Do you live here?

[dnix71]

I pay my electric bill at the Check Cashing Store tm because they are an authorized bill pay. Immediate credit for cash. I don't trust the mail for some things. The clerks usually look at the bill twice because it's so low.

Today the clerk asked if I actually lived there. Told her yes, I have solar panels and batteries. She then asked if I used a/c and I told her no, not on solar. Then she asked if FP&L didn't call to find out what was going on and I told her they already know because I have a "Smart" meter. I don't backfeed the grid, so they have nothing to say.

As of today I have no more phantom loads on the grid. My alarm clock is direct 12v, and last week I replaced the porch and backyard lights with 2-watt 12vdc LED light bars intended for automobile decoration. My eBike has one as a front light. It's stupidly bright at night. Yesterday someone stopped on a street to let me pass because they weren't sure what I was, and then seeing the bike from the side commented on how bright it was. That's the idea, being seen at night.

The 2 watt draw doesn't bother the bike batteries. They are 35 AH sla's from Radio Shack. The 2 watt load on one side is nothing compared to the 1kw draw the bike takes at full throttle. The batteries in the back is the latest configuration and it works well. I don't get the low voltage warnings as much with shorter wires and tigher connections.

The average US household uses 500 times as much grid power as I do, but my 1 1/2 HP irrigation pump, eBike charger and washing machine are still on the grid.




2 watt LED bar as houselight.


Bike outside without flash


Bike inside with flash

[phil b]

I'm headed in the same direction dnix71. My new container house has 1880 watts of solar. I use a generator for welding. I save enough in fuel to pay for about one solar panel per month over the price of buying gas.

Now, if I could figure out a way to reduce my $800/month diesel fuel bill, I'd be right up there with you. I can't ride a bike on the interstate, which is the only way to cross a river in good clothes.

Biodiesel from scratch is difficult in this area because the national grease chain is paying about 20 cents per gallon and they won't resell it except in tanker loads for $4000.

It's nice to see you doing so well. Keep up the good (common sense) work.

[Volvo farmer]

You are lucky with only a $6 "customer charge". We used to have a similar charge here, along with on-off peak metering.  At .12/.04 on/off peak, I could keep the bills about $30/mo.

Then the electric company got smart. The customer charge went to $9, and then to $12. They are raising the rates again for 2013,  because the cost of electricity from their supplier is increasing. But do they raise the cost per kwh? No, they raise the customer charge again. It makes it almost impossible to save money by practicing conservation. The electric company HATES people like you, because at $7/mo, you don't cover the infrastructure and administrative costs related to providing you with grid power.

I think it's amazing that you can live on 2KWhr/mo from the grid. If your electric company ever gets smart like mine did, you might consider cutting the cord altogether. It doesn't cost that much more to produce and store 700Whr/day once you have off-grid equipment already installed.

[David HK]

Well done dnix, I like your approach to 12 V DC.

I remain convinced that a great number of items in any home can be run from 12 volts DC, leaving the heavy stuff to either mains power or a separate RE system on either 24 or 48 volts DC.

I too have a bicycle with 2 x 6 volt sealed lead acid batteries for front and rear lighting and many people stop to look at my arrangement. I don't use it every night and I only need to charge the batteries once a year. Just think how many AAA or AA batteries I have not needed to purchase.

All readers keep your eyes peeled for a Part I, II and III post on my solar hot water heater in the New Year.

David in HK

[thirteen]

Some of the power companies are tying to make it so if you do not use a certain amount of power they will charge you a monthly fee to cover the costs of having you hooked up to the grid.  Just like one of my crdit cards started last year. It is $4.00 per month if I don't even use it and there is no balance owed. It goes next May.
By chance I went to a public power company hearing with my nieghbor. By chance I turned to see what it was all about and found one line referring to the records maintence fee. So I got up and asked. I did not mean to stir things up but with over 14 off grid people there it raised a bunch of questions. They have to ask the regulating board for any raises they want in prices and now they must do the same for any fees. We brought a pettioin singed with all but 3 land owners asking for a power line corridor free block thru our canyon. They had proposed a power line corridor that would cross our skyline and could be seen from everyone's place. Someone stirred things up more when they asked for any studies done by the power company on the effects of powerline transmission lines on cattle abortions and children and people with medical problems.
They said it is in their enviromentel proposal. But they did not have it with them because it has not been aproved yet and this is only a preliminary public gathering.
I started to speak and one of them asked how come I would supposedly know anything about the effect of the power lines.
I said I do believe I might have worked for one for several years and I do not have any land under where they want the line to go and I thought that the land owners should know. His facial expression sure changed. I disreetly left just after that.
We'll see how our pettion goes.
Just stirring things up. 13

.

[mab]

I can't quite match you on kWh - not until I get the hydro up & running, but I just got this estimate for next year with my quarterly bill (bill was for £4.60 - (24kWh)) from my supplier.

I don't have a 'standing charge' but pay almost 20p/kWh; but I got £40 credit for choosing to pay by direct debit so it looks like I'll not have to pay anything for at least another year 

That's assuming our dozy prime minister doesn't stick his oar in and restrict the choice of tariffs available to 4 as he's talking about doing - there aren't many no-standing-charge tariffs available as it is.   

mab

[ChrisOlson]

The average US household uses 500 times as much grid power as I do, but my 1 1/2 HP irrigation pump, eBike charger and washing machine are still on the grid.

Congrats on getting your power usage pared down to the basics.

We don't have grid power here but we have generated 4,784.6 kWh from solar and wind this year, as of yesterday, and another 1,384 kWh with the generator.  That's an average of 17.2 kWh/day thru the year.  We have all the luxuries and comfort of any home hooked up to grid power, so I consider our usage pretty good when you consider that the "average" American home uses 30 kWh/day.

We put in a Cummins 4BT cogeneration set late last fall to provide power and heat for my big equipment shop.  It is a 45 kVA generator set and the above figures do not include that.  But it has a heat pump on it and we are hooking that up to the house so we have central AC in the house next summer.  I think we are about at parity with what it would cost us to buy power from the grid when the fuel burned in the generators is taken into account.  However, the cost for our equipment that we have bought is still less money than running hi-lines to our place.

Although I never intended it to save money, I think we will actually save money in the long run generating our own power vs buying it from the grid.  Around here, with only 2 or three homesteads on a line the monthly fixed charge is $42.40 for a residence and $176.50 for a farm (commercial) just to have the grid power.  The electricity is .15 cents/kWh for residential and .12 cents/kWh for farm/commercial.  If you have a farm they put in two separate meters - one for the house (single phase) and the other for the farm (three-phase).  So a farmer pays $218.90/month fixed charge before he uses the first kWh of electricity every month.
--
Chris

[DamonHD]

Last year we generated just short of 4MWh from solar PV, and it should be similar this year.  Our gross electricity consumption is abut 1.5MWh/year of which 1MWh is imported because I don't (yet) have storage, just plain grid-tie.

Our natural gas consumption (for heating/DHW/cooking) was about 4MWh too in 2011, so we're slightly carbon negative which is what I care about, and very roughly zero on electricity and gas bills once the FiT is taken into account.

http://www.earth.org.uk/saving-electricity.html#meter2012

Rgds

Damon

PS. There is also a tiny off-grid system which must supply at least 100Wh/day for my Internet server, but often more, with the excess providing lighting, charging my mobile phone, etc...



Edited for clarity...

[Mary B]

Slowly lowering mine but nowhere near your levels. Shaved off 70kwh last month and we didn't have a lot of sun. My typical winter use is ~600kwh a month with the bulk being the furnace running/clothes dryer/water heater. Computer runs off solar as much as possible. Ham gear is 100% solar now.

[DamonHD]

Chris,

UK average electricity consumption for households heating with electricity is ~4.7MWh/year, usually on a cheap off-peak tariff such as "Economy 7", so you're nearly European in your parsimony!  B^>

Rgds

Damon

[ChrisOlson]

Damon,

We're probably more European than American because my wife is the better half and she's 100% European 
--
Chris

[DamonHD]

I knew there was *something* good about you...  B^>

Rgds

Damon

[midwoud1]

Chris.

Most of the  names Johnson (son of John), Jacobson,Nicolson,Michielson, have Scandinavian origin.
Can be your grand-,grand-,grandfather came from Sweden.

Rgds - Frans -

[ChrisOlson]

No, actually my grandparents on my dad's side were Norwegian immigrants and they settled in Northome, Minnesota.  My dad was born in the US and so was I, so I am second generation Norwegian-American.

But I don't have the accent.  My wife goes, "We kin turn on the ceeling fahn, yah?"  And I go, "yeah, sure.  Throw the switch and put the amps to 'er, babe."  And she goes, "What?"   
--
Chris

[phil b]

Here's a spreadsheet by the US Energy Info. Center. It has some good info, but in my case, the kWh is about 2 cents too low. I'm in Oklahoma, USA.

"How much electricity does an American home use?

In 2010, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 11,496 kWh, an average of 958 kilowatthours (kWh) per month. Tennessee had the highest annual consumption at 16,716 kWh and Maine the lowest at 6,252 kWh.

Learn more:
Average monthly residential electricity consumption, prices, and bills by state (Excel)"
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3

[taylorp035]

11,496 kwh is significantly lower than what is could be if houses didn't use natural gas, wood, fuel oil, ect.....   My all electric housem (geothermal system) has averaged ~33-35 MWh.  Even 15 years ago, we used 28 MWh, so usage isn't too much higher.  The killer seems to be the hot water heater, and that's a hard thing to cut back on 

[ChrisOlson]

11,496 kwh is significantly lower than what is could be if houses didn't use natural gas, wood, fuel oil, ect.....

Our off-grid home is totally electric - range, water heater and clothes dryer included.  And we still only use about 6,300 kWh/year.  We heat with wood, however, which is a carbon neutral fuel.  The largest user of energy in our home is the water heater - we use about 25 gallons of hot water per day and the heater uses about 5 kWh/day, or almost 1/3 of our total energy consumption.  We wash dishes in the sink, which saves a lot of hot water compared to what dish washing machines use.  My wife washes clothes with cold water, and the only other thing we use hot water for is showers.  But it is still a major energy user (for us).
--
Chris

[DamonHD]

A typical UK household with mains natural gas uses ~3.3MWh/year of electricity and 18MWh/year of natural gas.

BTW Chris, most people washing dishes by hand are less efficient with energy and water and/or less thorough than a modern efficient (European?) dishwasher.  That's why I'm happy to have a dishwasher in our house as maybe 20% of our entire 1.5MWh/y gross electricity consumption.  I just make sure to use it well, and where possibly run when grid carbon intensity is low to trim footprint still further.

Rgds

Damon

[Mary B]

Being single a dishwasher doesn't make sense, would run it maybe once a week.

[ChrisOlson]

Being single a dishwasher doesn't make sense, would run it maybe once a week.

It doesn't for two of us either.  My wife would have to approve it, which will not happen.  She goes to great pains to buy environmentally friendly dish soap, and she recovers water from the sink used to wash dishes and uses it to water her house plants and the garden in the summer time.  That dish water makes plants grow like some sort of Miracle Grow stuff because it has nutrients in it from the food being washed off the dishes.

If I even remotely suggested that we get a dish washing machine she'd go, "Oh - so you think a dish washing machine looks better in a miniskirt than I do?" as if it is some sort of intrusion on her rights and what she does.  So we won't even go there.
--
Chris