Driving for free

[wycolo]

Timothy said:

> companies have the habit of going out of business.
> I chose an 18 year lease all paid up in front.

Hmmm, vewwy intewesting . . . maybe the hamburger will be all you'll get. [exit stage left]
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[neroden]

Best guess based on winter bills is that my run-rate, without AC, is about 1200Kwh per month, and I think I can move the majority of that to overnight, plus the car charging, of course.

Uh... yow. Without A/C I'm running 380 kWh a month. My parents use several times that, but they have an enormous house (it has its own ballroom) and they make no attempt at all to be energy-efficient.

Have you considered LED lighting? It saved a lot more energy than I expected.

Of course it sounds like the A/C is the dominant expense where you are, and even with really good insulation, even good heat pumps are pretty expensive to run. My A/C has been known to triple my electric bill.

 

[jerry33]

Uh... yow. Without A/C I'm running 380 kWh a month. My parents use several times that, but they have an enormous house (it has its own ballroom) and they make no attempt at all to be energy-efficient.

My winter rate is about the same as Pete's. In summer during the worst month it almost doubles--and no EV or plug-in yet. (1800 sq. ft.)

Have you considered LED lighting? It saved a lot more energy than I expected.

I have a couple of LEDs but most are CFLs and most of those have the ballast in the fixtures so I only have to replace the glass bits.

Of course it sounds like the A/C is the dominant expense where you are, and even with really good insulation, even good heat pumps are pretty expensive to run. My A/C has been known to triple my electric bill.

I've done a few tricks with the house so that A/C isn't quite dominant. Mostly the electric expense is computers.

 

[pete8314]

Uh... yow. Without A/C I'm running 380 kWh a month. My parents use several times that, but they have an enormous house (it has its own ballroom) and they make no attempt at all to be energy-efficient.

Have you considered LED lighting? It saved a lot more energy than I expected.

Of course it sounds like the A/C is the dominant expense where you are, and even with really good insulation, even good heat pumps are pretty expensive to run. My A/C has been known to triple my electric bill.

I'm 90% LED, the rest are CFL. the A/C basically doubles my daily consumption, the pool filter doesn't help either, although it only used 280w. There's a few PCs running 24/7, and the water heater is electric too (not my choice). It's a new house, but build standards and levels of insulation are still woeful compared to what I'm used to in other countries, so that doesn't help. I agree though, LED lights and Nest has bought my bill down around 28% compared to last year. 3500sqft by the way, 2 story.