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How I brought my electricity bill down to $5
MNN's lifestyle blogger shares the details of her energy-efficient lifestyle.
Fri, Jan 07 2011 at 7:35 PM
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Photo: Adam/Flickr
Before I moved, the utilities in my apartment were included in my rent. That meant all my energy-saving efforts — from cleaning my fridge coils to installing Practecol switches to simply turning out lights when I wasn’t using them — didn’t reap any financial benefits.
So when I moved to West Hollywood, I was kind of excited — to be paying for electricity. Why? I’m a curious person. I wanted to see just how much electricity I was using — or not.
I'm proud to say that my most recent Southern California Edison bill came to just $5.03. I used just 35 kilowatt-hours in December!
Of course, I had to see how my energy usage compared to the average American. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 11,040 kilowatt-hours (kWh), an average of 920 kWh per month.” However, I live alone, while the average American household is made up of 2.59 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Calculated per person, the average American burns through 355 kWh a month — which means I use up a tenth of the energy the average American does!
This despite that I work from home — which means my wireless router and laptop are sipping energy all day long, along with my mini-fridge. However, those — plus a CFL bulb, if needed — are the only things I have plugged in most days. All kitchen appliances (except the fridge) remain unplugged, as do the printer, stereo, cell phone charger, and a few other electronics, except when in use.
And at night, everything is turned off and totally disconnected from sucking vampire energy with the help of Practecol switches — the computer, the wireless gateway, and — believe it or not — the mini-fridge, because in my tiny studio apartment, the thing makes too much noise when I’m trying to sleep.
Yes, I have energy-efficient light bulbs, too. I have exactly three bulbs — two CFLs, and an even more efficient LED bulb for the closet.
I get an extra reward for using less energy. Southern California Edison’s tier system means that those who use less pay less per kWh. You can see from the handy chart SoCal Edison puts on each bill (delivered and paid for electronically sans paper, of course) that I’m in the low end of the “tier 1″ pricing level.
After comparing my energy usage to other Americans, I felt so awesome about myself that I declared yesterday’s No Impact Challenge topic — Energy: Replace kilowatts with ingenuity — conquered for now. I mean, my next steps would be somehow rigging up solar panels in my apartment complex or getting rid of the mini-fridge altogether or inventing a solar-powered laptop — and I’m not ready to go there yet.
In addition to bragging, I hope I’m making clear in this post that steps like switching out light bulbs and turning off electronics when not in use and preventing vampire power loss really do make a difference — both for the environment and your pocketbook.
How are your own energy-savings efforts going? And do you have any not-too-far-out advice for me so I can get my bill under $5 a month in 2011?
Don't believe her? See her next post, which includes a copy of her bill.
The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.
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i live in ireland for my last electricity bill i paid 436.26 thats 69 days i work on average 60 hours a week and go to college 1 day a week i spend less time at home than i do at home i have all my electrictics off during the time im not there and the avereage temperature of my apartment over the last billing term is 10 degrees celcius (50 F)
I live in Dallas, Texas and I do not care at all about my electricity bill. My friends in the oil business recently had a bet with our employee's retirement funds of who could use the most electricity on our respective holiday ranches. It was a doooooozy. It began on the first quarter and had to be submitted to the IRS to be legal in our gamble. The winner was my close friend, KwH over three months totalling....? Care to guess? If you ask I will tell you!
I live in a shoe box and cut off small bits of my ear whenever I hear the word earlectricity. The very notion of something so wasteful is an unpleasant as riding down a forty foot razor blade in to a pool of Iodine. I thank god every day for all us who rather cook our food on the fires fueled by our own methane, than consider how petty we are!
Guess what.
The average american doesnt live in such a temperate climate.
Mr grandparents lived in Ca too, and didnt heat at all in the winter either, and only used AC on the hottest of hottest days.
Try having no AC in Atlanta. If you have a date, you go out and start your car and run the AC. Then you go inside and take a shower.
If you get ready first and then go get in the car and then turn the AC on and go.. you arrive totally drencheched in sweat.
that's not a real turn on.
I leave everything plug and watch TV on a one bedroom apartment but my lightbill is no more the $35 to $50 if I include AC in the summer and heat in the winter. Although I do play for gas... Lol
This is truly amazing...I also work from home and thought I would just have to live with a certain amount of electricity bill. I'm now inspired to try even harder!
saw most of the comments on how most of you save electricity and save a bunch. try to shop for electricity rates and ask them for all the details on your bill. There is a $4.95 to $9.50 base monthly fee if you use less than 1000 KWh. It kills me because I try to conserve energy and always use less than 1000 KWh. So much for conserving electricity. Hypocrites!!!
With energy deregulation we now have choices in several states to select a gas or electric provider and save anywhere from 12 - 35% on electric bills.
I've have power strips and in-line cord switches on all electronics, charges, paper shredder and my microwave for many years. Turn 'em all off when the respective contraptions aren't in use. Here on Kauai in Hawaii we pay about $.37/kwh and my bill runs (total) about $40/month.
I live in Texas where it is plenty hot, so we have to use our AC unit. Temps here are @100 degrees. I use AC mostly at nite and during the late afternoons when temp hits 100. I have cut everything I can, light bulbs, phone chargers, computers, etc. but I feel really good when my bill is under $100.00. I also unplug lamps, etc. when not in use. Glad someone else can get such a low bill, but I don't see how she does it. The taxes on my bill is more than $5.00. Pleased with what I have.
this is awesome in springfield ,illinois we used to be able to do this type of saveings with our city owned utility now,they include so many itemized items the average efficency will run at least a hundred a month ,great job on saveing energy
The day a standard LED Edison based bulb is sold for $3/piece is the day I will buy one. Until then CFL it is!
agrred but the mercury is actually in the bulb not the ballast
I am glad that you wrote this article because it encourages me to find different ways to save on my utility bills. One thing that I wanted to ask others. Our electric company put in new meters that can be read from the street. At about that time my electric bill went up a lot. An elderly couple I know had the same experience. Is there a way that we can monitor our own electric bills to observe what efforts really pay off in our own homes?
I live in Milwaukee, WI. I used to live in a studio apartment with gas for heat and cooking. My electric bill averaged around $20 a month. I went on a 2-week vacation and unplugged everything (TV, computer, clock radio, cell phone charger etc....all phantom power suckers) except my refrigerator. My bill for that month ended up being about half what it usually was. Definitely worth disconnecting those items from power when not in use!
I think it's great that someone can write that, at least in Southern California, it's POSSIBLE to consume only $5 worth of electricity. If heat or AC aren't needed, and there aren't ridiculous surcharges added to the bill, no dryer, etc. I'm sure it is possible. Most of us could probably follow her guidelines and come up with a $30-$50 power bill easily, at least in Spring or Fall.
that the author spends way more money outside the home, which defeats the purpose of saving money on her electric bill. if she only has a mini fridge that she can unplug at night, then she either eats out or goes grocery shopping every day. She didn't mention a washer/dryer, which means she either goes to the laundromat or the dry cleaners. She didn't mention whether or not she has an all electric apartment, or if she uses gas for cooking and heating water.
I would have liked more information.
Get rid of the wife and kids, move into a smaller apartment, get rid of most of my personal items that use power, have more gas based appliances, switch to 1 light in the whole living area and hope I don't waste my time reading pointless articles on the internet like this anymore. Which if I don't have internet and a computer there is more savings there on electricity!
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