daylatedollarshort
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2013
- Messages
- 9,358
When it is just my husband and I at home these days we have been running 10 kw of electricity a day, despite a decent sized, drafty older house. We have quite a few projects in our queue to lower that number further without any major investments. It' has been kind of a fun project though we're reaching the point of diminishing returns now. We are spending more time on lowering water use this year instead. Our water bill is often more than our monthly energy bill now and it is going to go up even further as soon as drought pricing goes into effect. So the lawns have to go. Native gardens with drought tolerant plants look prettier anyway.
We have a lot of discussions here on things like when to take SS, but having very low utility bills for 40 or 50 years can have a big influence on total retirement funding, too, by decreasing overhead. A small economy like LED bulbs that save money every day over 40 years really adds up. For us, lowering our utility bills $300 a month over 40 years means $144K less in total retirement expenses we will need to cover.
We have a lot of discussions here on things like when to take SS, but having very low utility bills for 40 or 50 years can have a big influence on total retirement funding, too, by decreasing overhead. A small economy like LED bulbs that save money every day over 40 years really adds up. For us, lowering our utility bills $300 a month over 40 years means $144K less in total retirement expenses we will need to cover.
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