How much energy do YOU use?

[RSorak 71Westy]

For years my electric consumption has been just about 1 kilowatt per hour or about 24 KWh. per day.
I have an ALL electric 2200 sq ft house with no gas line connection and a 1100 sq ft detached garage.

How much do you use?

[dtrumbo]

Good on ya! We have a 2100 sq. ft. house, gas heat, but everything else is electric. We average 56 kwh per day. Sounds like you're doing pretty good!

[Amskeptic]

Good on ya! We have a 2100 sq. ft. house, gas heat, but everything else is electric. We average 56 kwh per day. Sounds like you're doing pretty good!

I use whatever the alternator gives me.

[dtrumbo]

Good on ya! We have a 2100 sq. ft. house, gas heat, but everything else is electric. We average 56 kwh per day. Sounds like you're doing pretty good!

I use whatever the alternator gives me.

You use whatever you take from the alternator (tuh-maytoe/tuh-mahtoe).

[Lanval]

For years my electric consumption has been just about 1 kilowatt per hour or about 24 KWh. per day.
I have an ALL electric 2200 sq ft house with no gas line connection and a 1100 sq ft detached garage.

How much do you use?

Pshaw. I can beat that in my 1000 sq/ft apt. On hot days, I open the windows and turn on the AC. On cold days, same, but heater. Of course, here in SoCal "cold" is a relative term.

I shoot for a gigawatt per week. It's not enough to run my flux capacitor, but keeps me cozy. I also turn on all the lights at dusk ~ vampires, and all that.

Best,

Mike

[ruckman101]

More than what I idealize myself using. More than I care to admit. Still less than most I rationalize. Hopefully. If my waste-stream is an indicator, I'm good.


neal

[Xelmon]

Not entirely sure about the household.

I know of myself that I use about... 3kWh's or so with my crap.

[Randy in Maine]

I have been in this little 1100 square foot log house in the woods at the beach for about 10 years now. When I moved in, the floors and crawlspace were not insulated and the PO had a 1500 watt electric heater down int he crawl space that ran from October till June to prevent the water pipes from freezing. The living area was heated with a 30K propane fired space heater that looked like a big box. Electric bill was $150 a month and I went through about 800 gallons of propane a year.

I insulated the concrete block crawl space with that 2" foam board and insulated the floors with R-19. Unhooked the electric heater down under there and insulated the pipes. Never have had a freeze up.

Both my fridge and the little electric water heater died a couple of years into ownership in the same month. I replaced the water heater with a propane "on demand" one and a more efficient fidge. A few years ago I replaced the R-19 ceiling insulation (2" x 6" roof rafters) with 6" of "spray in foam" ~ R-45. I also invested in a more efficient fake woodstove that runs on propane that is 28K BTUs.

Now I am at 13-14 KW per day rear round. About $57 per month. I also burn though about 450 gallons of propane per year for heat and domestic hot water ~ $1100-1200 per year. The place is just a lot more comfortable and we stay toasty warm even in the winter. I have not done the conversion to CFL lights though. I am waiting for the LEDs to get better.

Grab the low hanging fruit first would be my suggestion.

[BumbleBus]

1,600sqft house. 400-550kwh/month. Would be about 100kwh less, but I have several computers/servers running 24/7 that I need for work. At least work pays my 30mbit internet each month so that's nice. Local electric coop is 100% wind/hydro renewable and $0.057 kwh so I feel good about the source. If we ever had any sun here I would have gone solar long ago. Not viable where I live unfortunately. If they could figure out snow power we'd have it made.

[hambone]

17 KWH per day, I had to check...I knew it wasn't much though.

[airkooledchris]

I am averaging around between 15-17 KWH per day, with the occasional spikes in the 20's on some days.

Im trying to get better at isolating the few bits of gear I need on 24/7 on their own power strips, so I can more easily just toggle everything else off in mass when it isn't required.

a server, modem, router, and DVR stay on most the time, but I try to power down everything else so it doesn't even sit in standby mode eating up watts here and there.

this in a 3 bedroom 1300 SF house with 29 large single pane windows, though we never run AC or space heaters.

[pj]

Just got my bill today 450 for the month, 15 a day. The total bill was $48.66.

[bretski]

Interesting thread...23Kwh per day last billing period. Entirely too much, IMO...give me impetus to go on another "kill-a-watt" hunt. Although I know where most of the electrons flow: DVR, 2 servers, NAS, 2 desktop PC, and a 1-3 laptops, depending on who is home at the time. Yes, the bretski household has a lot of nerd gear...

I looked into solar several years ago, but the upfront costs were stupid-high, in spite of rebates and tax credits. Recently, I've been thinking about it again, but with a lease instead of purchase. There are now several companies that will lease you the equipment, and base your monthly charge on the amount of average usage vs. generation potential. The nice thing is: no upfront cost, and they take care of upgrades on the things that wear out, like inverters. Have at least 4 neighbors that have gone this route recently. 300 average days of sunshine per year around here helps. If I had the land, I would install a wind turbine. That would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, my neighbors are too close, and I'm pretty sure that local ordinances require at least an acre lot.

Around these parts (high desert climate), water use is the more important metric...but that's another thread.

[skin daddio]

i have no idea how much energy is used here since i haven't seen a bill in many many years. but in that time i have only burned free oak, fir, madrone, fruitwoods in my stove as my only source of heat. zero heating bill in the pnw. otherwise i capture rain water half the year for work. unfortunately i run out of rain by july.

[hambone]

"fruitwoods"
U use e-leck-trysitee for lites?