Our house is heated in the winter, cooled in summer by the heat pump. The heat pump of course uses electric power to run, so you'd think that the highest months of power use would be in winter. Most of the time that is true. While the house is superinsulated and loses heat very slowly in winter, it also gains heat slowly on those hot days of summer. The calculated worst case AC load, for continuous 95 F and 74 F dewpoint outside air, is less than one ton. Yet the worst power bill ever was for one month in mid-summer, when it peaked around 300 KWH over the highest winter month. Why? Family members were here then, and it seemed we were forever doing loads of beach towels, and the electric dryer was the reason for the huge power use.

Bottom line regarding dryer use - don't buy thick, beach blanket-sized towels for waterfront use. Kids can survive very well with thinner, smaller towels. The "higher authority" in the family may argue otherwise.

None of you ever heard of a clothesline to dry wash loads? Kids get one towel for the weekend and when they're not using it. it goes on the porch rail or the clothes line. We always had a clothesline in the basement for rainy days, winter. Once in awhile, the dryer was used for a few minutes to fluff stuff. My grandfather built a washing machine ca. 1920 with a treadmill powered by the family dog. No electricity used. We also had wire frames to hold trousers while they dried, putting in a crease, and no need to use an electric iron.

Damp Rid placed around the house will lessen the humidity problem.

The calculation on the AC isn't straight forward without knowing the factor of air exchanges your home has every hour.

Update: reduced my electricity use by 67%!
 

I just got my Eversource bill. Compared to September last year, I've reduced my electricity usage by 67%! The bill was $76 for 199 kWh. The August bill was $134 for 454 kWh. This is before I switched to Direct Energy as my cheaper supplier, which should be reflected in my next bill.

In August I (like many Americans and especially here in New Hampshire) suddenly became aware of the full meaning of inflation and I brainstormed and studied all the ways I could find to reduce expenses with electricity, telephone, internet, gasoline, heat, water, and home maintenance. I calculated the kWh of each electrical appliance in my home. I tracked my money-saving actions each day, which added up to 48 actions in one month. A sample:

1. Turned off the 53-gallon family-sized water heater
2. Lowered phone and internet bill from $1500 a year to $627 by dropping the Consolidated Communications landline, signing up for two years of unlimited Tracfone for $199 a year, and talking Consolidated into giving me their new-customer rate of $36 a month including fees for internet-only service
3. Reduced use of air conditioning and dehumidifier sunstantially
4. Changed lightbulbs to LED
5. Recycled water from the dehumidifier
6. Collected rainwater from the roof
7. Negotiated a discount of about $300 for car tires
8. Obtained wood from my property
9. Used Gas Buddy to find cheapest gas in the area
10. Eliminated some trickle charges
11. Bought a new electric lawnmower, snowblower, and other yard gadgets (brush blade for the string trimmer) so I am no longer dependent on expensive and unreliable workers
12. Dry the laundry outdoors and put in it the dryer for 10 minutes to get the wrinkles out

I still have quite a few things left to do, like finding the best way to get hot water for the shower, changing my Medicare advantage plan, and finding someone to split a recalcitrant maple tree.

I realized that I was living as if I had unlimited cheap resources, with no real mindfulness about how much I was using, even though I'm normally frugal. That's not wise environmentally or financially. Simply becoming more aware of what I'm using and how much it costs has made a big difference in my expenses.

Utility companies make if so difficult to reduce costs that probably most of us can't face the amount of time it takes to do the research and negotiate with the companies. By the way, thanks a million to Thinkxingu for doing the research on energy suppliers and sending me to Direct Energy. It sure feels good to be depriving Eversource and Consolidated of their exorbitant increases.

One more thing....Think very carefully about how you vote in November.

Well said


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Why?
Are certain candidates in a position of authority going to go to price caps?

If not, CAPITALISM rules supreme.
We make more money in Europe on Natural Gas... so it isn't going to get cheaper here.

Why? Are you serious?

Why???
 

I was just thinking the same thing……we must be on different planets! Why, indeed.

Quite serious.

We are sending more LNG to Europe from a 2018 EO... so natural gas prices are up for electricity... not to mention the local infrastructure was not designed for the higher level of demand from all the new building in the State.

We went from 13M b/d of refining capacity to 12M b/d between 2016 and 2020... that isn't coming back and more refiners are scheduled to close because investors consider prices to be too low.

So all that leaves is coal, that has to be brought in by rail... not a federal issue... and I haven't seen a lot of interest at the local level to redevelop the rail lines for year round freight use.

The secret... learn to be an actual conservative and conserve.

Those of us that do... we don't even feel any of the present pain that the rest of you seem to be moaning about.

Draft dogs at door and windows - also check the weather stripping for replacement. Make sure you lock the units.
Both interior and exterior storm windows... and window quilts.

4-H taught us a lot in the 70s.

This is a serious thread for people who are struggling to afford the basics. Please don't hijack it to make a political statement.

Unfortunately elections have a direct influence on the price of basics.

I made no such political statement. I simply said to think very carefully about how you vote. As a matter of fact, I’ll say it again. Think very carefully about how you vote. Perhaps if people vote a certain way (I’m not suggesting which party they should vote for), their “struggles to afford the basics” may improve. You can stick your head in the sand all you want, but facts are facts.

No. They don't
Demand has a direct influence on the basics.

The 2018 EO allowing more LNG to be sent to Europe was capitalism as it normally works.

The shutdown of the 1M b/d of crude refining is capitalism as it normally works.

The scheduled shutdown of the Houston refinery at the end of 2023 will also be capitalism as it normally works.

A price cap... or a price support... that would not be capitalism as it normally works.

Releasing the SPOR was an attempt to avert capitalism... it might be working... but it will only be for a short period of time before it can no longer do so.

The industry has stated we need demand destruction to bring the balance back into line... so far... people have just been working on substitution.
Can't get gasoline... go to electricity... but then the grid can't handle the demand.

Europe is only going to reduce demand so much... and as long as they are willing to pay more for the energy than Americans, we will ship it there until we run out of ships.

I would hate to see this generation to have to deal with the war rationing that our Greatest Generation did.

John, I am talking in general not specifically regarding fuel. Hope that helps.

Well said JM. A lot of people would like to believe it is politics that cause high prices but forget that business is world wide. Just like they want wage increases but don’t expect consumer prices to go up when people are paid more.


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Most things in life relate to politics one way or another. But not every thread is about politics. How about you open your own political thread so you can post your facts? This one is about how individuals can save money on utilities today.

This would also be incorrect. As most economists would tell you, the Chairman of the Fed, the war in Ukraine, and worldwide supply chain issues have more impact on inflation than any potential results this November.

Back to the topic at hand--as Sailin and John have pointed out--it's easy to reduce your utility bill without too much pain, and the implications of doing so are great all around.

I'll also add that investments in insulation, solar, heat pumps, etc are a whole lot cheaper with the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Check details with your installer if you're considering these things

I am not talking about this November? Please do not bring politics into this discussion.

My bill was $91.00 dollars and I have a 30 gallon hot water heater that runs 1 hour a day. So that's 50 cents a day for a hot shower and hot water for dishes. Maybe a smaller hot water heater would work for you?

My bill was $103, and I've got a 50-gallon water heater that runs whenever and four of us in the household.

Unless actually using a lot of hot water, I don't think the water heater is much of a draw.

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Yes, that was my message, although there will be a period with some pain while you study different options and put changes in place. The "pain" will especially be in the fall and winter around heat and hot water. It takes time to do all this, but you can make a few changes at a time, starting with the ones that would result in the biggest savings and/or can be done immediately.

Yes, this is one of the options I'm considering, as well as an on-demand heater. Just have not had time to research these thoroughly due to having to prepare wood for the winter. I would certainly pay 50 cents for a hot shower right about now . . .

It's hard to tell how much electricity the water heater is using unless you have it on a timer. Mine is 4000 watts, which is a lot. What were your August and September kWh uses?

While it is hard to determine from the bill rather than a smart meter that would give you a fairly reliable reading of the appliance usage... I think once the low hanging fruit is taken... it is all going to be about the small trickles.

Sailin, what you listed is quite an accomplishment! It took not only a lot of research but also a willingness to alter habits and environment to achieve the goals you were looking for. Nicely done!

I think one of the problems is that the savings of energy and dollars that you are achieving took a lot of work on your part. This shouldn't be so hard. I worry about families that are already overwhelmed with the daily struggles of work and kids and finances that maybe don't have the bandwidth to find these kind of savings. I'd like to see families understanding that it is within reach to save on energy expense.

The $103 was my August/September bill (read date of 9/18). Summer months aren't a fair gauge of power for us because we're up at camp most of the time.

The biggest electric cost for me is electric baseboard heating. We haven't changed that for a myriad of reasons, but are beginning to look at options again. I haven't ever paid for wood—and I just scored 2.5 cords or so of free 3-year-seasoned hardwood, for a total of about 5 year's worth in my rack—so that helps a lot.

What I did and what I think of the outcome:
* Water heater to vacation mode when away. I think this is negligible as when we'd return home after a week, the water would still be warm enough to shower and the elements wouldn't run very long to catch up.

* Dehumidifier setting. A dehumidifier is essentially a refrigerator, so turning this up 5% certainly had it running less. I couldn't go any higher, though, as it would begin to smell musty.

* New refrigerator. We had replaced our 20+ year-old refrigerator in spring with an Energy Saver model, and it definitely runs much less than the old one. I'm sure I'm saving here.

* Increasing AC from 72 to 75 when home and to 85 when away. I think this is the absolute biggest saver. I'm actually weirded out to think we'd only raise it a couple degrees when we were away and that we'd use blankets at 72.

* Washer/Dryer: I began setting my Speed Queen washer to heavy duty. This doesn't use any more water, which we run cold anyway, but has a much more powerful spin dry to where the clothes are almost dry. This runs the dryer for a much shorter period of time, which I'm sure helps.

* Dishwasher: I noticed that my dishes tended to be dry as soon as the cycle was done, so we shut off the heating element option. I gotta think this saves a few bucks as we run it two to three times a week.

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Moving your AC up... that actually should have helped with the water heater not losing its temperature as fast.

When you cooled the house down to 72... the heat loss would be greater from the warmer water to the cooler ambient air... and the water heater would need to run to compensate for that.

It is why we must think in broader terms of usage to get those smaller, but generally less capital intensive, savings.

I know they want to upgrade the grid... but the backlash at transmission projects is pretty intense in the areas that it is going to happen.

I entirely agree with you! The utility companies go out of their way to obfuscate how much you're paying, for what, and what another plan or company would charge. It used to be the case that Fairpoint would outright lie about plan charges to get you to sign up. That appears to have improved. Not everyone has the ability to research all of this and to be assertive with these companies to get better rates. The phone industry has become impossibly complicated.

There should also be more support for helping people reduce their energy usage and downscale their needs for other things. When recycling was still possible (before China rejected our garbage), my town provided recycling bins. That shows that strategies can be implemented town-wide to reduce waste. If a town can buy and deliver recycling bins, it could also buy and deliver rain barrels. If Eversource wants to double its supply charge, the logical response is to teach people to cut their electric usage in half, as I've done. People's smartphone addiction has led to wasteful consumerism for both the phone itself and phone service. We need to move in the opposite direction, toward basic phones and basic phone service. We're aware of severe environmental problems around things like water and we're acutely aware of inflation right now, but we lack imagination in how we counter these problems. Solutions need to be enacted at the national, state, and local level so that everyone, regardless of their education or access to technology, can take simple steps to reduce their usage.

Tracfone
 

I buy a tracfone card every three months for my phone service works out to about $7.48 per month but I don't talk on the phone I just text.

Smart phones are here to stay, only to increase in use, that one is a complete dead end for most people, myself included. From an energy use standpoint it's not a huge user, I think the larger problem is the huge expense to a family to keep say 5 phones and the cell plan, that expense didn't exist 30 years ago.

Imagine if we could say "gee, my expense for eggs and milk and beef and rice have gone way up, so hey Eversource, I'm going to pay you less for energy this month, just deal with it". To me that's what they do to us in reverse, there is no scenario where Eversource can lose money, they just ask for rate hikes and NH PUC rubber stamps them. They were allowed to shut down and write off losses on plants that ratepayers paid hundreds of millions to upgrade just a few years ago, then they tell us that rates have to rise due to demand. It's madness. I agree totally with you that we need to, in return, reduce their revenue by conserving where we can.

The Eversource rate hikes are mostly to upgrade the lines.
Can't build all these new homes and not upgrade the lines that supply the electricity.

The actual power hike is due to the increase in natural gas prices.
We used to have to sell to the US... because pipelines don't extend to Europe from here. But with the LNG option, and federal changes to open those markets, we have been building facilities to export.

Eversource gave us plenty of options to curtail this... we just didn't avail ourselves of them.

That's a really important point, LikeLakes. I think it's the same with Consolidated---replacing their aging infrastructure and raising rates to pay for it, with no loss of revenue for them.

I think the most important long-term change that needs to happen is to make environmentally sound energy, water, etc. affordable for everyone. We would all jump at that opportunity. For me personally, the new federal subsidies won't bring solar electric within my financial reach,much as I would love to go solar.

Thanks for sharing your results, Think! Fun, eh? Some questions and comments:

Wood: How did you "score 2.5 cords of free wood"?

Dehumidifier: I have one in the basement and one upstairs. For the one upstairs I noticed that if it smells musty, turning on the dehumidifier for one hour gets rid of that, so I've been able to run it one hour a couple of times a week. Dehumidifying the basement down to 50% takes several hours. Again, it only needs to be done once or twice a week. Also, I think it was John Mercier who said that if you dehumidify the basement that will lower the humidity in the house so I've been mindful of that. The ridge vents I installed with the roof replacement last year seem to have improved the humidity problem, which was previously severe.

Washing machine: What determines the capacity to remove water from the clothes? Is it the "power" of the spin dry or the length of the spinning? I tried spinning it twice today and it did seem drier. By the way, if you hang "wetter" clothes in the house in the winter you will appreciate the increased humidity. Perhaps not something you want to do with a family.

Wood: I posted on my community forum a few years ago asking if anyone had down trees I could have. Because I took pine, I got a reputation as the "go-to guy" and people now connect with me first. This most recent offer is a bunch of wood that's been in a lean-to since the people moved in—they can't burn wood because their son has allergies.

Dehumidifier: 60 was too high, 50 is good. I have it on auto to just run. I could probably save a couple bucks just running it for an hour or two a day, but there's some things that just aren't worth dealing with.

Washer: I'm not sure if it spins longer or harder, but the clothes are definitely drier and I have nowhere to hang them—with 4 people, it's a LOT of laundry and, again, some things aren't worth jumping through hoops for. That being said, my drier has a sensor that ends up with the clothes just dry—I'm fairly confident it doesn't run longer than it needs to.

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You wouldn't save much on the dehumidifier for the difference that a problem of higher humidity might cause.

Whether it spins at a higher rate for a shorter period of time or a lower rate for a longer period of time is a rather interesting question. The higher speed would mean more centrifugal action removing the water... but the longer period may allow for more water to ''migrate'' through a ''clump'' of clothes.

I believe the manufacturers are using the higher RPM option, but I wonder if anyone studied the value of the longer in relation to energy use?

Washer/dryers are another interesting subject. Our switch to high quality front load ones maybe 10 years ago was one of my favorite appliance upgrades ever. They use significantly less water, less energy, less detergent, and clothes are dryer after the spin cycle. The only downside is they are quite a bit more expensive than top load.

In the case of front load the spin is definitely rpm-specific, meaning the spin/dry cycle you choose spins faster if you want clothes dryer, I think you can choose extra spin on ours as well. Not that I'm calculating it, but my guess is the energy used for faster spin or extra spin is way less than the 10 minutes or more of extra drying time for wetter clothes.

Agree, especially since the drum will already be moving and maintenance takes much less power than acceleration.

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John, I always enjoy how your analytical mind works. I'm watching my clothes dry outdoors right now. No perceptible drying after 4 hours on this cloudy, cool day with 60% humidity. It still feels good to be cheating Eversource.