mrsmaccmoo

Is it just me, or is electricity really expensive here (CT) compared to UK?? Last month $186, this month $198. Only 2 of us, fairly large-ish 4 bed house, but we rarely use the AC, so we are simply paying for lights and hot water..... much larger house in the UK was about £200 per quarter. We are dreading winter....

Pulaski

The AC is major draw even if you only use it "rarely", especially if it is a fairly old, unit. Also the fridge is a big user, again especially if it is a fairly old one. Do you use a clothes dryer, because that's another heavy user of power?

If your water heater doesn't have additional insulation you should buy a fibre glass insulation wrap for it. I suspect that the electric water heater is the biggest "unexpected" contributor to your power bill.

What about the lights? If they're incandescent bulbs they can add a surprising amount to your bill, so they should all be fluorescent, compact fluorescent, or LED bulbs. Many power companies will send you a free box of a variety of sizes of compact fluorescent bulbs.

scrubbedexpat091

Or even a newer one that isn't energy star. Ours is only 4 years old and sucks power like crazy, also had issues keeping things cold so runs a lot.


Do you know how much your paying per kWh OP vs what was being charged in the UK?

RICH

Cooker, dryer, dishwasher? Did you have gas in UK?.
What is the unit cost? Here its about 11.5cents/kwh.

unique_boy

might have to accidentally break my fridge

Bob

Ocean State, they were selling LED bulbs for $3 a piece for 800 lumen type 60W equivalents and the CFL's were between $1-1.35 a piece depending on size.

They also put out much less heat, so you save on cooling costs during the summer.

A lot of states in the New England area also have a state based energy audit, where you can get a bunch of stuff done to reduce consumption from free bulbs to cheap insulation/window work. For us, it's part of one of those taxes that go to NStar. Mass Save | Energy Audit | Home Energy Audit | Energy Assessment You might have something similar in CT?

Nutmegger

Mine was $130 last month -- lights, water, washer, dryer, dehumidifiers (don't use the a/c and summer so cool never even broke out the fans). Do you have electric heat? If not, you should find that your electricity bill will be lower in the winter than in the summer. Do you know that there are providers other than CL&P who give better rates? If you are interrested, pm me and I'll get the info for you.

HumphreyC

Seems to vary from town to town. Bought a house in July and the last few bills have been $75 and $78 per month. This is after running a bedroom air conditioner unit and all the appliances - fridge, drier etc..

Last town I was in had Unitil as the supplier which means you get shafted. Place was a similar size and we were running the same appliances but my bills there were nearly double. This town is National Grid who seem to be a lot better.

Uncle_Bob

First time i've heard that on BE.

Your home in CT maybe poorly insulated compared to your UK one. I remember in MA on my street of cape cod style homes mine was the only one with double glazing

Hotscot

Regarding those LED bulbs.
I see Costco has good deals in the 40w replacement range but won't they be quite dull? I usually use 100W in the kitchen...

scrubbedexpat091

Depends on what you want. I find the 40 watt equivalents to work well for my needs, but if you like bright light (assuming since your using 100 watts now) that might not be enough light for you.

Uncle_Bob

Yeah dull, no good for kitchen. LED for the Kitchen will be expensive. A PAR30 flood led equivalent to 50w will run over $20 a pop. A PAR38 (120w) takes you to over 30.

Hotscot

Screw that....

Pulaski

Prices for LED bulbs are certainly high, but are falling fast, though not on all bulbs. I am holding off on replacing two dud bulbs in the light bar in the master bathroom, because although 40w equiv LED bulbs are now selling for less than $5, the spherical ones for light bars are still about $15. The compact fluorescent ones are $12 a pair.

Hotscot

Yeah I think I'll wait a bit...