My first 'all summer Utility bill arrived yesterday.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see it read $76.27.
My new place is all electric. My former apt's bill would
have been over $150.00, prob $180. :x It was on natural
gas for winter and electric for summer A/C.

No complaints here My Mental Health is definitely
happy with this one 8)

If you have gas/electric forced air AND a basement,
just leave your furnace fan on continually. The cool
air in the basement will be circulated throughout the
house and you'll not need air conditioning as much.

Only when the humidity rises, because your a/c is
a big dehumidifier.

Gonna' be 100F here today. Don't have my bill yet.
Hope I don't need financing. :wink:

I have a totally electric brick house, no basement, fairly good size house.... But because of my foster daughter, I have to run my a/c continuously, and keep my temps set no higher then 75..... If she gets too hot temps, (76,77 and above) she will fall asleep... anything over 80 can cause epileptic seizures...... needless to say, my latest electric bill is 600 dollars..... and no, they aint giving loans!!!!!! Keep saying, that I need to find me a rich man.... anyone want to volunteer to pay my electric bill??????? I promise, I will give ya my biggest smile ever!!!!!! If it werent so high, I might be laughing more, but its hard to laugh at that big of a bill!!!!

__________________
God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~

Just a thought. Is it necessary to keep the whole house at 75 or could you close off the rooms that you are not actively using?

mad scientest, my living room, dining room and kitchen are all one open area..... I have dad in one bedroom that has a door to the outside, and he stays in there. Unfortunately, he doesnt understand the concept of closing doors when he goes outside, and that hurts alot..... Now that my grandkids wont be here during the day, I am hoping I should see a decrease.... I am trying to figure out how to close off two bedrooms, but they are so close to the thermostat, that I worry that if those rooms get too hot, if it will affect the thermostat.... I have a dryer that doesnt dry very good, and that is one of my big problems..... but, I cant go outside long enough to hang clothes, unless someone is here to watch people for me....but I am wondering if I can figure out how to rig one of them pully type clothes line, so that I can stand by my back door and hang them, that would help alot... I just have to figure what size pullies and how to attach them to the house and that oak tree out there..... I just had ceiling fans put in a couple of weeks ago, so that should help some, I have been trying to set the thermostat up, but I think Im doing it wrong... I think I need to set it up higher, like maybe 77 at night, and then put it back down if she starts going to sleep during the day... If I get one more electric bill like this, I might buy a couple of window units, put one in her room and one in dads room and shut off the central altogether. But we shall see... With as much rain as we have been having, with temps not getting as high as what the rest of the country has had, I would hate to think what it could have been......

__________________
God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~

That's horrible, Mary.

The ceiling fans should hopefully help, as they help
circulate the air. I even turn those off at nite, to give
them a 6 hr rest. Also using few lamps as they add heat too.
All blinds closed and drapes pulled too.
I only use my dryer at nite, right before I go to bed,
and for only 25 min. then let them finish drying just sitting
in hot/warm dryer. So far, so good

just me
To get doors to close automatically how about a simple door spring? Might be a little noisy as it slams shut but they are dirt cheep door closers.

The easiest way to close off the two bedrooms would be to close the air registers in each room. Typically these will have a lever or thumb wheel on them that allows you to open or close their baffles to control the air flow. If not, just tape a piece of cardboard over each register. I have done this with a spare bedroom and the unity room and they do not get excessively hot, so I do not think it will affect your thermostat.

The pulley type clothesline is a good idea. It will keep all the heat and humidity outside plus does not use any energy. Although some communities are offended if you hang your laundry outside. Anyway about a two inch (or bigger) pulley should pull fairly easy. A hook that is solidly mounted to the house can hold one of the pulleys. But it must be very solidly mounted, as it has to hold up an entire load of wet clothes. At the other end simply tie the pulley to the tree by wrapping a rope around it. Leave a little slack in the line to allow the tree to sway in the breeze.

Here are some other things to think about. This one is probably not very practical, unless you need a new roof. I replaced the roof on my house about six years ago and I went from black shingles to white shingles. The white shingles reflected much more of the suns heat and gave quite a noticeable reduction the time the AC needed to run. A cheaper alternative to reroofing is to add an attic fan to blow the hot air out.

Adding �white� awnings, shades, or blinds to windows that receive direct sun light to reflect it back out.

Use the new compact florescent lamps for any light that you leave on for extended time.

Have you replaced the furnace filter lately within the last 2 �3 months? A dirty filter can restrict airflow, this probably won�t have a huge effect, but it is cheap and easy to do. Which remind me I need to go check mine. :wink:

All great ideas, Mad Sci. I can vouch for those attic fans
I had one years ago in my home. And in moderate temps
[remember those?], they pull in great outside air, by leaving your downstairs windows open.

The downside to them is that they also pull outside dust
to the screen, making it necessary to clean them. I used
a brush to clean them and then hosed them off from the
outside. Just remember to close your window first 8)

The door springs are noisy and can be a pain if lots of kids
are going in and out constantly.

Sorry it took me so long to get back.... gots out of town company!!! I talked to the son and the ex about the concept of an attic fan and they thought it was a great idea.... It was suggested, that until I have the money to afford that, that we cut the hole in the side of the attic wall abit smaller then what the fan would be, and put like a hinged door (for lack of a beter word) that we can open to allow some of the heat out.... so we are looking into that.... My roof is only two years old, and the shingles are a light gray... My a/c heating system is also only two years old. I have dark curtains in my living room dining room, and try to keep them pulled during the day..... Last year I had plastic on my sliding glass door in the dining room, should have apparently done it this year. Anyway, thanks for all the great information, the attic fans and the pulley clothes line are whats next on the list... Thanks mad scientest!!!

__________________
God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~

just me:

Speaking of fans let me blow this idea past you.
I have a little experience working with attic fans. A side wall (aka gable fan) should cost about $50 to $75 plus installation, which is assuming that you do not want to crawl around the attic and do it yourself.

The only problem with these fans is that they are controlled by an elcheapo thermostat that waits till the attic gets up to 120 � 130 degrees before it will turn on. Then once it is on it will keep running until the temperature drops below 70-80 degrees. This means that there will be times when the fan should be running and it is not, and other times when it is not needed and it will be running. So while this is better then nothing what you really want is a smart thermostat.

A thermostat that is smart enough to start running the fan as soon as the inside temperature is slightly warmer then the outside temperature. Rather then operating at some predetermined set points. This saves electricity and gives optimum cooling.

And by some strange coincidence I happened to have designed and built just such a device.
My partner and I actually presented it to a major fan manufacture, their marketing guys loved it, but alas when the bean counters looked at the 50 cents that they were paying for their cheap mechanical thermostat and when comparing that to our electronic one would cost their eyes glazed over and they started sputtering incoherently.
We still plan on marketing it but for the moment it is not a high priority item.

So here is what I would like to do once you get your fan, and if you are willing, I will send you a smart thermostat, �for free�. All I ask in return is that report back on the ease of installation. What if any problems were there? Are the instructions clear and do they make sense? Etc.

The installation is really quite simple and straightforward and I cannot possibility imagine any problems. Still there is nothing like having someone who has never seen it, install it to find problems we would never have thought about.

Mad Scientest, I am sorry, I didnot see this post sooner!!!! I will definitly take you up on your offer... The son is going to go look at attic fans... well actually what did you call them.... the gable fan, the ones that are on the side of the house..... and see if we can afford to get that this month.... so as soon as I find out for sure, I would love to talk to you about it.. I will let you know what and when I find out what we are doing... Thanks for all your help. it is definately appreciated!!!!

__________________
God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~

What a wonderful, generous offer, MadSci 8)

You're a Real Sweetheart

Still fighting electric bills.... I was sooo happy last month, the electric company came out to re-read my meter, becus they said there was no way possible for me to go down that much.... My bills have steadily gone down from 500, to 300 now with the last bill I recieved being 138!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!, it felt sooo good!!!! But unfortunatly, I then had my three day party complete with a waterslide, and lots of people going in and out. Now that its summer time again, I have also had to have the a/c on.... But, I was recently given a window unit, and I put it into our garage (turned into a bedroom) I plan on having fosterdaughter and myself spending our days (and probably nights) in there, and just shutting down the rest of the house.... But questions.... My computer is in a separate room, someone said that it needed to be in a place with air conditioning? Does it have to be in a/c all the time? Or can I just leave it shut off during the day and use it in the evening and early morning hours? I plan on having windows open in the rest of the house, and probably a couple of fans blowing for circulation, but will that be sufficient for my computer? Also, does it hurt my computer if I unplug it everynight?

On a side note, recently, I filled up a bunch of plastic bottles with water, and put them on the bottom layer of my freezer, I then put all my food back into my freezer, and then put more plastic bottles in the empty spaces. I also did this with my freezer on my refridgerator. About a week later, I was without electricity for about four days, and lost no (NONE) food. When the electric went out, I put a blanket over my freezer, and made sure that the curtain on the window by it was closed. I didnt open my freezer at all until the electricity came back on.... and at least 95% of everything was still frozen solid. I did have some stuff on the top that was a bit mushy, but still frozen and usable. I have to believe, that this is saving on electric also!!! I assume, that part of my low bill was because I went without electric for so long, but now I am wondering, what would happen if once a week, I just shut everything down during the night. I mean unplug fridge and freezers and just shut everything off... Would it be bad for my appliances? Would it hurt them? It would do me no good to save money on electric, if I had to replace appliances because of it.
thanks for all your help.

__________________
God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~

Could you set the house AC higher and put a small window AC in the foster daughter's room?
You can buy at small window unit for $90 at Walmart.

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Porsche 9FF GT9

Well, if I did that, it would basically put her in her room all day long by herself... thats why, I put the window unit in the room that use to be a 2 and a half car garage. The room is big enough that we can basically make it into a studio type apartment... There is room for both of us to comfortable be in there as long as I dont have grandkids over. So, Im thinking that will be the better idea, but I have been known to be wrong before, so we shall see... But, Im wondering if I should leave the a/c in the house set at like 85/90 or would it be better to have the windows open with fans going.[/quote]

__________________
God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~