Friday, March 26, 2010

My electricity bill is too high

We recently bought a home and I didn't pay close attention to our electricity usage as we are were in process of settling in. I noticed that our usage jumped to ~1000 KwH on a monthly basis. This was a huge spike for us as we previously maintained our usage within Tier 1 & 2 allocation by PG&E, our utility company. In short, we were freely using heat and leaving lights on all the time (the previous owner had installed flood light bulbs through out the house). Few steps I have taken since then:
1) Reduce heat to 65 degrees
2) Remove half the bulbs in the house
3) Educate and consistently remind everyone in the house to turn lights off
4) Put on more clothing if you are cold instead of turning the heat on
5) Open blinds in winter to trap sunlight and use it as natural source to heat the house

The usage dipped to less than 800Kwh. I still have a long way to go, but these were some quick wins.

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