[JayHMorrison]

I did an experiment with my home power consumption. Two months ago my power billed was $109.05. I just got my bill for last month and it was $56.99

That is almost at 48% reduction in electricity.
Total KWH used was 683.
Ave KWH per day = 24.
Days = 29

The difference was that I went into supersaver mode. I switched all of my lightbulbs to 15 watt bulbs from 60 watt bulbs. I stopped using the dryer and tried hanging up our laundry.
I turned the dishwashing machine to no-heat drying. I used only cold water in the clothes washing machine.
I turned the air conditioning to a higher temp when leaving so that it wouldnt run as much. I unplugged the TV and computer when they were not being used.

I was shocked at how much less energy I used. Imagine if everyone in the world would make those types of changes at home and work. It would likely meet the Kyoto targets next month. What are the odds of that? Not good.

[lowem]

You're living in a house? I'd think that's not too bad for a house.

I live in a high-rise apartment, been trying to keep it below 550 KWh.

[kevin]

Congrats!

Welcome to a better, more sustainable lifestyle.

I'm curious, though. What is your per Kwh price? 683 Kwh per month is pretty good as a start.

We use about that much off grid, with two buildings (home and office), pumping water for 10 acres with 5 horses, a garden and orchard (NO lawn!!)

I've tried in vain to get customers to become more conservative in their usage. The funny thing is, the changes you've made are the ones that I've preached about for years, with little success. Next, try looking into a more efficient refrigerator and/or freezer- huge, huge difference!

Another question begs to be asked... the changes didn't really hurt, did they? Next thing you know, you'll be ready for the off grid plunge!

Thanks for your conscientious efforts!

[EnviroEngr]

Right on! ----> Rocky Mountain Institute - Energy efficiency page

{nicied it up; EE}

[JayHMorrison]

I'm curious, though. What is your per Kwh price? 683 Kwh per month is pretty good as a start.

I think it is about 8 cents per KWH. My local grid is about 50% nuclear and 50% coal with some hydro mixed in.

Another question begs to be asked... the changes didn't really hurt, did they? Next thing you know, you'll be ready for the off grid plunge!

No loss in lifestyle at all. Just different behavior and being educated about electricty waste. I was expecting maybe a 20% improvement. I was surprised at 48%. The weather was just as hot as the previous month.

[trespam]

Funny. I have played with ideas in my mind about how increasing energy costs will play out and I'm pretty sure that conservation will become more popular in just the ways you've experimented with. I've been replacing all the bulbs in the house with fluorescent (they even make mini-fluorescents for the porch) and considered that if energy ever got really expensive people would wash their clothes in cold, take lukewarm showers, etc.

Excellent report. When energy costs go up, I'm hoping that (1) the downward slope of the peak will be to the right as far as possible and (2) the raised consciousness will lead to greater R&D on sustainable energy sources. A transition rather than a crash.

Well, at some point, there will be a day a reckoning for the financial markets when the new world economic order goes into effect--from growth to decline to sustain. That's got to be the goal.

[lotrfan55345]

Our bill is ~$100 with AC on 24/7 at 70F, washer dryer used all the time on weekends. Though all lights are flourecent 14w.

New-ish house though.

[Specop_007]

I'm going to have to try that.
My electrical consumption last month? (Sitting down I hope...)

1300+ Kwh (If memory serves, I'll check when I get back home)

[Colorado-Valley]

Our electric co-op offers off-peak electricity at 3 cents a kwh in late morning, early afternoon and at night.

So we do our major electric stuff during those hours. It saves a fortune.

The normal electric charge is 8 cents a kwh, by the way.

We also have the green-power option, so our electricity is produced by wind turbines in Wyoming. Cool, huh?

[lowem]

Wow. 3 cents is cheap. The local rate here (~15.5 cents SGD) is equivalent to about 9 cents (USD).

The electric bill is equivalent to about $50 (USD) for around 550 KWh.

It's considered about average. Maybe a *little bit* on the high side. Many folks over here report using 400 KWh or less.

The aircon is used quite sparingly and rarely for the entire night, dryer about twice per week. Every light bulb is either of compact-fluorescent or other energy-saving type (Philips, Osram). TV is used sparingly, either to watch DIVX/XVID's or DVD's.

But the PC's! They're on 24/7. Heavily utilised. I log in to my home PC's from office and vice-versa to my office PC's from home, for work, for fun and whatever. Geek thing ...

[Barbara]

Believe it or not, my bill is € 25 per month.
Here nobody uses laundry dryers, so that's not a problem. The dishwashers is in no-heating mode. I use the iron very rarely, and don't iron sheets etc, only clothes. We have no electric water heater, since everybody use gas heater. No air conditioning, there's no use to buy something to use it one month per year. House heating is made with gas.

Now the bad news: we pay € 100 per month on gas bill! And there's no way to cut it, unless you freeze in winter or avoid showering and cooking and eat sandwiches!

[ExampleGivine]

I am now averaging 350 Kwh a month this summer, but expect it to go up in the winter.(in a 1500 sq ft house with 2 adults and 2 young children). We have an electric dryer and stove and no AC.
Here is how we did it.

1. Replace every lightbulb with a compact flourescent. (cost 50 US)
2. Every instant on appliance is on a switch. (Cost 20 US)
3. Every AC adapter is on a switch or timer. (Cost 50 US ...digital timers)
4. Replace nightlights with LEDs or Electroluminescenet lights. (Cost 20)
5. Replace all CRTs with LCD displays (Cost 1000)
6. Laptop PC instead of Desktops (Cost 2000)
7. Energy Star Washing Machine and Refrigerator Cost( 1000)

The first 4 are total no-brainers. If needed we could do better. I figure we could save another 25% by not using the dryer... but it so convenient.

[Leanan]

I think a lot of people already do a lot of these things. (I know I do, and have since I went away to college, mainly because I'm cheap!) So they wouldn't be able to cut back much, at least not without some pain.

That's one of the ironies that emerges from The Two-Income Trap. It's the people who do everything right: conserve, don't spend money on frivolous things, work hard, etc., who suffer most when times get tough. Because unlike the person who is spending his money on luxuries, they have nowhere to cut back.

[ExampleGiven]

I forgot to add. We paid a only 1.60 US a month for gas during the summer. Solar hot water heating is also a no brainer.

[Barbara]

Leanan,
I don't agree with you. I'm sure the most frugal persons will be affected less. I mean: if my electric bill will double (from € 25 to € 50) I can afford it without problems. But if my gas bill doubles (from € 100 to € 200) well, it will hurt!
Frugal lives can afford bigger grow percentages in prices than luxury ones... but of course, I'm speaking of "frugal" and not "poor", which is another story!

[Leanan]

My point is that the more frugal you are now, the less you'll be able to cut back. If everyone does what Jay did, will our power consumption drop 50%? No, because many people are already doing this stuff. If they didn't, our power consumption would be even higher.

And those who are already conserving energy will be hardest hit when prices rise, because they can't cut back. If they put all that money into the bank to save for future utility bill increases, then yes, they'd do fine. But that's generally not how it works. The money they saved on energy was spent on something else: a bigger house, a bigger car, the kid's braces, etc.

[PhilBiker]

Electricity prices are going to skyrocket. I need to get started on a solar array.

[JayHMorrison]

My point is that the more frugal you are now, the less you'll be able to cut back. If everyone does what Jay did, will our power consumption drop 50%? No, because many people are already doing this stuff. If they didn't, our power consumption would be even higher.

Electricity is so cheap that people do not even think about it as a real cost right now. A very small percentage of the population is doing all of the items I listed in my first post. It is mostly just a lack of information getting out about simple things like energy savings.

[lowem]

That's one of the ironies that emerges from The Two-Income Trap. It's the people who do everything right: conserve, don't spend money on frivolous things, work hard, etc., who suffer most when times get tough. Because unlike the person who is spending his money on luxuries, they have nowhere to cut back.

Ah, you've read that book, too. Good book, though it's quite American-centric (from my perspective).

That's not to say that one should spend all the money on a luxurious lifestyle and hope to cut back when crunch time comes, right?

It's a matter of being able to save, it's a matter of available cashflow. It's also a matter of attitude.

Myself, I'm pretty comfortable right now, though I know, and I know very well that my burn rate is relatively high. Crunch time comes, I'll scrap the car (and get back the govt rebate + scrap value), unplug the PC's, dryer, second fridge, cancel the cable modem subscription, mobile phones, turn off the aircon master switch.

That will leave room for food, water, gas, lights, the bare basics. Whatever puny reserves I have will last a lot longer at a much lower burn rate.

Unfortunately the house cannot be immediately paid for, but that comes from a separate, govt-mandated account, and we've got some reserves for that, and the govt so far hasn't been known to foreclose all that much as compared to bank loans (only 5 cases out of 25,000 default cases, and those 5 were voluntary abandonments).

As for the suggestion in the book to "save the second paycheck", damn that's quite hard at the current (high) burn rate, but we're trying all we can.

[MrPC]

My last quarterly power bill was for 970kwh (over 87 billing days). That'd work out at 335kwh/month, and that included use of a 1kw two bar heater most mornings and occasionally on one bar overnight.

I'd expect my next bill to be lower, despite being deeper into winter, as I switched from the heater to an electric blanket and a doona during July. According to the bill, I was using 9kwh/day jan-apr (summer-autumn) cf 11kwh/day apr-jul (autumn-winter).

The going rate for my power service is 12.83c/kwh (Australian). That's about 9 or 10c US. And the grid around here relies very heavily on brown coal (with the exhaust scrubbed for particulates), though the above rate includes a touch extra for 10% renewable.