Eye-opening electrical figures

[leaky]

All,

As we have read about (and I have moaned repeatedly), the cost for electricity in sunny So Cal is outrageous.  After opening many months of bills well over $200, I finally sat down with the bill and talked to our neighbor, a senior engineer with SCE.  He told me the bill was legit, and inquired about a bunch of things in the house.  No fridge in the garage, etc.  He made a few suggestions, and pretty much said it was the lights and the spa.  SOOOOO....

Vowing to make a difference, I went out to my trusty Beachcomber, and re-programmed the filter cycle, even though the manual states, "Models equipped with hush pumps are pre-programmed to run 24 hours a day.  It is normally not necessary to adjust this setting", I set it to run only from 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM (filter and heat), and 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM (filter only).  We then took off to Home Depot, and picked up a cart full of flourescent bulbs.  We replaced 12 in the cans in our kitchen, four outside in the landscape fixtures, four down the hallway, three in our son's fan, and various other ones in the house.  Although odd at first and slow to "brighten", we got used to them over the month.  Last week the new bill came, and the total was....


$104.50!!!!!!  From $233 in March to $104 in April.  Unbelievable.  And this is with a dozen 60w incandescents still in other cans!  Although it cost us $80 for the bulbs, we made up for it in one month, and they should last 5 times as long as conventional bulbs.  We are now planning on replacing most all the other bulbs as well.  As for the tub, I'm not sure what percentage of the reduction was due to the filter time modification, but I don't really care.  It is still hot when we want to get in in the evening, and the water has stayed completely clear (although I'm pretty religious with the water chemistry regimen).

I just emptied and filled on Monday, so we'll probably have a little spike getting the water back up to temperature, but it just goes to show you, there ARE ways to bring the bill down.  I'm just kicking myself for waiting a year and a half to do something!

I'll report again next month after the fill and additional bulb replacements.



Leaky

[svspa]

Very interesting Leaky, we have a few token flourescent bulbs in our house. I am going to have to go for it and replace the rest of the incandescents.

Regarding the tub, I just switched from the normal setting (with the heater on all the time) to economy so the heater only runs during the filter cycles. Hopefully the weather up here in the SF bay area will start cooperating.

Steve

[Vinny]

What was the outside temp difference?

Although I'm not saying that what you did didn't help, I would imagine that the heater is heating approx the same amount of time with the savings being the circ pump for the tub.

[Mez]

I did the same as you after getting sick opening up a utility bill. About 3 months ago, I went out and replaced every single bulb in my house with the curly flourescents after hearing on a home radio show that they are the biggest money savers next to insulating and windows and a high efficiency furnace (all of which I have as I built my house 8 years ago.
The verdict? I really didnt see a noticable drop in my rates...a few bucks over the month before. Could be several other factors. kids had the tv on more, computers...who knows...but I wasnt all that impressed. They are a bit odd how they take a minute to get bright...also, they dont work with dimmer switches.
Im glad you had better luck, I wonder how much of that drop is due to the tub changes you made.

[Brewman]

Savings will vary by electric rates- So. Cal. has high rates, so savings in KWH's will be more noticed.  The flourecents save money a couple ways- they last much longer than standard bulbs, so over the long haul you'll spend less on bulbs.  They also use less power to produce light.  Savings will be more noticed if you replace a lot of lights that are on much of the time, and you might not see as much of a savings if you don't use the lights too often.  But when they do operate, they are consuming less power, so over time you will save.

[Steve]

The Hush Pump on a Beachcomber spa draws .6 amps to operate. This is for circulation only and heat will only come on as required if the water temperature drops 1 degree. That said, changing the cycles will not offer very much in overall savings. Based on living in Northern Alberta where rates might be less though temperatures are obviously MUCH colder, the average Beachcomber spa here will still operate between $20 - $30 per month. I have metered many Beachomber spas over the years here and I always suggest to people that question their spas operational costs to do just that. It's guess work and assumptions until that happens...

Steve

[mattNY]

The flourecents save money a couple ways- they last much longer than standard bulbs, so over the long haul you'll spend less on bulbs.

I agree this is right in theory, but I haven't seen it myself.  I have a 3-bulb fixture in my family room that gets left on quite often, so I replaced the bulbs with fluorescents.  One of them blew within 4 months.  I chalked it up to a fluke, but within a couple of weeks another one went, and the third hung on for about 3 weeks after that.  I was pretty disgusted that I'd paid for "long-life energy saving" bulbs that died after about 500 hours (rated for 8,000!).  

Maybe I just got a bad batch, but all 3 of them dying has made me leery to buy again.

[H823Putt]

Here is something to think about when buying those new flourecent bulbs.

(New York - WABC, May 2, 2007) - There's a troubling new problem for those otherwise great and energy efficient light bulbs that are supposed to last for years.

It turns out there's some mercury in those new bulbs. And if they break, or when they burn out, you can't just throw them away. So what do you do with them?
Eyewitness News reporter Nina Pineda has the story.

"I find I have a reduction in my electric bill ... and doing something good for the environment," one woman told us.

Americans are tuning in to turning on energy efficient light bulbs by the millions. But what many don't know is what to do when the bulbs break -- or after many years -- burn out.

Because they contain mercury, the bulbs are thrown in with the trash or recycled improperly, the toxic mercury winds up leaking into the air we breathe.

The bulbs have to be recycled. If their broken, the glass and the powder inside should be cleaned with a wet paper towel, placed in a sealed plastic bag and brought to a waste disposal site. The room should also be ventilated.

"You should know I've already started to replace the bulbs in my house," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Mayor Bloomberg made the spiral bulbs part of his Earth Day urging to create a greener New York City, but there is no city law prohibiting residents from putting the bulbs in regular garbage and the Department of Sanitation does not pick them up for recycling.

Currently there are only five waste disposal facilities across the city, just one in each borough. And residents can bring their bulbs only on certain days and during certain hours.

The city is working on a household hazardous waste program, which will eventually make it easier to dispose of the energy saving bulbs.

"Stations in each borough isn't optimal but by moving over and saying we're going to bring this to the consumer and offer curbside collection, that's what we need," said Jason Babbie of NYPIRG.

But until that happens, consumers should still be aware that choosing an energy saving bulb over a regular one is still going to last you longer, be better for the environment and be more energy efficient. All of that for the problem of just throwing it away properly.

[Brewman]

Again, depending on use.  A bulb that drew 75 watts if replaced with one that draws say 20 watts, will use less power.
 That bulb will save money over time, but it may not plummet your electric bill, it might be a pretty small decrease adding up over time.
   We had that same article about the bulbs in our local paper- the author pretty much said the net impact on the environment is still lower with the flourecents.  True or not?  Don't know.

If your bulbs aren't lasting as long as they should, then I'd be contacting the store or the manufacturer about that.  So far the floods I have in my porch lite cans have lasted a year.  
 Those are outside year round with cold winters, hot summers, etc.  Plus they are a PITA to replace.
With the incandescents, I was replacing them every 3 months or so.
 The new bulbs use over 100 watts less than the old bulbs, and we leave these ones on all night.  
I have dozens of these in my basement, and as they burn out I'll replace them with the flourecents.  Still haven't gone to the spiral lamp ones yet, but I will probably give them a try in some of the fixtures that tend to be on quite a bit.  The cost of these bulbs are dropping and now they are quite competitive with the old style ones.

[Brookenstein]

I called SCE today and if I get put on the level pay plan I will pay $296 a month for the next 12 months.  I'm thinking about switching to that before summer to avoid getting $4-500 bills for 4-5 months.  My brother pays $80/mo to live in a house almost 3 times the size in AZ.  Kinda funny.  At least I'm closer to the beach.

[leaky]

As for the Beachcomber, I was wondering how much that had to do with it as well.  Like Steve said, the heater was coming on only when needed before, which, here in So Cal, probably wasn't all that often.  As it doesn't come on at all now until 4:00 PM, several times I've gone out and checked the temperature at 3:30, and found it to be only down to 100 or so.  Then there's the daily cost of getting it back up to 102-103 for the evening.  However, there still has to be some savings, both in not keeping it hot around the clock, and a little benefit to not drawing that .6 amps 24-7 as well.

All in all, I'm betting that the bulbs are still the major savings.  With a dozen cans in the kitchen alone, which seem to be on most of the time, 60W x 12 =720.  Replacing them with the flourescent bulbs drops that 80%.  In just one hour of cooking/eating/homework, that savings over half a kWh!  

As the cost of electricity here is high (just ask my buddy Brook!), getting the total usage farther down the scale makes a HUGE difference, as the cost "curve" rises exponentially as usage increases (remember those upper divison math classes?)

Like I said, I'm not positive what the biggest factor is, but don't really care either!

[Campsalot]

OK, ND here, the land of supposedly inexpensive electricity.  My balanced billing utility bill is now $375.00 a month for natural gas and electricity.  Thats with all the following; 3 refrigerators, 3 freezers, a Sundance Maxxus set at 100 F, 6 ceiling fans, and a partridge in a pair tree plus one Labrador. Oh yeah, I have a 106 year old house with the original hot water boiler.  Everything else, and I mean everything else in the house has been replaced.  How many square feet does this translate to, you might ask?  2100!  I rent my basement, I thought I would offer that  before anyone asked about the freezers and fridges.  Plus that Labrador, what a utility pig!