Our power bill came last night and I just went over it. We are on the budget plan and do not use electricity to heat. Our usage for the month of February was at an average of 52 KWH per day and our usage for the month of March was at an average of 32 KWH per day. Our usage for the February-March period this year from last year was a change of 30, that's 30 less than last year.
We did start making some changes in March, like making sure that the lights were always off when not in use, and we replaced the last incandescent light bulb left in the house with a compact fluorescent bulb. That's all we did for March.
Our actual usage was $62.12 and our budget amount is $110. We have caught up and passed our actual usage and now have a credit of $24.50 with the power company. That usually doesn't happen until June.
I am now really looking forward to the next bill. Because the changes we have made for April have been much more extensive. We wash everything in cold water now except germy kitchen towels and wash cloths, and bedding which I still wash in hot. I have used the dryer twice, once when the kids ran out of underwear and it had to be ready for the next morning and once when Tobias barfed on a bedspread and it needed to be dry for bedtime a few hours later.
The furnace has been off almost every day so that the pilot light has not had to remain at the ready. I unplugged all of the kitchen appliances I usually keep plugged in. I started turning my laptop off when not in use. And the big one is turning off the fans during the day. We all use fans at night to circulate the air and to help block the highway sounds. My son also plays music all night. The kids had a habit of not turning off the fans or the CD player in the morning that I have now broken them of and I have started turning my fan off too, which I also left on. I also turned off the ceiling fan except when it was needed.
I'm sure the next bill won't be as low as it could be. My son had a bad bout of illness that lasted two weeks (and he never gets sick) and the thing that helped him the most was steamy showers, so he was taking 5 or 6 five minute showers a day to help his breathing. I have finally for the last week gotten him down to one shower a day again.
I hope they will change my budget amount soon. They usually reevaluate it every quarter. Winter would'nt even be so bad if it weren't for December. Since we don't do much inside the house besides a tree, we go all out on the Christmas lights. We do have them on a timer but we had them coming on at 3:30 so the kids coming home on the bus could see them lit, and they went off at midnight. So there was a lot of usage, even if most of the lights drew very little. When you have as much stuff as we do, it still sucks it up.
This is one thing we don't want to give up, so we have decided that next year the lights will not come on until 6 and that they will go off at 10. The bill will still be higher but it will be less than this year. I'd sure love it if I could get it to $80 year round for the budget amount.
It is a gorgeous day here, and 68 degrees F with a light breeze. Perfect clothes line weather. Speaking of which, the washer just finished its second spin, so I'm off to hang another load of towels.
Power Bill Came
April 23rd, 2006 at 10:42 pm
April 24th, 2006 at 07:15 pm 1145906134
It isn't too often someone posts what changes they made AND the accompanying results of those changes. By showing exactly what you saved (be it in kilowatts or dollars) it helps someone like me get off the fence about adopting similar habits. I was sold on the CF bulbs but not on unplugging appliances. Looks like I'll be unplugging the hairdryer, toothbrush, and coffeemaker from now on.
April 24th, 2006 at 11:43 pm 1145922214