The Homestead
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Energy Costs
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Energy Costs
Searching for different ways to cut expenses on electricity, water ect. What are you doing to reduce these energy costs?
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21 Replies
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We have cut expenses some by cooking in the late evening when temperatures are cooler.
It makes a bigger difference than you might think.
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I’m in suburbs for now so I don’t have to worry about this to the extent that someone trying to go off-grid might, but some things I’ve started doing this year as I’ve been paying more attention to energy usage and associated costs:
- Drying laundry outside (a simple cheap cord and some clips are enough, I just string the line in a fence corner when I’m going to use it, then take it down when done)
- Avoiding heating the oven just for a single dish worth of cooking (plan around having the oven running longer in a day but less often)
- Trying to grow green beans trellised on the south side of the house for a little shade (it didn’t work lol, summer was too brutal for the beans)
- Keeping the thermostat at 80 in the summer (when the heat index reaches humid 105-115 almost daily for 5 months in a row here, a dry 80 still feels pretty cool in comparison)
- Not running the heater (electric heating system) in the winter (calling it winter is kind of generous in south TX)
- Putting up aluminum-coated cardboard in the windows that get the afternoon sun–free cardboard from the grocery store and free aluminum from breakfast taco wrappers at work!
- Less electronic entertainment at home
- Flushing the toilet a lot less (that means being creative, not leaving a soiled toilet unflushed all day)
- Catching rainwater with 5gal buckets for garden watering (no gutters and rain-catch system on the house, but I may add that if I stay in this house much longer)
- Using my dish wash and rinse water for the yard (again with 5gal buckets, since the plumbing is to city sewer)–I have handwashed my dishes my whole life, never used dishwasher
I’m still looking at nearly $730 for electricity and $1070 for city utilities (water and trash) for the year even with these efforts. The bulk of the utility bill is waste and stormwater treatment, trash and recycle pickup, street fees, and taxes, so there’s not anything I can do about those besides moving out of the city. Water on its own is usually only around $15 a month out of that overall bill.
I don’t think there’s anything really revolutionary in my list, but maybe it’ll give someone some ideas.
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I also have the same issue with my water bill now. I pay very little for the little water I use, but it’s all the other fees. And we have to pay separately for trash removal because it’s not a city service.
But we never started trash service with anyone. I take my tiny grocery bag of trash with me to the store during the week and throw it out there. It’s about half a small grocery bag so I don’t feel bad about it. I figure it’s the little bit of packaging from there, they can get rid of it for me.
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That’s one of the many reasons that lead us to moving. For years our area was “out in the county”. It was just out of the city jurisdiction and considered the county or country. Everyone had wells or county water, we all had septic and we all dealt with our trash. We either burned it, hauled it to the landfill our hired an independent to haul it off weekly. Well the city and county consolidated. Not long after it came out that the cities water system was falling apart and needed a complete overhaul. Since we were now “in the city” our water bill doubled. Then they tried to bill everyone out in the county for sewage despite our being on septic systems. The argument was it was part of the water system. The people fought so there wasn’t a “sewage” fee. Instead an “infrastructure” fee showed up adding another $10 or so to our bill. Then they added storm drain fees, water runoff you name it. Before the city took over the county our water bill was around $12 a month. When we left it was up to $65. We were still on a septic, couldn’t get a well permit and sewer lines were headed our way. We had a trashman that charged us $25 a month to empty up to 4 cans twice a week. The city installed trash service which added $380 to my tax bill. The service was a maximum 2 cans once a week. I was paying more for less and with a family of 6 (with diaper pails) I found myself hauling trash once or twice a month as well. On top of that the excuse was to make our city cleaner but the garbage trucks would empty cans, have stuff fall out and just leave it. Between that and what blew out of the truck it left our road covered with litter. Government just doesn’t know when to stop. Whatever they touch they generally make worse. Thus creating new problems, requiring new solutions that require more of your/our hard earned money. I do not miss the chemical laden city water I was over billed for. Our water is pumped from an artesian well. It’s sweet, cold, loaded with good minerals and otherwise clean. More than anything it’s cheap, refreshing and delicious.
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Your water sounds lovely! Ours is so hard, we can’t use actual soap anymore, and the kitchen water has been smelling more of chlorine lately. We have a filter, but still, it’s so sad.
Too bad about all the governmental nonsense you’ve had to endure. It could make you mad enough to spit!
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I hate to hear that about your water. Like I said… the only think the government seems to make is more problems. A decent rain catchment with a good filter would probably give you far better water. Of course they probably don’t want you to do that…. for your own good ya know. Some cities will tell you it’s THERE water when it falls from the sky so YOU can’t collect it! IT’S THEIRS !!!!!! Let it flood your basement though and suddenly it doesn’t belong to them at all.
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Good point about the basement water.
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Phantom power is something that many people miss or aren’t aware of. Basically every appliance and electrical gadget you have both big and small use electricity as long as they are plugged up. Even if you’re not using it and it’s turned off it is still using electricity. That is what’s called standby or phantom power. By simply unplugging things as simple as your toaster and electric razor you can cut your electric bill. Unplug enough things and you can easily knock off 10% or more. My MIL will actually flip off the breakers for the electric stove, water heater and other things. She flips them on when she’s ready to use them. It’s easier for her because the breaker box is in the garage just outside the kitchen door. I’m not going to those extremes yet because our breaker box is downstairs in the basement. But….. according to her the light bill dropped over 35% by being so vigilant. There are gadgets and gizmos that allow you to cut the power to things like your oven right there at the oven. I haven’t used any myself I just unplug most things until I need them. I hope to try some of those gadgets in the future though.
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Wow that is great reduction by flipping the breaker on those!
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There are a number of things I leave unplugged or on turned-off power strips and I’ve been doing that for years, but I haven’t thought about turning things off at the breaker. I’ll have to see if that would even work… my fridge might be on the same circuit as the stove and oven lol.
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This is something we were just discussing in the house today. Our power company announced that our bills would go up by $20 for an average household (1,000 kilowatt hours in a month). We are always trying to find ways to lower our bills and that one will be something else we have to prepare for. We know that we need to update our water heater so going to see what type of change that makes. I also even mentioned about maybe we need to update our heat pump to a super self efficient one or go with the mini splits like Tag uses.
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Years ago I got to visit England. Something that struck me was I saw breaker type switches at the stove, hot water heater etc. Power was killed to major appliances when not in use. I thought it was brilliant than. And I sure wish I had them now. Our light bills have been nuts this year. I’m in Pensacola. It’s hot and we’ve been sweating it out, a lot. We hang out clothes, are stingy with lights and cooking. Have a small space and keep the windows shaded. With all our efforts we are getting $330 bills for electric. About to hook up an on demand hot water heater, hoping that will help
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Absolutely and that’s how my MIL saves on her bill. She doesn’t have the switches by the stove but it’s literally a few feet away.
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When we lived in Australia, I also saw them on power outlets. You could turn the outlet off which took it out of the circuit. If enough were off and not being used, there was a lot less usage because there was simply less ready current flowing through the house. I miss that. That and the half flush toilets that use less water.
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Last month our bill was 178 (used to be 50 bucks) just received our bill yesterday we brought it back down to 113$. We did this by dying clothes outside (removed our dryer from the house), unplugged our electric stove and cook with gas outside on a campchef oven/stove, and turned off our ac and opened windows 🪟😀. We don’t keep anything plugged in now except frig and freezer. We only turn lights and ceiling fans on if we are in that room.
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Some simple things that we do is dry our clothes outside, unplug items that are not being used, cook with a solar oven instead of using the oven indoors, and reduce AC usage as much as possible. These really help cut the electricity bill for us. Going to look for some solar bulbs for night time lighting as well!
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Jonathan, very good tips. I am going to try the cardboard and tinfoil
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Here’s what they look like. The blinds just hold them in place against the window. So they are easy to take down if I want to get more light or open the window. They don’t cover the entire glass but that’s okay because I still have a way to peek out.
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The city keeps telling us we are already at the lowest tier for water use and our bills were around $32 a month for years. Now they are $60 a month. They added two $10 fees for sewer development and waste water and then general rates went up as well. We could use twice the water we do and still pay the $60. So there’s not much we can do there. We already use rainwater in the yard.
Our electricity runs the fridge, lights, washer and dryer, and laptops. I only have a washer and dryer because my stepmom moved and hers didn’t fit in the new house so I got them. I use the dryer maybe 4 times a year. I have always hung my laundry on a clothesline. I usually only do 1 load of laundry a week, maybe a second for linens or dirty work clothes and I use the “speed wash” setting because one wash and rinse is enough.
We have gas heat, hot water, and stove/oven. I used the think if the power went out we’d be fine on heat because it was gas. Not anymore. Gas heaters have an electric “safety” switch so if the power goes, so does the heat!
So we got a wood stove and we heat with wood now. We did buy some wood this year, but usually neighbors take down trees and we get the wood free.
I also now use the winter wood stove heat to dehydrate a year’s worth of pantry food. It did take a plan based on the recipes I wanted to stock up for and it’s going well. Next year, it will come from mostly foraged or harvested foods from the yard and local fields and less from the store, but I had to start somewhere and it didn’t really cost much.
We’re just starting to use a haybox my husband built for me. We’ll make a soup/stew to last half the week and it only takes about 10 minutes of cooking and several hours in the haybox to make it. We can reheat it on the wood stove or for maybe 5 minutes on the stove during the week. A haybox is like a non-electric crockpot.
The house is kind of dark, but we don’t need much light so we leave the lights off a lot and we go outside more. The natural light is better for our eyes and we noticed a difference.
I never bought a bunch of kitchen gadgets and appliances. I don’t have a TV or stereo or cell phones. I don’t have humidifiers, dehumidifiers, night lights, fragrance plug-ins or any of the other stuff most people use.
Our bills are currently about $60 a month for water, $40 for electricity, and $40 for gas (not running heat). That’s about $40 more a month total than in the last six years we’ve lived here.
We do use some air conditioning in summer as my husband needs it mostly so that electric bill will go up for a couple of months. But we wait until it’s 80+F in the house and too humid to be at all comfortable. If we lived in a dry place we’d have a swamp cooler instead but that won’t work here.
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A couple years ago we added a humidifier to the furnace. As a cold fragile person, I was having the temp set to 72, 73 and now it’s 70 comfortably. Heavy blackout curtains are drawn over the lr Windows at night which also keep in the warmth. Will dry the wash outside in the summer.
We live on well now (never want to go back to city) so water is free and private trash/recycle pickup is so cheap. Still conserve by selecting appropriate size laundry on washer. Will use dehumidifier water in summer to water plants. Going to build a veggie wash station this spring pending finding a decent priced used sink and use the gray water to supplement the garden. Lots of ways to recycle water.
Would help to double on car trips. If it’s not urgent, wait until you need to go to a couple stores and get it done in one trip, thinking about the most efficient way.
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many folk are going to solar power yet finding the expense of the lithium batteries off-putting at the very least
here is a way with break-down of costs over twenty [20] years to save a fortune on batteries and reduce the solar set-up costs
food for thought
12v lead-acid and gel batteries can also be purchased for a fraction of the price of lithium and most folk do not know they can go to vehicle breaker yards also known as scrap yards and get vehicle batteries for a fraction of the cost of a new battery
and you may also save costs on other things such as cables and connectors switches lights fuses and more plus there could be other things and bargains to help save money for your homestead or mobile-home and-such
for example
where i live i can get second-hand 12v vehicle batteries anywhere from £10 ~ £40 each whereas one [1] new lead-acid battery starts at around £90 for a 60ah ~ 70ah wheres the higher the [ah] the higher the price
thereby if you purchase second-hand 12v vehicle batteries you would be saving them going in the landfill and saving lots of money
and
looking at the high and low price scale for 12v second-hand vehicle batteries
lets calculate costs for a single battery
if second-hand only last five [5] years you can weigh them in get a few bob back or could likely do a swap for a good second-hand battery from the breakers yards or scrap yards or even second-hand vehicle dealers
£40 4x over twenty [20] years is equal to £160 v £4,000 a massive saving of £3,840
£10 4x over twenty [20] years is equal to £40 v £4,000 a massive saving of £3,960
the batteries may last longer as i have seen some folk that claim they are still using their 12v vehicle lead-acid batteries nine [9] years on
£40 2x over twenty [20] years is equal to £80 v £2,000 a massive saving of £1,920
£10 2x over twenty [20] years is equal to £20 v £2,000 a massive saving of £1,980
lets calculate costs for a battery-bank of ten [10] batteries
£40 10x is equal to £400 v £10,000 a massive saving of £9,600
£10 10x is equal to £100 v £10,000 a massive saving of £9,900
£400 4x over twenty [20] years is equal to £1,600 v £40,000 a massive saving of £38,400
£100 4x over twenty [20] years is equal to £400 v £40,000 a massive saving of £39,600
£400 2x over twenty [20] years is equal to £800 v £20,000 a massive saving of £19,200
£100 2x over twenty [20] years is equal to £200 v £20,000 a massive saving of £19,800
lest calculate a new lower end lead-acid 60ah ~ 70ah battery at an average £90 each
£90 is equal to £1,000 a massive saving of £910
£90 4x over twenty [20] years is equal to £360 v £4,000 a massive saving of £3,640
£90 2x over twenty [20] years is equal to £180 v £2,000 a massive saving of £1,820
lest calculate a new lower end [ah] lead-acid 60ah ~ 70ah battery at an average £90 each for a battery bank of ten [10]
£90 10x is equal to £900 v £10,000 a massive saving of £9,100
£900 4x over twenty [20] years is equal to £3,600 v £40,000 a massive saving of £36,400
£900 2x over twenty [20] years is equal to £1,800 v £20,000 a massive saving of £18,200
lets calculate a 240ah new leisure battery at average price of £390
£390 is equal to £390 v £1,000 a massive saving of £610
£390 4x over twenty [20] years is equal to £1,560 v £4,000 a massive saving of £2,440
£390 2x over twenty [20] years is equal to £780 v £2,000 a massive saving of £1,220
lets calculate a 240ah new leisure battery at average price of £390 for a battery bank of ten [10]
£3,900 is equal to £3,900 v £10,000 a massive saving of £6,100
£3,900 4x over twenty [20] years is equal to £15,600 v £40,000 a massive saving of £24,400
£3,900 2x over twenty [20] years is equal to £7,800 v £20,000 a massive saving of £12,200
the costs will vary for area to area country to country thus this is only a guide based on my sources and first hand knowledge
also cheaper quicker more environmentally friendly to replace for most and makes connections with those in breakers yards or scrap yards or even second-hand vehicle dealers
for those in remote areas you may be able to purchase online on places like ebay and have them shipped to you
open for discussion
does this make sense to you or do you have a different point of view…??
p.s
if my calculations are off please correct me as i am not good with math
bona-fide
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