Power Bill up Since Starting to Burn Coal

Dann757 · Post by **Dann757** » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 8:38 pm

I wonder what this rig is setting me back. I plan as I finish to enclose it and put a decent grille on the other side. This fan takes the hot air off the ceiling in the kitchen and sends it into the adjoining bathroom, then out the door into the living room. It's crude but really helps equalize the dwelling temperature!

rewinder · Post by **rewinder** » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 9:48 pm

Here's what I use. Low profile but crude looking, ~110CFM and draws 45 watts. My wife can't wait till spring for me to take them down!

It's actually a replacement fan for a kick space heater.

Cold_Mainer · Post by **Cold_Mainer** » Sat. Dec. 20, 2008 7:18 pm

Freddy wrote:Maine electric rates are high, and just went up this fall. A KWH is now $.184 We'd love to only have to pay $.11!!

Wow, I'm glad I went with a Samsung hi def DLP instead of a plasma or LCD. It's 42" and draws 230 watts.

Fred......you on CMP or Bangor Hydro?

Got a chance to look at my power bill today and am trying to sort a few things out between time I started to use my stove and the bill date.

I don't have a power vent so we can rule that out.

I also installed my Kill-O-Watt meter last night ($19.00 off eBay).

This past bill which was for 33 days (11-04-08 to 12-7-08) I used 695 KWH (21.1 KWH per day @ $3.89) compared to 431 KWH (14.9 KWH @$2.74 per day) for 29 days last month. A year ago for the same period I used 517 KWH for a 31 day billing cycle. Same cost as Fred per KWH at $0.184.

My bill this month was $128.23 compared to last month at $79.52.

Have to look and evaluate what was done differently before I can figure what caused the increase. No Xmas lights outside this year.......just didn't get 'er done.

My Kill-O-Watt meter tells me I'm drawing 2.34 amps consistently for my stove. The combustion fan draws 0.47 amps, one convection fan draws 0.94 amps and the other convection fan draws 0.93 amps. Reading my KWH function of the meter tells me I used exactly 3.17 kwh in the last 24 hrs / 1 Days worth of use. The meter also tells me that the unit draws 108 watts.

So if I'm doing my calculation right here, 3.17 KWH / 24 hour period x 0.184 /KWH = $0.584897017 per day to run my LL Pocono. So $0.584897017 per day x 30 days should be $17.54 approxomately to run my stove for a month for hydro power.

I only ran my stove 14 days last month so I should have only seen an $8.18 difference. Lots of variables to consider in all this........

kootch88 · Post by **kootch88** » Sat. Dec. 20, 2008 8:11 pm

coalmeister wrote:
kootch88 wrote:I think my LCD burns a whopping 650 watts if I remember correctly, and we have two of those things running. That is like a freaking hair dryer going 8 hours a night.
I thought the LCD's claim to fame over plasma was less energy consumption. My 50" plasma is about 700 watts, how big is your LCD??
It really ain't so bad in the winter after all, heat is heat, and where you gonna find more fun heat than that? Well ok, maybe between the sheets

46" Samsung LCD. Can't find the manual because my wife placed it somewhere I can't find. Notice how wives always misplace things? Seems to always be the case. I went to the Samsung website and they don't say what it draws which indicates it is a horse.

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Sat. Dec. 20, 2008 9:19 pm

ColdMainer.... I'm on Bangor Hydro. Somethings fishy. You say it draws 2.34 amps, that is 280 watts. 280 times 24 = 6720 watts a day (6.72 KWH). Thirty days makes 201 KWH, about $37 a month. Then you say the meter shows 108 watts.... that's a far cry from 280 watts. I'm confused!

Cold_Mainer · Post by **Cold_Mainer** » Sat. Dec. 20, 2008 9:36 pm

Freddy wrote:ColdMainer.... I'm on Bangor Hydro. Somethings fishy. You say it draws 2.34 amps, that is 280 watts. 280 times 24 = 6720 watts a day (6.72 KWH). Thirty days makes 201 KWH, about $37 a month. Then you say the meter shows 108 watts.... that's a far cry from 280 watts. I'm confused!

Hmmm....... bear with me. I would assume that the meter is going to show variable amperage draw depending on what the convection motors are turning up at. The directions say that only the KWH are going to accumulate. I just checked the Kill-O-Watt meter and now the amperage draw is 2.94 because the house is calling for more heat.

I may have confused the issue here by supplying the amperage and wattage readings at that time of my post. I think I just need to keep track of the KWH used to calculate my costs.

You think?

arcticcatmatt · Post by **arcticcatmatt** » Mon. Dec. 22, 2008 9:34 am

I use this online calculator.

Example - I installed a couple fans that run on 13 watts. I run them all day all month. We pay 14.5 KPH (Crazy high electric!). I plug that into this online calculator
http://www.super-grow.biz/Electricity.jsp
And it tells me it cost me $1.36 to run each of them.

Here is something neat. Those new type of light bulbs went on sale. I wanted to see if they were worth it. I had many 60 watt bulbs in the house. I bought the new type bulbs that provide 60 watts worth of light but only burn 13 watts of electric.

Say I leave one light on all day
(at my rate of 14.5)
1 60 watt bulb on all day - .21 cents a day
1 13 watt bulb on all day - .5 cents per day
A savings of .16 cents per day. I don't leave a light on all day but random lights are on throughout the day so I am sure the savings is adding up! The bulbs were only about a buck each and last many years longer than standard bulbs.

WNY · Post by **WNY** » Mon. Dec. 22, 2008 10:12 am

Yes, we replaced a lot of lights with the low watt florescents too.

billlindley · Post by **billlindley** » Mon. Dec. 22, 2008 3:54 pm

We did the whole house, about 35 bulbs, with CFL's. Besides ensuring I was using the same brands I love them as our bill went down about $12-16 a month, year over year when just figuring the light change.

Devil505 · Post by **Devil505** » Mon. Dec. 22, 2008 4:16 pm

I replaced most of my light bulbs with the energy savers but my wife hates them because of the dim light until they warm up.....So..........what I did in the kitchen (3 bulb overhead light) was keep one normal 60 watt bulb in (fully bright instantly) & replaced 2 with energy savers. Now the light is sufficient when first turned on, but still saves energy.

spotcatbug · Post by **spotcatbug** » Mon. Dec. 29, 2008 11:10 am

Since we've started burning coal this year, our electric bill has gone down 30%.

Of course, our new coal boiler includes the domestic hot water option, feeding our electric hot water heater, so we kinda expected a decrease in electricity usage.

Heating your hot water with electricity is not cheap, or even reasonable, apparently.

Black_And_Blue · Post by **Black_And_Blue** » Mon. Dec. 29, 2008 6:07 pm

Central Maine Power here.

All said and done it's around .159 per KWH (taxes, delivery fees, etc.)

Average about 1150KWH a month over 1 year period.

* December was an estimated meter reading, seems they didn't want to venture out in the snow storm. *

Tagged this thread for next service bill and comparisons.

Flyer5 · Post by **Flyer5** » Mon. Dec. 29, 2008 9:05 pm

Even with all my pumps and the AA130 having a 1/2 hp motor instead of 1/4 hp my electric bill still has gone down without the EHW heater .

Black_And_Blue · Post by **Black_And_Blue** » Sun. Jan. 25, 2009 1:11 pm

Usage up 10kw per day since last bill.

This requires some investigating.

Power Bill up Since Starting to Burn Coal

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