I thought it would be fun to challenge ourselves to reduce our electric usage in the month of October. I have a goal to keep my daily usage below 25KWH (21 would be awesome!), down from last month's average of 31. My lowest average in the last year was in the month of April and it was 20.6 kwh- this was a bit of a fluke because the next lowest average was 27.1
I look at my meter every few days, sometimes even every day- particularly if I know I did more laundry or dishes or in some way used more electical that day, and I like to keep track of how much.
So I am challenging myself to continue monitoring my usage and I am going to post my results as often as I check my meter. If anyone wants to join me, I'd welcome the company!
Our electric bill dropped by a full 1/3 this month! Must be the fact DD#2 has moved out. So nice to see smaller bills. On the bad side, natural gas is going up 20%...ugh.
When I checked yesterday, we were at 36kwh. Not nearly as low as everyone else here, but definately a big improvement for our family. I would love to see it get under 30kwh for this month.
Good luck! You can do it! Turn off those lights and TVs at the power strip or wall! Power down the computer when not in use, switch to energy efficient mode on dishwasher if you have it (if not, open during dry cycle and let them air-dry instead of heat-dry). No fans or heaters on in rooms you aren't in. :cheer4:
Be in it, to Win it!
Oh Yeah!
GO! GO! GO! :cheergrl:
You gotta getcha, getcha, head in the game!
(that's a HS Musical reference in case you don't know!)
I'm in! I can't look at my meter daily, I don't even know which one is mine, since I live in an apartment, but I can continue being an electricity nazi! My daily average for last month was 12.9kwh per day. I want to see if I can get it lower!
Just checking in for the night, but checked the meter again today, and we only used 19 kwh! I was pretty giddy about that! On the other hand, it rained all day and night so the house was cool, did not need to use any a/c, fans, didn't do any laundry, only one load of dishes. So it was an unusal day for us. But I'll take them as we get them!
As of 10/3:
daily avg since last bill = 21.36 kwh
usage in last 48 hrs= 43 kwh (21.5 avg.)
I have used a little more electricity in the last couple days and it must just be because it is the weekend and everybody is home watching tv, playing video games, etc. But that's ok! =)
Ok. It's time for me to get accountable about my electric usage. I'll have to start checking my meter tomorrow. Looking at my bill I'm averaging about 40kwh a day!!! That's craziness. I just changed my programmable thermostat to be a little warmer when we sleep. I'm usually such a wuss about it being cool when I sleep. Even though we sleep with a regular fan and ceiling fan.
My DH also pointed out that our electric rates have gone up recently. I checked and they have gone up a little. I have a Kil-a-Watt EZ that I'm going to go around and check to see how much each item in my house is using. I'm ready to get this under control!
I' outta this one- while I do try to keep our electric usage down as much as possible, my husband runs his own machine shop, part time, out of garage- how much we use depends largely on how much work he's got! Good luck to all doing ti though.
This is a very cool thread. I don't even look at my meter, but I'm going to start today.
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