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Personal Best Monthly Electricity

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tripp, Jun 6, 2009.

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  1. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    I decided to hook up the power meter to the dehumidifier in my basement. It's a 12 year old 28 US pint model

    We need dehumidifiers in our basements during our brief summers. Otherwise, the humidity goes so high, mold/mildew grow like crazy

    Over a 24 hour period: 12.3 kwh

    That is about 2.5 times what my Bryant Evolution system uses when programmed for priority dehumidification. The central A/C by itself isn't enough to control basement humidity, as basements are naturally cool holes in the ground.
     
    #41 jayman, Jun 22, 2009
  2. tripp

    tripp Which it's a 'ybrid, ain't it?

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    Gor blimey! that's brutal. Have you looked for something more efficient? Are there any energy star models out there (knowing you, these are largely rhetorical questions, but for posterity, I'm asking them)?
     
    #42 tripp, Jun 22, 2009
  3. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    A neighbor got one of those Energy Star rated dehumidifiers last summer, had nothing but trouble with the thing, and went back to using the old reliable one (Had it sitting in the shed, ready to haul off to the landfill, glad he kept it instead)

    I keep my basement humidity around 50-55% in summer. Any higher, certain mildew and mold strains have an absolute orgy of delight.

    On a miserable rainy day like this one, I have to empty the pail in the thing at morning, and again at supper
     
    #43 jayman, Jun 23, 2009
  4. tripp

    tripp Which it's a 'ybrid, ain't it?

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    new record... June's energy use was 186 kWh and 8 therms! W00t! Caveats were that we were on holiday for 5 days and this June was cooler than last (by 4 deg F) and rainy too so our water bill will be lower as well.

    Our energy bill for June was $44. Woohoo.
     
    #44 tripp, Jul 8, 2009
  5. Celtic Blue

    Celtic Blue New Member

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    That is impressive. And here I am pleased that the past 30 days have only added up to 991 kwh for me (~560 kwh of that being the AC). Same period last year was 1920 kwh for 30 days and same ave. temps, so I've made a noticeable improvement. Better still is that in the prior year the previous owner used 2990 kwh for the month with about 1 F lower average temp. :eek: I'm anticipating using between 2000-3000 kwh total for AC this year which would put me on pace for 8,000 kwh/yr total electric, about half of what I was using in a previous home (half as large, which I had done about 80% CFL conversion on, but that had an electric water heater and my old inefficient appliances.)

    That low flow shower head seems to really be helping in your water heating. I'm stuck waiting for the one I want to be stocked. This month came in at 13 ccF nat gas, about 3 ccF/month less than last year. My target with the low flow showerhead in the master bath is 10 ccF of nat gas/month compared to about 19 ccF/month average for water heating during the non-furnace months last year.
     
    #45 Celtic Blue, Jul 9, 2009
  6. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    568 kwh for the previous month. That's with the dehumidifier in the basement running, some A/C use. Usual clothes washing and drying (Electric dryer)
     
    #46 jayman, Jul 10, 2009
  7. tripp

    tripp Which it's a 'ybrid, ain't it?

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    Shawn,

    That's a really impressive improvement and you know that your AC is FUBAR so I'll wager you can make further improvements down the road. The water heater blanket and low flow shower head have cut anywhere from 1-3 therms off of our bill. It really is hard measure because bathing is the by far the biggest demand on the water heater. We don't use warm or hot water for clothes washing. So it all comes to down to the exact amount of water we use for that purpose as well as the incoming water temp... which is steadily rising this time of year. So even year on year comparisons are somewhat inconclusive, but 1-3 therms seems about right. We only have 2 people showering. The girls take a bath, but I'm careful to keep the water depth near the minimum that does an effective job for them. The R11 blanket on the water heater traps an impressive amount of heat at the outside of the tank, BTW.
     
    #47 tripp, Jul 10, 2009
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