7/30/2009 9:04:22 PM

Quote :

"That's why you should be going to LED bulbs. Cost isn't horrible anymore (40-50 bucks a bulb) and the fuckers last for like 20 years with ZERO chance of early failure."

seconded. i went LED because i totally hated the CFL light temperature and i've never looked back. i love those fuckers.

7/30/2009 11:32:03 PM

LED bulbs would probably have uncommonly high chances of dying in a lightning storm. That said, they should have a highly reduced chance in burning out, but if you have 40 junctions with 100,000 hours MTTF, you can expect one junction to fail in under 2000 hours.

7/31/2009 4:15:35 AM

CFLs have a horrible power factor. Their current draw is almost as high as an incadescent bulb, but the current is out of phase with the voltage so your meter doesn't record the reactive part. They force the utility to have to install switched capacitor banks down line to carry the load, and the additional current results in additional losses in all of the wiring, transformers, and other devices in the line between the lights and the capacitor banks. If the utility doesn't have enough capacitors between the load and the source, then the extra reactive energy must be generated by burning more coal or natural gas.

I think some of the newer and more expensive CFLs have built in capacitors to correct this, but not many people are going to pay that extra money if they don't have to. I think there should have been regulations forcing people to manufacture the bulbs with the correction capacitor already built in, but that probably would have made the payback math not work out and would have prevented people from buying them.

7/31/2009 10:07:52 AM

uh, $40-50 for a light bulb is cheap for you? Dont' get me wrong, I do like LED lights. But $40-50? lol. yeah okay.

7/31/2009 11:27:39 AM

I heard that if you put Italian Seasoning in your dryer it will run more efficiently.

7/31/2009 11:43:04 AM

what's a typical average daily kwh usage for this area?

8/30/2009 8:42:06 PM

^^ lol

8/31/2009 6:32:18 PM

Quote :

"there's your problem. washer/dryers are electricity hogs, and 5 loads of laundry a week is a shit load for 1 person. I live with my GF and we probably do 3 a week combined. When I lived alone i was doing 1-2 a week. Make sure you don't do laundry unless you have a full load. That should help"

also it uses less electricity in the long run to not have to make your a/c pull the temp down too much in the afternoon / when you get back from work.

9/1/2009 11:24:02 AM

Last year, living in the top floor (roughly 1200sqft 2bedroom apt) of a 100-year-old duplex in Greensboro cost me about $110/mo in electricity. Heating and stove were gas. I had a roomate who didn't own a pc, but sat in front of my plasma TV for many hours.

Last June, I moved into a similaly sized unit in 7-year-old apt building. This one has a dishwasher, electric stove/heating. My total electricity cost for June AND July was ~$60 . However, my new roomie doesn't spend nearly as much time in front of the plasma screen.

9/1/2009 2:47:15 PM

Quote :

"also it uses less electricity in the long run to not have to make your a/c pull the temp down too much in the afternoon / when you get back from work."

negative.

9/1/2009 6:57:54 PM

^ I've always heard that claim, too. But I've experienced the opposite with respect to my utility bill.

I keep my condo at 68-70, and to keep it at that constantly I had bills close to $300 or more.

I did an experiment. I would cut the unit off entirely during the day, and program it to go down to 68 in the afternoon about an hour before I get home from work. Doing that and leaving the circulation fan running continuously, I saw a near $100 reduction in my power bill.

9/1/2009 7:06:24 PM

CFL's seem to burn out prematurely to me. I seem to be replacing them all the time.

9/1/2009 9:38:35 PM

I've found CFLs to fail prematurely more often if the bulb is installed facing down, so the heat from the bulb rises up into the ballast. Especially if it's installed in the recessed canister light fixtures.

I installed CFLs in all of my canister fixtures and almost everyone of them failed within a year or so. I went back to the regular incandescent ones. I've considered upgrading to some of the LED bulbs, but I want to wait until the price comes down some more and to make sure the electronics within don't succumb to overheating.

9/1/2009 9:52:52 PM

^^^i too have seen similar results with turning off the unit for long periods

i'm in a one bedroom so its not like i can split the bills. i would turn it off(i typically work 3-11) while at work, and just turn it on at night when i got home. my bill for july 13ish-august 12ish was only 60 bucks. last summer it was my highest month(83)

9/1/2009 9:55:46 PM

I too saw a massive drop in my electric bill when i installed a programmable thermostat that allowed me to shut it off during the day when no one was home.

I keep the programming up to date to follow sunrise/sunset as those times change, so I am not fighting the sun when possible.

9/2/2009 10:33:11 AM

Definitely shut off the AC last night, low 60s and crisp what a perfect night!

9/2/2009 10:35:20 AM

Joe, to clarify I was definitely disputing the quoted statement.

That said, it's the winter time that you're not supposed to touch the thermostat once you set it to your lowest possible comfort level.

^last night was great, I hope the weather lasts.

--
Someone like CarZin can chime in if it depends on what type of heating system you have installed. I believe what I said is true for those with a traditional heat pump.

[Edited on September 2, 2009 at 3:09 PM. Reason : .]

9/2/2009 3:07:55 PM

Yeah if you have a heat pump with "aux" (auxillary) electrical heating elements (you do unless you heat with gas like a dual fuel system) then you definitely don't want to mess with the t-stat unless you have a fancy programmable one that has the ability to disable/trick the aux from kicking in. The t-stat is going to call for aux if the actual temp is 2 degrees or more below the set temp and the electrical heating elements are not as energy effecient as the compressor/condensor/evaporator, else you'd just use electrical heating. They are required because the heat pump is going to have a maximum temperature it can keep the house based on the outside temperature (it changes I think but it'll be like 20-30 higher than outside temps depending on the rating) and to also provide heat while the outside coils defrost.

Now if you heat with gas then I'm not sure, but I'd guess that it would be negligible since your house is going to be losing BTUs/hour regardless of what the heat is on. I guess it could be argued that the BTU/hour loss would act more transient in reality and you'd lose less BTUs/hour as the inside/outside temperatures come closer together (while through the day the outside is typically heating up as well), but then you have to use more BTUs to heat it back up when you get home. Therefore the energy savings would be [BTUs retained due to the transient response of the heat rate]-[BTUs to heat back up to normal temp] which I'd think rely too much on the particular house/temperature settings/temperature outside to make a blanket statement.

The AC would act more like the latter case except in reverse (kind of) where you are trying to keep BTUs out of the house. The energy savings would be equal to [BTUs kept outside due to transient response of the heat rate]-[BTUs removed to cool the house back down] where you'd have to convert the BTUs into kWh based on the effeciency of the heat pump. I imagine the BTUs/hour kept out is more significant since it typically becomes hotter throughout the day, meaning the rate of heat loss would increase through the day if the inside temperature stayed the same but would remain constant/decrease if the inside temp was allowed to rise with the outside temp.

9/2/2009 4:32:13 PM

Christ almighty. Aug 17 - Sept 16 was $130.

Our AC unit is from 1982, so AC obviously played a huge role in the $231 bill for the previous billing period...even though the lowest it was set was 79. We keep it in the 81-84 range a lot.

relevant temp data...basically, the AC was off quite a bit for this past billing period.

I was going to request a meter audit, but we're going to switch to TOU-E, so we'll get a new meter next month...no point in an audit. Well, not much of one.

Except for the AC, we're pretty assiduous about minimizing energy use. Especially since getting that $231, I've gone to lengths such as turning off computers nightly, and when we're not home, for two-fold purposes - mine, especially, puts off a lot of heat. We keep showers short so as to pump less water. I run the washing machine and dishwasher and dryer as little as possible. The fridge is set to a warm-ish temperature. We keep the fridge and freezer full. Don't use the oven much, and definitely not on hot days, AC running or not. For this last billing period, I kept the dehumidifier off.

I guess the next step is to get one of/some of those power draw meters and see what the hell is causing us to use so much power

Anyone have any input?

Oh, and one more thing:

Quote :

" the later you use your stuff the cheaper it is. "

gunzz, page 1.

...This is not default. You have to call up and ask to be on a TOU(-E) or TOU-D rate schedule. See carzin's post on the subject in this thread ( message_topic.aspx?topic=524963)for explanation. Or, just ask PE to send out literature.

Finally, yet another reminder to always, always, always carefully examine bills. Long story short, at some point, PE decided we wanted the $5.95/mo surge protection service. Of course, this isn't the case, and they're swearing up and down we didn't say no, so...I'm jumping through the appropriate hoops in hopes of an expensive-to-them 'fuck yall'. It's apparently in a hazy legal area, as a non-regulated service, so I'm having to submit a formal complaint with the AG's office to see if it's even something about which anything can be done.



[Edited on September 28, 2009 at 4:54 PM. Reason : wsd]

[Edited on September 28, 2009 at 4:55 PM. Reason : s]

9/28/2009 4:45:59 PM