Electricity cost per KWH?

That's an awfully low baseline to have such punitive tiers above it. Still, I remember all the rolling blackouts and brownouts when I lived out there, and the only thing that spared us where we lived was our proximity to the firehouse so they couldn't ever shut the power down on us.

We're running a 2000sf house with 4 people and only slightly into the punitive rates. But we have about 1/3 LED bulbs (the ones that get the most use), and the rest are CFL. We have energy star appliances. I dry 1-2 loads of laundry for "free" on clotheslines. (Sheets/towels/jeans/t-shirts... the stuff that is big enough to make the labor less onerous... I refuse to hang socks and boys undies... to many clothespins.) We turn lights off, have gotten rid of a lot of vampire chargers, etc. Our use is super low compared to our neighbors. And we're not doing much to keep it low - except the no AC and no pool. July was hot - so we did use our whole house attic fan - which is probably our biggest draw of energy, when it's running. About 1/2 the time we're within the first 2 tiers. I don't think I've ever gone into tier 4.

Heck - look at FIRE'd - he's got similar use for 2 people in a presumably smaller space.

It helps that we have gas cooking.
 
$0.097 / kwh all-in cost for the last two months (for 1748 and 1589 kwh in June and July) for a fixed rate 3 year contract with TriEagle (like Tailgate). High temps here are usually in the upper 90's to low 100's this time of year. I think there is a small "customer" charge of $4.95 on months with usage of less than 1000 kwh so we see the all-in cost of about $0.101 / kwh in those months.

ERD50, I am shocked that you do not enter your electrical energy usage into a spreadsheet each and every month the way I do! :)
 
¢5.7/kWh for our electric cars.
¢10.3/kWh for the rest of it.

Delivery charges are a flat rate.
Within a year or two we expect to be moving into a net zero house though, so they will go to zero on an annual basis:dance:
 
We just got our 2nd full month's bill today, and when I can bear to look at it again, I'll share the details.

About 25 miles inland, with pool and A/C, we also have 4 tiers and the 2 of us have hit that tier on each bill.

I think it should be spelled TEAR instead of Tier. 😳


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
 
...

ERD50, I am shocked that you do not enter your electrical energy usage into a spreadsheet each and every month the way I do! :)

shocked? Pun intended?

No I don't track each month in a spreadsheet. When I see the bill, if it makes sense that's it, it gets auto-paid. At the end of the year, it's easy to download all the auto-payments and I do put the year's worth in a spreadsheet.

I do keep a spreadsheet where I enter data I've collected from my Kill-a-watt meter, or from the nameplates on devices, so I can think about ways to conserve.

I'd love to have a system that gave me a continuous log in real (or near-real) time, ideally on each circuit, but I guess total draw would be good. Then I might find things like when my well pump had a leak and was running through the night. I know there are some DIY systems out there, maybe I'll take another look.

-ERD50
 
We're running a 2000sf house with 4 people and only slightly into the punitive rates. But we have about 1/3 LED bulbs (the ones that get the most use), and the rest are CFL. We have energy star appliances. I dry 1-2 loads of laundry for "free" on clotheslines. (Sheets/towels/jeans/t-shirts... the stuff that is big enough to make the labor less onerous... I refuse to hang socks and boys undies... to many clothespins.) We turn lights off, have gotten rid of a lot of vampire chargers, etc. Our use is super low compared to our neighbors. And we're not doing much to keep it low - except the no AC and no pool. July was hot - so we did use our whole house attic fan - which is probably our biggest draw of energy, when it's running. About 1/2 the time we're within the first 2 tiers. I don't think I've ever gone into tier 4.

Heck - look at FIRE'd - he's got similar use for 2 people in a presumably smaller space.

Yep, we are not very careful with our electric use. When we lived in a house, our base electric consumption was around 1200kWh per month, though it would easily jump over 2000kWH during the summer and winter with cooling and all-electric heating. So the sub 500kWh monthly consumption for our smaller apartment feels quite frugal (no A/C and we rarely use the heater so our electric bill is pretty stable throughout the year). We have an electric stove and our appliances are whatever the complex is willing to provide and I doubt that energy-efficiency is at the top of their requirement list (no energy star stickers in sight). We certainly could do more to bring it down, like unplugging appliances when not in use, but DW is not down with that sort of inconvenience.
 
... I think my electric bill is one of the best deals I've ever gotten! Many people spend this amount daily at Starbucks.

... electricity sure is a wonderful thing!

Electricity in the US is really cheap, even if you are paying $0.30+/kWh.

Why, just try to generate your own and see how much it will cost you. For example, the 4 kW generator in my motorhome will consume 0.71 gal/hr at a full load.

So, at $3.5/gal, that's $2.5 for 4 kWh, or $0.625/kWh. And that does not include equipment and maintenance cost, which may dwarf the above operating cost.
 
Just checked my most recent electric bill:
total $119.91 for 834 kWh = $.1438/kWh in total

But first 450 kWh basic rate is $.0906/kWh ($40.78), last 384 kWh rate is $.1373/kWh ($52.74). The remaining $26.39 is all the fees and taxes
 
I refuse to hang socks and boys undies... to many clothespins.)

Have you tried drying racks? I wouldn't bother with clothespins either but the racks make even socks and undies very simple.

41eveXmD7ZL._SL160_SL150_.jpg
 
Last edited:
Oh cool I am the first Hawaii poster on this thread and I definitely going to win the competition as long as nobody from Maui or the Big Island posts.

Our average rates in Honolulu are $.346/KHW. With my solar system I use less than the base rate so I "only" pay about $.33. Fortunately the solar takes care of almost my entire bill, and I average $65/month which includes not only electricity for the house, but also for the Tesla. I figure less than $800/year of gasoline and electricity is pretty cheap.
 
Oh cool I am the first Hawaii poster on this thread and I definitely going to win the competition as long as nobody from Maui or the Big Island posts.

Our average rates in Honolulu are $.346/KHW. With my solar system I use less than the base rate so I "only" pay about $.33. Fortunately the solar takes care of almost my entire bill, and I average $65/month which includes not only electricity for the house, but also for the Tesla. I figure less than $800/year of gasoline and electricity is pretty cheap.

With rates like those and plenty of sunshine I am surprised that everyone in Hawaii doesn't have solar panels!
 
mine is $0.100007 per kWh. We have rate, fuel adjustment charge and storm recovery charge.

I use levelized billing to even out the summer/winter swings in billing. The above number does not reflect any levelizing.
 
Last bill was called August, but really covered July calendar. Our bill has 12 line items. It's possible to figure out the first 750kWh and next 561kWh, but it will not lower the bill.

We have a total charge of $231.12 for 1311 usage. That is 0.17629 for an average kWh. The daily average temperature was 75, down from 79 a year ago. Usage was down 15-20%.
 
Back in the late 1990s, when I was still working full-time, my power company (LIPA) introduced off-peak billing. We paid more for electricity in the summer months (June-Sept) than the rest of the year, and paid more for weekday daytime use (8 AM-9 PM) than the rest of the time. The price per kwh for daytime use in the summer months was huge.

I was rarely home during the peak times, getting home around 7 PM, so I saved much more outside the summer months to make up for paying a little more in the summer months. But, when I began working mostly from home in August of 2001, this all changed. I was no longer saving enough outside the summer months to offset the growing premium I paid during the summer when I had to start running the A/C during the day during the week. So I asked to get switched back to the standard billing plan. All of my part-time schedules in the next 7 years had me at home on some weekdays during the day.

One small disadvantage to not working ay more. Oh well. :(
 
Just occurred to me that one needs to know how many square feet are being serviced by the utility cost. I have 2892 square feet. So the cost to cool, etc. In July was. 079 per square foot, based on $231.12 charge.

A different comparison is kWh per square foot. I have calculated 0.45332 for that.

I think you need to take into account a few things before comparing.
 
With all the taxes and fees it is about 11.5 cents per Kwh. I paid for 713 kwhs used in July, our pv system put 449 kwhs into the grid which I received credit for kws consumed. For the first 6 months of the year our bill is averaging $26.77 per month.
 
Have you tried drying racks? I wouldn't bother with clothespins either but the racks make even socks and undies very simple.

41eveXmD7ZL._SL160_SL150_.jpg

I had one of those. I don't want to give up garage space (where the washer/dryer is) because we park our cars in the garage. (Radical concept, here.) We don't have a good spot in our house... Heck, we have a 4'x8' robotics competition table in our living room because there's no other place for it. (I coach a FLL robotics team.)

I tried the rack outside - but living on a canyon we get some pretty stiff breezes... it kept getting knocked over. We sold it at our last garage sale.

Our laundry lines are in our side yard - right off the garage. Permanently mounted T-poles, with 5 lines between them. My husband did not think I'd use them much but has been impressed to see them used consistently.

Our dryer is electric - so this definitely impacts our electric bill.
 
Just occurred to me that one needs to know how many square feet are being serviced by the utility cost. I have 2892 square feet. So the cost to cool, etc. In July was. 079 per square foot, based on $231.12 charge.

A different comparison is kWh per square foot. I have calculated 0.45332 for that.

I think you need to take into account a few things before comparing.

By that measure, I paid $0.023 per square foot per month for July (which was very hot). I am not sure whether your numbers are cents or dollars.
 
Just occurred to me that one needs to know how many square feet are being serviced by the utility cost. ...

I think you need to take into account a few things before comparing.

:confused:

The OP asked for Electricity cost per KWH. Sq feet has very little effect on that.

If you are in a tiered rate area, heating/cooling a larger house might increase your overall rate, but...

a smaller house would also see a higher 'all in' effect from the fixed charges.

I just ran the numbers on my bill, and if I cut my kWh in half (simulating a smaller house), my rate increases from $0.12 to $0.147 (22.5% increase). That's going to offset some of the effect of tiered rates.

I guess I don't see what we'd learn from those other calculations. We could also divide by ounces of monthly peanut butter consumption, but why?

Although it did just occur to me that another useful number to add to 'total $/kWh' would be the marginal rate for the next kWh. Just like taxes, this tells you what a kWh saved/spent will do for you. (edit/add) - hmmm, so my average $0.12 rate has me at a marginal rate of just ~ $0.093/kWh).


-ERD50
 
Last edited:
By that measure, I paid $0.023 per square foot per month for July (which was very hot). I am not sure whether your numbers are cents or dollars.
That decimal is cents or a fraction of a dollar I suppose. Looks like my tablet moved the decimal, as if it were a sentence ending STOP!
:cool:
 
That decimal is cents or a fraction of a dollar I suppose. Looks like my tablet moved the decimal, as if it were a sentence ending STOP!
:cool:


OK, well, it does seem that I have a good deal anyway you look at it!


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
:confused:

The OP asked for Electricity cost per KWH. Sq feet has very little effect on that.

If you are in a tiered rate area, heating/cooling a larger house might increase your overall rate, but...

a smaller house would also see a higher 'all in' effect from the fixed charges.

I just ran the numbers on my bill, and if I cut my kWh in half (simulating a smaller house), my rate increases from $0.12 to $0.147 (22.5% increase). That's going to offset some of the effect of tiered rates.

I guess I don't see what we'd learn from those other calculations. We could also divide by ounces of monthly peanut butter consumption, but why?

Although it did just occur to me that another useful number to add to 'total $/kWh' would be the marginal rate for the next kWh. Just like taxes, this tells you what a kWh saved/spent will do for you. (edit/add) - hmmm, so my average $0.12 rate has me at a marginal rate of just ~ $0.093/kWh).
Since I gave the number(s) the OP requested, I don't understand taking issue with my adding something additional. Some posts in this thread went on to post their total bill, and why/whynot a specific calculation makes sense or not for their location.

It seems reasonable to me to extend the conversation to other factors. Like how much space are you cooling and heating. This would seem to go hand in hand with the location of the dwelling.

YMMV :D
 
Since I gave the number(s) the OP requested, I don't understand taking issue with my adding something additional. Some posts in this thread went on to post their total bill, and why/whynot a specific calculation makes sense or not for their location.

It seems reasonable to me to extend the conversation to other factors. Like how much space are you cooling and heating. This would seem to go hand in hand with the location of the dwelling.

YMMV :D


I have a 12 foot ceiling. Should we be using the volume of the residence as the denominator? 😀


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
Back
Top Bottom