How many kWh do you use?

[8sPOT]

Quite high, average 2000kWh. Bill is almost always between $250-$350. Ditto on the clothes washing, with 3 kids in the house it's constant. We had 3 electric heaters going as well due to a crappy ducting setup, but now we are trying to crank the heat and turn the heaters off. Also have a hot tub, I really hate getting my hydro bill.

[Regular_John]

According to Enmax we used just 10 (yes TEN) kWh last month. Yeah I know it's wrong and already kicked them some extra cash this month in fear of what next months will look like.

[Bob]

I'm pretty sure I could use 0 kWh and Enmax would find a way to charge me $40.

[Canehdianman]

We used just under 600 kWh last month. This is with 2 people living in a 2200 sq ft house (including basement)

[Hack&Lube]

Computers also dry my laundry for me.

[speede5]

Family of five with no regard for turning things off (grrrrrrr). 1700-2000 a month.

[freedogger]

I recomend one of these devices:
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=106392

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by freedogger

I recomend one of these devices:
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=106392

Yeah, I have a couple of these from newegg. The are not perfectly accurate but will give you a good estimate of power draw and consumption at the wall.

[ken0042]

I'd be curious to know what some of you < 500 people have for homes. I'm just thinking a couple living in a condo with baseboard heat and no washer dryer inside would use a lot less power than a family of 4 living in a 2 story house.

[freedogger]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Varied between 2.0 - 3.3 Megawatts a month since last August. I was worried the cops would raid me for hosting a grow-up. It's just a ton of computers doing combinations of folding and mining. On the bright side, I don't have to turn on the heat in the winter, they are generating that much heat.

Can you actually make money at bit coin mining? Did some analysis on that last fall and came to the conclusion that it was pretty much impossible unless you either had free electricity or free hardware.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by prarieboy

We are a family of four (two boys 8 & 6)

I just can't get over how high the bills have been this year. I've tried LED and Flourecent lights but nothing seems to put a dent in the power bill.

I'm a family of one, and I basically use almost as much electricity as your family. I have no idea how, except to think it's my stupid 75 gallon electric hot water tank. I mean, I rarely cook at home and I do laundry once a week. I guess I do watch TV / play video games quite a bit, but other than that, I don't really use much electricity for anything else.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Computers also dry my laundry for me.

But do they fold (bad pun based on what you said you use them for)

[kevman]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I'd be curious to know what some of you < 500 people have for homes. I'm just thinking a couple living in a condo with baseboard heat and no washer dryer inside would use a lot less power than a family of 4 living in a 2 story house.

I'm using about 200 kWh/month this winter. This is for a 900 sq ft. bungalow with a new dual stage high eff. furnace and a new front load washer/dryer pair. I use nothing but incandescent light bulbs but rarely watch TV/use the computer at home.

[freedogger]

Family of four, lots of laundry, 2003 appliances. About 2000 sq foot. Averaged 850 kWh for three months with Bow Valley Power's fixed rate at 6.5c for a monthly bill around $126.00.

After seeing this thread, I got off my but and did the following:

1) Installed phillips 4 watt and 8 watt LED from home depot througought the house. 25 year lifespan, looks and feels like a 40 watt or 60 watt regular bulb.
2) In garage and basement, I left the regular 100 watt bulbs in and put motion sensors that screw into the socket and then the bulbs into those.
3) In bathrooms, laundry room, two closets and the garage entrance way I installed motion activated light switches from Home Depot.
4) we have 3 $12 motion activated night lights that plug into electrical sockets at key places too.

The motion sensors trigger only with humans, Our dog and cat don't set them off. Pretty convenient. My entire house is lit wherever I walk now. For the kitchen or other main usage areas, if we are in the room for any length of time, we manually turn on the main room's lights. The lights are all set to go off after a minute with no activity. Best of all no more nagging of the kids and myself to remember to turn off lights.

Total cost: $1550. Installed it all myself which took an afternoon.

After one month, here's the stats with the same Bow Valley Power rates:
599 kWh for $90.00 bucks. Saved $36 and will pay off the investment in about 3 1/2 years. $9300 will be saved at today's rates over the expected lifetime of the bulbs.

In hindsight, I could have avoided buying about 8 of the Philips bulbs where the motion lights are and saved about $250.00 and pay slightly more every month.

I could easily swap back in the old bulbs and the switches if we ever move.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by 8sPOT

Quite high, average 2000kWh. Bill is almost always between $250-$350. Ditto on the clothes washing, with 3 kids in the house it's constant. We had 3 electric heaters going as well due to a crappy ducting setup, but now we are trying to crank the heat and turn the heaters off. Also have a hot tub, I really hate getting my hydro bill.

Yeah, hydroponic operations can be costly...

[kirant]

Originally Posted by kevman

I'm using about 200 kWh/month this winter. This is for a 900 sq ft. bungalow with a new dual stage high eff. furnace and a new front load washer/dryer pair. I use nothing but incandescent light bulbs but rarely watch TV/use the computer at home.

I'm at about the same in a similar sized apartment. Outside February (which somehow hit 108) and January (228), mine hovers around 180.

[jayocal]

My gf and I use 200-250kWH per month in a 2 bedroom apartment. Seeing some of the other posts makes me feel better about our power consumption.

Paying around $50 a month. Seems high.

[Regular_John]

Yeah I have no idea what's going on with our kWh, last month we were billed for 10... yes 10 kWh.

This month, 180 kWh, before the goofy 10kWh bill for February were were around 300-350 for an 1,100 sft two story condo with just two of us.



I did make some changes, replaced all bulbs with fluorescents, and installed a new thermostat, I suspect the new thermostat has helped because the furnace fan seems to be running less for extended periods of time. But I'm still not sure what the heck is going on really.

[kevman]

/\ Enmax?

Check your bill under the 'BC' heading for an 'A' or 'E' which stands for Actual and Estimated meter reading respectively. It's possible that they read the meter in November and then estimated your December and January power consumption to go up as it does for most users. Then when they came back in February to take an actual reading they would have over estimated how much you used in December and January making February look abnormally low.

[Regular_John]

All 5 bills are listed as "A" under the BC, so I guess that's actual. I called last month and was told "well we may have misread it, just pay some extra this month if your concerned about a double bill next month". So I did just that and effectively paid my entire months bill in advanced. Gonna check the meter myself tonight.