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Answers to the questions asked:
Where do we live - Kihei, Maui. That's the hot leeward side.
wow that's crazy...what is the square footage of your place? - 2390, that's 5 bedrooms + an office. 3 bedrooms are for guests, vacant and dark most of the time. 1 bedroom for us, 1 is turning into a workshop.
Calico, what rate do you currently pay for most recent usage? - Just as shown on my last post, which had recent bill. You would have to check online to see the tiered charges. The more you use, the higher per KWH for the next tier. For my calcs, because I don't want to keep updating that much data in my spreadsheet, I just break down the total bill by #KWH. It skews the numbers a bit, but gives us something to go on, and the bottom line is really what we have to look at. That is, they could change the tiers, but really what do we end up writing on the check?
AC is not a necessity ih Hawaii..... one can get by just fine with ceiling fans and the tradewinds. I have. -
One thing to remember is you probably left the house and went to work. We work from home, so we are in the house all day. The house, for example in the livingroom, without AC climbs to 89 or so by noon. That's not hot for California, but in humid Maui it's not easy to stay at your desk working, even with ceiling fans. We open the doors in the morning to let in any cool air (some days it is cooler inside), then shut them when the outside is hotter, then back open in the evening.
We recently installed the zone AC so that we can cool the office and master bedroom and not the rest of the house. The office was getting into mid-90s; its the hottest room in the house because of the location and also because we have 2-3 computers, printer, router, etc. pumping out heat into the little space all day. We have to work, and sitting at a desk feels hotter than if we were up and moving around.
We now flip the office zone AC on to cool down the room, then back off as soon as it's comfortable (love the remote). We cool the rest of the house in the afternoon with the central AC and flip it off when it gets down to 83 or so. Weekends we might have the central AC more of the time, but we turn it off every time we leave the house.
My neighbor used to say something along the same lines, but she leaves for work every morning and works in a resort that has AC pumping into the structure. If we are out an about, we can return home to a hot house, open up the doors & windows, and let it cool down as we move around. But try sitting in a small room with hot computers and no AC and see if 93 degrees doesn't get you screaming. Or sleeping - neither one will make you any money.
Yes, you can live without AC if you have cross breezes or aren't home all day, or also if you are younger. Over 50 and it's a different adjustment. It all depends on where you live, both location and your structure. Hard to make a blanket statement like that.
But it's a good point for those of you who may not have a bill as high. Maybe other Maui folks can post their KWH usage.
Holy crap! You guys use about twice what we do (also two people in a hot humid climate who keep the AC off as much as possible). Our recent bill (June in North Carolina) was 577 KW. And we have an all-electric house and we have to use electricity to pump our water out of the ground. What gives? -
Good question. We had a second refrigerator for a while, but we unplugged that. I know for sure our work electronics consume a lot of power running all day every day, but that's our business so we can't unplug. Our electrical bill in CA was MUCH lower, but then we left the house to go to corporate jobs, so not much consumption for 8-10 hours.
OK, I admit we haven't changed every bulb to fluorescent - can't stand that type of light in every room, and in some fixtures we mix bulbs. We don't unplug the TV (how could it record our shows on the DVR?), nor do we unplug all the small appliances like toaster oven and microwave.
There are times I think I'd like to put some kind of measuring device on the house and see if we really ARE consuming that much, or is it an error in the billing? I suppose I could build another spreadsheet and go around listing & calculating the energy consumption of everything plugged in...
We have weekend neighborhood gatherings, and someone suggested we buy a small office-size refrigerator to keep drinks in. You have to know me to understand I calculated the cost of the refrigerator + the energy consumption and decided we could buy 4 big bags of ice per day each weekend and STILL come out ahead. So no mini refrigerator.
I don't know how we consume so much! Who knows how I can check this out?
Answers to the questions asked:
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<BIG SNIP> OK, I admit we haven't changed every bulb to fluorescent - can't stand that type of light in every room, and in some fixtures we mix bulbs. We don't unplug the TV (how could it record our shows on the DVR?), nor do we unplug all the small appliances like toaster oven and microwave.
There are times I think I'd like to put some kind of measuring device on the house and see if we really ARE consuming that much, or is it an error in the billing? I suppose I could build another spreadsheet and go around listing & calculating the energy consumption of everything plugged in...
We have weekend neighborhood gatherings, and someone suggested we buy a small office-size refrigerator to keep drinks in. You have to know me to understand I calculated the cost of the refrigerator + the energy consumption and decided we could buy 4 big bags of ice per day each weekend and STILL come out ahead. So no mini refrigerator.
I don't know how we consume so much! Who knows how I can check this out?
Look for a Kill-A-Watt or equivalent by other manufacturers. It will tell you how much power each device uses.
One portion of the bill sets new efficiency standards for appliances and will make the incandescent bulb -- invented two centuries ago and improved and commercialized by Edison in the 1880s -- virtually extinct by the middle of the next decade. The bill will phase out conventional incandescents, starting in 2012, with 100-watt bulbs, ultimately ceding the lighting market to more efficient compact fluorescent bulbs and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
I try to keep up with this stuff because I work part-time in the electrical department of a local "general store" and try to keep our customers informed about lighting. Also, we used 25 watt bulbs in our lighting displays to keep heat and energy usage down. We changed to 13 watt (60 watt equivalent) CFLs and our displays looked much better and the heat and energy usage went down.
You might want to look at some of the newer CFLs - they come in three styles:
soft white, similar in color to incandescent bulbs
daylight or full spectrum, similar to outdoor daylight
bright white, similar to cool white standard flourescent tubular bulbs
Also, be aware that unless the package states dimmable, they cannot be used with dimmers.
Probably more than you ever wanted to know about light bulbs.
Thanks MickeyE,
I will get used to CFLs as the incandescent phases out. Good idea to lower wattage where ever we can.
I have a daylight bulb in out master bathroom; it has no windows and the daylight bulb makes it feel like there is a skylight in there. There are a couple of other fixtures in there with the warm incandescent too.
Excellent point. I am willing to bet that there is not a house on Oahu you'd want to live in that sells for $310K.
Im not sure where your coming from on that....... Im finding plenty of appealing places on Oahu for the $310 range. Check out realtor.com. The facts are there.
Ewa beach, which also get the mythical bad rap for it's traffic problems has very nice housing at that price range.
An hour long commute to work is typical in the mainland.... not an issue for me.
Honestly because we feel if we are going to live on Maui (how ever long that may be) we should be close to the beach. If we wanted to live in the country, we could do that on the main land for much cheaper! Just our perspective. Aloha
Jazz
The question to be asked is what are you getting for the price you pay? Service, education, size (of home and details) are not the same as you would expect on the mainland. So if you are used to high quality, it will be more expensive. For life's basic needs (here basic = local taste) it is equivalent to the mainland. But if you really want the same level of life as in the mainland, it will be more costly. Consider a private school education is equivalent to any average public school on the mainland + a price tag of around 10k per year.
Jazz
The question to be asked is what are you getting for the price you pay? Service, education, size (of home and details) are not the same as you would expect on the mainland. So if you are used to high quality, it will be more expensive. For life's basic needs (here basic = local taste) it is equivalent to the mainland. But if you really want the same level of life as in the mainland, it will be more costly. Consider a private school education is equivalent to any average public school on the mainland + a price tag of around 10k per year.
I moved there with a 100k salary. Wife and 2 kids. Pearl City HS was terrible. Hawaii Kai and Nui Valley was much better. I was spending 1400-1700 ea month over my income to just make it. I don't know how islanders live each month. My guess is multiple families in one house, more than one job per person. Working more means less time enjoying Hawaii. Also many have a second income by sub leasing a room or another small house on their property. Rent and electricity was 4K per month. Rarely had the a/c on. We moved after 6 months. We left our dream after paying 30k to get there and back to the mainland.
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