We got our first electricity bill since we moved in, March 2nd this year.
Normally power companies bill you every 3 months here, but there was a mix up with which company we were using, so we never got one 3 months ago - we have now been billed for 7 months and 2 weeks. Which is fine, it doesn't really make any difference to us.
It works out to be roughly $225 per 3 month period - pretty standard for us. This is with a different power company too.
We have just started turning everything off at the power point again - we lapsed at this for about a year 
. So, the only thing that's running at home when we are away is the fridge.
We have a box of the energy efficient light globes that we have been using to replace the old ones when they blow out. Hopefully that might have a bit of an impact down the track too.
What do you do to save power? Other than the usual of course, turning lights off when you're not using them, etc etc.
electricity bill $564.80 :O
November 10th, 2009 at 03:27 am
November 10th, 2009 at 04:41 pm 1257871304
November 10th, 2009 at 05:24 pm 1257873896
We bough a Energy Star home, which pretty much dwarfs any other potential savings.
We've since upgraded our only old appliances (washer/dryer) to Energy Star, replaced most of the bulbs (frequently used ones) with CFLs, and put thermal drapes in the draftier areas. (Draft, for lack of a better word - our house has no drafts, but the area by the windows still tend to be a little chillier than elsewhere - we have a lot of big windows).
All of that has maybe saved us a few pennies, but fact is our bills were amazingly low to start. We haven't saved much with all this. The thermal drapes were probably the best purchase, to remove the "chill" from the air which usually gets me running for the thermostat. The CFLs have been no better than our old non-CFL "energy star bulbs." I'm not that impressed. (The old bulbs had not burned out in 8 years either - so the CFLs will not likely be longer lasting). We also have some insulated/energy start tank water heater (gas) that seems to be about as energy efficient as some of the tankless heaters. So, basically, I question if it is worth the expense of some of the more "energy efficient" items coming out these days.
The energy saving features put in during construction mean we don't run heat or air during 6 months of the air. It's a *mild* region but not THAT mild.
November 10th, 2009 at 06:05 pm 1257876344
November 11th, 2009 at 01:40 am 1257903654