LED light bulbs

[Reba]

Our electric bill is nearly $6,000 per year.

:jaw: Is your house full electric? What is the square footage?

 

[Foxrac]

:jaw: Is your house full electric? What is the square footage?

Nearly - we use natural gas for heater and heater tank and our house is around 2,500 sq. ft.

 

[diehardbiker]

Are you doing math work correctly? This would represent $500 dollars each month for electric, it seems unrealistic to me. UNLESS you got electric heater.

Our electric bill is nearly $6,000 per year.

 

[Foxrac]

Are you doing math work correctly? This would represent $500 dollars each month for electric, it seems unrealistic to me. UNLESS you got electric heater.

Yes, our electricity bill is nearly $500 every month.

We got 2 refrigerators (1 new and 1 old), freezer, 2 central AC (1 for entire house and 1 in attic - my bedroom), electric heater (attic only), washer, dryer, dishwasher, my gaming tower (around 700 watts).

However in summer, it is more than $500 but less in spring and fall, so $500 is average.

Also, electricity rate is expensive in my state than in neighboring states.
http://blog.al.com/live/2013/01/despite_cheaper_production_cos.html

 

[diehardbiker]

Sounded has to do with your central Air and old fridge. Old fridge uses much more electricity than modern fridge. 800 watts is for modern fridge, and old fashioned fridge could run as high as 1,200 watts.

How old is your central air? If it is more than 10 years old, then thats the reason for higher electric bills.

Yes, our electricity bill is nearly $500 every month.

We got 2 refrigerators (1 new and 1 old), freezer, 2 central AC (1 for entire house and 1 in attic - my bedroom), electric heater (attic only), washer, dryer, dishwasher, my gaming tower (around 700 watts).

However in summer, it is more than $500 but less in spring and fall, so $500 is average.

 

[Foxrac]

Sounded has to do with your central Air and old fridge. Old fridge uses much more electricity than modern fridge. 800 watts is for modern fridge, and old fashioned fridge could run as high as 1,200 watts.

How old is your central air? If it is more than 10 years old, then thats the reason for higher electric bills.

Our house built in 2005 so 2 central AC are 8 years old.

See my link about high electricity rate in my state.
Despite cheaper fuel costs, Alabama Power bills higher than Georgia Power (corrected) | al.com

 

[diehardbiker]

Wow, Alabama utility company executives won't admit the truth behind it. I was surprise that executives don't mention "Demand factor" for business. Demand factor is very expensive and profitable for utility companies. I am STILL not sure why yours still hitting 500 dollars a month, I never go over 200 dollars a month for electricity. I got 3 computers running, too many TV, and I just kicked in Central Air cause it is getting too hot inside my house.

Can you at least look how many KWH you used each month? I don't care about the cost, just KWH please, can you? I average 650 KWH each month.

And I do have natural gas furnace and barely use it in the last two years and I enjoyed huge savings on Natural gas. I believe I have saved $1,000 already in the past two years, plus my house has been kept toasty warm better than NG furnace offers. This coming winter, it is going to be a real payback. I am restocking firewood, looks like this week may be last week for me to restock them. I had no problem finding free hardwood firewood.

Payback is when you invest something and it takes time for it to start paying for itself. Mine is 2 years, interesting. Whats even better, I am selling two wood burning stoves. I have two great stoves for sale right now. One is for 2,500-3,500 sq ft and other smaller one up to 1,100 sq ft which is not enough for my house. I found right wood stove for my house because the right stove didn't heat up wood stove room over 92 degrees, mostly around 90 and that is where I wanted it to be at. The big stove, I can't get my stove room below 100 degrees! and smaller one I was able to get it to reach 91 degrees but not enough to warm up whole house. The reason why I wanted 90 degrees is that I find it most efficient way to get my whole house warm. 20 degrees above the minimum comfortable temperature for whole house, meaning 70 degrees would consider minimum, adding 20 degrees on top of it will help the furnace push the heating into whole house. Yup, its automated I got two thermostats in my house, one is for Central air and back up natural gas heating, and second one is when the stove room hits 90 degrees, it just kick the furnace fan. I ended up saw lower electric bills, about 200KWH less and that's a lot of savings. Other advantage is that when stove room cools down to 89 degrees the furnace fan stops running and wait for it to increase back to 90 degrees start fan until the point that stove is cooling down. automated is awesome, cause I don't have to worry about when to turn off the furnace fan.

Our house built in 2005 so 2 central AC are 8 years old.

See my link about high electricity rate in my state.
Despite cheaper fuel costs, Alabama Power bills higher than Georgia Power (corrected) | al.com

 

[Reba]

Nearly - we use natural gas for heater and heater tank and our house is around 2,500 sq. ft.

Your house isn't too much bigger than mine. If you use natural gas for heating, then your electric bill should be way less. We use electric for heating, AC, water heater, cooking, washer/dryer--all the big electricity hogs. If we had the same size and conditions that you have, we'd be paying about $250/month, not $500/month.

 

[Reba]

Our house built in 2005 so 2 central AC are 8 years old.

See my link about high electricity rate in my state.
Despite cheaper fuel costs, Alabama Power bills higher than Georgia Power (corrected) | al.com

Your house is newer than my house so I would expect it to be more energy efficient than my house. Mine doesn't have efficient windows, and we have a cheap heat pump. You have zoned AC's, right? Those are usually more efficient.

I'm sorry that you have to pay so much for your electricity. I don't know what we would do in that situation. There is no way we could afford an extra $300 per month for electricity.

I don't know if different light bulbs would make much savings.

 

[Reba]

Our house built in 2005 so 2 central AC are 8 years old.

See my link about high electricity rate in my state.
Despite cheaper fuel costs, Alabama Power bills higher than Georgia Power (corrected) | al.com

I read the link. Sounds like a bunch of fancy footwork by the power company. Their bottom line still results in too high a cost for the consumer.

 

[diehardbiker]

Im thinking same way, something is wrong down there. Perhaps electric meter is defective or there was leaking to another customers taking advantage of free electricity on somebody else's expense. Have they had happened in the past? Oh yes!

Only question I need to ask is how many KWH you used each month. You can look in your electric bills and look at section "KWH used". This is what I am looking for before making solid statement for you.

I read the link. Sounds like a bunch of fancy footwork by the power company. Their bottom line still results in too high a cost for the consumer.

 

[diehardbiker]

In Foxrac case, converting light bulb won't make much difference unless he got like one of these HID lightning for growing garden indoor which I highly doubt he is doing such like that. Yes HID lights for growing plants got very high wattage. The bulb designed for best growing, minimum is 400 watts, perfect full light spectrum needs at least 1KW of HPS (High pressure Sodium) or MH (Metal Halide).

Your house is newer than my house so I would expect it to be more energy efficient than my house. Mine doesn't have efficient windows, and we have a cheap heat pump. You have zoned AC's, right? Those are usually more efficient.

I'm sorry that you have to pay so much for your electricity. I don't know what we would do in that situation. There is no way we could afford an extra $300 per month for electricity.

I don't know if different light bulbs would make much savings.

 

[diehardbiker]

I admit, I did saw $2,000 month electric bill and that was for the month of November. The owner freaked out and thinks it was bad meter. I had to look at it, her house was about 3,500 sq ft, and is on the top of mountain where it is colder. Guess what kind of heating she got? ELECTRIC heater! She has heat pump which helps but only above 32 degrees. Below that, then inductive electric furnace kicks in, and it is 40 KW element. She got two 200 amps services, one dedicated for her electric furnace, and other for the rest including heat pump. I calculated and the meter seems to register correctly. She was so mad and ended up got outdoor wood burning furnace.

Her location, limited oil heating and the cost of oil is closer to electric, no natural gas line up there. Her choices are limited.

 

[diehardbiker]

PowerON, here is your educational presentation

Noticed that CFL is only 5 watts more than LED, 5 watts is equilvent to standard night light bulb. That's not much difference.

Two bulbs on left is called CFL, from left to right, third bulb is LED, and the last one is standard Incandescent bulb.

 

[Grummer]

ah, now i know what's CFL, i have that all over the house, hate it it starts dull, and it pissed me off for reading, i have 1 lamp that (and a hallway light for that instand bright which is best for middle of night)...incandescent, and id imagine the led is too expensive to get right now

 

[diehardbiker]

Soon, it won't be expensive anymore anywhere. Here, already hit my minimum threshold before buying it. So far, I bought three, and I love it. I have a lot bulb to replace. Decided that from now and on, whenever a bulb goes out I will replace it with LED.

Here its 9.95 USD at home depot, and after calculation the potential ROI, 10 dollars is really pretty much "Break even" point. Its based on cost of three CFL bulbs, and the cost of electricity usage over period of time.

I believe that we are in process of mass production using automation system on LED bulbs, the price will drop even more. And technically it is good for national Electric Grid. If we don't change, then electric grid is on the time bomb. If I remember correctly, USA electric grid ran at least 90% of its capacity which is not good for us but good for power company (Speaking of profitablity)

ah, now i know what's CFL, i have that all over the house, hate it it starts dull, and it pissed me off for reading, i have 1 lamp that (and a hallway light for that instand bright which is best for middle of night)...incandescent, and id imagine the led is too expensive to get right now

 

[Reba]

In Foxrac case, converting light bulb won't make much difference unless he got like one of these HID lightning for growing garden indoor which I highly doubt he is doing such like that. Yes HID lights for growing plants got very high wattage. The bulb designed for best growing, minimum is 400 watts, perfect full light spectrum needs at least 1KW of HPS (High pressure Sodium) or MH (Metal Halide).

Unusually high electric bill is one indication of a grow room.

jk Foxrac!

 

[Reba]

I admit, I did saw $2,000 month electric bill and that was for the month of November. The owner freaked out and thinks it was bad meter. I had to look at it, her house was about 3,500 sq ft, and is on the top of mountain where it is colder. Guess what kind of heating she got? ELECTRIC heater! She has heat pump which helps but only above 32 degrees. Below that, then inductive electric furnace kicks in, and it is 40 KW element. She got two 200 amps services, one dedicated for her electric furnace, and other for the rest including heat pump. I calculated and the meter seems to register correctly. She was so mad and ended up got outdoor wood burning furnace.

Her location, limited oil heating and the cost of oil is closer to electric, no natural gas line up there. Her choices are limited.

Ouch!

Yeah, heat pumps are best for mild winters. They aren't efficient for long, cold winters.

We have a heat pump plus we have a very nice wood stove and mild winters.

 

[SneakerNet]

Did you know that many of the DVR player wattage (I'm not talking about regular digital box) is about equal to the refrigerator? So, I use the digital timer to turn off at midnight and turned back on 3:30 Pm next day. It does save your bill over the year.

Your Set-Top Box Is Murdering Your Electric Bill. Here's What You Can Do | Popular Science

After I purchase all of super energy efficient appliances and heat pump in 2009, back in 2007, one year electric bill was little more than $3,400 and now last year was $2007.

So, there's lot more you can do, like adding digital timer to our desktop computers and monitors. I just added to that back in 2/14/2013 and see how much that changed.

I have been using Excel to keep tracking all the monthly electric bills dated back in 2007 and so far it still dropping. So, I'm planning on replacing all of CFL lights to LED type (yes I got too many lights more than Reba!!).

Now for one thing that you all have to remember, unlike what Reba have, I'm using all the high tech security and alarm system, deaf signaler/alarm equipment which are not energy efficient. Those take up some power for deaf people living at home, it run 24/7. You know like Ameriphone equipment is a power consumption.

so....

Update: Oh..I forgot one more thing...don't forget about VP power usage as well... I mean many hearing people don't have special deaf equipment like signaler/alarm clock or VP... base on study with BGE (Baltimore Gas and Electric) comparison that BGE show that I produce more electric than energy efficient home in the area...well of course!! I have all the Ameriphone equipment for door alarm, phone alarm, VP alarm... do hearing people have those?? nooooooo..... LOL

 

[Reba]

...Now for one thing that you all have to remember, unlike what Reba have, I'm using all the high tech security and alarm system, deaf signaler/alarm equipment which are not energy efficient. Those take up some power for deaf people living at home, it run 24/7. You know like Ameriphone equipment is a power consumption.

so....

Good point. I live relatively low tech. We're checking into getting a security system.