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RDUBiker - what was your usage before you made all the changes?
We seem to be through the roof, as it were. 3,333 kwh/month for past 12 months. 2,853 in December. I really need to find ways to get this down. We are in a big house (5,400 square foot including attic, it's a 4,200 square foot house with large finished attic) but still I can't help but feel we are burning way too much electric
Check page 1 of this thread for the 12 months of usage prior to when the solar was installed. I've cut back total usage in the house by 100-200 kWh/mo based on prior years, but you can still see the effect that solar has in cutting the remaining usage by more than half. And again, that's with a relatively cloudy and rainy November and December.
Wow - 3333 kwh/mo is HUGE usage. I barely hit that in summer with all the A/C units cranked and the pool running for 8+ hours per day on a high pump speed. My house is about 4400 sf, so I have less to heat and cool than you do, but something still seems way off.
I take it your heating is done by heat pump and not gas furnace? Have you had your attic checked for penetration and insulation level, and have you had a whole home energy audit? It might be very worth your while to install an eGauge system like I have - you can buy them online and either install it yourself, if you're somewhat handy with electrical systems, or have someone do it. That would tell you more accurately where your power is going.
You should also look at other things like changing to LED or CFL bulbs, using programmable thermostats, limiting outdoor lights, wasteful electronics, etc. I imagine with that size house you probably have at least two or more refrigerators, and that can add a lot to your bottom line usage. If you have older ones, they're even worse. Older dishwashers can use quite a bit, as can water heaters (ours is gas). An electric dryer is by far the biggest user after heat pumps and air conditioners - do you use that a lot? If so, maybe look into a model with moisture sensors and adjustable drying levels - that would really help a lot.
Thanks RDUBiker a lot of good tips there. I am not that handy myself but a very helpful and friendly neighbor is and I am sure for a few beers I can get some help. Will definitely start with the egauge. We do have a pool and with three floors in the house to heat and cool it's a lot. It's electric heat pumps yes for heating, and everything is pretty modern, place was built in 2007. We do have an electric clothes dryer though that too is only a couple of years old "high efficiency" model though I will check exactly how it's being used. I am thinking programmable thermostats to switch the heating way down at night would help some and I am going to reduce the pool usage which I think runs probably a bit too much. And yep we do have two refrigerators and one is huge. But again they are pretty modern, but would certainly like to get an understanding of what the big drainage is.
Edit: Actually I am going to start with a simple Kill-a-watt energy usage monitor to see what is guzzling the gas as it were. Using Progress Energy audit questionnaire it implies that over half of the usage is outside of heating. And that ties in with your own stats where your summer peak is over three times your winter trough. But for me the summer peak is only around 1.75 times my winter trough, so seems there is a lot of stuff going on in the background just draining away.
Thanks RDUBiker a lot of good tips there. I am not that handy myself but a very helpful and friendly neighbor is and I am sure for a few beers I can get some help. Will definitely start with the egauge. We do have a pool and with three floors in the house to heat and cool it's a lot. It's electric heat pumps yes for heating, and everything is pretty modern, place was built in 2007. We do have an electric clothes dryer though that too is only a couple of years old "high efficiency" model though I will check exactly how it's being used. I am thinking programmable thermostats to switch the heating way down at night would help some and I am going to reduce the pool usage which I think runs probably a bit too much. And yep we do have two refrigerators and one is huge. But again they are pretty modern, but would certainly like to get an understanding of what the big drainage is.
Edit: Actually I am going to start with a simple Kill-a-watt energy usage monitor to see what is guzzling the gas as it were. Using Progress Energy audit questionnaire it implies that over half of the usage is outside of heating. And that ties in with your own stats where your summer peak is over three times your winter trough. But for me the summer peak is only around 1.75 times my winter trough, so seems there is a lot of stuff going on in the background just draining away.
You're quite welcome. I've become quite passionate about saving energy and helping others do the same. Not that I'm some pot-smoking, non-deodorant-wearing, Jimi Hendrix listening hippie or anything (no offense meant to anyone who is - I have nothing against it!), but it seems wasteful to me when you can get by and be just as comfortable with some small and inexpensive changes.
Is your pool pump programmable and does it have a variable speed motor? If so we could look at programming it and lowering the RPM to save you a huge, massive amount of power.
There is no such thing as a high efficiency clothes dryer - only washers can qualify for this. All a dryer is is basically a massive heater and a small motor to tumble the clothes. A moisture sensor is absolutely essential to dry clothes with the least amount of energy possible. If you have kids in the house, I'm sure you do at least 1-3 loads of laundry per week so there are BIG savings to be had here if you lack a sensor.
Do you and your spouse work outside the house? If so and there is nobody home during part of the day, by all means program the heat and/or a/c to turn off or at least mostly off during those times. Same goes for when everyone is asleep. You can save massive amounts of power with this change alone.
Feel free to call me or email separately - I'm happy to talk to you about this offline to help you get started. I bet you can get your usage down by a lot more than you think, then maybe consider adding solar panels to scoot you towards a zero power bill like me!
I found that the most inconspicuous devices were actually using the most electricity. Put your cable and satellite receivers on a timer or power strip that you can easily cut power off. Just turning them off saved us over $20 per month. They easily use over 100 watts even when they are in the "off" condition.
I found that the most inconspicuous devices were actually using the most electricity. Put your cable and satellite receivers on a timer or power strip that you can easily cut power off. Just turning them off saved us over $20 per month. They easily use over 100 watts even when they are in the "off" condition.
This isn't the case here at my house. I have two DirecTV receivers and each uses around 30W either when on or off.
With your example, if you have 2 receivers, and let's say each uses 125W of power when plugged in, and you set them on a timer to be "on" for only 8 hours per day instead of 24 hours per day. At current PEC rates, you'd save $13.20 per month by doing this. The problem for me in this scenario is that mine can be recording in the middle of the night or day, so I don't want to shut them down. Many cable or sat receivers also take a long time to turn on and boot up, so if you want to turn them on when the timer is shut off, you have to wait several minutes to watch something.
This can work, and save you some money, but we aren't talking about a massive amount of power. And that's assuming they use 125W which I don't think is the case for most modern set top boxes. I think 30-60W is about right for most newer equipment.
How do you know yours are using so much power? Did you test them using a KAW or similar?
I have not used a power meter to check them, however you are probably correct that the usage by each device is less than 100 watts. I was gestimating from the cost savings on the power bill.
We actually turn them off most of the day, main use is in the evenings. I was surprised by the $20.
Actually I am going to start with a simple Kill-a-watt energy usage monitor to see what is guzzling the gas as it were.
I don't know anything about these folks, but they are hiring locally. Their web page says the product is free for residential users (if it works with the P-E meters).
I don't know anything about these folks, but they are hiring locally. Their web page says the product is free for residential users (if it works with the P-E meters).
Somewhere on the site I saw they will work with a TED also. I guess they are just layering on top of the info you get with it and making it easier to understand. If you look up their people, they have their average power bills listed and they are all like $80 and one claims under $40 but that takes some serious cutbacks and probably a different lifestyle to do that. Or a massive investment in solar.
I often wondered once one installs the Photovoltaic cells on ones roof is sun screen required for them? Is there a risk of shingle cancer from collecting the suns rays in a focused roof area? I would want to understand the risk of that before I jumped into the use the sun for electricity fad. Seems like the HOA police would want to know too.
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Cable and Satellite Receivers
