Tuesday, April 28, 2009

How to Score a $7.67 Energy Bill (Including the Green Energy Contribution)

  • Live in an apartment complex with laundry and water heaters somewhere down the hall, and thus not tied to your personal energy bill.
  • Place your electronics on power strips and turn them off at night.
  • Replace your light bulbs with CFLs.
  • Live somewhere you need minimal heat (space heaters turned on occasionally) and even more minimal cooling (fans once or twice a year).
  • We also got a brand new fridge when we moved in, but it does not appear to be an energy star appliance.
Our energy bills in New Mexico in non-winter months could be as low as $20 in our free-standing houses, including one that had a giant refrigerator and in which we had installed a washing machine. However, we did have a frontloader and we did not have a dryer. We did then, and still do now, hang dry all our clothes, sheets, towels, etc. Try it. You'll like it.

3 comments:

Karen said...

Is my house 5x as big as your apt? My bills have been $38 the last 2 months. I am afraid of the next one since the AC has been turned on.

Alison said...

I sure hope your house is not as 5x as big as my apartment, since my apartment is over 700 square feet. However, I'm pretty sure size is part of the equation, and you should be comparing per capita energy consumption, not per sf :) (Of course it depends on the $/kwh, but I'm pretty sure PG&E is on the high end.)

Laura A said...

Yeah I am jealous, my highest bill in Hawaii 320$ lowest 150$. I hate hawaii electric companies they screw you.