house energy use?

[ncage]

I don't really usually pay attention to my energy bill. I just pay it but recently it has been really high. I haven't ran the air the couple month because my A/C went out but it will be fixed Wednesday. I called the power copmany today to try to get some help to see if use was excessive which the lady was NO help at all.

OK some info about me so you can guage:
single
small house (1100 square feet).
3 computers (1 home server always on, 1 mostly in sleep but 3 hours a night, and 1 in hybernate but 3 hours a day)
1 DVR
50 in plasma tv (2 hours a night)
couple fans running throught the day (box & ceiling)
2 refrigerators (made within the last 5 years) 1 in basement where its always cool
1 deep freeze (2 years old) - in basement where its always cool
electric dryer (probably 3-4 loads a week)

Other than that i can not think of anything in my house that would use any energy at all other than small things like alarm clock, ect

I'm pretty good about turning out lights, i have energy saving bulbs ect. The lady on the phone told me i was using between 900-1100kw. Now my buddy which has about the same size of house as me is telling me his energy use is only about 150-200kw.

So guys is something wrong here or is my energy use in line? Any help would be appreciated.

thanks,
Ncage

 

[Nohr]

That sounds a little high for not having any A/C running but I can't say I'd be surprised if it was correct. Your friend's power usage is really low. Are you sure some of his stuff isn't running on gas?

 

[ncage]

Originally posted by: Nohr
That sounds a little high for not having any A/C running but I can't say I'd be surprised if it was correct. Your friend's power usage is really low. Are you sure some of his stuff isn't running on gas?

It is but some of my stuff is on gas too. He has a gas furance and so do i. He has an electric dryer and so do i. You know most days i don't even get home until 6-7 because i work out after i work. He told me goes directly from heating to air. He never opens the windows and i'm a cheap skate not turning on the air till it gets really hot .

 

[MustISO]

Seems like a lot to me. We used very little in May but we have a 3200 sqft house with dual zone heating and cooling. In May it was only 823kwh but the previous month was 1600.

 

[Bignate603]

Sounds high to me. The best way to save energy is to turn things off, though sometimes you have to unplug them. Even if you plasma TV or stereo is off they can still be drawing a noticeable amount of power. Same with your monitors, DVD players, printers, scanner etc... Heck, all AC adapters continually use power even if you're not using the device it's attached to.

You can beat this by hooking all your electronics to power strips with a switch on them. Just turn it off at the switch when you're not using it and you'll get rid of all that wasted energy.

 

[BoomerD]

Our house is ~1700 sq. ft. and we use in the range of 800- 1000 kwh every month.
We're usually both home all day, (except when I'm in school) so the A/C runs more during the day than most people who work.
We too have gas furnace, and electric clothes dryer.
You don't mention what you have for a water heater...gas or electric? THAT could be the difference, but USUALLY, if you have gas heat, you have a gas water heater as well.

Do you have a neighbor running extention cords to your house to power his appliances?
(uh-oh, he's gonna be home in 15 minutes! HURRY! Get everything unplugged and the cords rolled up!)


BTW, you may be able to get your electrical utility to come do a free home energy audit and inspection. Often, they can pinpoint the problem with a quick walk-through.
(and those refrigerators and the freezer...most likely the main source of the problem)

 

[ncage]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Our house is ~1700 sq. ft. and we use in the range of 800- 1000 kwh every month.
We're usually both home all day, (except when I'm in school) so the A/C runs more during the day than most people who work.
We too have gas furnace, and electric clothes dryer.
You don't mention what you have for a water heater...gas or electric? THAT could be the difference, but USUALLY, if you have gas heat, you have a gas water heater as well.

Do you have a neighbor running extention cords to your house to power his appliances?
(uh-oh, he's gonna be home in 15 minutes! HURRY! Get everything unplugged and the cords rolled up!)


BTW, you may be able to get your electrical utility to come do a free home energy audit and inspection. Often, they can pinpoint the problem with a quick walk-through.
(and those refrigerators and the freezer...most likely the main source of the problem)

Haha no ive checked for neighboors taping into my electricity . My water heater is gas and just replaces 1 year ago . Damn i guess the only thing i can really do is have an energy audit done on my house. Something must be causing the HIGH energy drain

I want to thank everyone for the time in posting. Its helped me decide i definitly need to get an energy audit. They will find out what is using so much dang electricity. Yes i don't go so far as to unplug stuff i turn off but i still pretty conservative. I turn off my laser printer rather than let it go int o power saving mode and do things like that. My other computer stuff runs 24/7 like cable modem, 1 router, 1 switch....ect but those should hardly use ANY energy at all. I think i'm going to get one of those kill-a-watt things too so in the future anything i have plugged in i can see how much juice its sucking.

Ncage

 

[IGBT]

..thy're prob.manipulating your base line rate so you get pushed into a higher cost scale.

 

[I Saw OJ]

Request someone from the power company come out and check your meter. We did that one time when we had a 700 dollar power bill...almost had a heart attack.

 

[Skeeedunt]

I'll throw my numbers out for comparison. Small apartment (~700 sq ft?), liberal AC use, been lazy about turning stuff off:

April = 560 kWh
May = 811 kWh

 

[SparkyJJO]

Check your meter. Is the wheel spinning really fast? Something you can also do is turn off your major loads (dryer, AC, stove, computer, etc), then go out and check the meter again. If it still is moving at a decent pace, you then could start tripping breakers one at a time until you find the circuit that has the heavy load on it. If you have tripped all the breakers and the wheel is still spinning, pop the main breaker and hope it stops spinning. If it doesn't, you've either got a low-level short on the feed going between the meter and your panel or the meter is defective.

Long, drawn-out process, but it is just the process of elimination.

 

[ncage]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
Check your meter. Is the wheel spinning really fast? Something you can also do is turn off your major loads (dryer, AC, stove, computer, etc), then go out and check the meter again. If it still is moving at a decent pace, you then could start tripping breakers one at a time until you find the circuit that has the heavy load on it. If you have tripped all the breakers and the wheel is still spinning, pop the main breaker and hope it stops spinning. If it doesn't, you've either got a low-level short on the feed going between the meter and your panel or the meter is defective.

Long, drawn-out process, but it is just the process of elimination.

Your an absolute GENIUS sparky eventhough you did cost me a LOT of time....just kidding bro.....your idea was awesome got me started. I almost shut everything off in the house except my DVR haha i was recording something i didn't want to miss on discovery. I couldn't shut the sump off for long because the dang thing pumps ever 1.13 minutes. I kid you not. Its like this all year unless we are in a situation where it hasn't rained in like 1.5 months. Anyways i actually though something was wrong with the meter at first. It would be going really really really slow..hardly moving them jump for about 30-45 seconds...iwas like WTF then i remembered by sump was running so i went to the basement and timed the sump and then i timed the jumps on the power meter outside. Well guess what they were almost exact. It would go from hardly moving to going at a fairly good rate. Damn do sumps suck that much juice or do i just need replace the sum. I mean there isn't anything i can do. I can't shut off the sump unless i want an underground swimming pool lol. I think i'm going to order one of those kill-a-watt things tonight before i call the energy audit. Maybe that will be enough.

Ncage

 

[Christobevii3]

thats about what mine is for a 900 square foot apartment, but my windows all leak air horribly and i'm on the top floor while it is averaging 100 degrees outside now.

 

[woodie1]

ncage - sounds like you may have found your problem (the sump pump). Check out the specs on the unit and buy a more energy efficient one.

Good luck.

 

[SparkyJJO]

How old is the sump? If it is an older one it probably isn't too efficient. Single phase motors simply aren't going to be super efficient but the old ones could be really bad.

Glad to be of help

 

[HannibalX]

My home is all electric. No gas. I pay on average $125/month for around 2000 s/f. I have no idea what that equates to in actual energy usage (I never read the bill). The previous owners of the home did replace all the doors and windows with "energy efficient" equipment so I am sure that helps.

 

[Pabster]

An old pump can definitely suck it down.

 

[ncage]

thanks guys. The pump is only 2 year old and it was a good pump when i bought. Really heavy duty...but like i said my pump runs constantly....about every minute it is pumping out water but whats strange is the pump is working ok. Its pumping water just fine i hope that sump pumps in general don't use this much juice....of course there is nothing i can do about the sump....i have to have one. I think i'm going to wait until my kill-a-watt meter comes in. Should be here friday, i ordered it last night from chiefvalue and then base my determination on that. The only wierd thing about my pump is it almost appears like it has two power cords. Both are pretty heavy guage. You put the prongs from one into the second and then plug the second into a 3-prong outlet. I have not seen this design before. Maybe that has something to do with it. I don't know.

Ncage

 

[nakedfrog]

900-1100kW doesn't seem unreasonable to me. I have a 1600 square foot house and a similar amount of electronics, and for March - May I averaged 1200kW. Last summer with central A/C in use it varied from 2000 - 2645kW.

 

[K1052]

You must have one hell of a high water table or the outflow isn't dumping far enough away from the house for it to be cycling that often.

 

[richardycc]

maybe you have a clog or leak in the line, so the pump is pumping the same water pretty much constantly.

 

[ncage]

guys i found my sump at lowes:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn...-57671-LWS1&lpage=none

 

[ncage]

Originally posted by: K1052
You must have one hell of a high water table or the outflow isn't dumping far enough away from the house for it to be cycling that often.

Yes sir you are right. I really don't think houses in this neighboorhood should have basements. A year ago power went out for 3 hours....and well you could drive around the neiighboorhood and see water resteration services and people ripping carpet out.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: ncage

Originally posted by: K1052
You must have one hell of a high water table or the outflow isn't dumping far enough away from the house for it to be cycling that often.

Yes sir you are right. I really don't think houses in this neighboorhood should have basements. A year ago power went out for 3 hours....and well you could drive around the neiighboorhood and see water resteration services and people ripping carpet out.

Might want to invest in an appropriately sized battery powered backup sump to cover you for short term outages.

 

[moparacer]

2800 sq ft and average 1100 KW with 3 computers AC and 1 or 2 TVs on almost all day.