Utility Bills

I think my household wastes too much electricity. I just got a bill today for $114. There are 3 adults in the house. I'm in a townhouse. My sister lives down the street. Same size house. Her bills are around $75 a month. 1200 square feet approx.

What does everyone else spend for hydro? I think my bill is ridiculous.

Any tips on how to force my roommates to be more mindful of their electricity usage? Their rent includes utilities. Most of our usage was during off peak hours but still - that's a huge bill I think

actually thats pretty good.. same here. 4 adults small townhouse. 2 bills here.. were electric heating too.

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Originally Posted by debba1c

I think my household wastes too much electricity. I just got a bill today for $114. There are 3 adults in the house. I'm in a townhouse. My sister lives down the street. Same size house. Her bills are around $75 a month. 1200 square feet approx.

What does everyone else spend for hydro? I think my bill is ridiculous.

Any tips on how to force my roommates to be more mindful of their electricity usage? Their rent includes utilities. Most of our usage was during off peak hours but still - that's a huge bill I think

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It depends what appliances are using electricity. If you have a hot water tank heated with electricity and your sister's hot water tank is heated with gas, that would make a huge difference. You have to compare apples to apples here.... We used to live in a home where we had a gas hot water tank - now we have an electric one....sigh...wish we could go back to gas.

We are two adults who just moved out of a 3 bedroom townhouse. It was approximately 1250 sqft.

We had everything electric - water heater, baseboard heaters, etc.

For our last month our bill was just under $250. I nearly pooped my pants when I saw this because I try as hard as possible to not use energy. Our house was not by any means warm I assure you. I hung clothes on a line in the basement to dry them and everything.

But what made me feel better is that powerstream has this option of comparing your hydro consumption to people in your area. For example they compared only the townhouses in our complex and it went a little something like this:

There are 4 people in our neighborhood who use less hydro then us.

There are two others who consume about the same as us.

And there are 37 different houses that use MORE then us.

We are 900 square feet condo, top floor and on the smart meter. And we are $121 a month or less depending on the AC or electric heater. Heat is paid with condo fees but its cold. I only run washer, dryer and dishwasher after 7pm but for us I think we have "old school" wiring I was told.

Hi OP.
Here are some power saving tips from Hydro One.
Hope this helps.
http://www.hydroone.com/MyHome/SaveE...s/Default.aspx

This may help.
Video on doing an energy audit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYvlt2s6jHU

Video about staying warm but saving money
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Py1uc6cmLk

Energy prices may be rising in the Canada, but there is a small light on the horizon as people use nearly a third less electricity to light their homes than they did 16 years ago.The improvement is because of the phasing out of inefficient incandescent lightbulbs and their replacing them with energy-efficient alternatives.Chief among them is the compact fluorescent bulb, which uses 80 per cent less electricity than the older kind but produces the same amount of light.You will get the tips to reduce electricity rates here Shop tx Electricity.

Don't know if this helps but some costs could be from electronics esp computers. When our daughter and her fiance lived with us, our bills skyrocketed. When they moved out they dropped by an astounding $70 a month! Strange thing was that their landlords then complained about higher than normal electricity bills when they moved in. You might want to suggest that they turn their computers, printers etc. off during the day. Might help.

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Originally Posted by crafter

Don't know if this helps but some costs could be from electronics esp computers. When our daughter and her fiance lived with us, our bills skyrocketed. When they moved out they dropped by an astounding $70 a month! Strange thing was that their landlords then complained about higher than normal electricity bills when they moved in. You might want to suggest that they turn their computers, printers etc. off during the day. Might help.

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I have my computer and everything associated with it on a power bar. When I turn off the computer for the night the whole power bar gets switched off. I used to leave everything plugged in. It sure does make a difference.

You have done a great job. I really like it.

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Originally Posted by PurpleBunny89

I have my computer and everything associated with it on a power bar. When I turn off the computer for the night the whole power bar gets switched off. I used to leave everything plugged in. It sure does make a difference.

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I do the same thing, but I never thought it made a difference. I figured the bulk of the energy consumption came from HVAC...how much of a difference did it make for you?

I cant believe how low peoples bills are. I am in PEI. with a 960 sq foot house, electric hot water and oil heat I normally run about 160 before I converted and became a power nazi. with half my house on LED's, new timer light switches max run time 1 hour normal run time 5-15 mins, turning off hot water heater while I am at work and and at night(only need it for showers and dishes), I was able to get it down to about 110 dollars. and its just me and two kids(2 and 4 years old).

that being said we have a service fee of about 30 per month and our rate for electric is 12.78 all the time. no peak or low usage adjustments