For those who have been waiting for an update on my most recent electric bill with our new Time-Of-Use service:
Our bill for the month of December is $87.70! That is $19.50 lower than our last bill! My goal was to get our bill under $100.
This is a big deal to us because #1 - it is winter. AND #2 our bill for
last December was $158.44! That is a difference of $70.74!
Some changes we've made with our electricity use along with our new Time-Of-Use service:
1. We turn off our hot water heater when it is not in use. We actually
started doing this half-way through the month, so I'm curious how much
lower our bill will be next month now that we are much more persistent
with it.
2. I started unplugging our washer and dryer when not
in use. I unplug just about everything else that isn't in use either,
except for the oven.
3. We work around our off-peak rate. We
take showers either early in the morning or after 8pm. We do our laundry
the same way or on the weekends. The dishwasher runs early in the
morning or after 8pm as well.
4. We switched to CFL lightbulbs.
5. Although we have used our oil furnace a few times in the morning
(sometimes we get lazy to stoke the fire in the middle of the night) our
woodstove has been our primary source of heat. I have also used our
woodstove to cook several times!
6. We rarely use our dryer. I hang dry our clothes, except for towels.
Showing posts with label Saving money on electricity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saving money on electricity. Show all posts
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Our November 2013 electric bill
I received our November electric bill and am happy to say that it is the lowest it has been all year! This is even before switching to the A-TOU rate I talked about in this post. I am so excited to see our next bill with this new rate, especially with this month's bill being much lower.
Last week I went through all of my electric bills from this past year and logged them in a notebook, so I could compare our usage for the year.
The set up in my notebook looks like this:
Month:
Amount due:
Daily Usage (kWh):
Monthly Usage:
Supply rate:
Delivery rate:
The highest it has been this year was February 2013 at $239.17! Our daily usage was 55 kWh. I am guessing we ran the furnace and dryer much more then. My husband just reminded me that we also had to run space heaters in the basement around that time when the water line froze right as it entered the house. My husband purchased a sheet of foam board insulation, dug and placed it against the foundation. We're hoping this does the trick.
Our bill for November 2013 is $107.20! Our daily usage was only 25 kWh. My goal is to get our next bill under $100, and if I can keep it that way throughout the winter it will make our plans to becoming debt-free that much quicker and easier. Every step counts.
Here are two things I've been doing that may have contributed to this lower electric bill:
1. I rarely use the dryer (only for towels). I hang dry all our clothes...on a rack, on the shower curtain rod, over doors and chairs, pretty much anywhere I can hang clothes.
2. We've been using our woodstove as our primary heat source. We did have oil delivered, but we're going to conserve this as much as we can. We have enough wood to heat our house all winter.
We are taking a few more steps this month to lowering our bill, in addition to our new rate and supplier. Our next step is to purchase an insulation blanket for our water heater. We also need to change out a couple remaining light bulbs to CFLs.
Last week I went through all of my electric bills from this past year and logged them in a notebook, so I could compare our usage for the year.
The set up in my notebook looks like this:
Month:
Amount due:
Daily Usage (kWh):
Monthly Usage:
Supply rate:
Delivery rate:
The highest it has been this year was February 2013 at $239.17! Our daily usage was 55 kWh. I am guessing we ran the furnace and dryer much more then. My husband just reminded me that we also had to run space heaters in the basement around that time when the water line froze right as it entered the house. My husband purchased a sheet of foam board insulation, dug and placed it against the foundation. We're hoping this does the trick.
Our bill for November 2013 is $107.20! Our daily usage was only 25 kWh. My goal is to get our next bill under $100, and if I can keep it that way throughout the winter it will make our plans to becoming debt-free that much quicker and easier. Every step counts.
Here are two things I've been doing that may have contributed to this lower electric bill:
1. I rarely use the dryer (only for towels). I hang dry all our clothes...on a rack, on the shower curtain rod, over doors and chairs, pretty much anywhere I can hang clothes.
2. We've been using our woodstove as our primary heat source. We did have oil delivered, but we're going to conserve this as much as we can. We have enough wood to heat our house all winter.
We are taking a few more steps this month to lowering our bill, in addition to our new rate and supplier. Our next step is to purchase an insulation blanket for our water heater. We also need to change out a couple remaining light bulbs to CFLs.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Switching to an at-time-of-use electricity rate
In yesterday's post I mentioned one of the steps we've taken this week to debt-free living was switching to an at-time-of-use (A-TOU) rate with our electricity company.
The reason we switched to an A-TOU rate is because it allows us to shift our electricity usage to a lower price period (Off-peak). Our usage is billed on-peak, shoulder (interim) and off-peak. Here is a look at these times and their rates with this service:
On-peak 7:00am - 12:00pm and 4:00pm - 8:00pm $.105288/kWh
Shoulder 12:00pm - 4:00pm $.091088/kWh
Off-peak 8:00pm - 7:00am $.046007/kWh (Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are also designated as off-peak)
With our previous Residential Service Rate, we were paying $.068920/kWh no matter the day or time of day. An A-TOU rate basically allows us to control the cost of our electricity.
A-TOU works best for our family and our lifestyle for many reasons.
1. My husband leaves for work between 4:45 and 5:00 in the morning. He is able to take his showers early in the morning or late at night when the rate is off-peak.
2. I am up early with my husband and am able to do laundry, run a load of dishes through the dishwasher and take a shower before the rate switches to on-peak. I can also prepare the makings for dinner, bake, etc. during this time. For example, this morning I toasted bread pieces in the oven to make a crock-pot stuffing for tonight's dinner.
3. We watch very little to no television during the day. The television usually gets turned on between 7:00 and 8:00 at night , but we're all usually so tired (plus the kids go to bed around 7:30) that we don't really watch much during the week. Most of our television viewing - er, hubby's television viewing - is on Sundays...it is football season! The plus side of that is Sundays are designated off-peak, all day!
4. Any bulk cooking I do is done on the weekends or after the kids go to bed. This is also when I make hubby's breakfast sandwiches for the week.
5. Our woodstove is our primary heat source. We do have oil heat as well, but it gets used very occasionally, and typically at night if we're too tired to stoke the fire. With me being pregnant, I usually get up at least once in the middle of the night, so I throw a piece of wood in. In short, little to no electricity is being used here.
6. We have a lot of natural light that comes into our house. We don't use lights during the day.
7. I unplug everything! Yes, I'm one of those people. It's been habit for years. It drives my husband nuts sometimes, but I know he appreciates my efforts to lower our electric bill :)
The real test will be when our new electricity bill arrives! I will definitely be posting about that, so stay tuned!
In my next post on saving money on electricity, I will share about how we recently switched to a new electricity supplier.
The reason we switched to an A-TOU rate is because it allows us to shift our electricity usage to a lower price period (Off-peak). Our usage is billed on-peak, shoulder (interim) and off-peak. Here is a look at these times and their rates with this service:
On-peak 7:00am - 12:00pm and 4:00pm - 8:00pm $.105288/kWh
Shoulder 12:00pm - 4:00pm $.091088/kWh
Off-peak 8:00pm - 7:00am $.046007/kWh (Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are also designated as off-peak)
With our previous Residential Service Rate, we were paying $.068920/kWh no matter the day or time of day. An A-TOU rate basically allows us to control the cost of our electricity.
A-TOU works best for our family and our lifestyle for many reasons.
1. My husband leaves for work between 4:45 and 5:00 in the morning. He is able to take his showers early in the morning or late at night when the rate is off-peak.
2. I am up early with my husband and am able to do laundry, run a load of dishes through the dishwasher and take a shower before the rate switches to on-peak. I can also prepare the makings for dinner, bake, etc. during this time. For example, this morning I toasted bread pieces in the oven to make a crock-pot stuffing for tonight's dinner.
3. We watch very little to no television during the day. The television usually gets turned on between 7:00 and 8:00 at night , but we're all usually so tired (plus the kids go to bed around 7:30) that we don't really watch much during the week. Most of our television viewing - er, hubby's television viewing - is on Sundays...it is football season! The plus side of that is Sundays are designated off-peak, all day!
4. Any bulk cooking I do is done on the weekends or after the kids go to bed. This is also when I make hubby's breakfast sandwiches for the week.
5. Our woodstove is our primary heat source. We do have oil heat as well, but it gets used very occasionally, and typically at night if we're too tired to stoke the fire. With me being pregnant, I usually get up at least once in the middle of the night, so I throw a piece of wood in. In short, little to no electricity is being used here.
6. We have a lot of natural light that comes into our house. We don't use lights during the day.
7. I unplug everything! Yes, I'm one of those people. It's been habit for years. It drives my husband nuts sometimes, but I know he appreciates my efforts to lower our electric bill :)
The real test will be when our new electricity bill arrives! I will definitely be posting about that, so stay tuned!
In my next post on saving money on electricity, I will share about how we recently switched to a new electricity supplier.
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