Alright guys, I've not been here too long but I came from a similar type forum so I am well seasoned as they say. Well, I wont be burning again until November. I had a heat pump installed and have have been using it but its just not the same plus to warm all the female feet in my home, it takes a lot and you really have to keep the thermostat turned up and the power man loves it. So, with that being said, I wanted to take a day or so at the first of this year and really REALLY pay attention to where I could save money. Man, I found a lot of places that needed improvement and with some help of google and some other forum friends, I have came a LONG way on saving some money that was literally going through the cracks of my walls, floors and windows. Alright here is a snippet..... I called to try to get a blower door test done but there were none near me and I was going to have to pay a hefty fee for the drive so I utilized mt local Duke Power but they wont be here until the end of March. So, even before duke gets here, I took it upon myself. My house is brick, 2100 sq ft, large great room in the center and a full unfinished basement and 9 foot ceilings.It is tough to heat. Its also 39 years old with original windows. So here are some of the things I have done so take these down and if you want , I certainly recommend you give it a shot. Some of these were done up to a year ago but most were done in this year so far. Can you tell I was tired of freezing and pay high power? lol Last Year Installed new Trane XR15 3.5 ton outdoor unit and new Trane indoor unit R-30 cellulose in the attic 2017 Foam Wrapped the cold and hot water lines in the basement. Foam wrapped and taped water heater lines Insulated trunk of unit and cold air return insulated water heater. Foil taped all seams in the register lines Sealed where register meet the floor Insulated all large holes in basement ceiling (large pipe holes, shower drains etc.) Put new door sweeps on basement double doors New Foam on basement double doors Found that the only 2 basement windows we have were partially open on top and bottom New Foam around main door entrance Rubber insulation around window slide tracks covered up doggy door (she died) sealed off fireplace sheet metal over chimney caps and silo-coned them shut Replaced every bulb in the house with LED Installed smart power strips in every room with phantom appliances Put all DVR's on timers to only run 8 am until Midnight then shut off completely from midnight to 8 am Put timers on both freezers to hold at 0 degrees instead of the lowest setting of minus 5 degrees Cleaned the coils on the refrigerator with shop vac and scrub brush Put in a new trane smart Thermostat Insulated every light switch and outlet with insulated pads Hand Washed dishes all but 2 days in Feb ( I had the flu so screw it, we let the dishwasher do it) Most importantly, had a family meeting about being intentional with not only our money but our resources. Making a smaller footprint on Mother Earth and keeping more money in our pockets at bill time. This went VERY well. There are THREE teenagers and my wife in my house and though, I never said anything before, some days, I would count 7 or 8 showers between us all. They have really taken control and by doing this, I think it will carryover to their homes and lives when they move out. We are also on a tight budget and the kids are very aware of this as well and it shows when they go shopping. Overall and I am very proud of them so far. Plus our water usage dropped from a 5500 gallon average per month to a 3500 gallon average per month. Water bill went from $60 to $45 Did I spent a lot of money? Yes. Where some of these useless? Probably. Does it matter? No to me because I wanted to do it and it got done. Was February a mild month? yes. It was also short. I do take this into consideration. Is march going to be higher? Probably. For the last 3 years (as far as Duke Energy will let me go back). I have averaged 1800 kw/h per month usage averaging $200 or more per month ( I know, I am ashamed, we are hogs but not anymore) with the largest month being 2400 kw/h. We have never been under 1000 kw/h but once in 2013 when I was wood burning it was 1100. Feb 2017 was 1148 kw/h and our bill was $108. With all that time and money spent, I still feel like the heavy weight champion of the world. Thanks again to ALL that contributed ideas and thoughts. ITS NOT OVER tho! still plenty of more to do. I do want to mastic the ducts and seal off a little more things here and there and when my 20 year old electric water heaters dies, go with a heat pump water heater as well as the 20 year old fridge even tho it takes nothing hardly to run Thanks again guys!
Massive effort mate, especially with the people involved. That's often the hardest work but it sounds like you've got them helping out too. We'll done. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wow!! 2400 Kw/h where I live would be $456. I think if I had that bill I would cut my electrical supply line with a set of loppers.
Yeah I'm averaging 1200 kWh and paying just over $200 a month. Looks like you're on a roll. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My cost per kw/h is .09 but fees and tax makes it a bit more. They are not that bad based on what Ive heard on here for power. Some of these guys are getting the business. lol
First things first......Welcome aboard, CHeath . You've done some good work so far. Here's a very good site with tons of info on how to cut your energy footprint. I think I'd strangle myself if my elec. usage was more than 500Kwh/month. During the summer, it usually runs about 350, although I've gotten as low as about 270 in this 1240 sq ft house. When the oldest daughter and Gkids lived with us........well, you don't have to imagine what that did to the utility use. BuildItSolar: Solar energy projects for Do It Yourselfers to save money and reduce pollution
we used 492 kwh last month. cost is 14c/kwh here. Gas for the water heater, electric for everything else, wood for heat.
With a thread title like that we may start to get a whole new type of crowd here! Seriously though, welcome aboard!
Wife read some where that the led bulbs will only last around 5 years in standard light fixtures. You have to replace all your light fixtures to led too. At a cost of around 80-90.00 each. Now You said you put r-30 in attic- we have r-79 in mine[ 2 -30 and a 19]. Walls are r-20 floors are r-24 , all new windows and doors. Make sure your lights are off if not in the room. Try this and we did go the whole day WITHOUT turning a light , shower, tv, no phones nothing on for one day. Keep freezers and such going but nothing else no cooking with gas-microwave and so on. Wood stove is ok or outside with wood no gas grill. Do this once a month. We liked it and did it for several years.
CHeath you've done one swell job and will now enjoy the benefits. For you other guys, eat our heart out. We just received our electric bill for February. Usage was 185 kwh for a total cost of $32.75 or $1.13 per day. Yes, our water heater is LP and so is the cooking stove. Most of the lights are still the old style lights. Refrigerator (big) about 15 years old. Two freezers are both well over 20 years old.
So that's about $120 USD? Exchange rate right now is about $0.75 USD to $1.00 CAD. Interesting. 'Everyone will benefit,' Ontario premier says of plan to drop hydro costs, but boost them later
Thanks, I am a huge fan of the build it solar site. This is on the wish list. I have the roof room (with a wood shed aimed south) that will hold a 9kw system. This would run $40k but if my state brings back the 35% credit and the feds keep the current 30% credit, I will sign up.
Reduce use as much as possible first. The need for elec. goes down, then so does the size of the array. With your family on board, it's entirely possible to reduce even more. A 9000 Kw system is quite large. Your house sounds to have been built a couple years after ours, when the concern for insulation, air sealing and all those things weren't that important. This has been discussed before, so bear with me.......we have elec. dryer, elec. stove, nat. gas WH, well pump. I have my laptop on a power strip which gets turned off every night. Started doing the same with the modem, and would like to do the DTV receiver, but that might mess up the guide updates.......don't know. Haven't been able to get my wife completely on board, so it's up to me to do what I can. On the flip side, I've been burning a bit more nat. gas this winter, since I'm keeping the shop slightly heated, and now have the house furnace functional again ( hardly used though).
Something like that it's 18ยข a kW on peak highest in Canada all thx for those libtards.i hate that when you don't use it they still charge you an arm to deliver what you haven't used..
That's interesting. I'm pretty sure we don't have that where I am and just pay for what we use. I pay $0.19 USD for generation and delivery. So I think that works out to over 40% more than you pay with the exchange rate accounted for. Of course that doesn't factor in paying for power that I'm not using so it's apples and oranges until we know that. Criminals. All of 'em.
yep, doing everything we can. Just being intentional is key. Everyone is on board but my 12 year old daughter lol. Its her world, we just live in it you know? lol
