Anyone else tracking their hydro smart meter readings?

[momof5boys]

I'm getting excited....we got rid of our large fish tank which obviously used a lot of electricity because we have gone down to about 19/20 kwh per day. The weather is still near freezing at night in our neck of the woods, so I'm looking forward to summer when we don't need the electricity for the furnace fan in the early mornings.

[Abby5]

I did 16 loads of laundry last week so excited!!!

[bobbiegirl2010]

We just started TOU billing here in our town on May 1st. So far I do all laundry and run dishwasher after 7pm and do all baking on wknds. Because we're all home during the day (I run a home daycare and DH works afternoon shift) it's hard not to use lots of hydro during peak times. DH likes hot meals at lunch (since he is not home for supper) and I feed supper to the daycare kids so I cook 2 hot meals per day during the week. I'm trying to cook all meals on bbq, crockpot, toaster oven, stovetop or microwave and completely avoid using oven. Hope this makes a difference!

[greencanuck]

It has been two months since we switched to TOU.
By conscientious usage, my bills have gone down slightly.

I already use so little electricity that it would take really specialized efforts to go lower.
My daily usage is 2-8 KW with an average daily use of about 3KW.
(An average household consumes 30-60 KW per day)

A random example:

FRI, APR 27, 2012
2.26 KW total use


On Peak = 7am-9am, 5pm-7pm
18% (0.39kWh) of your energy use accounts for 26% of your energy cost.

Mid Peak = 11am-5pm
8% (0.19kWh) of your energy use accounts for 11% of your energy cost.

Off Peak is 7pm to 7am and weekends
74% (1.68kWh) of your energy use accounts for 64% of your energy cost. Off Peak is 7pm to 7am and weekends

FRI, APR 27, 2012

Your total cost for this time period is $0.16 based on Time-Of-Use pricing.
This accounts for 2.26 kWh of energy use.

On Peak = 7am-9am, 5pm-7pm
25% ($0.04) of your energy cost accounts for only 18% of your energy use.

Mid Peak = 11am-5pm
11% ($0.02) of your energy cost accounts for 8%of your energy use.

Off Peak is 7pm to 7am and weekends
64% ($0.10) of your energy cost accounts for74% of your energy use.

[cdngal75]

I have a smart meter but am not on time of use. As I had signed onto a fixed price contract, I had the choice to switch. I have read horror stories, so decided against switching. If I do switch, I can never go back to the fixed price system.

32 is my average for the winter months, for a family of four. I would imagine that is fairly normal. Unless you are extremely frugal with your usage I don't think it would be much lower.

[greencanuck]

Here are my monthly bills.
I have been very conscientious the last three months while we have had TOU.

05-23-2012	Utility Bill	32.02
04-25-2012	Utility Bill	31.38
03-22-2012	Utility Bill	33.40
02-23-2012	Utility Bill	38.82
01-23-2012	Utility Bill	38.36
12-22-2011	Utility Bill	46.30
11-23-2011	Utility Bill	39.82
10-25-2011	Utility Bill	41.07

YOUR ENERGY COSTS YESTERDAY = 4.439 kWh = $0.40

• On-Peak:$0.16 (1.3 kWh)
• Mid-Peak:$0.08 (0.75 kWh)
• Off-Peak:$0.16 (2.39 kWh)

For 8 weeks, I was very ill, so was home full time and was unable to be as conservative with my energy costs, as I usually have been. ( ie my personal comfort and easy of use was a higher priority to energy saving.)

APRIL 2012

Your total energy use for this time period is 138.13 kWh which costs $9.94 based on Time-Of-Use pricing.


MAY 2012

Your total energy use for this time period is 178.04 kWh which costs $14.13 based on Time-Of-Use pricing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Average Canadian household daily consumption: 31.86 kWh

My average household daily consumption: 3- 4 kWh

This is accomplished with no special equipment ( ie no current energy saving appliances, no alternative power, etc)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a blog discussing how to consume less energy.
http://thegreencanadian.blogspot.ca/...an-you-go.html

[momof5boys]

Here are my monthly bills.
I have been very conscientious the last three months while we have had TOU.

05-23-2012	Utility Bill	32.02
04-25-2012	Utility Bill	31.38
03-22-2012	Utility Bill	33.40
02-23-2012	Utility Bill	38.82
01-23-2012	Utility Bill	38.36
12-22-2011	Utility Bill	46.30
11-23-2011	Utility Bill	39.82
10-25-2011	Utility Bill	41.07

YOUR ENERGY COSTS YESTERDAY = 4.439 kWh = $0.40

• On-Peak:$0.16 (1.3 kWh)
• Mid-Peak:$0.08 (0.75 kWh)
• Off-Peak:$0.16 (2.39 kWh)

For 8 weeks, I was very ill, so was home full time and was unable to be as conservative with my energy costs, as I usually have been. ( ie my personal comfort and easy of use was a higher priority to energy saving.)

APRIL 2012

Your total energy use for this time period is 138.13 kWh which costs $9.94 based on Time-Of-Use pricing.


MAY 2012

Your total energy use for this time period is 178.04 kWh which costs $14.13 based on Time-Of-Use pricing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Average Canadian household daily consumption: 31.86 kWh

My average household daily consumption: 3- 4 kWh

This is accomplished with no special equipment ( ie no current energy saving appliances, no alternative power, etc)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a blog discussing how to consume less energy.
http://thegreencanadian.blogspot.ca/...an-you-go.html

Just curious...do you live in an apartment? and how many people? Because that would make quite a difference. I would love to get our Kwh down to 4 but that is virtually impossible with the amount of people living here under one roof, and running two chest freezers. But we have brought our consumption down to nearly 19 kwh per day which makes me happy....

[greencanuck]

Just curious...do you live in an apartment? and how many people? Because that would make quite a difference. I would love to get our Kwh down to 4 but that is virtually impossible with the amount of people living here under one roof, and running two chest freezers. But we have brought our consumption down to nearly 19 kwh per day which makes me happy....

MY HOUSEHOLD:
Not to evade your question, but my personal household situation is both simple and complicated.
It is a 1500 sq ft apartment. It is that size to accommodate home businesses / charity work.

The easiest way to try to explain holding capacity would be it averages to one person.
I am away from home frequently ( ie not using power) but also have guests that stay for 25-30% of the month that are not as careful about consumption as I prefer.

I have been able to keep to about half a laundry load per week for my personal clothing laundry and I cycle for my transportation, garden (dirty) and exercise at home.
I fill out the other half of that washer load with either household items, guest laundry or my charity work laundry.
When one of my home businesses (massage) is busy, it causes an extra laundry load a week.
About 95% of all laundry is done at off-peak power times.

I have to cut and trim lawns and unfortunately after 4 different human-powered lawnmowers would not do the job, I use electricity (off peak, for now).

Also, at home, I operate home businesses and several charity groups, including helping a charity group that requires me to use my washing machine, sewing machine and iron. http://sewgorgeous.org/
Most of this energy-consumption is moved to off-peak times (ie cheapest by almost 50%)


YOUR HOUSEHOLD:
Your household utilizing 19 KWh per day for 7 people seems pretty good to me.
Especially if you do not have specialized equipment such as extra energy efficient appliances.

If you want to cut further, the key would be using major appliances less.

The convenience of a fridge and two freezers versus energy costs would have to be your personal decision.

Since your household does so much laundry, an investment in one of the most efficient washing machines could be a smart move.

Another option would be setting a limit of one single washer load per week per person (clothing, bedding and towel, etc).
(ie Monday for Mike, Tuesday for Terry, etc) or ( one large bag for the laundry load limit per person)

One extra bag per week could be for the entire household (ie dinner napkins, rugs, shower curtain, etc) would be an option.

Air drying all laundry would also help save a lot of money.

[RSAS]

oye, hydro makes my head hurt! We don't have the time of use nonsense in BC...yet... It irks me because the "green" times, Im probably either sleeping, or NOT doing laundry/dishes because I don't want to wake the kids... I could set my dishwasher to kick on the the "green time" but I am not about to do laundry in the middle of the night, nor will I be doing my baking at midnight.
We refused installation of the smart meter. I don't want something on the side of my house with so many known issues.

[bobbiegirl2010]

oye, hydro makes my head hurt! We don't have the time of use nonsense in BC...yet... It irks me because the "green" times, Im probably either sleeping, or NOT doing laundry/dishes because I don't want to wake the kids... I could set my dishwasher to kick on the the "green time" but I am not about to do laundry in the middle of the night, nor will I be doing my baking at midnight.
We refused installation of the smart meter. I don't want something on the side of my house with so many known issues.

I have had time of use billing for a month and its really not that bad once you get used to it. Wknds and holidays are 24hr "green times" so I do baking and laundry on wknds to take advantage of the cheaper rates. During the week the "green time" rate starts at 7pm here so I just load my dishwasher after dinner and then wait until 7 to start it. Also if I need to do laundry during the week I can start it at 7pm and it will be done in time for me to put it in the dryer before I go to bed. Then I can just fold it in the morning. Otherwise I can run a load of laundry in the morning during "yellow rates" and then hang my laundry to dry.

[momof5boys]

MY HOUSEHOLD:
Not to evade your question, but my personal household situation is both simple and complicated.
It is a 1500 sq ft apartment. It is that size to accommodate home businesses / charity work.

The easiest way to try to explain holding capacity would be it averages to one person.
I am away from home frequently ( ie not using power) but also have guests that stay for 25-30% of the month that are not as careful about consumption as I prefer.

I have been able to keep to about half a laundry load per week for my personal clothing laundry and I cycle for my transportation, garden (dirty) and exercise at home.
I fill out the other half of that washer load with either household items, guest laundry or my charity work laundry.
When one of my home businesses (massage) is busy, it causes an extra laundry load a week.
About 95% of all laundry is done at off-peak power times.

I have to cut and trim lawns and unfortunately after 4 different human-powered lawnmowers would not do the job, I use electricity (off peak, for now).

Also, at home, I operate home businesses and several charity groups, including helping a charity group that requires me to use my washing machine, sewing machine and iron. http://sewgorgeous.org/
Most of this energy-consumption is moved to off-peak times (ie cheapest by almost 50%)


YOUR HOUSEHOLD:
Your household utilizing 19 KWh per day for 7 people seems pretty good to me.
Especially if you do not have specialized equipment such as extra energy efficient appliances.

If you want to cut further, the key would be using major appliances less.

The convenience of a fridge and two freezers versus energy costs would have to be your personal decision.

Since your household does so much laundry, an investment in one of the most efficient washing machines could be a smart move.

Another option would be setting a limit of one single washer load per week per person (clothing, bedding and towel, etc).
(ie Monday for Mike, Tuesday for Terry, etc) or ( one large bag for the laundry load limit per person)

One extra bag per week could be for the entire household (ie dinner napkins, rugs, shower curtain, etc) would be an option.

Air drying all laundry would also help save a lot of money.

We air dry almost all our laundry...only use the dryer for towels in the winter.
As for purchasing energy efficient appliances, I really am not so sure if it saves in the long term. We spoke with an appliance repair fellow and he said that if our old appliances are running fine not to replace them. From his experience, the newer appliances are junk and need to be replaced in half or quarter the time compared to the older appliances. Our fridge (just a very basic model is 17 years old, and our two large chest freezers are easily 25+ years old). Replacing appliances is far from cheap and what is the point if they are going to break down in ten or so years and need to be replaced again. My parents have new appliances that already needed repairs which cost them in the hundreds of dollars. I think we are still further ahead with our oldies which NEVER needed repairs yet.

[greencanuck]

We air dry almost all our laundry...only use the dryer for towels in the winter.
As for purchasing energy efficient appliances, I really am not so sure if it saves in the long term. We spoke with an appliance repair fellow and he said that if our old appliances are running fine not to replace them. From his experience, the newer appliances are junk and need to be replaced in half or quarter the time compared to the older appliances. Our fridge (just a very basic model is 17 years old, and our two large chest freezers are easily 25+ years old). Replacing appliances is far from cheap and what is the point if they are going to break down in ten or so years and need to be replaced again. My parents have new appliances that already needed repairs which cost them in the hundreds of dollars. I think we are still further ahead with our oldies which NEVER needed repairs yet.

Considering some factors, it might be worth doing a little research about the super-efficient European appliances and comparing to your actual current usage. (ie plug in watt meter)
Those super energy saving appliances are a future goal for me.

Even slightly upgrading my really old (15- 20 + years) fridge and freezer to slightly newer ones (10 yrs old) that were purchased used from a charity shop, cut my energy usage in half. It paid for itself in less than 6 mths.
That was a couple of years ago, I just still keep on saving money, energy and the environment every month that I own them.

[kasha100]

thanks for the info on average household use- had been looking for that!

[winston]

We have had TOU for a year or so now and I have been able to cut my bills down a little but it means doing all your baking, laundry etc. on the weekends and the evenings. I am too tired at night to do much housekeeping so I have to do most of my stuff on weekends. Thanx Hydro One for making my weekends even more boring! It is just me and DH here now so we even shut off the hot water tank during the day and turn it on at night. The tank has been well insulated and keeps the water hot until we use it. If we go away it goes off. We have been doing this for years now and it has not hurt our tank in any way and cut our bill almost in half. This is not for everyone of course. We could not have done it with 3 kids at home although I wanted to throw the hot water tank out when they were teens. Wow they used alot of hot water! lol

[momof5boys]

Does anyone know how many kwh per day a very large chest freezer would use? Just curious....