How to save money on your electric bill?

[hypnofrogstevie]

Ok this is getting bad. We owe over $650 on our electric bill. We dont run much stuff. We run the TV for 2 hours a day. Lights come on at night for a few hours. We unplug everything after use except the oven, fridge and freezer chest. We have an energy saving flood light thats runs at 20 watts. My brother runs his laptop. I use the PS2 for about half an hour a day. My room I got the incubator running, heat mat for the gecko, the computer tower which runs at 50 watts I think and my tv comes on once a week for a movie and my heater which I cant turn off cause we only get 10 gallons of diesal a week for the heating furnace. After the hatch the heater is off and I will just have the heat lamp on, computer and heat mat. My moms b/f has his laptop running from 5PM-10pm or later. my brother has his running all day through morning but I dont think a laptop could do that. I know we need more energy efficant bulbs. I may have to cancel my hatching egg order from the BYC sellers if it gets worse which I really dont want to do

 

[Must Be Losing It]

We changed about 90% of our lightbulbs to flourescent and save about $60 per month which can add up. And when we took the Christmas Lights down the bill went down by $100. $650 does seem high. I have a large house and my bill is about $300. My appliances are all new and energy efficient - maybe its your freezer that's the culprit.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

it could be. The freezer is a GE. I forgot we also have a water heater and pump because we have well water. But we dont have leaky faucets. We take 10 minute showers and we dont run a washer or dryer. I just set a rule that we turn off the computers at 10 PM and turn them on around 10AM.

 

[s6bee]

I am hoping that included your heat? Not just electric? Ouch.
There are newer powers surge type strips that you plug your electical stuff into. Stuff like your TV, VCR, etc, that you don't want or can't unplug daily. These allow the settings to stay but power to be reduced. Most of our electrical items in our home uses and average of 40% of it's power just sitting there. So if you can find these, I'd get them to start. I don't know if solar panels are possible in your home either.
If that bill includes your heat, then make sure your windows are not leaking. You can also get drafts from electical outlets so feel the air coming in from around them.
We supplement in the winter with Kerosene on the really cold snaps we get. That does help.

I don't have a bill like that, but know what you mean. Between that and the gas for my cars, I don't have the ability to do anything extra anymore and we hardly did "extras" before.

 

[sundance]

maybe you should have them read your meter over, you know sometimes people make mistakes and they could have read your meter wrong or they could have posted it in the computer wrong. marrie

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

nope not heat just the electric. I will unplug the TV's and other appliances. We want solar but we are peeing our money out to the power comany. This is getting bad. We cant replace the windows yet because of this. All of the money that was from my moms 401K has been all used up. Her B/F's father was going to give us his old windows because he is putting in new ones. The windows we have are so old and thin.

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we did that once when they went on strike. The bill was over $1,000 for a month. We do but the monthly bill went from $100 up to $800 last yr- this year

 

[sundance]

never again will i complain about my $134.00 electric bill, since we run the temp about 78 in winter and 72 in summer.Both DH and I have serious heart problems and we have to be careful about changes in temp. also i think everything i have in electric and the only thing i turn off at night is my p/c which the tech support guy told me to. marrie

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

We only run the heat at 60F. I would die for a $134.00 bill. I unplugged everything thats not in use. I cant wait for the babies to hatch so we can turn off my space heater.

 

[jjthink]

Stevie - Something is very wrong. Do you have PSE&G? My bills with them have been rising steadily despite the now using energy efficient bulbs, but they are not as high as yours. Call them and don't give up till you get someone to give you a date and time for an energy audit. But be ready - it's a royal pain getting to a human who gives a bleep. I called recently because of escalating bills and they dumped me on an all Spanish line when they said they were switching me to the energy conservation department. The next time I waited forever to get to a supervisor and then they said the supervisors were busy and would call me the next day. I am glad I did not hold my breath because that was days ago and they never called. I was so busy with work that I didn't get full names but you must - it is the only way some people will act accountable. There wasn't enough chocolate in the land to deliver enough endorphins to make me calm about how awful trying to reach them was. I had to give up - work deadlines killing me and I just couldn't call again...But you go for it and I'll be rooting for you!!!!!!!! JJ

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Thanks JJ. We have JCP&L. I am going to call tonight and speak to someone. I dont want to do it now cause I have a migrane. I hope I will get someone who will be nice to help me out