PG&E (our local power utility) swapped out our old analog meter with a new digital smart meter about 6 months ago. We are now able to check our power consumption figures down to the day via their website. I did learn a few interesting things. Our daily consumption average is 70kWh and about ~26,000kWh per year. We regularly pay over $1000/month for electricity. In comparison a few years ago when Al Gore's house was in the News for using a ton of power, he was using 191,000kWh (over 7 times more than us) per year and his average monthly bill was $1200. I also just got back from Seattle where I was actually at a data center that pays less for power each month than we do for our house. PG&E Anyway, anyone else get a new meter and find anything interesting?
I don't like the idea of being spied on. There's a few companies over here rolling out "smart meters" and we're going to avoid it for as long as possible. Not sure if our provider is rolling them out or not though.
"Spied on"? Do the new smart meters have cameras that can see into your home? My weekly shopping habits, the brands of food and other products I buy, the amount of gasoline I purchase, and countless other bits of personal information are already on dozens of databases, so why should I give a damn who knows how much electricity I'm using? Actually, when I saw the thread title, I thought a "smart meter" meant the ability to judge someone's intelligence. Like gaydar or a bullshit detector.
How the fudge do you spend a grand a month on electricity? You live in a 25 room mansion? Even in the middle of the Arizona summer my light bill is never more than about $275. How can your bill be so high in SF when I doubt you ever even NEED to use an A/C system?
Well I'm not in SF, i'm in the east-bay area which is a bit inland and warmer. But mainly we just get fucked on rates. Also, even though our usage is not astronomical, it's probably still higher than the vast majority of homes in our area. The rates seem to go up exponentially once you pass the average. But like with my example of Al Gore's house using more than 7 times as much power but having a nearly identical bill, our rates are just that bad. A lot of it is fallout from all of the power issues we had here early last decade. Silicon Valley, etc turned the area into a massive technology center but no one was building any new power plants. It got so bad at one point they had to do rolling blackouts during the summer because there wasn't enough power. A lot of expensive energy contracts were negotiated at that time including buying power from other states and using inefficient/expensive generation methods. Now we're paying the price.
I don't have a smart meter but I am able to look up my quarterly bill online. I live with my 2 adult sons. Our only source of power is electrical - no gas, no solar etc. In the past year we have used up a total of 9936 kwh. Of that 4467 kwh was residental power and light, 5469 kwh was hydro heat (which covers the heater in our loungeroom and our hot water). The total of our 4 quarterly bills was $1481.12. Hydro heat is a cheaper tariff offer to homes that are all electrical. As a pensioner I receive power at a discount. The discount is 87.31 cents per day which comes to about $320 per year. I do not have a clothes dryer, dishwasher or air-conditioning. We heat the loungeroom and one of my sons will use a small radiator in his room in winter. We also use a small fan heater in the bathroom in winter. EDITED TO ADD - I just checked on my average daily usage. It ranges from about 17 kwh in the summer quarter to about 40 kwhs in the winter quarter.
$1000 a month? Geeze, how big is your house, anyway? We have a small house--about 1800 square feet--but it's chock full of PCs, as hubby is a computer guy. We also live in the most ungodly hot & muggy place in the country (west of Miami, that is), so the A/C is on a lot. We spend, at our highest possible usage, about $280-300. Tops. Last month was only $110.
I see that the tier 5 rate in San Francisco is $0.50 (50.0 cents)/kwh! Here in Kentucky the rates are $5.00 a month for service and $0.064 (6.4 cents)/kwh - all the time, for any level of usage. I think it's outrageously high because it used to be about 3.5 cents/kwh.
They are in California. We don't have the smart meter but Oncor says we will in the next month or two. I've heard both good and bad things about it; I hope my experience will be good.
I'm in Fresno, which is well inland and waaay warmer in summer than pretty much anything in SF-area. And I believe our rates "out-suck" yours, according to recent articles, even though our winters are well colder and our summers, as I said, well hotter. We have an 1800sqft house + basement. Our last PG&E bill was $43.07 for electricity (12.1 Kwh/Day) and $48.85 for gas. The weather is good this time of year--little heat, no AC required. The highest we've had is 60Kwh/Day--last year during a heat wave--with days and days over 100 F and no lower than 74 F at night. No idea how your springtime usage is so high at 70 Kwh/Day.
Holy Crap. I'm just outside the 4th largest city in the country, and I only pay about 5-6 cents per kwh. Granted, people here on average make a lot less than those in California, but we also have to spend far, far less to have a decent standard of living, too.
I have a Smart Meter that's been running for a month. People seem to think the meter will save money rather than what it is, which is a tool to efficiently manage power consumption. I have not yet played with the options of reviewing my power consumption during the day as well as daily/weekly averages. Much to the chagrin of my co-workers, my electric bill averages about $40/month as I don't run the A/C. Also note that I live in Oklahoma.
I went to the website and checked our usage history. Electricity usage peaks in July, when it's hottest and the AC is going. Gas peaks in January, when it's coldest and the heater is going. Duh. Summers' bills are worse, though. You can put a sweater on in winter and let the house stay cooler, but cooling a house down in 100 F weather? That needs AC.