What's your elec usage like?

[Sarasvati]

I'm curious! I've managed to get my average use right down but I'm curious to see how it compares. We are completely electric-driven, no gas or solar power. We use around 12kwh/day, I've seen a bill with 36kwh/day (end of winter), and the last was 26kwh/day. So I've gotten it down a lot. So what's your use like? Maybe we could share energy saving tips too?

[Ceres]

I can't remember! I have such a terrible head for numbers. I think it was about 21 in summer with the air con and whatnot. We have (had :lol ) electric hot water and kitchen, and I cook a lot. I'm really curious to get my next bill seeing I've had no hot water for 6 weeks now. It should be greatly reduced. The solar hot water should be on its way soon.

[Himalia]

That's great Sarasvati. I have tracked ours for the past few years. We are the same as you, all electricity, no gas/solar etc. When we are extra careful we got it down to 12kWh/day also. Our last bill was 19kWh/day, I haven't been as careful lately. It's fun to convert kWh into carbon output. I had a thread on JB about this with calculations ages back.

We have solar panels ready to be installed just need a few weeks spare time to get it happening.

[Anarcostar]

Just got bill today :hide
We've gone up to 16wkh/day from 12/kwh/day.
We've got solar hot water, no air conditioning (though in summer pedestal fans going almost non stop :lol) but a tumble dryer that gets used when we have a block of rain days (that usually seem to coincide with nappy washing days ! )

[shaestar]

I'll be interested to see how ours is. We have solar hot water and gas heating and cooktop but the air con is electric-though we hardly use it. The big energy sucker for me will be the dryer which dries most of our clothes in the cooler months. I hate it but down here nothing gets dry outside when it's cold and our heating vents are in the roof (which is high) and useless to dry clothes with. Our last place had a wall heater and I'd just put the drying rack in front of it and they would be dry in a day. So we dry a load a day. It sucks but we can't be nude!
The inability to dry clothes outside for 6 months of the year is not something I thought would be an issue when I moved from QLD!

[Sarasvati]

My best days have been 8-9kWh. Sometimes I'm at a complete loss to understand why one day is better than another. Other days it's apparent (like if I have to use the dryer).

[Ceres]

I can't understand why mine is so high, I don't even own a dryer! I think the hot water accounts for a lot of it so I'm hopeful that the solar takes care of that.

[Sarasvati]

The changes I've implemented since a certain someone moved out include: using aircon only as a last resort, I bought fans for the areas that didn't have any so I felt cooler without resorting to aircon. Not leaving computers on overnight (or the modem and router). Turning off all powerpoints not in use (including microwave, I reset the clock in the morning). The new hot water system helped HEAPS, obviously the old one was really inefficient. Trying to line dry inside if it rains rather than using dryer (helps that I have no kids in nappies, I can go almost a week without washing if need be). Getting out of the house so we don't use appliances through the day :lol. Any other tips peoples?

[zenifa]

Just checked our last bill it was 16 kWh/ day and we are all electric here, no solar/gas. We do have a heat pump for hot water so that has reduced our elec consumption. We do have aircon but use it sparingly (have ceiling fans in bedrooms for hot sweaty summer nights), try to turn off most items so not on standby. We don't have a dryer nor dishwasher. Boil only the water we are going to use. Our fridge is quite old, so apparently that is chewing up a lot of power, but $$ to replace, esp while its still working and we may to replace the cooktop first (wish I could have gas but too $$ and tricky for our kitchen design).

[Ceres]

I got my electricity bill today and I was excited about it for the first time in my life. :lol It was down to 11kWh/day due to having no hot water for the last 6 weeks, and I'm well and truly in advance with it now.

[Sarasvati]

:lol that's a rough way to save elec though!

[Ravensworn]

Do you really need the clock on your microwave? Ours is really inconvenient to turn off, but I've not worried about using the clock at all in other places we've lived in.

Also, are you on night-rate off-peak for your hot water, or just off-peak? Night-rate is much cheaper. Also turn the temperature down as much as possible.

Will check my bill later for our usage.

[zenifa]

Ceres, I would love to have that usage, but not if it means no hot water!!

In terms of a clock, we have one on our wall that is battery operated, so we don't need to have the microwave or any other appliance on standby that has a clock.

[Ravensworn]

Well, our electricity bill from this time last year was 12.1kW. I know the dollar amount is higher now, but not sure how much can be attributed to increase in prices. We're due another soon, and I need to change over the tariff for the hot water system as above (can't believe I didn't realise until now that it wasn't).

[Sarasvati]

I like the clock. Have no others except my mobile :lol.

[Ceres]

We have no clocks at all! No microwave either :lol
When I say no hot water, I mean no hot water in the tank. We were still heating a bath of water in the mornings with the immersion heater so no one suffered.

[Beatrice]

Interesting thread. We have elec hot water and elec cook top and oven in this new place, altho at least it's wood and not elec heat. I'm a bit nervous about the prospective size of the electricity bills since we've always had gas for both. OTOH, we've decided not to bother with the fridge again and we forgot to pack the microwave when we moved :lol, so that will help.

[Ceres]

You're in tassie now - it's like living in one big fridge anyway :lol

[mummy2boys]

Just dug the last bill out of the shredding pile. Average daily use was 18.75, which was down on the same time last year which was 21.76.

We have 2 adults and 2 children here fulltime. We have gas hot water and stove top (both with electric ignition), everything else inc oven is electric. We have 2 wall unit airconditioners, one in either end of the house. At least one of those runs pretty much continuously over the warmer months (DP has MS and has to keep cool, so no option to reduce use there). We have ceiling fans in 3 rooms, the one in our bedroom runs all night and the loungeroom one is on as needed. I cook a lot, the kids have the fridge open perusing it's contents frequently, I use the dryer when it's wet as we don't have space to hang stuff inside, we have energy-saving light globes though. And we turn stuff off at the powerpoint.

Our house is poorly designed. No eaves or verandah, no ceiling insulation AFAIK, no air-flow. Once it heats up it stays hot for a good week or so.

It would be nice to have a smaller bill but I just can't see how that's going to happen.