Hawkes
Hardcore
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Post by Hawkes on Feb 12, 2010 21:46:43 GMT -4
That sucks, $800/month for electricity. Have you considered a second heating system? I heat with oil, a hot water baseboard heating system and I pay $200/month year round (budget billing) and my electric bill is $105/month for the lights & appliances. The boiler provides the domestic hot water. In Quebec where electricity is cheap because of Hydro power I've seen electric forced air heating systems . Just imagine a really huge toaster. Your winter bill is no better than his? He has an all inclusive bill for $800 for 2 months, you subsidize your winter bill by paying year round. It looks like you pay $610 every two months even in the summer. Your two month bill in the heating season might even be higher than his.
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luvmyjeep
Jeeper
Work sucks...I'm goin' Jeepin'!!!
Posts: 1,211
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Post by luvmyjeep on Feb 14, 2010 23:31:51 GMT -4
I'm not sure of the square footage of our house but I believe it's around 1200 not including the basement. The house is old - about 135 years old, but its windows and insulation have been updated.
The house is a 3-bedroom story-and-a-half, and I read somewhere before that two-stories or story-and-a-half style homes are cheaper to heat than bungalows, although I'm not sure if this is true or not. Our house is heated with wood and oil, I'd say 90% wood and 10% oil. We bought $300 worth of oil in September and still have a 1/4 tank so we are doing well in that regard. We have also used about 2 cords of wood so far (at $200 a cord). So I'm happy with our heating costs so far this year. If it stays fairly mild for the rest of the winter we will probably have heated our house for under $1000 this year.
Our power bill for Sept-Nov was $207. For Nov-Jan it was $226. We turn off the Tim Hortons coffee brewer after each use now. That has saved us around $35 a month as in the summer our bill was around $290.
Now one thing about heating with wood is that it leaves our basement unheated because the woodstove is on the main level. Even unheated, on the coldest days, it never gets below 8 degrees or so down there. But...our electric hot water heater is down there. So if it's only 8 degrees in the basement the hot water heater is going to cycle on and off a lot more to keep the standby water hot. I told Jeff that we should buy one of those hot water tank insulating blankets. I think Crappy has them for around $50.00. They say it can save up 20% in power consumption.
The other big power consumer in our house is the washer and dryer. They are used a lot in our house, as the daily nursing care for Jeff's mom produces a lot of laundry. In the summer we always use the clothesline though.
Randy I'd have a heart attack if I got a power bill like yours. I was freaking out over a $290 power bill (for two months). Turning off the coffee brewer now has it down to $226. ;D Maybe once we have the insulating blanket on the hot water tank it will be down to $200.
Good luck with NSP - I hope you get it sorted out. If the meter proves to be defective you should be entitled to a credit on your bill.
Cheers, Cindy
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Post by Truro Offroad on Feb 18, 2010 10:05:47 GMT -4
Updated -
Well NSP was out to check the line voltage and look at the connections in the box, He said there was nothing wrong with the connections in the box, but replaced them anyways...
After he replaced them, I had the incoming feeds checked..with all 220 off in the house, house was using 4.5amps, turned on a 220 breaker for a heater, which draws 16amps and the feeds were reading 21.0 amps right where it should be, never moved off that draw at all..where as before it would bounce all around.
So I checked the average daily usage from the last meter read till they put the new meter on, 100kwh a day.. since they were out on monday and changed the connections, 77kwh a day..
so about 23kwh a day less or about 1449 kwh less per bill,
Now I am gonna be in for a fight with NSP for a credit, due to there bad equipment
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Big G
Hardcore
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Post by Big G on Feb 18, 2010 10:13:30 GMT -4
Glad to hear the problem's been found. Good luck with NSP.
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yotaman
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Bringin the PANE!
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Post by yotaman on Feb 18, 2010 12:32:05 GMT -4
Good luck as well, but would it be less because of the mild weather? Thus the heater not working as hard.
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Post by Truro Offroad on Feb 18, 2010 13:10:39 GMT -4
Good luck as well, but would it be less because of the mild weather? Thus the heater not working as hard. Can't imagine, i haven't changed anything in the house, everything is still the same.. and we only had that one cold week.. I averaged 100kwh from Nov to now, it only changed on Monday..when he changed the connections in the box
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luvmyjeep
Jeeper
Work sucks...I'm goin' Jeepin'!!!
Posts: 1,211
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Post by luvmyjeep on Feb 18, 2010 13:40:50 GMT -4
Gook luck Randy. I'd be fighting for a credit too. Let us know how you make out.
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rin
N
Kilo's other half!
Posts: 11
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Post by rin on Feb 18, 2010 14:25:27 GMT -4
Best of luck... It is a good thing that you are an observant homeowner... Many people would not go as far.
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MFR
Jeeper
annoying 'cause i'm right
My beater has vinyl
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Post by MFR on Feb 18, 2010 20:28:52 GMT -4
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Post by Truro Offroad on Apr 5, 2010 8:15:10 GMT -4
Update:
In for a fight with NSP.. they are trying to tell me that a loose or bad connection will have no affect on the amount of power consumption the house is using. They don't seem to understand that a bad connection requires more power to go through it to meet the demand on it.
And the rep had no answer as to why the day before i used 100kwh and the day after the connections were replaced I only used 78kwh..
Supposed to have a supervisor call me tomorrow
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Post by theonlybull on Apr 5, 2010 10:44:04 GMT -4
it's easy to play ignorant to the problem, when the person on the other end of the line is.... tech's arn't paid to answer phones......
good luck though
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