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We don't know what appliances and HVAC are supplied by gas or electric in the previous home and the new home.
We don't have enough information.
One might wonder if turning off all your entertainment electronics with a power strip will shorten their life.
I expect that modern appliances, even with their phantom power use, are much more efficient than old ones.
Certainly, If one is living off the grid on solar power, backed up by batteries, phantom power use would be a concern.
I have a Black & Decker EM100B power monitor device. It has a module that clamps on the electric meter and sends power use information wireless to a remote display. It's a handy way to track power use. The minimum resolution is 100 watts so it might not help for showing small differences. For individual plug in devices the Kill O Watt meter is best.
The EM100B is disscontinued but they may be found on eBay. The Blue Line Innovations BLI-28000ER appears to be an identical.
It's a bit fiddly to install. There are other power monitors. This is just what I have and am familiar with.
Before we bought our house my uncle (he owned it before us) went on and on about how high the water and electric was. Crazy high amounts for 2 people. I vowed when we moved in, i was going to cut his bills in half and i have for the 2yrs+ we have lived here. I bought a new stove and microwave, no other new appliances. (thats a lie, i did buy a dishwasher, but its the kind that hooks up to the sink).
What do you have your furnace/AC set on? That can up your bill too. What is your water heater set on?
I've moved to a new house and my electrical usage has jumped considerably. I don't have much in the way of new electrical devices and the lighting has been switched entirely to LED (thanks to a utility company program). As my active use of electricity (meaning stuff I consciously turn on and off) hasn't gone up (and has likely gone down) but my consumption has gone way up, I suspect there may be one or more inefficient or needless systems in the new house that are consuming a lot more than they should.
So my dilemma is how do I track these down so I remove, repair, or replace them? What should I even be looking for? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Just because you "Turn it off" doesn't mean it is OFF, disconnect the plug and you'll remove the energy thieves...
Just because you "Turn it off" doesn't mean it is OFF, disconnect the plug and you'll remove the energy thieves...
Agreed, but all that stuff that can be plugged in and turned on and off moved from the old house. Unless it suddenly developed a huge phantom load in the move I don't think it's the culprit I'm looking for. I am concurrently working to put big offenders on power strips, but I don't think that's the problem.
Before we bought our house my uncle (he owned it before us) went on and on about how high the water and electric was. Crazy high amounts for 2 people. I vowed when we moved in, i was going to cut his bills in half and i have for the 2yrs+ we have lived here. I bought a new stove and microwave, no other new appliances. (thats a lie, i did buy a dishwasher, but its the kind that hooks up to the sink).
What do you have your furnace/AC set on? That can up your bill too. What is your water heater set on?
Heat is gas-fueled forced hot water. AC has been switched completely off since early October. We ran the AC late June through early October but he electricity usage seemed to stay relatively flat. I was expecting a huge increase in summer and have not seen it.
Is you clothes washer in the new house a top loader or a front loader ? Top loader washers take 4 or 5 times the amount of water to wash the same amount of clothes than a front loader does.
Someone else mentioned the cost of using electricity to heat your water. If your old home had a front load washer, and the new home has a top loader with electricially headted water. You mentioned you had both a gas and electric water heater. Which one are you using ? Electrically heating water could explain a significant rise in kilowatt usage right there if you're using warm or hot water to wash/rinse your clothes in a top loader
Also, check the coils under your refrigerator. If they are all gunked up with lint/dust....that will result in the refrigerator using a lot more electricity to keep things cool inside. Clean those coils ever few months.
We do have a top loader, but the wife is pretty set on washing everything cold/cold (I'm only allowed to touch the washer if she's gone).
I will clean out the could. That should be free. Not sure about the water heater. I suspect there is something funny about that system, but want to be sure that it's a problem before I bring in someone to look at it. Would killing the breaker on the electric hot water heater cause problems? If not, that would be a pretty easy experiment.
I moved into a house once that seemed to have high energy demands, as well. After I went carefully through the house, I found an old attic fan on a timer that was running 7 hours a night, and I also found an old chest freezer in the back of the basement that was still plugged in.
I switched off the fan (it was fall, not summer) and unplugged the freezer. That saved $31, as I recall.
Yes, I would see if you can get a consultation on the water heater. Maybe you can get a free home energy audit from your electric company and that can be included in it. Check your power company's web page to see what might be available.
I've moved to a new house and my electrical usage has jumped considerably. I don't have much in the way of new electrical devices and the lighting has been switched entirely to LED (thanks to a utility company program). As my active use of electricity (meaning stuff I consciously turn on and off) hasn't gone up (and has likely gone down) but my consumption has gone way up, I suspect there may be one or more inefficient or needless systems in the new house that are consuming a lot more than they should.
So my dilemma is how do I track these down so I remove, repair, or replace them? What should I even be looking for? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
The largest electrical usage by far for me has been whole house central units, like the central a/c system. Without it, my electrical bill can be as low as $35 or $50. With it, it can be as high as $180. Solution: I turned the programmable thermostat higher, then set it for 80 at night, and got an energy efficient window unit for my bedroom to keep my BR cool at night. Success.
Anything that puts out heat....it's consuming 24 hours a day. I keep my electronics on surge protectors, and turn those off at night to save electricity IN THE SUMMER. It means the clocks on those devices are never set right during the summer.
INSULATION. It was difficult to get my bills low in the old 1953 house I lived in because of the lack of insulation in the walls. I ADDED INSULATION TO THE ATTIC, which helped. Cost about $1k.
They say old fridges consume a lot. But I live alone, so the fridge isn't opened nearly as often as a family opens it. I'm not convinced that old fridge cost me that much. One reason is how low the bills are when the central a/c isn't running....but the fridge runs all year. So it wasn't my 23 year old fridge using all that juice. Even if it were, it'd take a lot of months or years to make up for the cost of a new fridge in electrical savings. And the new ones aren't as good and don't last as long.
I started turning off lights and everything else when leaving a room. That helped.
I used clear silicone caulking around windows. That helped somewhat.
DOUBLE PANE WINDOWS. I had single pane windows. They are terrible for energy efficiency. BUT what I did in summer was this: behind drapes, where it couldn't be seen, I put up bubble wrap over some windows. Just tape it on there. Or you can dampen it, and it'll probably just stick to the windows. It's insulating. I did that in windows not visible from street of course. Then I had heavy or thermal drapes on those windows and kept them closed in the summer.
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