whats your power bill each month?

Well, we were running about $350 a month for the last several months (yeah.. $300+ even in winter :rolleyes: ). Recently signed up for a 1-year contract to drop our kw rate to $0.09/hour and cut our total montly kwh down from around 2500 hours to 1500 hours, bringing our cost down to around $170 for our 2400 sq ft house in Houston, TX.

That is running one WHS box (with 8 drives) 24/7, 2 laptops and two desktops, 1 42" LCD, 1 old 27" CRT. With summer coming, I bought a Kill-o-watt and the server is eating up about $25/month of the bill... the 1000 kwh we shaved off was from my wife being a "light whore". I swear she was turning on and leaving every light in the house on all day and night. Gameroom, living room, bathrooms, kitchen, etc. During the day when there is plenty of light from outside, they were on. At night when everyone was asleep... they were on. :rolleyes: That has stopped now that I've shown her the usage difference ;)
 
Around $130.

11TB server running 24/7. Inefficient older dual Opterons, using ~213w at idle.

Gaming rig with dual 4870s, OC Phenom, on ~3 hrs/day gaming, 300-500w

Laptop for web browsing ~30w

CFLs in all lights that see high usage.

63" Samsung LCD TV, ~200w, on 5 hrs/day

OC AMD 9950 rig, 24/7 HTPC, ~200w

Tripplight 1500va UPS, 90w at idle. (what a piece! 90w just for UPS!)

Several other servers/switches that I rarely turn on unless rendering or having a LAN party.
 
Maybe we can use a formatted reply so it could help others looking to reduce there power bills?
Location: CT
Total Current rate per KWH: avg .18cents
Monthly usage: 700 KWH
Bill: roughly 120-130 a month so far.
Comments:
1 whs running 24x7 at 66watts idle.
All lights replace with eco bulbs
1 x 55 inch rear projection tv
2 x laptops normal usage
1 x game pc @ 400+watts light usage.
Water heater electric replaced with heater pump model from GE.
Unplug vampire electronics and used killa-watts to monitor KW of electronics.

Currently the biggest impact to my bill was water heater and central AC unit.

Hopefully this info helps.
marco
 
I could definitely use help reducing my bill. I'm trying to figure out what to do. I am looking at replacing my windows as a first step although I don't know if that is the place to start. There is a nice tax credit available my tax lady informed me of.

Location: Las Vegas, NV

Total Current rate per KWH: .1197200
+ Temp. Green Power .0005900
+ Renewable Energy Prog. .0002800
+ Universal Energy Charge .0003900
+ Local Govt. Fee 5%




Monthly usage: March: 904 August:3,604 (ouch can all this be AC?)
Bill: March: 120-130 August: 450-475
Comments:
4 desktop systems - 1 laptop (1 desktop on 24/7)
Wife and I both work from home roughly 8-5

Some lights replaced with CFL -I love it on my front porch and hate them in my can lights. The color looks bad, they come on dim, the do not last anywhere close to the regular bulbs I replaced them with (very surprised by this). These stupid lights last about 6 months before I replace. I have regular can lights that have been here for 6 years.

1 x 55 inch DLP TV

5 ton AC 13 Seer
4 ton AC 10 Seer
 
mlapgw said:
I could definitely use help reducing my bill. I'm trying to figure out what to do. I am looking at replacing my windows as a first step although I don't know if that is the place to start. There is a nice tax credit available my tax lady informed me of.

Location: Las Vegas, NV

Total Current rate per KWH: .1197200
+ Temp. Green Power .0005900
+ Renewable Energy Prog. .0002800
+ Universal Energy Charge .0003900
+ Local Govt. Fee 5%




Monthly usage: March: 904 August:3,604 (ouch can all this be AC?)
Bill: March: 120-130 August: 450-475
Comments:
4 desktop systems - 1 laptop (1 desktop on 24/7)
Wife and I both work from home roughly 8-5

Some lights replaced with CFL -I love it on my front porch and hate them in my can lights. The color looks bad, they come on dim, the do not last anywhere close to the regular bulbs I replaced them with (very surprised by this). These stupid lights last about 6 months before I replace. I have regular can lights that have been here for 6 years.

1 x 55 inch DLP TV

5 ton AC 13 Seer
4 ton AC 10 Seer
Click to expand...


it could be alot ac and energy leaks like bum insulation and cracks under doors etc.. i live in FL and have similar increases but after some diy energy efficiency projects i saw a 75$ drop in summer energy bills
 
mlapgw said:
I could definitely use help reducing my bill. I'm trying to figure out what to do. I am looking at replacing my windows as a first step although I don't know if that is the place to start. There is a nice tax credit available my tax lady informed me of.

Location: Las Vegas, NV

Total Current rate per KWH: .1197200
+ Temp. Green Power .0005900
+ Renewable Energy Prog. .0002800
+ Universal Energy Charge .0003900
+ Local Govt. Fee 5%




Monthly usage: March: 904 August:3,604 (ouch can all this be AC?)
Bill: March: 120-130 August: 450-475
Comments:
4 desktop systems - 1 laptop (1 desktop on 24/7)
Wife and I both work from home roughly 8-5

Some lights replaced with CFL -I love it on my front porch and hate them in my can lights. The color looks bad, they come on dim, the do not last anywhere close to the regular bulbs I replaced them with (very surprised by this). These stupid lights last about 6 months before I replace. I have regular can lights that have been here for 6 years.

1 x 55 inch DLP TV

5 ton AC 13 Seer
4 ton AC 10 Seer
Click to expand...

Thats a pretty crazy bill
 
mlapgw said:
I could definitely use help reducing my bill. I'm trying to figure out what to do. I am looking at replacing my windows as a first step although I don't know if that is the place to start. There is a nice tax credit available my tax lady informed me of.

Location: Las Vegas, NV

Total Current rate per KWH: .1197200
+ Temp. Green Power .0005900
+ Renewable Energy Prog. .0002800
+ Universal Energy Charge .0003900
+ Local Govt. Fee 5%




Monthly usage: March: 904 August:3,604 (ouch can all this be AC?)
Bill: March: 120-130 August: 450-475
Comments:
4 desktop systems - 1 laptop (1 desktop on 24/7)
Wife and I both work from home roughly 8-5

Some lights replaced with CFL -I love it on my front porch and hate them in my can lights. The color looks bad, they come on dim, the do not last anywhere close to the regular bulbs I replaced them with (very surprised by this). These stupid lights last about 6 months before I replace. I have regular can lights that have been here for 6 years.

1 x 55 inch DLP TV

5 ton AC 13 Seer
4 ton AC 10 Seer
Click to expand...

the DLP TV and the AC is the killer.. and yes i agree the CFL's are a worthless pile of crap.. i keep having to replace the CFL's on the fan/light in my theater room which has 4 of them.. they continuely keep dying every 2-3 months where as the regular 50w bulbs were lasting me a year plus without changing them..

if your running your AC the bill doesnt look that out of wack.. ours during the winter is about 250 a month and during the summer its about 500 a month.. you could probably drop your bill by 50-100 bucks by setting your AC to 80 degree's.. it may sound high but just getting air moving through the house is about all you need to feel cool.. replace all your window coverings with dark coolers to block sun light from getting in the house helps a ton.. my down stairs theater room sits about 65 degrees year around with thick dark red curtains (and no its not a basement i live in a split level house) where as upstairs it can be anywhere from 75-85 degrees during the summer with the AC off because only 4 of the 12 windows up there are covered....
 
I know my electric bill skyrockets when I turn on central air 3.5 ton 11.x seer system. I'm going to just put a wall unit AC in the bedroom as that is the only place i really need ac. Not sure why your CFL's lights are dying so fast, are you putting them on a dimmer switch? If so that might be why as they aren't really compatible with dimmers. Most come with warranties, probably a hassle to get them replaced by worth a try.

Also if available get a home energy audit done. I got mine via electric company and it was only 75 dollars. They checked the house for air leaks, replaced all bulbs, replaced facets with more efficient facets. Over all i thought it was well worth the 75.
 
Texas
March to April
$93.29

1x Gaming PC: Quad-Core + 4870 Dual 24" monitors
1x Gaming PC: Dual-Core + 4870 single 24" monitor

1x Server: Quad-Core Xeon
1x Server: Dual-Core Intel
1x Server: Dual-Core AMD
1x HTPC: Dual-Core AMD
1x Websurfer: Dual-Core ATOM (yay for low power!)

42" LCD TV

+all the other appliances we have? washer/dryer/fridge/chest freezer/oven/AC

I dunno how much out KWH $ is but meter on the bill says 55645 - 56363... 718 KWH... so.. $.12 ish?
 
Damn Greatone, that's not bad. I have TXU and I use the average billing plan and I pay a little over $200 a month. Prior to the average billing plan it would range from $100 in the cooler months to $400+ in the summer months :/
 
yeah that sounds about the same as a friend that has TXU, he's outside city limits so he can't get on city electric that I have.


luckily before we bought this house the last owner went through and really did a number on the place, in a good way, replaced windows and a lot of appliances. we are grateful for that for sure.
 
marcoi said:
Not sure why your CFL's lights are dying so fast, are you putting them on a dimmer switch? If so that might be why as they aren't really compatible with dimmers. Most come with warranties, probably a hassle to get them replaced by worth a try.
Click to expand...

Not sure why they die so fast either, that coupled with waiting for them to come to full brightness has me convinced that going green means going with something that doesn't work as well. Since I replace these at a much faster rate than the incandescent lights I'm not sure if they really are green. They may use less power but the lighting is inferior and because they burn out so quickly I have to use several of these for every one old bulb I used to use.
This may be specific to the Can CFL lights.

My outside CFL, which is not a can light, has lasted a long time, but so did the incandescent light before it. The can interior lights though, and maybe its just can lights, are very inferior to the incandescent that they replaced. These specific can lights were recommended and rebated by Nevada Power. They are not on dimmers. Unfortunately the majority of my lights are cans and with theses bulbs I feel like I am always changing a bulb somewhere in the house.
 
ZodaEX said:
60 dollars a month. See my uber efficient sig rig :p
Click to expand...

This one of the reasons I'm going with my lappy for a little while.

Goes down as low as 16W idle, 24W "super high performance" idle (even with CPU stuck at 3.066 GHz), 80W max gaming overclocked, like 60W max with no overclock. Standby actually doesn't even register; less than 0.1W.

I have gotten my kill-a-watt to register 139W solid on this lappy with no battery installed, though :D:D. Thanks to Furmark, a 60% GPU overclock, 3 threads of Linpack via LinX, a 7zip process unzipping over wireless at 7000 KB/s (300Mbit 5.4 GHz wireless-N) and max brightness. Somehow the 120W AC adapter and lappy never complained. :D

It's just laughable to me when the lappy does the same as the desktop did with 1/10th the power. and definetly not 1/10th the performance ...
 
mlapgw said:
Not sure why they die so fast either, that coupled with waiting for them to come to full brightness has me convinced that going green means going with something that doesn't work as well. Since I replace these at a much faster rate than the incandescent lights I'm not sure if they really are green. They may use less power but the lighting is inferior and because they burn out so quickly I have to use several of these for every one old bulb I used to use.
This may be specific to the Can CFL lights.

My outside CFL, which is not a can light, has lasted a long time, but so did the incandescent light before it. The can interior lights though, and maybe its just can lights, are very inferior to the incandescent that they replaced. These specific can lights were recommended and rebated by Nevada Power. They are not on dimmers. Unfortunately the majority of my lights are cans and with theses bulbs I feel like I am always changing a bulb somewhere in the house.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the cans are overheating the ballasts.
 
For a good month where the weather is beautiful and we don't have to use the A/C at all it can get down near $700 or so if we are lucky and the planets align. $900-$1100 is typical during the warmer months.

Our usage fluctuates between about 60-100kWh/day, it would be interesting to see others usage numbers to get a better perspective on the cost. I'm pretty sure that if I lived somewhere like Washington state I'd probably be paying $100/month for the same usage. PG&E ftl.
 
GotNoRice said:
For a good month where the weather is beautiful and we don't have to use the A/C at all it can get down near $700 or so if we are lucky and the planets align. $900-$1100 is typical during the warmer months.

Our usage fluctuates between about 60-100kWh/day, it would be interesting to see others usage numbers to get a better perspective on the cost. I'm pretty sure that if I lived somewhere like Washington state I'd probably be paying $100/month for the same usage. PG&E ftl.
Click to expand...

:eek:
 
$104 this past month.
Main rig is on 24/7
32" LCD TV is on for 16 hours/day
3.0Ghz P4 with 22" LCD is on up to 20 hours/day
AC is on when it's 80+ outside and set to 73*
2 small Dell P4 computers are on 24/7
42" Sony LCD on about 6 hours/day
42" Panny Plasma on about 2 hours/day
65" DLP HDTV maybe 5 hours per week
HTPC is on when the Plasma is on
30" CRT HDTV about 4 hours per day
Most lights in the house are CFL

We also have a small deep freezer in the garage.
Heat and cooking are Natural Gas.
 
GotNoRice said:
For a good month where the weather is beautiful and we don't have to use the A/C at all it can get down near $700 or so if we are lucky and the planets align. $900-$1100 is typical during the warmer months.

Our usage fluctuates between about 60-100kWh/day, it would be interesting to see others usage numbers to get a better perspective on the cost. I'm pretty sure that if I lived somewhere like Washington state I'd probably be paying $100/month for the same usage. PG&E ftl.
Click to expand...

holy shit are you kidding?
 
Looks like PG&E can get almost up to 50cents/kWh. that is insane.
The more you use the higher the rate.
 
Jospeh said:
holy shit are you kidding?
Click to expand...

:(

PGEnolube.jpg
 
Wow, 2700 kWh just seems like a lot. I use about 350 without A/C. Your running a few servers I am assuming. Anything else that is hogging electricity?
 
2x laptops
2x desktops
3x tv's

And a slew of other computers that i use sparingly. All the computers are on 24/7 btw.
My bill for the month: $100 usually
 
I wonder what the power-usage is in our house... still living with the parents so they pay for it... (school is close by :p , cheaper to stay)

9 desktops (1 x 24/7 server) and 5 laptops... 2 LCD's, 1 Plasma and 1 CRT... they're not always on, but they get a decent amount of usage.
 
$100 in Spring and Fall

$130-$170 Winter and Summer

I live in Fresno,CA where the summer high's are 95*-110*F and winter low's are 30*-40*F

I have 4 notebooks, 1 HTPC, 1 Home Automation PC, 4 LCD Monitors and 1 32" LCD TV, 1 8TB x2 Server WHS, 1 Epson 720 HC Projector, 2 1300VA UPS, AVR, and some more..

biggest use of electricity is the A/C and for gas is the Heater....

both of those make a $30-$50 difference in the bill a month.
 
$130-140 in summer. and thats just my rig folding@home on cpu and gpu, my bong cooler setup, my ps3 folding, laptop folding, two lcd displays, a 23" lcd tv,dell switch,speakers, as well as normal household stuff like a deep freeze, a refrigerator, mini fridge,stove, etc., as well as a few crt tv's that are on a good 8-10 hours a day, in addition to 3 aircon units in the summer.
 
okashira said:
This one of the reasons I'm going with my lappy for a little while.

Goes down as low as 16W idle, 24W "super high performance" idle (even with CPU stuck at 3.066 GHz), 80W max gaming overclocked, like 60W max with no overclock. Standby actually doesn't even register; less than 0.1W.

I have gotten my kill-a-watt to register 139W solid on this lappy with no battery installed, though :D:D. Thanks to Furmark, a 60% GPU overclock, 3 threads of Linpack via LinX, a 7zip process unzipping over wireless at 7000 KB/s (300Mbit 5.4 GHz wireless-N) and max brightness. Somehow the 120W AC adapter and lappy never complained. :D

It's just laughable to me when the lappy does the same as the desktop did with 1/10th the power. and definetly not 1/10th the performance ...
Click to expand...

Okay, to abstract a whole discipline of electrical engineering into one illustrative if technically & theoretically incorrect remark: In general, given the limitations observed within a CPU product, processor power needs for a given design/process scales with something like a square law in proportion to computation power. To increase computing power 50% on the same chip, you may need to increase frequency by 50% and to keep the processor stable increase voltage by 50%, resulting in 225% of the old power draw.
 
GotNoRice said:
:(

PGEnolube.jpg
Click to expand...

Growing weed indoors is a bitch, aint it? :p

But, I am assuming that you are not rolling in cash, based on your discontent with the elec bill, so why do you have some overclocked CrossFire 1000w PSU gaming rig?? At $0.50 per kWh it seems it be in your best interest to spend more cash on the computer to achieve better performance with less power (e.g. change to an i5/i7 LGA 1156 socket, undervolt carefully, and run an ATI 5870 instead of dual 4870's... you would probably actually come out ahead monetarily and have a better computer for it.

Better yet, run a laptop platform with an Arrandale chip, and live with a 5870M if you can (equal to a bit downclocked desktop 5770) if not, grab an Arrandale board that should be coming out with a PCIe x16 slot and slap a real 5870 in there. You could have a top class gamer machine that could run off a 200W PSU ...
 
Well, I recently had a chance to analyze our usage while I was on vacation vs. when I'm home (I work from home) and the difference was noticeable but suffice it to say that even though my computer is a power hog I'm not the main reason for our excessive consumption.

Lights on, all the time. TV's in every room, on all the time. Windows open while the heater is on. Windows open while the A/C is on. Plus we have full outdoor lighting, an electric pond & waterfall, a Spa (which is usually kept heated 24/7), and a habit of doing all our laundry during peak hours.

I'm not really willing to make sacrifices in regards to my PC (which I use every day for hours on end) when everyone else can't be bothered with simple things like turning off the 60" TV and entire entertainment center when they leave the room or even leave the house :rolleyes:

But I did go from having my main rig on 24/7 as in the past to moving all my storage over to my low-power server so that I only have my main rig on for maybe 4-8 hours a day now. I did that more for heat reasons than power reasons though, those dual 4870x2's pump out the heat!
 
This really depends on where you live as energy rates can vary wildly. We have a 2600sq ft house, 5 computers, projector, home theater, bunch of other stuff and we pay about $100/month. We are also on equal pay so in reality it's a bit cheaper in the summer and a bit more expensive in the winter.
 
up 500 summer. Crazy. Then I started using energy saver in computers and that helped, but not alot.

Last three months have hovered around 250 and I haven't had the AC on full throttle until now. 90 degree weather sucks.
 
GotNoRice said:
...
Lights on, all the time. TV's in every room, on all the time. Windows open while the heater is on. Windows open while the A/C is on. Plus we have full outdoor lighting, an electric pond & waterfall, a Spa (which is usually kept heated 24/7), and a habit of doing all our laundry during peak hours.

I'm not really willing to make sacrifices in regards to my PC (which I use every day for hours on end) when everyone else can't be bothered with simple things like turning off the 60" TV and entire entertainment center when they leave the room or even leave the house :rolleyes:

...
Click to expand...

Well, it's good thing you're not paying the bill... right? If you are, I hope you're either sharing it with like 5+ other people, or you make 200K+ a year....

Even at a "200K" / year salary, you'd still be dropping 10% of your pay on your electricity alone in the end, so... perhaps more...? :eek: In that case, I can see why you don't care much. :D
 
50" plasma, 2-3 computers on, my nas, 2800sq foot home... never see more than 100$, rarely over 90
 
05-07-2010 $22.81
04-08-2010 $22.04
03-10-2010 $23.31
02-09-2010 $25.71

A bit more in the summer..

Gas appliances, system in sig + 22" LCD or HTPC + 54" plasma, 1950 sqft.

Southern arizona :cool:
 
Over $500 in the summer, $200 or so in the winter (Florida winter)
several big screens, 2-3 PC's etc

Damned air conditioner

I'd kill for a ~150$ electric bill
 
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