pennies a day now.

We definitely can look at cleaning some vents.

I do work with blinds and such to either minimize or maximize sunshine.

We're also going to have to figure out about leaving things plugged in. So if something is plugged in, say a toaster or a coffeepot, but not being used, does it pull power? Or does it use power only when in use? (I've read it both ways.) What about a TV? Does using a power strip help this if you keep it turned off? A little confused about that. (And seems like it would be rather incovenient to have to plug in with each use - I know our main TV is up high, I can't even reach the plug!)

What about cordless phones? Or mobile phone/tablet chargers?

 

[Iowajes]

That's nice. Gas company here has a minimum $25 charge per month no matter how little gas you use. Always used to make my mom mad when her bill was an even $25 because she was paying for nothing.

Our minimum charge is $10. So we pay $10 a month all through the summer to use no gas at all. We only use gas in the winter

Our biggest issue is our water bill. Even though we have never used more than 2 units (and often only 1), our bill is near $70 each month! It is an issue with our town. I wish I had known ahead of time, as our bill just 2 miles over in another city was about $20 for the same amount of water!

 

[supersnoop]

I use a Kill-A-Watt to measure the energy use of devices that could be pulling more power than they actually need. This is good to use on those things you leave plugged in just to check if they're actually costing you money.

The most energy is consumed by items that change the temperature (dryer, refrigerator, a/c), and motors that move heavy things (garage door opener). Convincing my daughter to use the front door rather than going in and out through the garage has saved me some money.

 

[Disneefun]

We're also going to have to figure out about leaving things plugged in. So if something is plugged in, say a toaster or a coffeepot, but not being used, does it pull power? Or does it use power only when in use? (I've read it both ways.) What about a TV? Does using a power strip help this if you keep it turned off? A little confused about that. (And seems like it would be rather incovenient to have to plug in with each use - I know our main TV is up high, I can't even reach the plug!)

What about cordless phones? Or mobile phone/tablet chargers?

Things like coffee pots and toasters don't pull power unless they have something like a clock or indicator light on them, or something internal to them that "keeps time." This is why things like TV's, game consoles, dvd players, and cable boxes pull power. Even if they don't have a clock on them, most have some internal bit or battery that's keeping track of the date/time and that's constantly drawing power even though you can't see it. Either that or they're in some kind of stand by mode to decrease the amount of "boot time" you experience when turning it on.

Cordless phones pull power all the time, I believe. Chargers I'm not sure. I don't believe they use power unless something is plugged into them, but I would unplug them just for safety reasons. (I don't like just leaving stuff plugged into the wall for no reason.)

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

Things like coffee pots and toasters don't pull power unless they have something like a clock or indicator light on them, or something internal to them that "keeps time." This is why things like TV's, game consoles, dvd players, and cable boxes pull power. Even if they don't have a clock on them, most have some internal bit or battery that's keeping track of the date/time and that's constantly drawing power even though you can't see it. Either that or they're in some kind of stand by mode to decrease the amount of "boot time" you experience when turning it on. Cordless phones pull power all the time, I believe. Chargers I'm not sure. I don't believe they use power unless something is plugged into them, but I would unplug them just for safety reasons. (I don't like just leaving stuff plugged into the wall for no reason.)

There have been fires started from a toaster plugged in but not in use. Not sure how it would start a fire if it wasn't pulling power. Maybe it was a high tech toaster but if I recall correctly, it was a plain Jane one (at least in the case that happened here). Wall out was not faulty. That's why I leave mine unplugged but I like to think it's saving energy too.

 

[threeboysmom]

We're also going to have to figure out about leaving things plugged in. So if something is plugged in, say a toaster or a coffeepot, but not being used, does it pull power? Or does it use power only when in use? (I've read it both ways.) What about a TV? Does using a power strip help this if you keep it turned off? A little confused about that. (And seems like it would be rather incovenient to have to plug in with each use - I know our main TV is up high, I can't even reach the plug!)

What about cordless phones? Or mobile phone/tablet chargers?

I've also wondered about this too. I leave EVERYTHING plugged in 24/7. If it's only going to save me $5/month to run around and plug/unplug cords anytime I need to use something, it's totally not worth it to me.

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

I think our bills went up in s fla - I ck mine and a couple neighbors every few months so we can tell if anything has changed. I think about 4/5%.

We have had several jumps of much higher over the years.

Our bill had a high of $622 for Aug this year. We have had a hot summer this year as well. Our home is 40+ yrs old , about 4000 ua plus a second garage of about 800sf(?) , plus pool.

I think ours is due to 3 of us in the home all the time(self and 2 teens being homeschooled) so I cook lunch, 'on the pc's , tv, ceiling fans on...we have a lot of electronics, 2 frig,...

We keep ac at 79, never use the heat, lights off if not in the room,fans off if not in room, never use the heat just bundle for that 1 week, pool pump is only on a few hours a day, sprinklers only part of the time. We have hE washer, dw, some led lights and such, but I know we need new windows(30 yrs old) and eventually new a/c. they work fine but are old. When my mom put new a/c in condo there bill went down 10/15 %.

 

[DebbieB]

I have First Energy as my electric supplier with a contract for 6.99 rate until December. I got a letter today saying my contract is not being renewed and I will be going back to Duquesne Light unless I find a new supplier. Duquesne Light is currently 8.08. I checked papowerswitch.com and all of the choices are pretty much the same or higher. Definitely will avoid a variable rate supplier, some people got wacked last winter.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

We got solar $45 per month for 20 years and it will never go up.

We are under a lease so we didn't pay for the solar up front, but we also didn't get the government rebates (solar company got them but they paid for the system). If we produce more solar during a month than we use electricity, the excess is applied toward months we use more electricity. During the hottest and coldest months, we do end up paying more but it ends up being an additional $40 max - not even close to the $200 we paid for those months before we had solar. HUGE savings!

some fine print - you have to live in a sunny place, have enough 'roof' or area on the ground for the solar panels, and the solar panels must be able to get sun (so this won't work if you have a lot of tall trees near your house that you won't cut down.

So if you see people brushing snow off their roof (solar panels) - it is because they want more solar production (cold and sunny give you maximum solar production)

 

[DawnM]

How would I know how much mine will go up?

Dawn

 

[AndreaDM]

I've also wondered about this too. I leave EVERYTHING plugged in 24/7. If it's only going to save me $5/month to run around and plug/unplug cords anytime I need to use something, it's totally not worth it to me.

I agree! Unplugging stuff is annoying! I tried it for a while, but then would go to toast a bagel in the toaster oven and after hearing the "ding" find out the darn thing was unplugged! Those few minutes in the morning are crucial lol! Plus, with DH working part time from home and part time on the road, our schedules are too erratic to keep unplugging/plugging in electronics.

 

[xlxo]

I plugged a powerbar into an electric timer. The timer is set turn on at 3am and turn off at 7am. I plug my cellphone and tablets into the powerbar so that it charges only when I'm sleeping and it's ready when I wake up.

I have a second powerbar/timer setup for my laptops. It comes on for 5 hours when I get home, turns off when I sleep.

You can also buy powerbars with electric timers.

Cordless phones? Instead of multiple chargers, I use ONE charger and charge each handset individually. This allows the handset to do a proper drain when it's not plugged into the charger. This extend the battery lifespan.

 

[cepmom]

I'm in MA too, OP do you have National Grid for your electric? We do...last year when National Grid's prices started going up I signed up to have my electricity supplied by Viridian and was able to lock into a rate lower than National Grid (Viridian was .071 per kWh vs. National Grid at somewhere around .10 per kWh)

I just locked in again with Viridan to 10.5 cents per kWh in anticipation of National Grid's increase which will be 16.2 cents per kWh. Just something else to consider to help save some $$ in addition to other cost saving measures.