[KD Hawaii]

Our summer electric bills usually costs $300-$400 a month.My house is 1300 sq ft. I never understand why it costs so expensive during summer months until I find this interesting....Wonder if it will make any differernce if we try this???

An electrical system should be inspected once a year, and panels should be tuned up at least once every three years. Homes should be wired efficiently in the first place, and if they are you save TONS of money. Consider this please. Regarding the cost of electricity, especially where heat strips in a total electric system (not a heat pump, but electric heating element strips, also called an electric furnace) are used:

If you want to cut the cost of your electric bill in half (or better), I will tell you the best way - and then explain how it works (so if the technical part bores you, skip it).

HOW:

This requires an investment, but usually it pays for itself in less than a year. If you are building a home, your chance to do this is much less expensive. Simply install wire at least one size larger than necessary in your home for everything, and have separate circuits for the larger energy-consuming equipment in the home. It also helps if there are less items on the same circuit breaker.

If it's an existing home, rewiring is more expensive - so maybe being moderate about it and just replacing the wire to the largest energy-users with larger sizes is the best move for efficiency, and making sure that some items (like refrigerators, microwaves, entertainment centers, etc...) have their own circuit. The most important energy-consumers which should have wire upsized are usually: heating and air systems, refrigerators, freezers, entertainment circuits (where most of your television and/or radio equipment is fed), and computer system circuits.

WHY IT WORKS (If you're interested in the technical stuff):

Simply put, larger wire has less resistance. To use a certain amount of energy using the minimum required wire size (which nearly all systems have installed in the first place, as larger wire costs more) causes a waste of electricity due to having the maximum allowed resistance. Wire resistance creates heat, wasting energy along the way - basically, like having a slow energy leak in your wiring system. This happens in ALL homes, but can be minimized by simply using a larger wire size than the minimum required for the load.

Also, having separate circuits reduces the total load of the circuit, which also reduces the resistance in the wire. Resistance is what it's all about - just like it takes more energy to heat a home with poor insulation because the heat is escaping or being affected by the outside temperature, it takes more power coming through your meter if your system is wasting some of it by excessive resistance in the wires. It's a bad process, because resistance creates heat (which is exactly how the heating elements in your electric range work), and heat increases resistance in turn. It's best not to get that started! What a waste.

EXAMPLE:

Two homes with the exact same floor plan can be wired differently and have remarkable differences in energy efficiency, to wit: One (for our purposes, HOME 'A') has the mimimum code requirements, and is wired correctly. The other, HOME 'B', has a few more dedicated circuits installed, fewer regularly used outlets and/or lights on a circuit together, and all of the wire in that home is at least one size larger than is normally required. It is also wired up to code. They are right next door to each other.

During the month of December, homes use a lot of electricity for heat and often even Christmas decorations. Well, let's say with the same amount of decoration and moderately the same usage, HOME 'A' has an electric bill of 110.00 for December. Home 'B' is likely to have a bill of around $39.00 for December. I AM SERIOUS - it has been tested and proven that it really can make that much difference.

I am an electrician, and I hereby lament that my brothers in this field do not more regularly educate each other and their customers on the advantage of a more energy-efficient electrical system. Everyone works hard to insulate their homes better, use more energy-efficient appliances (such as refrigerators, water heaters, and heating and cooling equipment), and even try to use lighting more efficiently (such as by using motion detectors in lieu of leaving lights on all night, installing closet door-switches for the closet lights, etc...) - but few know how to make the electrical system itself more efficient. So, here you have it on a silver platter, with the electrical theory to prove it. Let's save money, shall we?

ONE MORE THING:

Oh, and one more trick - there are two hot wires and one neutral wire which feed into your electrical panel. The two hots together can provide 240 volts (for items like your dryer, stove, heating system, and water heater). The neutral and either hot provide 120 volts (for nearly everything else). Well, if one of the hots and the neutral are providing more than half of the house's electricity, then to provide the same power to your home the meter outside is running faster than it should. If the two are in balance, you are moving the meter as slowly as possible while providing the full amount of power for your home. Power companies don't want you to know that because they can make more money if you use your system out of balance.

My service offers free inspections of entire electrical systems while we are on any of our service calls, reasonable rates to make homes more energy efficient, and special electrical system maintenance plans. We even have financing available through several credit providers, and we can get most of our customers approved for same-as-cash terms, up to 12 months. I think that is valuable to anyone who doesn't have an inexhaustible spending limit. Most electricians I have known and worked with don't know much about the National Electrical Code, and few have heard of the NFPA 70e publication, which is concerned with the electrical end of fire safety. WOW, you would think that would be right up there on their list of priorities, but few have a clue what is really required. They get told by inspectors to do this or that, but they rarely do personal study to know for themselves what is needed. I spend every morning training my technicians before they go out in the field, including code classes once a week. I think the education we provide our employees is vital for our customers' safety, and pays the customer back manifold for the service we provide.

TUNE UP TO SAVE EVEN MORE MONEY:

Tuning up a car is something everyone expects to do. Did you know your electrical system needs them too, to run more efficiently? In a car, spark plugs get fouled and work less often, so fuel doesn't get burned efficiently and you use more fuel to get the same work out of your engine. Things get out of balance and you use some cylinders more than others to generate energy. Homes have the same balancing and maintenance needs with regard to their electrical system, and the parts of an electrical system do wear with use and time. Way too many people waste money each month due to not knowing what they need to do for their electrical safety and efficiency - so I thought I'd share. Hope this helps some of you. We are your neighbors.

Sincerely,

David Moore
General Manager
Electric Medic

Knoxville: 865-690-3883
Oak Ridge: 865-483-5262.

P.S. - when considering the purchase of a home, ALWAYS have a real electrician come and do a thorough inspection and evaluation of your entire electrical system (not just a home inspector, although they do a pretty good job on most of their reports, checking many other things - they usually aren't electricians or code experts). I believe the last statistic I saw was that 98% of house fires are electrical or were related to electrical hazards in the home. I am here to say that nearly all of them could have been prevented if the electrical system were up to modern code and well-maintained.

[kmhphoto]

Originally Posted by KD Hawaii

Our summer electric bills usually costs $300-$400 a month.My house is 1300 sq ft. I never understand why it costs so expensive during summer months until I find this interesting....Wonder if it will make any differernce if we try this???
Well, let's say with the same amount of decoration and moderately the same usage, HOME 'A' has an electric bill of 110.00 for December. Home 'B' is likely to have a bill of around $39.00 for December. I AM SERIOUS - it has been tested and proven that it really can make that much difference.

I am an electrician, and I hereby lament that my brothers in this field do not more regularly educate each other.

How come you have such high bills if you offer this service for others?

Can you provide a link to independent tests of you theory?

If it has been proven why do you say "is likely to have"?

[jfkIII]

one word: SHOCKING!

[olecapt]

An electric presentation?

Oscillating opinions?

Charged conclusions?

For those who care ignore the nonsense. One does not tune a distribution panel. On some industrial panels you tighten things yearly but there is really nothing to do on a residential panel.

You might actually save a little money by going up a wire gauge. But it will be a buck or less a month and you may have problems amortizing the investment. Large loads are probably worth doing the calculation.

Unbalanced loads can cause minor cost increases. Hard to get a residence unbalanced enough to notice.

I was an electrical engineer for 35 years before I took up real estate.

[BradS1]

Originally Posted by kmhphoto

How come you have such high bills if you offer this service for others?

Can you provide a link to independent tests of you theory?

If it has been proven why do you say "is likely to have"?

I think he quoted that entire article from elsewhere and was looking for opinions on it.