> I just got my cities utilities bill. JESUS CHRIST! $290 > for light, water and electric. > > I'm going to have to go postal.
Wish ours was that cheap. We pay around £500 each for Gas and Electric PA, and another £250 PA for water, same again for drainage. So its about £1000 a year for heat, light and a water supply. In USD I think thats about $1700.
You might as well get used to it because when I move in the backyard arcade it's just going to get worse. I will run your arcade cabs all day long and drink all your water and shower all night. You'll at least save on gas since you can bottle up my farts and light them for warmth. Or I can squeeze out a Cleveland Steamer on your chest and that will warm you up too.
But mine is 50-250 for electric depending on the time of year and the crummy AC I have.
For gas it is 10-250 depending on how much I run the heat.
For water it is about 30-50.
On average all three together is about 300.
Just depends on the time of year.
If you want to reduce it figure out what is sucking the juice. Big ones are the fridge (runs 24/7). TV runs 4-6hours a day. Computer? AC/Heatpump. Any wall warts? I trimmed off about 5-10 bucks by going thru my house and unplugging all wall warts that are not used. Also plug things into wall switches that have on off switches. Not using it but do not want to plug it in all the time put a nice switch on it.
Also got myself a decent LCD-LED tv (saved for 2 years to get it). uses about 75-110w in full power. Has an aggressive auto off and very low .5-2w standby. That alone trimmed off about 15-20 bucks off the power bill. Many of them out there use 200-300W and the stand by is 15-30+.
Also got a decent washer as those are going many times of the week. Saved in water and power and cleans better than the old one. I do not go down in quality just to save power. Also the new washer wrings most of the water out pretty good. I also got a dryer that has a humidity sensor it in so it knows when it is done.
Next up will be a larger refrigerator. Will make sure it is at least 20% bigger and uses 20% less power. As when I bought this one it was a pure cost play. Now I just need more room...
Also set my computers to hibernate or standby fairly aggressively. Not using them.... hibernate. They come up quick when I need them. If you want decently quick standby is good. Monitors are set to turn off.
But for this time of year 220 for all of them put together is not out of line. They should have a breakdown on the bill what was being used by what. If 90% of is electricity something is out of whack.
> But mine is 50-250 for electric depending on the time of year and the crummy AC I > have. > > For gas it is 10-250 depending on how much I run the heat. > > For water it is about 30-50. > > On average all three together is about 300.
I pay a little more for gas in the coldest part of winter, but otherwise that's pretty much exactly what I pay.
> If you want to reduce it figure out what is sucking the juice.
I found that switching over to mostly CFLs made a bigger difference than I expected, at least $10 to $15 per month once everything was switched over. They're more expensive and I've had a few problems with bulbs failing prematurely, but they're still pretty worthwhile.
> All utilities are included in my rent, so...nothing, sort of.
I've never heard of such a thing. In every apartment I ever rented, heat and water were included, but never gas and electric.
When my wife and I were dumb-ass kids moving into our first apartment, we got a bill for the gas which we filled out with our information and set up our account, but we never saw anything from the electric company, so we just assumed it was included in the rent. A year later, we come home one evening to an apartment with no power. We called the electric company, and they were like, "Yeah, you didn't pay your bill for a year." We had to cough up money for a year's worth of electricity before they would turn the lights back on. Live and learn, I guess.
> I found that switching over to mostly CFLs made a bigger difference than I expected, > at least $10 to $15 per month once everything was switched over. They're more > expensive and I've had a few problems with bulbs failing prematurely, but they're > still pretty worthwhile.
That didnt make much of a difference for me. I thought it would be better but I thought about it, I usually am using 1-2 bulbs at night at most anyway... The other ones are are on for 5-10 mins at most at a time anyway. I like it fairly dark. But many others have said the same as you. As the others burn out I switch them out. But I use them so little they are taking their time to burn out. But go after the big ones first. Those are the soul sucking ones anyway. But every little bit helps. I got my eye on a hall light that may be worth switching over
Its like shopping at harbor freight. If you are going to use it once then not touch it again for 2 years. It is worth buying the cheaper stuff. But if you are going to use it everyday it is worth springing for a bit of quality.
I’m convinced Mario is a hobo.
He wakes up everyday in the same clothes, runs around in sewers, and collects coins for a living.
At the end of the day, he uses the coins to buy mushrooms
> I found that switching over to mostly CFLs made a bigger difference than I expected, > at least $10 to $15 per month once everything was switched over. They're more > expensive and I've had a few problems with bulbs failing prematurely, but they're > still pretty worthwhile.
Never, never, ever again. I can't stand the weird glow in the first 3 minutes, and I've had 2 "catastrophically" fail on me in under a year. One exploded, burnt a nice hole on the wood floor below (and lef a tiny smear of mercury). The other got so hot at the base it melted the plastic around the lamp socket it was in. I'm done with those damed things...
> Never, never, ever again. I can't stand the weird glow in the first 3 minutes, and > I've had 2 "catastrophically" fail on me in under a year. One exploded, burnt a nice > hole on the wood floor below (and lef a tiny smear of mercury). The other got so hot > at the base it melted the plastic around the lamp socket it was in. I'm done with > those damed things...
What kind were you buying? I've had decent luck with Sylvania and GE. I guess they take a minute to get to full brightness, but they look OK to me when they first turn on. The ones that have failed have just gone out or have gone strobe-light flickery, I've never had any drama.
I bought some from Ikea that were terrible, they took forever to get up to more than a candle glow and were dim even at full brightness.
One of the first ones I got was an off-brand from Home Depot. The bulb itself wasn't terrible, but the color temp was "daylight" and it had a kind of blue-ish glow. We put it in a dining room that already had blue walls and it looked like we were ready for an alien autopsy. I thought about selling it as a diet plan, any food served in that dining room would have looked incredibly unappetizing.
> Never, never, ever again. I can't stand the weird glow in the first 3 minutes, and > I've had 2 "catastrophically" fail on me in under a year. One exploded, burnt a nice > hole on the wood floor below (and lef a tiny smear of mercury). The other got so hot > at the base it melted the plastic around the lamp socket it was in. I'm done with > those damed things...
All depends on the quality of the CFLs you're getting. I have Mirabella CFLs in the kitchen, due to an odd lighting fixture that only takes very narrow globes. They take forever to get up to full brightness, so I hate turning them off. I have E-Star CFLs everywhere else, and they're bright from the moment they're switched on. They're available in a range of colour temperatures, too. Go to a proper lighting store, and get them to explain the choices and demo a few for you.
Got's me a windmill two months ago... I ALMOST went with a water-pump windmill (common around here, to water crops and animals)... and then someone pointed out... why get a mechanical windmill when you can get an electric generating one, and keep the existing electric pump...
To power my house and shop usta be $400 a month, yeah a freakin' month!
and all the extra power I make they gotta buy back from me, so I get credits now, not bills! This windmill will pay for itself before the year is over.
> > All utilities are included in my rent, so...nothing, sort of. > > I've never heard of such a thing. In every apartment I ever rented, heat and water > were included, but never gas and electric.
It's not uncommon. In my case, this building is a converted hotel, and I suspect it's not wired in a way that would allow electric metering for individual apartments. Heat and AC are centralized, so they're included too.
> > > All utilities are included in my rent, so...nothing, sort of. > > > > I've never heard of such a thing. In every apartment I ever rented, heat and water > > were included, but never gas and electric. > > It's not uncommon. In my case, this building is a converted hotel, and I suspect it's > not wired in a way that would allow electric metering for individual apartments. Heat > and AC are centralized, so they're included too.
It is then essential that you use as much as you can, to avoid paying for other people's usage.
> Got's me a windmill two months ago... I ALMOST went with a water-pump windmill > (common around here, to water crops and animals)... and then someone pointed out... > why get a mechanical windmill when you can get an electric generating one, and keep > the existing electric pump... > > To power my house and shop usta be $400 a month, yeah a freakin' month! > > and all the extra power I make they gotta buy back from me, so I get credits now, not > bills! This windmill will pay for itself before the year is over.
My parents just built (a few months ago) one of the first LEED-certified residential homes in the county. Green everything, LED/CCFL lighting, solar electricity, solar water heating assist, passive solar heating, the whole nine yards. I expect it wasn't cheap. I've stopped by a few times since they moved in - it's pretty sharp! They're on track to get electric credits I think too...
> Got's me a windmill two months ago... I ALMOST went with a water-pump windmill > (common around here, to water crops and animals)... and then someone pointed out... > why get a mechanical windmill when you can get an electric generating one, and keep > the existing electric pump... > > To power my house and shop usta be $400 a month, yeah a freakin' month! > > and all the extra power I make they gotta buy back from me, so I get credits now, not > bills! This windmill will pay for itself before the year is over.
I envy you.
Down here if we try to do that, we get fined to hell, they power company would take down the windmill, AND SEND US TO JAIL FOR SCREWING THEM OVER since they're owned by the government.
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