How Much energy do you use?

[helosailor]

1br apartment, 790 sq/ft, terrible insulation, 62 winter-76 summer setting, washer & dryer...
6/17-895
7/17-1180
8/17-985
9/17-833
10/17-592
11/17-484
12/17-705
01/18-763
02/18-472

[Strychnine]

76 summer setting

Fucking savage.

[Captain Crawfish]

1 million gigawatts

[helosailor]

Fucking savage.

Those are my "away" settings, which is about 60-70% of the time. lol

Plus, after living on a 39 year old aircraft carrier, anything less than 85 is bearable in the summer.

[Blackpony]

We have an 1850 sqft metal house with 4" of sprayfoam, just checked and our average usage for the last 12 months is 1362 kwh. We typically keep the thermostat around 70 in the colder months and 73-74 in the summer. Fans stay on all the time and we have exterior lighting that goes off and on. We have I believe it's a 2.5 ton trane ac system with a heat pump. All electric with 2 adults and 1 kiddo

[Blackpony]

What do you guys pay per kWh? Just check and we pay .097 kWh plus another .01 kWh for what they call cost recovery factor. Seem high but we are stuck in a coop with no options.

[Darren M]

I'm paying .082 with additional free electricity credits. Those come out to about $100/month and drop my average down to about .047+/-.

[JC316]

Fucking savage.

Mine stays between 76 and 78 without an issue. Of course, my ass is usually outside working, so going from 100*F down to 76 is nice.

[Chili]

Right now I pay $0.053 per kWh plus TDSP pass-throughs (Oncor's charges).. In the summer on my peak bill it works out to ~$0.089 per kWh, and on the low bills it's highest is around 0.094. It used to be better, averaging around 0.08 per kWh, as low as ~0.06 for a few years, but they won't let me float on the day ahead market anymore. That was nice as I was getting my power at clearing prices without markup..

This is through my employer though, so there is a lot of added convenience. I also never have to worry about being disconnected over a forgotten bill or anything like that. We primarily serve commercial customers, which is why I pay commodity and TDSP charges broken out like that.

I've been using my employer since right after starting here, over 8 years ago, and to be honest it's nice not messing with it. I know I'm not getting the best deal available but it's at least competitive and that's fine, my highest bill last summer was $230.. My highest bill since 2009 was in August of 2015 when the day ahead market spiked and my commodity charge was ~0.09 by itself, with TDSP charges it was still only $277. I think if I were to average it out, I'm still doing really well.

[Chili]

Just checked and my price per kWh average since July of 2009, it's $0.082. Not bad overall. In that period I've used 168,084 kWh of Electricity and have paid just under $14,000. What's interesting is the drop in annual consumption that occurred in 2013..

Charges kWh
2010 1,788.83 20,753
2011 1,875.89 22,634
2012 1,851.80 22,260
2013 1,580.58 18,750
2014 1,015.80 17,821
2015 1,460.77 18,181
2016 1,519.91 17,364
2017 1,674.20 18,284

I don't recall making any significant changes to the system nor the house (like windows or insulation or anything). I guess I could check weather averages for the period and compare, but the fact that it has continued for several years makes me believe it isn't weather related.

The main board on my HVAC system did go out a few years ago, which was replaced, and we installed a Nest thermostat at some point.. Need to track back and see if either was around that time.. I actually think that's when we got the Nest. If so, that's a pretty clear 10% reduction in annual consumption which is a couple hundred bucks a year and we don't even use the auto away feature to its maximum because of the pets being inside the house all day and the fact that people are home all summer.

Oh, just occurred to me that may be when our Smart meter was installed. Maybe the old POS meter that was there was reading incorrectly.

[black2002ls]

1400 sq ft 1 story. Built in 1986. gas furnace and range/oven. we keep the AC at 70-72 in the summer and 74-76 in the winter (there is a balance issue with the new furnace) Furnace was replaced last spring, compressor is original to the home, installed in 86. There are 3 of us. I believe that I have changed out every bulb in the house for LED's. When I re-did the siding at the entry, I sealed up around the front door. I spray foamed around the back door and the garage entry door when I re-trimmed the house.

18-Feb 458
18-Jan 572
18-Dec 587
18-Nov 806
18-Oct 1274
18-Sep 1643
18-Aug 1660
18-Jul 1490
18-Jun 1041
18-May 715
18-Apr 474
18-Mar 429

[black2002ls]

Can you provide your energy usage verses square footage?

Additional info is helpful if you would like to provide it, such as if you have a pool, two stories, keep the a/c at 68 degrees etc.

According to Oncor, here is what our usage has been the past year. We have a pool. We turn off the ac/heat during the day when no one is here. Our home is 1900 square feet and two stories.

01/17 4490 k/hr
02/17 3865 k/hr
03/17 2890 k/hr
04/17 2530 k/hr
05/17 2840 k/hr
06/17 2855 k/hr
07/17 2790 k/hr
08/17 3700 k/hr
09/17 2875 k/hr
10/17 2700 k/hr
11/17 2350 k/hr
12/17 2575 k/hr
01/18 4594 k/hr
02/18 4353 k/hr

When was the home built? Any improvements made? Electric heat sucks power, a lot of power. Especially if it is having to kick on the emergency heat strips to get to your desired temperature.

I would program the thermostat to a schedule instead of turning it off while you are not there. Unless your home is relatively new, it is going to build/lose a lot of heat while you are gone. If you don't have a programmable thermostat, I have a honeywell (I think) that I can send you to install.

If your home is older, things to check:

Easy/low hanging fruit

Does the roof have radiant barrier?
depth of blown insulation in attic
Any issues with the ducts? (this is easily noticed if the attic temperature is not significantly different than inside the home)
Is all duct insulation, if installed, in tact and free of rips and tears?
HVAC return and supply plenums insulated?

More difficult to check

How are the doors sealed up? When I replaced siding at the entry of my home, above the front door, there was no sheathing, it was siding, insulation drywall. That all got sealed up with thermoply, spray foam insulation, and tape.

You could have someone like Fox Energy come and do an energy audit to see where you are losing conditioned air. That would give you an idea of what, if any, problems you have

[Darren M]

Right now I pay $0.053 per kWh plus TDSP pass-throughs (Oncor's charges).. In the summer on my peak bill it works out to ~$0.089 per kWh, and on the low bills it's highest is around 0.094. It used to be better, averaging around 0.08 per kWh, as low as ~0.06 for a few years, but they won't let me float on the day ahead market anymore. That was nice as I was getting my power at clearing prices without markup..

This is through my employer though, so there is a lot of added convenience. I also never have to worry about being disconnected over a forgotten bill or anything like that. We primarily serve commercial customers, which is why I pay commodity and TDSP charges broken out like that.

I've been using my employer since right after starting here, over 8 years ago, and to be honest it's nice not messing with it. I know I'm not getting the best deal available but it's at least competitive and that's fine, my highest bill last summer was $230.. My highest bill since 2009 was in August of 2015 when the day ahead market spiked and my commodity charge was ~0.09 by itself, with TDSP charges it was still only $277. I think if I were to average it out, I'm still doing really well.

Straight up legit! Commercial rates in a residence? Man, that's fantastic!