Home Energy Costs

MrsDangermouse said:
On average we have even less sunshine than you, but solar panels are still worth it :okay:.
Average hours of sunshine per year:
- London 1633
- Columbus OH 2182
- Cleveland OH 2,280

We only have a small 4kw setup, but even on a winter's day if the sun shines it gives us enough free electricity to run the background load of the house and more: the sun is out today so my smart meter is currently showing we are using 0w of electricity - that's with both of us working from home (heating is gas though). On average we generate around 1500kWh per year - which is around 20% of our yearly electricity usage.
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Where do you have your solar panels? Our house is surrounded by towering trees. I don't see a way to capture the sun. About 5 months of the year most of the trees have no leaves, but those are the cloudy months.. Too bad, really, though I do love our trees.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Where do you have your solar panels? Our house is surrounded by towering trees. I don't see a way to capture the sun. About 5 months of the year most of the trees have no leaves, but those are the cloudy months.. Too bad, really, though I do love our trees.
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In the UK they are usually installed on the roof.
 
Morning Glory said:
In the UK they are usually installed on the roof.
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Yes, but I have heard of people who have solar fields as well (usually southern states). We do get a lot of snow here usually (not so much this year) and our roofs are covered in snow throughout winter, which I imagine would make solar panels rather ineffective. Do you get a lot of snow in the UK?
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Yes, but I have heard of people who have solar fields as well (usually southern states). We do get a lot of snow here usually (not so much this year) and our roofs are covered in snow throughout winter, which I imagine would make solar panels rather ineffective. Do you get a lot of snow in the UK?
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Where I live, hardly any snow. None last year at all and if we do, its only a few weeks of the year. MrsDangermouse lives in the South too, so much the same. Its only in Scotland and more Northern parts that there is significant snow in the UK. If you have the land for it then field panels would work. There are farms here which use them.
 
I only pay for electricity and the power company charges different rates in peak hours. They define the peak hours so that people can plan their high usage, like running ovens and such, for the non-peak hours. Peak hours for me is from 9:00am to 4:00pm. So I run the oven, when I need to, after 4:00pm. If I just microwave or NuWave cooktop something, it's no matter.

The power company also has a special program that waives a certain percentage of Kwh, if you are disabled in such a way that you require special prosthetic or other equipment. CPAP machines qualify, so I get the discount which I only started getting last month, because I only in the previous month discovered the program and signed up for it.

So, I keep my power bill under $50.00 USD right now in the winter, need heat at night, months.
 
We have an uninsulated house that was built in 1920, we bought it just before the pandemic started when our finances looked a lot better than now. We would insulate it in 2021 but instead my husband had a burnout so it did not happen.
And now the energy price crisis hit here, so our bill went up from 230 a month to 453 a month. All other bills also went up as did groceries and wages did not go up to meet inflation rates.
We used to be able to save 300 a month comfortably, now we struggle to save 125.
Things really need to improve soon, because saving at this rate does not enable us to insulate which invites more costs in the future.
We have not heated above 15 celcius all year.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Where do you have your solar panels? Our house is surrounded by towering trees. I don't see a way to capture the sun. About 5 months of the year most of the trees have no leaves, but those are the cloudy months.. Too bad, really, though I do love our trees.
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Morning Glory said:
In the UK they are usually installed on the roof.
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Yes they're on the roof, and face almost due south too :okay: I know that sounds obvious...but they were installed by the developer who built our house and looking at other houses on the estate I think they just installed them on whichever roof was most convenient for them, rather than actually orienting them to maximise the efficiency.


Windigo said:
We have an uninsulated house that was built in 1920, we bought it just before the pandemic started when our finances looked a lot better than now. We would insulate it in 2021 but instead my husband had a burnout so it did not happen.
And now the energy price crisis hit here, so our bill went up from 230 a month to 453 a month. All other bills also went up as did groceries and wages did not go up to meet inflation rates.
We used to be able to save 300 a month comfortably, now we struggle to save 125.
Things really need to improve soon, because saving at this rate does not enable us to insulate which invites more costs in the future.
We have not heated above 15 celcius all year.
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Our house isn't large but its only about 7.5 years old so it has pretty good insulation. Our heating is set to 19/20c when its on, but we don't have it on all day and the spare bedroom is kept closed off with the radiator turned off unless we have guests. If I get a bit cold at my desk I use fingerless gloves (these are my new ones....they're lovely) and a heated throw (which costs pennies to run).
 
MrsDangermouse said:
Yes they're on the roof, and face almost due south too :okay: I know that sounds obvious...but they were installed by the developer who built our house and looking at other houses on the estate I think they just installed them on whichever roof was most convenient for them, rather than actually orienting them to maximise the efficiency.



Our house isn't large but its only about 7.5 years old so it has pretty good insulation. Our heating is set to 19/20c when its on, but we don't have it on all day and the spare bedroom is kept closed off with the radiator turned off unless we have guests. If I get a bit cold at my desk I use fingerless gloves (these are my new ones....they're lovely) and a heated throw (which costs pennies to run).
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Yeah I have a heated blanket too since we needed to cut down on energy costs. It really helps a lot!
 
Windigo said:
Yeah I have a heated blanket too since we needed to cut down on energy costs. It really helps a lot!
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I too, have a heated blanket, but I no longer use it. I only heat one room in my apartment, at night when I sleep. I close the bedroom door and run a small space heater near my bed on the floor, sitting on a raised metal thingie to protect the carpet. I prefer to do this, instead of the heat blanket, because I need to keep the air warm for my CPAP machine. Else, I wake up with tons of snot in my nose that doesn't clear up for hours.
 
Our electric bills vary between around US$30.00 (winter) and US$75.00 (summer) per month. We don't have house heating. Cooking is by both gas and electric; we use two bottles of gas per year at US$15.00 each. Government supplied water averages around US$5.00/month, rubbish collection US$0.80/month and we don't pay rates.

I don't complain.
 
MrsDangermouse said:
Yes they're on the roof, and face almost due south too :okay: I know that sounds obvious...but they were installed by the developer who built our house and looking at other houses on the estate I think they just installed them on whichever roof was most convenient for them, rather than actually orienting them to maximise the efficiency.



Our house isn't large but its only about 7.5 years old so it has pretty good insulation. Our heating is set to 19/20c when its on, but we don't have it on all day and the spare bedroom is kept closed off with the radiator turned off unless we have guests. If I get a bit cold at my desk I use fingerless gloves (these are my new ones....they're lovely) and a heated throw (which costs pennies to run).
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The back side of my house faces due South. I have a big oak tree in my backyard, but it would not block the direct sun in the Summer months, which is when we use most of our electricity in Texas. I could probably fit four to five solar panels up there. I'm going to look into it. There are some government subsidies available that could provide a good ROI for some solar panels. I just need to find an honest solar contractor. There are a lot of scam artists out there.

CD
 
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