Electricity

I am often amazed when people post how much electricity they use. In one blog I just read, he *saved* 1205 kWh in two months, which was about a 9% saving on what he is using....and he claims to be extremely careful!! That's nearly 4 months of electricity use for us.

Here is what we use over the course of the past couple of years from our e-bill:

Your past electric use:
electricity during this
period was $1.47 Bill No. Energy kWh
per day before taxes. date days used per day
Feb 08 64 681 11 (bill covering Christmas)
Dec 07 60 647 11
Oct 07 59 587 10
Aug 07 62 496 8
Jun 07 63 487 8
Apr 07 62 554 9
Feb 07 62 805 13 (bill covering Christmas)
Dec 06 59 665 11
Oct 06 57 499 9
Aug 06 63 556 9
Jun 06 62 586 9
Apr 06 61 612 10
Feb 06 60 612 10 (bill covering Christmas)

As you can see, we use less over the summer, probably since we're gone more. We used less this Christmas over last since we used all LED Christmas lights this year.

We could probably get our usage down more. We no longer have a second computer (although the one we have is on 24/7) and we only have one TV now (which seems to always be on, lol!), but we also don't use the microwave anymore, so we will see how that balances out over time. We have all CFL light bulbs in use. We wash our laundry in cold water and don't use the dryer; we're actually considering selling it. We unplug everything not used but we don't really make a conscious effort to cut electricity use, especially our 3 and 5 year old.

LED Lights

I am very excited for the day to come that LED lights are the standard for home lighting. I was checking out how much the bulbs are to replace a standard household light fixure and you can find them online for about $15. I remember not so long ago CFL bulbs were about as expensive. I hope they go down in price to the point it's feasible to replace all our bulbs with them. LED is soooo energy efficient.

There is a lot of talk in Canada of making it mandatory that people must use CFL/energy efficient light bulbs. I am on the fence about that. I realize there are fixtures where they cannot currently be used. Many people worry about the mercury in them. Then there's the cost. I think there should be incentive programs but not force people to use them, or even have 75%. I wouldn't want the police raiding our home checking for outlawed light bulbs. I'm sure they have better things to do with their time ;)