actual average costs of KWH ..what do you actually avg in your area?

meester_jamie

meester_jamie

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another thread prompted me to think about true costs of kwh.. not usual rule of thumb or guess numbers

The actual watt meters. or watt/hr meters that are avail are great devices to know what is being used..
many devices cycle on and off and you have a hard time keeping track of the hour part of KWH..

so.. if I take my electric bill that only includes electric charges.. no water or sewer or etc..
bottom line cost that I pay ,, and divide that by the reading from the meter.. not the adjusted price..

I am looking at the actual kwh I used.. and the actual money I am paying..
The numbers are average 19.55 cents per kwh in Cambridge area ... what are you actually avg in your area?

Dec15/feb16 14012cents / 717kwh = 19.54
feb/apr 14804cents / 752kwh = 19.68
apr/jun 15036cents / 743kwh = 20.36
jun/aug 18450cents / 942kwh = 19.58
aug/oct 20435cents / 1073kwh = 19.04
oct/nov 9822cents / 510kwh = 19.25 << start of monthly billing instead of bimonthly

of course... this is total bill . not individual device usage.. if I use the device during a low cost time of use.. the price goes down.. a heater used off peak winter 2016 would cost 13.2 cents/kwh

so,, a 1500w microwave on for 60 sec .. to reheat lunch.. @ 19.55 cents/kwh is about 0.5 cents.. right..?
cheap eh
 
meester_jamie said:
another thread prompted me to think about true costs of kwh.. not usual rule of thumb or guess numbers

The actual watt meters. or watt/hr meters that are avail are great devices to know what is being used..
many devices cycle on and off and you have a hard time keeping track of the hour part of KWH..

so.. if I take my electric bill that only includes electric charges.. no water or sewer or etc..
bottom line cost that I pay ,, and divide that by the reading from the meter.. not the adjusted price..

I am looking at the actual kwh I used.. and the actual money I am paying..
The numbers are average 19.55 cents per kwh in Cambridge area ... what are you actually avg in your area?

Dec15/feb16 14012cents / 717kwh = 19.54
feb/apr 14804cents / 752kwh = 19.68
apr/jun 15036cents / 743kwh = 20.36
jun/aug 18450cents / 942kwh = 19.58
aug/oct 20435cents / 1073kwh = 19.04
oct/nov 9822cents / 510kwh = 19.25 << start of monthly billing instead of bimonthly

of course... this is total bill . not individual device usage.. if I use the device during a low cost time of use.. the price goes down.. a heater used off peak winter 2016 would cost 13.2 cents/kwh

so,, a 1500w microwave on for 60 sec .. to reheat lunch.. @ 19.55 cents/kwh is about 0.5 cents.. right..?
cheap eh
Click to expand...
Just outside Cambridge( 1km from the city) with hydro one .29 cents per kwh delivery is double what people in Cambridge pay.
 
As an average I use 15¢/KWh. We do however weight our usage heavily towards off peak - if we were less careful I'd be using 20¢ instead.
 
My off peak is 22c per kwh delivery with hydro one is more than the hydro usage every month normal bill is 500 plus

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
It doesn't matter what the kwh cost is.

There is a ******** charge called global adjustment that is set by some rich ******* lining is pockets. This charge is always inversely related to the cost of electricity. If the cost of electricity goes down, it goes up. After you factor this in, electricity cost per unit will never decrease.
 
Everyone is going to come up with a different answer due to smart meters, delivery charges and account fees. The old system was easy. You paid $X per Kw. If the rate was $0.15/Kwh your one minute warmed up microwave sandwich would have cost 1.5 X 0.15 / 60 = 0.00375, about a third of a cent. Under the new system with delivery and account fees a ton more. Instead of reheating a piece of pizza you would save money by having a fresh pizza delivered.

A hidden cost is the inconvenience. Not everyone has the luxury of putting things off to meet someone else's requirements.
 
Here's my 'effective rate' for 2013-2015 (including taxes and other fees, electricity-only not including water)

And a chart below showing time-of-use breakdown, kWh on left, $ on right (two-month billing periods).

Averaging $150./month - 2000sqft detached house in Vaughan. Gas heating/range/dryer - but hottub, sauna, heated-bathroom floor...

[TABLE="width: 546"]
[TR]
[TD]From[/TD]
[TD]To[/TD]
[TD]Usage (kWh)[/TD]
[TD]TOTAL COST[/TD]
[TD]EFF. RATE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2015-07-29[/TD]
[TD]2015-09-29[/TD]
[TD]1914.850[/TD]
[TD]$305.88[/TD]
[TD]$0.157[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2015-05-29[/TD]
[TD]2015-07-29[/TD]
[TD]1861.860[/TD]
[TD]$296.65[/TD]
[TD]$0.157[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2015-03-25[/TD]
[TD]2015-05-29[/TD]
[TD]1308.630[/TD]
[TD]$216.32[/TD]
[TD]$0.163[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2015-01-26[/TD]
[TD]2015-03-26[/TD]
[TD]1421.110[/TD]
[TD]$225.07[/TD]
[TD]$0.156[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2014-11-26[/TD]
[TD]2015-01-26[/TD]
[TD]1573.310[/TD]
[TD]$244.73[/TD]
[TD]$0.153[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2014-09-29[/TD]
[TD]2014-11-26[/TD]
[TD]1291.960[/TD]
[TD]$201.86[/TD]
[TD]$0.154[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2014-07-29[/TD]
[TD]2014-09-29[/TD]
[TD]1493.510[/TD]
[TD]$229.19[/TD]
[TD]$0.151[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2014-05-29[/TD]
[TD]2014-07-29[/TD]
[TD]1260.700[/TD]
[TD]$197.48[/TD]
[TD]$0.154[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2014-03-28[/TD]
[TD]2014-05-29[/TD]
[TD]1115.580[/TD]
[TD]$175.39[/TD]
[TD]$0.155[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2014-01-29[/TD]
[TD]2014-03-28[/TD]
[TD]1398.320[/TD]
[TD]$207.52[/TD]
[TD]$0.146[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2013-11-28[/TD]
[TD]2014-01-29[/TD]
[TD]1706.710[/TD]
[TD]$247.62[/TD]
[TD]$0.143[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2013-09-30[/TD]
[TD]2013-11-28[/TD]
[TD]1160.880[/TD]
[TD]$173.76[/TD]
[TD]$0.147[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2013-07-30[/TD]
[TD]2013-09-30[/TD]
[TD]1452.760[/TD]
[TD]$208.47[/TD]
[TD]$0.141[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2013-05-29[/TD]
[TD]2013-07-30[/TD]
[TD]1286.350[/TD]
[TD]$190.79[/TD]
[TD]$0.146[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


electricity_zpsjfertmw3.jpg
 
Love the detail you broke it down to. I haven't got mine down to time-of-use detail, but I figure I use maybe 1/2 my juice during off-peak, then split the rest between on- and mid-peak.

An 1100 sq. ft. townhouse in Vaughan, I've used on average 465kW/h every 2 months since 2011, and my effective rate has averaged $0.26 during that time. Gas heating, air dry my clothes, hand wash dishes.
 
I'm averaging .16 , 2,600sqft , 2 people, gas dryer, range, heat, fireplace. The hot tub is a sucker, I cant believe somebody hasn't figured out a cost effective gas unit.
 
I always wondered why ppl don't use a timer (built in would be smarter) on the hot water tanks.
That thing fires several times per day to keep water hot. Why not set a timer to warm the water 1 hour before you wake, 1 hour before you come home, then shut off around 10pm.
The water will stay pretty warm to hot if you needed to shower at 1am.

There does not seem to be a need to keep water at a constant boil temp.
Also, old school plumber told me they use to add a U into the hot water pipe that goes up to the house. The straight line allows the heat to run up the pipe where as a bend (U) keep the heat more in the tank.

It never made sense to me why we are pulling freezing water up then heating it and paying to store it vs. integrating the pipes and running the water pipes in the floors or walls (radiant heating) therefore when you are heating the house, the water is also on the warm side...direct water back into the hot water tank to heat up warm water so that when you need hot water it ready to go. They talk about saving energy and saving the planet (planet doesn't need saving, it will save itself) yet we keep doing the same old things.
 
off peak - 8.7cents, mid peak - 13.2cents, on peak - 18cents.....2 months including delissio, reg. charges and debt retirement = $165.....20 bucks a week to power 2 furnaces, stove, five fridges and what not. I don't think I'll need a parasite sniffer.
 
-D- said:
I always wondered why ppl don't use a timer (built in would be smarter) on the hot water tanks.
Click to expand...

They exist but people can't be bothered to use them as they require programming to customize to ones life schedule.

That's the thing about much of the mantra of conserving or massaging ones use into off-peak times - it requires some effort and a tiny bit of smarts. The former is lost on most people - they don't want to be bothered with a timer on their hot water tank, they just want hot water when they turn the tap.

Personally, I take advantage of off peak as much as is physically possible, especially major consumers like our hot tub - I have no choice but to run it a *little* during mid peak times (it never runs during on-peak) but I have it programmed so it does most of it's reheating during off peak hydro times.

Our dishwasher has a timer to allow us to run it during off peak times automatically - we use it.

Our dryer has the same, even though it's gas it still uses some electricity...so why not take advantage of it - so we use it.

But how many people do you know that bother to do any of this? Everything is on when it's convenient, not when it's cheaper. They run their dishwasher after dinner during peak hydro rates intead of after 7. Ditto the washer and dryer - a particularly bad offender for those with electric dryers.

If they can't be bothered to shift even easy things to off peak rates, their electric hot water tank isn't even on their radar. It come back to people just not wanting to be bothered or they find it "too inconvenient".

I have our home automation setup to ensure no lights that shouldn't be on when they'd be wasteful come on - our front lights for example, if someone turns them on during daylight hours they go off automatically 15 seconds later. Ditto back light and the floods on our pool deck etc.. The lights in our garage and basement go off automatically after no motion is detected for 5 minutes. At a time when I know everyone is out of the house the automation makes sure everything that should be off..is off.

Automation is more advanced stuff vs your average homeowner I know but it's handy and goes a long way towards conservation if used correctly.
 
Last edited:
Loves me some convenience. I wasn't put on this earth to chase every penny, spending all my time outsmarting every system of finance. If it costs me even 3 hours of work wages to electrify my humble domicile per month I'm not going to start cutting corners at my inconvenience. Big picture thinking reveals stark contrasts between struggles of bygone eras v easy living today. Save a buck? Pffff
 
I just checked my Oct/Nov Powerstream bill and it's 17.86 effective rate. As you can see from the graph above, most of my usage is off-peak, so despite the TOU pricing, there's still been a significant price increase. It's the McGuinty green plan legacy.

Re: hot water - I have a tankless... With the tankless water heater, gas range, gas dryer, and gas fireplace, we're running average $50/month on my Enbridge bill (no contract). I guess the carbon tax increase will F that up...

For hot water tanks, you have to keep it above 165F all the time, else there a risk of Legionnaires bacteria... I love the tankless, but you don't save any money due to the much higher purchase price. It saved us space in the basement to fit a nice sauna and shower in the design.
 
I have plugged everything like the router/modem and TV/stereo/Roku box into a powerbar so walking out the door for a week or more we shut down everything thats a non critical appliance. Lights in rooms that arent needed are not on, but I'm not counting bulbs and taking out every second light in the chandelier yet.
I would consider high efficiency radiant heat , a tankless waterheater, increased insulation but sadly for the planet until its produced at a cost effective level where the actual cost = the feel good cost , I'm not on board.
 
油井緋色;2465841 said:
It doesn't matter what the kwh cost is.

There is a ******** charge called global adjustment that is set by some rich ******* lining is pockets. This charge is always inversely related to the cost of electricity. If the cost of electricity goes down, it goes up. After you factor this in, electricity cost per unit will never decrease.
Click to expand...

CruisnGrrl said:
I could unplug everything during mid and peak pricing and the delivery fee would just go up to adjust my price to 35-40c kWh.
Click to expand...

Wth? Everything unplugged and you are still charged...that's some good scamming going on (legal too)
 
CruisnGrrl said:
I could unplug everything during mid and peak pricing and the delivery fee would just go up to adjust my price to 35-40c kWh.
Click to expand...

LOL ... yep, if we all go down on consumed kWh, they will just jack up the rest, because otherwise they could not maintain the admin and infrastructure ... it's a circle which is not worth playing in Ontario. One of the worst energy policies known to man.
 
-D- said:
Wth? Everything unplugged and you are still charged...that's some good scamming going on (legal too)
Click to expand...

And where in Ontario you live that you wouldn't be charged anything if your consumption is zero kWh???
 
There's an active court case right now - cottager had his hydro cut for three months (by hydro) and was still charged a delivery fee. He's arguing that he shouldn't have to pay anything.
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