Ugh. electric bill. LED flashlight that'll light a room?

[gearbox]

Where do you take a shower?
Here's a tip: seal the stall and turn the water off while you're scrubbing. You'll stay warm and comfortable and will be heating less water. Find details about this crazy idea here It's like taking a Navy Shower but more comfortably.

Beside the enormous energy wasted on heating water, try an electric blanket on low and dress very warmly throughout the night (and waking hours also.)

So forget about replacing CFLs for battery-powered LEDs. That's a lot of work with no pay-out for months after the cost of new equipment.
Just don't use electricity. Try to use the electric blanket sparingly, take fast showers, don't turn on the lights, don't use electronics (microwave, neither!), don't even open the fridge. Just seal the doors and windows, hit the breaker and hibernate until spring.

Last thought: if you get enough sunlight you could try a solar panel. If you get the right size the investment will surely pay itself off if you're ALREADY paying nearly $400/mo. Plus, you'll get credited for off-season electric contributions to offset your winter usage.

 

[Art Vandelay]

How about a headlamp? You would have light everywhere you looked, and you would have both hands free.

You might want to get your meter checked. I don't see how you could be using that much power.

 

[xHERO]

Something about your bill doesn't add up. I run a ton of computer equipment, a couple freezers and fridges, and have a son that leaves every light he touches on, and my combined utility bill doesn't even scratch yours. I'd turn everything off and check your meter. If it's still spinning like crazy try to figure out what's drawing the power.

 

[Pellidon]

Phantom loads can add up to a lot of power lost. Wall warts plugged in with their devices turned off still draw power. Basically put every convenience device on a switched power bar and switch it off when not in use.

Solar may not be viable if the zoning ordinances don't allow it or if the state does not allow net metering to sell back your overages. Of course you can go guerillia and do it on the QT.

When I moved to the city, my non heat months consume the same amount of KWH as when I was in the country on REMC. My bill is double what it was. REMC in my area was 5.5 cents per KWH and it is almost 12 now. And I moved only 15 miles.

My dad pitched a whingding when his power went from 12 to 17 cents. My brother and I looked around the two story house and noted that not only did he have all incandescent lights, they were all on. We broke out laughing at that.

 

[GrnXnham]

I just went with CFL's in every fixture that is on often. We leave our outside lights on all night long so those are now CFL's.

We turned our hot water heater down to 120 degrees. It used to be 140.

At night we turn the heat way down and my wife and I actually SNUGGLE more to keep warm.

We keep the house temp down during the day, also. If we are cold we put on warm socks and a sweater.

Only run the dishwasher, clothes washer, and dryer when full.

Don't run Christmas lights all night long. Put them on a timer so that they shut off after 10PM.

We've saved a few bucks.

 

[saeckereier]

Really, the suggestion to turn off everything and then check the meter is a good one. Best time to do that is when anyone else who might be hooked up to your line is in need of electricity..

 

[MikeLip]

Why do I have this recurring vision of someone furtively sneaking out of the building with a roll of toilet paper under one arm, and a bucket full of electrons under the other? Am I losing my mind? Or is it too late for "losing"?

Seriously though, I don't think you're going to make a huge impact by turning off your lights. But you know that. The electric heat is going to be a problem for you.

 

[WadeF]

I can't wait to find out what is sucking all that power. Maybe it's just the electric heat, but I picture a resturant next door with all their neon signs plugged into his outdoor outlet.

 

[ValhallaPrime]

As GrnXnham said about the water heater....if you're on an electric water, dropping down from "pretty damn hot" to just "a little beyond comfortable" when you shower should see some really noticeable results. Dropping ours down from 145 to 120 saved us about $30/month over the past five years in the winter, and about $5-10 a month in the summer (city water gets w a r m in the summer).

At the apartment building a buddy of mine manages, this woman just complained that her showers wouldn't even last 15 minutes on hot. He goes over there, and finds that she replaced the shower head with one of those crazy-flow old-fashioned Psycho-movie high flow ones. The woman was dumping her whole electric water heater (40 gallons) every day for a shower. Crazy!

For the math-inclined work this out (it's too late in the day for me). 40 gallons of water, at a 80 degrees rise, every day, just for a shower. Local residental rate is about 11.8c/kwh. For ease of sanity, assume 100% efficiency in kwhr to btu rise in water. It's gotta be more than $1/shower.

 

[thermal guy]

what the hell is a CFL ?

 

[Carpenter]

Compact Flouresent Light

 

[KDOG3]

what the hell is a CFL ?

Compact Flourescent Lights. Their those corkscrew looking light bulbs.

I really think it was the electric ceiling heat. I would set it on like 60-ish and sometimes I would come home from work and my head would feel like it was on fire from above! I think the thermostat was/is probably bad or not sensitive enough. I only used one of the rooms, but it was the biggest room - it covers the living room and master bedroom, even though my house is only about 600 sq.ft. Hmmmm Come to think of it, its a terrible set up... the heat has to build up and work its way down to trip the thermostat. My house is a single house/unit and my nearest neighbor is 200+ feet away. That would be one LONG extension cord! Besides that my neighbor is cool. I do like the idea of shutting off the power and checking the meter. May do that tonight. I've decided to close off rooms I'm not using and making sure the ceiling heat isn't running in those areas. I also sealed up around my A/C today (its a wall unit). So that should help.

My house has a chimney thats been sealed off on the inside. Hmmm.... maybe I'll have to open that back up and put a fireplace back in there this summer.

I appreciate the suggestions guys. Amazing how a thread on LED flashlights turn into "How to heat your home"... LOL. Oh well.

 

[GaryF]

A ZebraLight H50 will run 14 hrs plus on medium with a single Eneloop AA rechargeable. Medium provides enough room light for easy navigation and some tasks, but not enough to read by comfortably unless it's within a few feet of what you are reading.

I agree with what others said regarding finding better places to save electricity, but wanted to offer an option in line with your question. A few candles would work well, too, and would help to heat the room.

 

[KDOG3]

You know, going through this isn't too bad though and even kinda fun, believe it or not. (Except for the $$$ part!) Makes my try to think of ways to heat the house WITHOUT power - like people did 200 years ago. Goodness how did they survive? LOL! Not bad skills for disaster/survival/extended power outage situations. I decided last night to shut off that ceiling heat, go to bed and see how cold it was when I got up. When I woke up it was a tad below 50. Brrrr! Like camping inside! LOL! Yes, I'm crazy. But I'm in the mood to stick it to the electric company next month. When the guy comes out to read the meter, make him think WTF? Does anyone live here? LOL!

 

[IdiotsAbound]

Compact Flourescent Lights. Their those corkscrew looking light bulbs.

I really think it was the electric ceiling heat. I would set it on like 60-ish and sometimes I would come home from work and my head would feel like it was on fire from above! I think the thermostat was/is probably bad or not sensitive enough. I only used one of the rooms, but it was the biggest room - it covers the living room and master bedroom, even though my house is only about 600 sq.ft. Hmmmm Come to think of it, its a terrible set up... the heat has to build up and work its way down to trip the thermostat. My house is a single house/unit and my nearest neighbor is 200+ feet away. That would be one LONG extension cord! Besides that my neighbor is cool. I do like the idea of shutting off the power and checking the meter. May do that tonight. I've decided to close off rooms I'm not using and making sure the ceiling heat isn't running in those areas. I also sealed up around my A/C today (its a wall unit). So that should help.

Electric ceiling heat?? That's a big loss right there as that kind of heating is very inefficient since heat RISES. If it was floor heating, it would be more efficient since the heat is rising to heat the room and you can keep the thermostat lower.

Since the heater is overhead and heat rises, the heater has to work harder in order to get the needed heat down. That's why your head feels like it's on fire and since the thermostat is basically eye-height or lower, the heat takes longer to reach it so the thermostat keeps the heater turned on even longer. Get rid of that heater and get heaters that work from the floor. Even floorboard heaters are way more efficient than ceiling heaters.

 

[moldyoldy]

Off-forum, certainly, but the subject is interesting. The thread will probably be moved to the "Cafe" soon.

However, some input from a person who has fiddled around with many ways of saving electricity. Yes, I have a "Kill-A-Watt" from www.cyberguys.com. A simple summary: In any month that the central AC (18500BTU) does not run in my 1040 sq ft house with 3 bedrooms, my summer bill is about 150KWH/month and winter climbs to maybe 200KWH/month. My electricity costs about 8.5 cents/KWH. My girls were trained as they grew up. My wife is about half trained and stopped. However, I am still trying...

So what have I done or still do? The house has only CFL - Compact FLuorescent - lighting, outside or inside. Yes, the outside lights turn on slowly when it is below zero F, but so what. Just turn them on a bit sooner, or have a Fenix P3D Q5 available for the animal incursions in the yard... The temperature in the house during the heating season when we are up/awake is set to 63/64 degrees. Temp in the house in the heating season when we are not at home is set as low as the thermostat will go, somewhere around 57 deg F. No, I will NOT use a programmable thermostat. I don't want the heat turning on and coming up to temp when we are not home - wasted heat. The water heater is set to 120 deg F. I attempt to keep the lights off when no one is in the room - almost a lost cause, but I still am reasonably successful. The only "decorative" lighting are the Christmas lights. The single 18.5cu ft top freezer refrigerator consumes less than 100KWH a month, and I clean the coils about once a month or two, and set the temps a bit higher than recommended. ie: the "freezer" runs at about 10deg, not zero deg F. The fridge runs at about 40 deg F, not lower. For myself I use a couple LED flashlights when I am on the computer and not reading some printed matter on the desk. Otherwise I have a 13watt CFL on a swing-arm desk lamp. For example, right now while typing this I have 3 LED flashlights well placed on my desk and operating at a combined lumens of about 200 lumens. When I get up in the morning I leave the temp at 60 deg F and do not normally turn on any house lights. I get ready for work using one of my flashlights with an output ranging in the order of about 100-150 lumens. Am I crazy? Certifiably so! however my electric bill is low!

 

[jasonsmaglites]

electric celing heat! :mecry:
it would be smarter to heat your house by setting your wood floors on fire.

i can vouch that a fireplace insert is an AWESOME way to heat the house. we get the fire nice and hot and turn the fan on high and it will heat my whole house to 80 on a 40 degree day. only thing is, figure on two saturdays of log splitting to stock up for a winter. if you don't mind working a little to save money...

if you don't have the money for new windows, put up plastic around them for now. you need to be as efficent as possible with that horrible electric heat (from the celing no less)

 

[abvidledUK]

I suggest a tent and campfire, doesn't use any electricity at all.

 

[asdalton]

For the math-inclined work this out (it's too late in the day for me). 40 gallons of water, at a 80 degrees rise, every day, just for a shower. Local residental rate is about 11.8c/kwh. For ease of sanity, assume 100% efficiency in kwhr to btu rise in water. It's gotta be more than $1/shower.

Pretty close.

(40 gal)*(80 °F)*(8.3 lb/gal)*(1 BTU/°F/lb)*(1 kWh/3413 BTU) = 7.8 kWh
7.8 kWh*$0.118/kWh = $0.92

 

[abvidledUK]

Pretty close.

(40 gal)*(80 °F)*(8.3 lb/gal)*(1 BTU/°F/lb)*(1 kWh/3413 BTU) = 7.8 kWh
7.8 kWh*$0.118/kWh = $0.92

Don't forget to add in the cost of the water.

Then of course there's depreciation of the shower, maintenance etc !

SLN FCN in Excel, eg... (initial cost+0.01)/(period owned+1)