Your monthly Electric Bill

Lightning wrote:Hi NoSmoke I'm willing to say that converting to propane may not help much, especially if you have to replace appliances. Where I live, propane and electric are nearly the same cost when making heat. I agree that your de icing equipment and hot water tank are bandits lol. Lets say your dryer and cook stove average an hour of use per day each. They don't really use much over the period of a month. Its the appliances that run a lot like hot water tanks and refrigerators that are the main power piggies.

When if first moved into my place with 3 kids and $0.12/kwh electric was to replace the hw tank with propane. Ten month payback. Check your rates for electric and propane to determine if it is worth while.

As the stove and dryer needed replacing, I went to propane for those. I probably spend about 50% on my propane bill on DHW and 50% on dryer and cooking. Cooking is more of a preference then an energy saver. I was using about 60 to 80 gallons every 3 months. Preheating the domestic water with the heating system cuts propane use in 1/2 for those months. I am almost an empty nester and propane use is going down.

I installed propane ten years ago for heat and hot water. At that time, it was about $.99 a gallon lol. Now its over $3.00 per gallon and runs about even with electric to make heat

But, thats what led me to coal

Wow, for my own amusement I ran these numbers in the fuel calculator. At $.13 per kilowatt it cost $38.10 to make one million btu. Propane at $3.29 per gallon and 80% efficiency cost $45.03... I never thought propane would cost more than electric, incredible But rates change according to location so I agree with Steamup, gotta run the numbers..

My recent electric bills were as follows.

August/September: $ 133.16

September/October: $ 76.83

The bill due on Nov 16th is for $ 58.47 which is about average.

My bill is about $90 a month. Down from $280. I fixed the problem that was causing it to very $280 a month. Of course having JCP&L I call my meter reading in every month because I don't trust them.

By heating with coal instead of heating with electricity my month of January electric bill went from $495 in 2011 to $57 in 2012. I burned 1,770 lbs. of coal in January of 2012.

1770 lbs of coal is a fair amount I can only hope your house was way warmer than electric.

2001Sierra wrote:1770 lbs of coal is a fair amount I can only hope your house was way warmer than electric.

We kept it 6 degrees warmer with coal than with electricity.

NICE

For those of you interested in how Ambit works, they require you to resign contract every 12 months. They have 2 programs. I always choose the guarenteed rate. They guarenteed rate is 7% lower than your local provider's rate(National Grid) for the first three months. The other nine months are 1% better. Been working out fairly well for us so far. Average savings has been $35.00 a month. Better than a sharp stick in the eye.......

Could someone check my math? I'm trying to figure cost of heating my hot tub with electric. I'm getting $3.90 per month at a rate of 1 degree loss per day. Here are the givens -

Tub is 425 gallons
1 Kilowatt is $.125 = 3412 BTU
1 Gallon = 8.35 pounds

Thanks

My bill here in Northern Maine is 70 dollars in the summer and 120 dollars in the winter. We don't have a choice up here...It Maine Public Service for delivery and one provider...WHY one might ask do we not have a choice...We are landlocked from the grid! Any electricity that is surplus gets shipped via Canada and then back into the U.S. 60 miles south of here!

Lightning wrote:Could someone check my math? I'm trying to figure cost of heating my hot tub with electric. I'm getting $3.90 per month at a rate of 1 degree loss per day. Here are the givens -

Tub is 425 gallons
1 Kilowatt is $.125 = 3412 BTU
1 Gallon = 8.35 pounds

Thanks

It is not a straight forward calculation. Loss occurs based on delta - t betwee water and ambient air. Also water is evaporated and when you make it up, it has to be re-heated.

Hours of operation at a given temperature plus surface areas and insulation values are what is needed to calculate heat loss. Losses due to evaporation can be figured by measuring your makeup water.

here are some tips:
http://energyexperts.org/EnergySolution ... px?id=2290

Why is propane so expensive in the NE USA? Its hard for me to imagine it being $3 gallon here. It is about $1.20/gallon right now here in Minnesota. Most winters its $1.40-$1.60/gallon. I only remember it being $2 one winter. I havent filled my tank in 8 years but do keep track of the cost.

My electric is more less the same cost as what I read here. I use about 300-350 KW a month and my bills are around $70, but I use more when its really cold to keep my well thawed with an electric heater. I have a monthly fee around $30 plus a KW charge that I think is 9 cents in the spring/fall/ winter and 10 1/2 cents in the summer.

SteamUp, I wasn't interested in the variables lol but thanks for the information. Just keep it simple.. If My tub looses 5 degrees, then it has to be re heated to get back to that temperature..

So what I've done is I got the temp of the hot tub to 90 degrees, then set the thermostat to 80.. In a 24 hour period it fell to 85 degrees.. So in essence, it will require 5 degrees of heating to get back to 90. Based on the givens and the math I did, it cost $3.90 per month for 1 degree of loss per day. A 5 degree loss per day, such as in the example - should cost 5 x's $3.90 or $19.50 per month. I just wanted to know if I was doing the calculation right based on the givens I provided in the prior post

I understand that a 5 degree loss per day won't be consistent due to outside temperature, wind chill ect..