Friday, November 17, 2017
A Question For My American Readers
This morning I have been watching one of those homemaking videos I wrote about and the lady said they were using something like 3 kWh per hour when their heating system was on. I was like did I hear it good, because we use 3 kWh per day on average (yesterday it was only 2 actually). Of course, we heat with gas which is quite expensive,too; but still utility bills in the USA must be huge. Can anyone enlighten me about this issue?
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Some people (like Amish) will use wood when doing big projects like canning.
ReplyDeleteElectric is common these days to heat and cook as there are many "wind mills" and "solar panels"......from the electric company. The electric company may use coal.
Yes, we have them, too; the point is, do people in America really use that much electricity? Because 3kWh is like 72 per day??? I can't imagine anyone using that many.
ReplyDeleteData point from the Mojave desert. Annual average electrical use for a 130 square meter house is 15kWh per day, most of it (32kWh per day) in the summer running an evaporative cooler: it runs about 40-45 degrees C during the day. Cost is $0.031 to $0.167 per kWh, the more you use the more it costs. Natural gas heating uses about 1.5 Therm per day in the winter as we see temperatures near freezing then. Cost is $1.14 to $1.17 per Therm. We're fairly well off so we could probably reduce both electric and gas by about a third to a half if we needed to.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, per blog rules, pick up a handle. Thanks for the info. My airco costs 1 kWh per hour, luckily in our climate we don't need it that often. The highest temps we have in summer lie around 30*C but since we practically live in a big marsh, the moisture in the air makes it difficult to breathe:) Our electricity tariffs are very high, plus we pay ENORMOUS taxes on top of that. That is enough to encourage one to sit with a candle every evening, especially when you think what they are doing with all this money... Natgas use in winter is between 100k-200k cubic meters per month, depends on how cold it is (luckily not that cold). I think that our energy bills are high, but if I used 32 kWh per day I wouldn't be able to pay it...
ReplyDeleteSilly me, of course, it should be just 100-200 cubic meters, but the numbers I write down in winter are all 6 figures so it's quite confusing:)
DeleteI'm randomly popping in, hello! I've been a lurking reader for a while on your blog. I feel like I can chime in on this with my data point, Midwestern US.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is entirely possible to use that much in a day here. I took a glance at one of our bills from our previous place. The highest usage of that year was 2597kwh in December so it averaged to 85 per day, dependent on the "days of service", not days in the month. This is with electric, and electric only, heat. We kept the house at about 64*F (17/18*C). I don't have the specific bill from several years ago, but the electric bill surpassed $400 (the one above was around $300), so the usage was much higher than that (we had an incredibly cold spell that year). I cannot recall the exact cost per kWh, but it is fairly cheap.
Caveat: This was an old, non-insulated house. I hung blankets on doors and windows to help mitigate air loss. We turned the heat down at night to the mid 50s. As far as paying for it, we knew electric bills at this place were going to be high so we could budget for it. They were very cheap in the summer ($40/$50ish). There are programs available that averages the billing throughout the year so there aren't huge swings in price but we did not use them as this was a rented home and we didn't want to have a "catch up" at the end of our time there.
Americans are profligate in their energy use, as well as paper and water. I know lots of people who run heat and air 24/7 all year long. Probably the majority here in the South. We have huge resources and I think that makes us waste a lot. I'm curious as to why such high taxes in your country.
ReplyDeleteRosey, hello and welcome to the blog! Wow, nearly 3000kWh in December alone. I don't use that much in a year. But then, you don't heat with gas...In our house the average is about 19*C, used to be 17-18*C, then the boiler broke down and we bought a new model which is more economical:) But I do put it higher on weekends, like till 20*C. We never pay per month, but it's always calculated as average which is well, higher than 50 but waaay lower than 300 let alone 400, but it's together with gas.
ReplyDeleteMrs WMC, don't Americans on average earn more, too? That's how you guys can afford all these bills:) About they taxes, THEY say it's about environment but I suspect it's about different things. This welfare state won't pay for itself!
ReplyDeleteHi! I live in the Northeast US. We heat with home heating oil with alone can be $200-300 per month. Our electric bills tend to be high too although we do all we can think of to conserve. We've replace all our lightbulbs with LED lights and my husband even installed programmable motion sensors so in certain areas are only lit after sundown if movement is detected and the lights turn off automatically after 4 minutes of no movement. I think we have a few things that use a LOT of electricity though: a dehumidifier in our basement to prevent dampness and mold issues (that can cost at least $50/month alone), we have a well which uses electricity to draw water, we have a large (80 gallon), electric hot water tank which we would love to replace with something more efficient but it still runs and that is expensive to replace, my husband is a software engineer and has several home computers and a home network. I think we use about 1200 kWh/month. He makes a decent living but the northeast is a very expensive area to live. We pay state income tax, federal income tax, high local property takes, excise taxes on vehicles, plus numerous fees. Plus, a good chunk of his income goes to pay for health insurance.
ReplyDeleteSanne, I live in Texas and we have to have the AC going 24/7 because it's so hot and humid here most of the year. Our family of four live in a 1300 square foot house, which is on the smaller side for houses in our area, but it works for us. I'm a SAHM, so we are home most of the time, running the AC, electronics, etc. This is how my latest electric bill is broken down per my statement: we used 911 kWh from October 11 to November 10 and we are charged $0.03022202/kWh so we are being charged $27.53 for our usage. With our fees and other charges, our bill this month is $104.34. Our highest bill is always the bill for July to August (the hottest months here) and we used 1597 kWh for that time period. We were charged $0.035587/kWh and our total bill was $177.68 with all the charges. In our house, we've never had a bill over $180 and from what I know from my friends and family, $200 is pretty normal for their bills in the summertime/peak time. I hope this helps answer your question. Let me know if you want me to clarify anything. Have a blessed day!
ReplyDeleteMrs Cote, top health insurance for two (with a lot of dentist stuff covered) costs I think about 285 euro per month, any minors are insured for free on their parents' policy and have the same coverage the parents have. You get part of this sum back each month if your combined income falls under a certain amount. Mandatory deductible is 385 as of now though they want to make it higher.
ReplyDeleteMaggy, thanks, do you know how much 1300 square foot is in meters? Blessings to you, too!
ReplyDeleteAlso, as far as I understand the fees come on top the price for electricity itself? Here we pay per kWh plus sales tax plus energy tax, that's why it's so expensive.
Sanne, yes the fees come on top of the electricity usage costs. We pay an energy tax and admin fee/sales tax on top of what we use. My 1300 square feet house is equivalent to 121 square meters. I hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteMaggy, I see, so it's not much different than over here:) I think 120 square meters for a family of 4 is quite a decent house, btw. After the war people here often used to live in 60 sq m apartments with 4 children, which are now on the market as starter homes for 1 person...
ReplyDelete