Energy bill?

[Amy]

How about the energy bills this year?

[DamonHD]

Hi,

Could you be a little more specific so that people can understand your intent, please?

Rgds

Damon

[Mary B]

Don't ask, it is painful enough paying them!

[Amy]

Really hard to afford these bills nowadays... :'(

[Harold in CR]

 Just how bad or expensive are your energy bills ?

This is why I am researching the earth tubes for heat and AC and next part will be Solar Panels and possible storage.

[MattM]

We have a pretty airtight 4,000 square foot house.  Electricity runs about $600/month with EREC.  The upside is fiber optic is coming through them next year.

[bigrockcandymountain]

Insulated to almost the passivehouse standard here in Saskatchewan, Canada.

We have a wood stove that we use when it is really cold and cloudy.  Otherwise the sun pretty much keeps us heated.  There is propane powered heating in the basement slab.  Our propane costs about $350 a year.  That runs heat, hot water, stove, and dryer.  Maybe $100 or so for the space heating a year i would guess.

Our house is 1500 sq ft plus a full basement so 3000 total.

We have no other direct energy bills.  Off grid is good to us so far. 

All new homes should be insulated to passivehouse or better.  No question about it.  When doing major renos on existing homes, people should consider adding insulation too.

[JW]

 I have a well sealed house, windows are very important. Got the insulation. Its central air.

Consider an air cleaner, I use an Ionizer without a media filter. The central air - air handler does thou. The ionizer uses hardly any power @120vac. I've had this one working in my house its in the living room been there since I can remember. I don't have any respiratory problems.

If anyone wants I can post the specs and a Grainger pn.

JW

[Mary B]

Gas bill was $120 last month(coldest month of the year), probably burned $100 worth of pellets too. Electric was $140 because they have jacked the rates stupid high...

[SparWeb]

My consumption is very consistent from year to year: about 80-90 GJ of natural gas and 7800-8500 kWhr of electricity.  In the past 5 years rates for both of these have doubled.  In 2016, energy cost me 1724$.  Last year I spent 3644$CAD.

[mbouwer]

Insulated to almost the passivehouse standard here in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Off grid is good to us so far.

 Do you think it is possible to improve your windmill to such an extent that it can fully meet your energy needs?

[MattM]

Gas bill was $120 last month(coldest month of the year), probably burned $100 worth of pellets too. Electric was $140 because they have jacked the rates stupid high...

I miss being on NPPD, lowest rates in the country.  EREC and FPL in Florida do too much green energy.  Gets wiped out in hurricanes and is much higher cost per unit than coal.  Many projects a decade old or better.  In about ten years there will be loads of used solar panels to dispose with, too.

[Mary B]

Xcel Energy for the electric bill... way to much green garbage in it is driving it up 25+% a year, and MN governor is mandating way more and shutting down MN's coal plants by next year!!!!

[XeonPony]

How about the energy bills this year?

Here in Sask Canada, the year be for, 800L diesel cost me apx 900 dollars delivered, that averaged out to 2 months heat, I'd need to fill 3 times in a season.

Thanks to the dear regime leader it is now 1,600 dollars for 800L delivered

So a literal doubling.

Water gone from 30 a month to 40 a month fixed rate.

[bigrockcandymountain]

I think it would be possible to eliminate the propane portion of our heat with improvements to the existing turbine. Just the small projects I'm working on right now will get me close.  The new rotor and delaying furling should make a bit more power.  The active furling with an automatic shutdown will allow me to run it quite a bit harder without worrying about it coming apart.

 To eliminate the wood stove would take another machine altogether i think.  That's no problem because i really like the wood stove.  I even enjoy cutting and splitting wood for it.



Here is a picture of our windows.  You can just see the turbine.  We still haven't finished the crown moulding and baseboards.  I'm quite happy with how they look though. 

[Bruce S]

BRCM;
NOT FAIR!!! all we have is 40mph winds blowing rain sideways and 70F

[SparWeb]

NOT FAIR!!!

Huh.  You put up a WT then.