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

[PrivatePilot]

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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.

Unfortunately everything that remains as parasitic draw in our house is kinda essential - the kids aquariums (they each have one) can't be shut off for obvious reasons. My modem, routers and a few external hard drives connected to such have to run 24/7 simply because I run a few websites off a server here so having them go offline isn't an option.

Add that to the typical stuff that one wouldn't regularly unplug (a couple Kodi boxes, TV's, etc) it all adds up unfortunately.

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.

LED's are a worthwhile expense especially for lights that are on a lot - the decrease in consumption is massive. Canadian Tire has them for 99 Cents each right now and the payback for a bulb that is on a lot can actually be in mere months at that price.

 

[CruisnGrrl]

Unfortunately everything that remains as parasitic draw in our house is kinda essential - the kids aquariums (they each have one) can't be shut off for obvious reasons. My modem, routers and a few external hard drives connected to such have to run 24/7 simply because I run a few websites off a server here so having them go offline isn't an option.

Add that to the typical stuff that one wouldn't regularly unplug (a couple Kodi boxes, TV's, etc) it all adds up unfortunately.




LED's are a worthwhile expense especially for lights that are on a lot - the decrease in consumption is massive. Canadian Tire has them for 99 Cents each right now and the payback for a bulb that is on a lot can actually be in mere months at that price.

I also put them in sockets that while not used often occasionally get missed and left on, like our basement, it's dirt floor and we only go down there when we have to, so it may be a few days or even a week before it's noticed to be on.

 

[油井緋色]

And where in Ontario you live that you wouldn't be charged anything if your consumption is zero kWh???

You will always be charged, this isn't an Ontario only thing. The delivery charge is like a "group tax" that everyone in the area pays for to get electricity or gas delivered. This, at least, makes more sense than the ******** GA charge I mentioned earlier.

 

[nobbie48]

Apparently Hawaii has a big problem in that so many people have signed into solar that those that rely on the grid are facing huge costs due to the reduced client base.

It isn't like trucking that if your customers start making smaller products you can switch to smaller trucks. You're stuck with maintaining the big transmission lines and infrastructure.

 

[fastar1]

I also put them in sockets that while not used often occasionally get missed and left on, like our basement, it's dirt floor and we only go down there when we have to, so it may be a few days or even a week before it's noticed to be on.

Get a switch with an indicator light so every time you walk by the switch you can see if the basement light is on.

 

[fastar1]

Unfortunately everything that remains as parasitic draw in our house is kinda essential - the kids aquariums (they each have one) can't be shut off for obvious reasons. My modem, routers and a few external hard drives connected to such have to run 24/7 simply because I run a few websites off a server here so having them go offline isn't an option.

Add that to the typical stuff that one wouldn't regularly unplug (a couple Kodi boxes, TV's, etc) it all adds up unfortunately.




LED's are a worthwhile expense especially for lights that are on a lot - the decrease in consumption is massive. Canadian Tire has them for 99 Cents each right now and the payback for a bulb that is on a lot can actually be in mere months at that price.

I've been stalking CT lighting section every week for LED deals, what is there at 99c? The cheapest I found was like $37 for a dozen at Home Depot, more than $3 each.

Unless I use the light a lot, as you say, I figure I'm best to wait a year for prices to come down, which I think is a reasonable thing to expect.

 

[nobbie48]

Delete

 

[meester_jamie]

so with that info... that shows hourly consumption... I talked to a lady who shut off her main breaker when she left home in the morning,, and didn't turn it back on till 7 pm at night... the odd day she would come home at lunch and turn it on long enough to cook lunch.... doing this , she noticed that there was consumption when she was NOT home!! .......... turns out the clock in the meter was off by 5 hrs......
is there any way you can audit when you actually use your power?

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.
.

one situation ,, lady hates paying hydro.. has a 7 day timer installed on the water heater.. and sets it to come on 45 min on tues and fri.. only when the temps outside are cold... she takes a bath on tues and fri.... in the summer,, she fills the tub in the morning,, goes to work,, and when she gets home... the tub is room temp.. her hydro bill was less than 2 kwh / day... and hydro attended numerous times to ensure the meter hadn't stopped..

another situation,, with the 7-7 rates... a hydro manager has a 24hr timer installed on the water heater.. and sets it to stay OFF during the peak time .. and waits till others in the home complain they ran out of hot water... 9 months in ,, no complaints! ... I haven't talked to him since.. so I am not sure if he is still doing the same

 

[meester_jamie]

Everyone is going to come up with a different answer due to smart meters, delivery charges and account fees.

Well, that is why I started to calc the effective rate ... my written bill tells me I pay 8.8c ... and 10.5c etc.. but I know I pay about 19c with all the other costs added in..

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.

see.. that is why I calc my effective rate...... so I know my cost is about 1.5 X 19c / 60 = .475 ... or less than half a cent! pretty cheap eh!

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.

so,, as for reheating a pizza... or even cooking a frozen pizza ... a 4500 watt oven on for 60min at 19c would only be 85 cents ... and probably less as the 4500 watts isn't ON all thru that 60 min,, and in fact it would probably only take 30 min to heat up the oven and cook it ...

heating a kettle of water... 1500w element.. takes less than 5 min .. at 19cents .. is less than 3cents consumption.. add the instant coffee and cream and sugar.. and it coffee only costs 10cents ... instead of the outrageous amount the coffee shop charges.......

people will pay the $1.50 at coffee shop.. and not think it is outrageous..

so,, for the most part.. I tell people.. a load in the dryer costs $0.60 during peak time.. and $0.45 off peak... so do you really want to save that 15cents ??? just try to use off peak times if possible , but don't worry about that extra 15cents per load..

 

[PrivatePilot]

so,, for the most part.. I tell people.. a load in the dryer costs $0.60 during peak time.. and $0.45 off peak... so do you really want to save that 15cents ??? just try to use off peak times if possible , but don't worry about that extra 15cents per load..

I think you need to check your math, because you've been misleading people.

An average dryer uses 4000 watts and a typical load takes about 1 hour to dry. So, it uses 4 kilowatts per hour.

At the current on peak rate of 18c/kWh that means that load of clothes used about $0.72 in electricity.

During off peak electricity hours the same load (at 8.7c/kWh) costs $0.34.

So, it costs less than half to use the dryer during off peak, a saving of nearly 40c actually.

When you place that up against the average 1000 Kilowatts per month the average Ontario house uses (so 33 kWh/day) the math suddenly becomes more attractive - 33 kWh/day at 18c = $5.94/day, but 33kWh/day at 8.7c=$2.87, a savings of $3.07, or a saving of $92 every month.

This is all before all the other fees like delivery, etc, but those slide up and down as well along with consumption.

So, the math does make sense when you actually focus as much consumption as is possible to off peak. Obviously it's not realistic to shift it ALL to off peak, but if you can move 50% of it you're still saving around $50/month.

However....off peak has got too expensive. When TOU meters first came into play the off peak rate was 3.5c/kWh so there was actually very significant savings to be had for aggressive time shifters - our hydro bill went down dramatically when it first came into use because I shifted nearly 80% of our usage. Now with the off peak rate being as high as it is as well there's less justification unfortunately.

 

[Neil_V]

The average household uses 33kwh/day!! whoa... and here I am getting flustered that my basement trolls (kid sister and bf) have brought my consumption up to 18... I was under 10/day before my conscience interfered.

 

[PrivatePilot]

The average household uses 33kwh/day!!

That's indeed the Ontario average. I just looked and that's about what we are using, however we have some energy pigs - mainly our hot tub in the winter, and the pool and AC in the summer...although this past summer I invested in a variable speed pool pump that cut our costs down there by over 80%..but AC is a tough one, our house (despite only being ~30 years old) isn't terribly airtight and our central AC is builder original, so you know it's an energy hog - about 3.5KWH when running IIRC.

When I cut out the hot tub our house falls to around 500-600 kWh per month in the winter. Summer varies a lot depending mainly on AC use - this past summer was pretty brutal for obvious reasons...but the pool was consistently warm.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Here's a graph of our usage in the last 12 months. As is evident we are agressive time shifters, although (as mentioned in my last reply) July and August were a bit of write off with increased mid and on-peak usage mainly due to the AC.

And here's the same graph from the year before.

The difference with the new pool pump over May through September is very noticeable. Had we not used so much AC (and decided to run the hot tub more in the last 12 months vs the year before) our actual dollar figure would have been down a lot, but I look at it this way - had we not changed out that pool pump our hydro bills would have been even more massive this past summer.

 

[Scuba Steve]

Here is my usage very little peak at all times

No natural gas available ground source heat pump heating and cooling. Biggest high bill driver is residential low density rate.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[PrivatePilot]

Here is my usage very little peak at all times

That's some impressive time shifting, but holy crap....a lot of consumption - what's using so much off peak out of curiosity?

 

[Jayv]

That's indeed the Ontario average. I just looked and that's about what we are using, however we have some energy pigs - mainly our hot tub in the winter, and the pool and AC in the summer...although this past summer I invested in a variable speed pool pump that cut our costs down there by over 80%..but AC is a tough one, our house (despite only being ~30 years old) isn't terribly airtight and our central AC is builder original, so you know it's an energy hog - about 3.5KWH when running IIRC.

When I cut out the hot tub our house falls to around 500-600 kWh per month in the winter. Summer varies a lot depending mainly on AC use - this past summer was pretty brutal for obvious reasons...but the pool was consistently warm.

Hot tub owner also, last two months 35 and 36kwh per day. Wish i could get rid of it, i never use it only the wife does.

 

[Scuba Steve]

Septic treatment plant uses all the time. Hot tub year round and pool in summer. Well pump also uses some when heat pump is running pump and dump system. Also have a heat pump pool heater.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Neil_V]

Hot tub owner also, last two months 35 and 36kwh per day. Wish i could get rid of it, i never use it only the wife does.

What to do? I think a clue lay in your reply lol... I kid I kid

 

[PrivatePilot]

Hot tub owner also, last two months 35 and 36kwh per day. Wish i could get rid of it, i never use it only the wife does.

I don't use ours all year round - I'll typically start it in late March or early April (when the weather starts to turn) and then shut it off again come June/July when the pool is hot anyways. I'll then start it up again in September/October when I close the pool and usually shut it down again after Christmas. I used to run it all year round but found that in the dead of winter it didn't get used a lot (I enjoy using it in -20 or -30, I just do not enjoy the part about getting to and from it) and in the summer we never used it at all.

 

[Jayv]

What to do? I think a clue lay in your reply lol... I kid I kid

There was one time after highsiding during a race and breaking my ribs i was glad we had a hot tub, that lasted for about a month

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