Energy Hog Update

A while back I posted a concern that we might be using more electricity than the normal family. Based on the responses I got back I realized that something was drastically wrong.

So I launched a project to reduce my Electricity expenses. My average bill before the PSNH rate reduction was about $310/month. My initial goal was to save $100 a month. Thanks to the PSNH rate reduction, My bill for the July was $270 - even though the usage was actually up (thanks to a really hot spell where we had several air-conditioners running practically non-stop). So I was almost halfway there without doing anything - which caused me to re-evaluate my goal. My goal is now to get the Electric Bill under $200 per month.

Step 1: New Washing Machine

Now, if your washing machine is functioning fine, it probably doesn't make sense to replace it just to save electricity, but since ours was on the way out, rather than buy another top-loader, we decided to get a high-efficiency front-loader.

We chose the Kenmore HE3 which was on sale for $999 - which seemed like a really good value. It was probably about $200 more than the equivalent-featured top loader which we would have chosen. Although we also got a $50 Energy Star rebate, so the price difference was really only about $150.

I was surprised to find out just how efficient the new front loaders are. A FULL LOAD of wash uses 17 gallons of water vs. about 45 gallons for my old one. Therefore, including hot water usage, the new one uses about .45 KWH (6 cents) per load compared to about 2.5 KWH (30 cents) for my old one. For a family of 7, that adds up pretty quickly. They will also tell you at the store that front-loaders will also reduce drying times. There's no good way to estimate how much, though.

Results: First of all, we love the washer (well, as much as you CAN love a clothes washer). For one thing, it's much quieter than the old one. Also, the capacity is a bit larger, so we are pretty much down to just one load of laundry per day compared to two a day with the old one. We haven't seen a huge reduction in drying times, but maybe that's because we are ramming a lot more clothes in there now that our washer has a higher capacity.

My latest Electricity bill which includes about 3 weeks with the new washer was $246, MOST of which can be attributed to my hot water usage being only 379 KWH as opposed 600 KWH the month before - and an average of about 560 KWH for the previous year. And this is a month where we had houseguests for a week, so I would have expected hot water usage to be slightly higher. All in all, I would say the Washing Machine was a great purchase, and should pay for itself very quickly.

Step 2: Identify which appliances are may be "Wasting" electricity

My Friend L-Dub recommended that I buy a kill-a-watt electric meter. I found one on ebay for 24.95 with free shipping. Two days later I was ready to go. My first target: The basement refrigerator. It seems like every time I go down there it sounds like it is running. So I plugged it in and waited. After an hour I couldn't wait any longer - it had used about .25 KWH. Then I let it go for 24 hours. At 24 hours, it had used 6.5 KWH. The most disturbing thing is that based on the first hours usage, I was able to predict how much it would use over a 24 hour period. That isn't how refrigerators are supposed to work. They are supposed to run for a little while, and then shut off - but mine was running constantly. To put it in perspective, 6.5 KWH a day turns out to be almost 200 a month - or 1/7 of my non-water-heating electricity consumption. That is TWICE as much as my 400 gallon HOT TUB is supposed to use on a COLD day. It figures out to be about $25 a month with the reduced rates - over $30 a month under the old rates. That is way too much to pay for keeping your extra soda cold, so we unplugged it immediately.