How much have you spent on electricity this year?

[Dana]

As of November 30th, we have incurred $875.84 in electricity costs year to date for our primary residence. This is roughly $80 per month. We live in a detached two-story, four bedroom house that is about 2500 square feet.

I am curious how we measure up to other families. We try to be conscious of not being wasteful.

[CanadianCapitalist]

$589 this year. $622 last year. We live in a detached, standard 2-storey building. Approx. 1500 sq. ft.

[Berubeland]

Way too much!!!! I spend about $180 per month. I think it because of all the computers around here. We have about five running at all times.

I am also self employed so work from home as well which adds to the costs.

[JDWood]

Calgary 2300 sqft ( includes finished basement ) we pay avg 169 per month, works out to 2028. now that includes 70 per month for water and sewer tax, so 2028 - (70 * 12 ) = 1188, and also we have recycling/garbage tax of 12 per month, 1188 -144 = 1044 per year.

[HaroldCrump]

My average is about $50 a month between Oct - June and about $75 between July - Sep.
It is one of my pet peeves that so little of the bill is actual usage - the majority is delivery charges and junk fees.
In ONT, we have the additional, "debt retirement charge" of the now defunct Ontario Hydro Corp. which our generations (and a couple more to come) will be bearing for the follies of the past.
Anyhow, last year I embarked on a consumption reduction spree and was disappointed that all my best efforts led to less than $10 difference in the overall bill.
However, since then our household consumption has reduced by close to 25%.
I can only hope that it has helped the environment, even though it may not have helped my bottom line much.

Earlier this year, our hydo company instituted the time-slot based billing.
This means that families that have one partner stay home are penalized than those families where both members work.
For example in summer, the air condition runs during the peak hrs.
Because consumption is not the main component of the bill, this has not made a significant difference, however, the bill has gone up slightly since the new meters were installed.

Overall, the consumption is about 25% of the bill.

For comparison purposes, we live in a 1,300 sq. home in central Ontario.

[Dana]

last year I embarked on a consumption reduction spree and was disappointed that all my best efforts led to less than $10 difference in the overall bill.
However, since then our household consumption has reduced by close to 25%.
I can only hope that it has helped the environment, even though it may not have helped my bottom line much.

Earlier this year, our hydo company instituted the time-slot based billing.
This means that families that have one partner stay home are penalized than those families where both members work.
For example in summer, the air condition runs during the peak hrs.
Because consumption is not the main component of the bill, this has not made a significant difference, however, the bill has gone up slightly since the new meters were installed.

Overall, the consumption is about 25% of the bill.

For comparison purposes, we live in a 1,300 sq. home in central Ontario.

We have been uber-diligent about our consumption as well, and it is frustrating when that diligence isn't reflected on the total cost. Our provider installed smart meters in our community over a year ago, but they haven't been turned on yet, so I can't say yet whether it will make a difference.

I stay home, but I don't run the a/c or the furnace when I am alone in the house. I don't like a/c and it seems a waste to heat a whole house for one person.

Regarding the other charges on our most recent bill: the delivery charge, debt retirement, regulatory charge and GST were 60% of the total bill.

[CanadianCapitalist]

Speaking of electricity charges, I wonder if you folks have one of those newer furnaces with DC motors that use far less electricity to run. When we changed our furnaces a few years back, I noticed a sharp drop in my electricity bill.

Added: We heat our home using natural gas. We have a natural gas water heater. Our dryer is electric.

[Dr_V]

In an average month, we use about 1500 kWh of electricity. (It's pretty consistent year-round; it fluctuates upwards a bit in the somewhere, around 1800 kWh, but goes down to 1200 kWh usually in the winter.)

We just got our smart heater installed yesterday. I look forward to it -- I think we'll be able to save a bit more.

We have a hot tub (it came with our house when we bought it). It's a money pit. The one year that we ran it year-round, our electricity bill was ~$1600 more expensive than the following year where we didn't run it at all. So the plan, essentially, is for me to rip it out next summer ... hopefully someone in the K/W area will take it off my hands.


House specs:
- 90%-efficient natural gas furnace
- 95%-efficient on-demand Navien gas hot water heater
- R-60 insulation in the attic
- 3777 total sq. ft. (includes basement)



K.

[Dr_V]

Speaking of electricity charges, I wonder if you folks have one of those newer furnaces with DC motors that use far less electricity to run. When we changed our furnaces a few years back, I noticed a sharp drop in my electricity bill.

Funny you should mention that.

We run our furnace fan continuously -- we find that, in combination with a good filter, it helps to keep the dust down, the air fresh, and reduces the frequency of heating/cooling.

Anyway, last week, I got paranoid about the potential cost of the continuous-run fan, so I opened up the furnace, and realized that the motor on our furnace had four speed settings. I rewired the furnace fan to use the lowest setting for continuous run operation. (And my furnace isn't too new -- it's about 6-7 years old.) If the documentation is to believed, this dropped the current consumption from about ~10A to ~6A.

I bet that a lot more people have this capability than they realize.

[FrugalTrader]

We're on the equal payment plan which costs us $227/month - that is both heat and light. 2 Story detached house with garage (about 2000 sq ft).

Note that here in NL, we pay an annual water tax (no hydro meters).