Letting The Numbers Speak
January 1st, 2008 by LeeI have been keeping a log of all of our utility usage and costs this year. I’m hoping to drop our electricity usage by a meager 2% per year. I don’t want to start large and disappoint myself.
My logs for other utilities, such as water, sewer, telephone and cable haven’t been as closely monitored because I seem to can’t find some of the statements.
Our home is a total electric home, so it is easy to disseminate our total usage.
In 2007 we used a total of 17,712 KWH (Kilowatt Hours) of electricity. We used an average of 48.9 KWH per day, which cost us on average $4.90 per day. On average one KWH of electricity cost us $0.10 in 2007, and we paid $1,777.41 for electricity in 2007.
How do your numbers look in comparison? I really don’t know if ours is bad or good. So if you are a dork like me and like to keep track of things such as these, perhaps I can get some information to set my household on a track to help this earth, instead of harming it.
I’ve spent the past hour trying to get information on “average household electricity usage” but the DOE’s website is junk, and I can’t find anything else useful.
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:11 am
Um, the site you linked to about kilowatt hours goes over the average electricity usage per household. (Click on “How much it costs”.) I’ll try to make it clearer how to get to that, though. And to save you the trip, it’s 888 kWh/mo. So I’m afraid you’re using quite a bit more than average, unless your household is huge.
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:59 am
We pay US$.47 per kWh here on Dominica! So far the highest rate in the world I have been able to find.
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Michael, is that average number of 888 for total electric homes, or just a broad average including homes that use natural gas and other forms of energy as well? My home is 2000 square feet.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:22 am
We consume between 300 and 1500 kWh per month, but I’m not sure what our average is. Of course, we also consume natural gas… Our house is as big as yours, bigger probably, and not very well weatherproofed. I admire your goal of paring down your consumption.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:30 am
We do not use any natural gas for our house. It is completely electric. I know we can do some things better, but I don’t think we are doing too bad. When we noticed our usage getting out of control, we replaced our heat pump, and our usage went down by half the next month. Lee wants to get a solar attic fan, which will also help out. We can always do better, but we aren’t doing horribly right now.
January 4th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
We basically have a big hole in the side of our house right now because of me ripping out the drywall in the garage, but it could be worse.