HELCO bill continues to climb...

[eggiweg]

Hi everyone! I've been "lurking" here for a while now. I moved from the mainland to HPP earlier this year. So here's my question: Our electric bill from HELCO is SO HIGH, and it has increased steadily each month that we have been here. This month's bill is $270.37. Does that seem unusually high? Or am I just crazy? We live in a house, approx 1500 sq feet. No A/C. There are a total of four adults living here.
Are there things we can do to save money on electricty? We have thought about unplugging electronics when they are not in use, and maybe using a laundromat instead of our machine at home. Are there other things that might help? Thanks for any suggestions you can give me!

[Kapohocat]

Propane dryer or air dry, propane stove, propane or solar water heater......

Our bill was right up there with yours though!! And we BBQ way more often than use the stove! And someone will correct if I am wrong but doesnt all the "instant-on" appliances use "phantom" electricity?

[bystander]

A DATE KWH AMOUNT DAYS KWH/DAY $/DAY
11/07/05 247 80.43 32 7.7 2.51
12/07/05 217 72.34 30 7.2 2.41
01/07/06 230 76.66 31 7.4 2.47
02/06/06 221 73.45 30 7.4 2.45
03/08/06 228 73.95 30 7.6 2.47
04/06/06 224 72.65 29 7.7 2.51
05/08/06 236 77.02 32 7.4 2.41
06/07/06 215 72.44 30 7.2 2.41
07/07/06 210 72.66 30 7.0 2.42
08/07/06 229 83.10 31 7.4 2.68
09/06/06 219 78.39 30 7.3 2.61
10/05/06 208 74.35 29 7.2 2.56
11/04/06 228 $78.46 30 7.6 2.62

That's the usage profile on my last bill which was $78.46. I live in a 1050 sq foot house with no AC but all electric appliances and heater. I has gone up though. I used to pay only $50 a month two years ago.

I think it's your heater that's making your bill go so high. Check it for grounds or shorts. I also suggest using a timer or turning it off during the day.

[Hotzcatz]

Invest in Hawaiian Electric - ticker symbol HE - and you'll get 4.6% dividends back. With the big repair bills they will have from the earthquake they will post losses this next quarter and the stock price should be an even better value than usual.

Replace all your incandescent light bulbs with those compact flourescent bulbs. Put the water heater on a timer, get an on demand water heater, gas water heater or solar water heater. Get rid of any appliance that uses electricity to make heat. Turn off things that you aren't using and don't just blithely plug things into the wall. Vacuums pull rather a lot of electricity, sweep with a broom and then suck up the dust with the vacuum or just use a dustpan. Hang the laundry to dry and then just "fluff" them in the dryer with the heat turned off unless it is a gas dryer. If you have an older refrigerator, get a new efficient one, it will pay for itself in several months if it replaces a really old refrigerator. A whirlpool pump or a larger waterfall pump uses rather a lot of power as well so shut those off or limit their use. Check the labels on all your electric motors and see which ones use the most power and limit the use of those appliances.

We have our electric circuits which the electronics are plugged into on a switch so we can turn them all off completely. I don't know specifically how much phantom load they draw, but we are off the grid so we are sensitive to electric usage.

Pretty soon there will be LED lightbulbs that will fit into a standard edison base light socket. The new LED bulbs are supposed to pull a mere fraction of the power an incandescent does and even a lot less than a flourescent bulb. But, I don't know where you can get those yet. There are LED Christmas lights that pull a miniscule 3 watts per string so Christmas doesn't have to be a big electrical drain anymore.

If you want to completely get rid of your electric bill, switch over to photovoltaics. (Solar electric power) The house wiring is the same for an on-the-grid and off-the-gid house. If you have a gas water heater and a gas stove, then pretty much all you need are the solar panels, a charge controller ($75), an inverter (approx. $2K) and a battery bank. We have four 150 watt panels and twelve deep cycle 6 volt batteries and this is a marginal system. With an upgrade to six or eight panels and sixteen batteries we would run the "iron sun" (the Honda generator) less frequently during the winter. But the system paid for itself within about four years so even though it is marginal it is now in the "free electricity" category.

[bystander]

You know I've actually been looking into buying some HE stock. PPS below $26 would be a good buy. The rate increase they want from the PUC would increase dividends even more.

[Jeffhale]

"Replace all your incandescent light bulbs"

I used those where I had to have 24 light and my bill went down the first month enough to pay for them in one month. Can't say it is that big of a difference when you turn them on and off, no way to measure, but big if 24 hours 8-10 dollars lower per bulb and month.

I don't know how elect company works on the island but out here in Mo. in the city it's cheaper, the more down the line of the poles you are in the country the higher the costs are. They waist a lot getting it to you and you pay as much as double.



Edited by - Jeffhale on 11/17/2006 06:06:47

[Tolleys]

Anyone using those small wind generators for electricity? Any known county ordinances against? I think there is a distributor on the Kona side.

http://www.windenergy.com/index_wind.htm





Edited by - tolleys on 11/17/2006 06:39:40

[Carey]

Holtzcatz, They already have the 120 v LED's. These guys aren't the only, just the first that popped up, we have used c.cranes:
http://www.theledlight.com/
http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-light-bulbs/index.aspx
They are great for directional light uses. (plus now there are a whole lot of LED holiday lights available, HD had a nice seklection yesterday, so even the holidays can be energy efficient!)
Aloha, Carey

[Carolann R]

Just adding my 2 cents...we were very anxious about that bill...and so here's what we do: I bake my own bread but only every two weeks...four loaves - that's good for the three of us. We turn off all the big lights in the house at night and never leave them burning with no one in the room. That also helps with those nasty bugs that fly at night, although they do congregate on the TV screen LOL. Our gas grill is a real help too. We make sure when we have fans going that someone is getting the benefit of them and they are not left unattended. I hang our clothes out to dry and rarely use the dryer...only when it's so rainy for a few days that I need it. That's a real pull on the electric I understand.

We make an effort to make our showers shorter and I actually got in the habit of turning it on and off between "soapings up."

And lastly...our coffee maker, microwave and other appliance (except of course the big ones - fridge and washer/dryer) get their plugs pulled or we have a power strip we click off - phantom power is real.

Our first bill was a partial bill for 18 days at 134 dollars. That's really when we implimented all the power watching. This month we got our first electric bill - it was a total of approx. $156. Feel good about that. Aloha.

P.S. We do intend to replace our bulbs with the powersaver bulbs and our house is approx. 1100 sq. ft.

Carrie

"To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater." Bono
http://www.hellophoenix.com/art/dreamhawaii.Cfm


Edited by - Carolann R on 11/17/2006 06:51:09

[Hotzcatz]

Thanks Carey!

I had checked that LED lightbulb website last spring and there weren't any very bright LED lights availabe at that time to replace our compact flourescents with. Actually, at this moment, there still aren't any of the bigger ones but they do say they will have the stock available "in mid November" so perhaps for Christmas I'll give everyone an LED light bulb or two. It will definitely be something they don't already have!

I especially like the strong mention they have for the CREE chips in their LED lights since that is also a company I'm invested in. I'll pick up more of that company real soon, too, since they just signed a global distribution with Arrow Electronics. Cutting edge technology that they hold a patent or two on and a technology that will save folks loads of money. Sounds good to me!

HE pays nice dividends, but the stock price hasn't been going up for the past year or so. CREE doesn't pay dividends, but I anticipate their stock prices to keep going up once everyone starts switching over to LED bulbs.