So last month I challenged myself. I was going to try to reduce our electric bill to be lower than our same month last year. I made a game of it and tried to beat last years bill. I told the hubs about it and he was like, ok whatever(I'm sure he was excited on the inside :). Well for the past month I've been turning out lights, line drying (as much as possible) our clothes, replacing light bulbs with fluorescents, working more outside in the garden (as opposed to watching tv) and just trying to be very mindful of our electric usage. Let me tell you when I got our bill I was AMAZED!
Last year at this time we used a daily average of 30.3 KWH and this month we used a daily average of 19.5 KWH both average temperatures for the month were exactly the same. This month was the absolute lowest month of our electric bill since we've been in the house. I'm amazed at how much our bill was reduced and excited to work on reducing it more!
If you are interested in lowering your bill here is a neat website that shows you the average cost of running some of your appliances.
In trying to find the average homes electric usage I found this:
As an electrical engineer for a power company I see on average a house that is 1600-2000 square feet and having electric appliances except for the furnace use an average of 1500Kwatts per month making 50 Kwatts per day and a total of 18,000 Kwatts per year. (from WikiAnswers). Also according to this report from the Department of Energy the average house uses 10,654KWH per year, which is a good deal lower than the above quote in red. As of last year we fell right in the middle of those two estimates. However, we do have that electric furnace so I don't know how that figures into the equation. This year I hope to see a great reduction in this, its amazing what a little competition with yourself will do to your bills.
(hee hee the months spell out the hubs name)Once again frugality and "living green" collide.
What are you guys up to?
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I found out that Frugal Friday didn't start here-the original is at Biblical Womanhood, go check out the original!
3 comments:
http://mamaknj.blogspot.com/2008/05/frugal-friday-redbox.html
Good post. I think we frequently think of utilities as an area that we don't have much control over.
While I line dry a lot, I know I'm not the best at shutting off the lights and TV when not in use. Oh and shutting down the computer too. Gotta work on that.
Good for you! Wow, this is just in time for me. My husband hung up a clothesline at my request, and I'd love to see how much I save by limiting indoor dryer use. The link is great--I'm printing out the info now! Thanks!
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