From April 28th to May 28th (30 days), my electricity bill was exactly...$27.29! I'm not listing this to brag, but rather to make a point; you can significantly lower your electricity bill if you want. So how can you lower your electricity bill?

Dissecting My Bill

How did the electric company come up with the cost of $27.29? First, my company charges what they call a basic charge, a fee for the privledge of recieving electricity, of $0.87. The rest of the bill was based on my usage. Electic companies charge based on the number of kilowatt hours (kWh) you use. I used 224 kWh of electicity. This means I was charged about 11.8 cents per kWh.

Why Was My Bill So Low?

First, 224 kWh is a very low useage. I live in a 1500 square foot townhouse with my girlfriend and cat. It was built in 2008 with some basic energy efficiency and I follow some simple strategies

• Most lights I use are compact flurescent lights (CFLs). A 100 watt incandecent can be swapped with a 23 watt CFL
• Do not have more than one refridgerator/freezer, especially an old one in the garage (old fridges and ones in hot areas use LOTS more juice).
• Do not use the air conditioner/electric heater. Electrict heaters are much worse than gas furnices.
• If you're not using it, turn it off and unplug it. Some electical devices like my Nintendo Wii use electricity even when turned off.
• Do not get a swimming pool or spa. The pump used to filter the water uses a ton of electicity

Off all of these tips, the most important one is the air conditioner/ heater because of two important reasons. The first reason is usage. An air conditioner could use as much as 15 kilowatts of power. Compare this to the electricity I use when using my laptop in my living room. I have two 23 watt CFLs light and my lap top uses 65 watts at maximum power. This is 111 watts (0.111 kilowatts). This means my air conditioner uses 135 times as much power as two lights and my laptop.

The second reason not using the air conditioner is so important is because of the use of tiers by the electric company. I mentioned that I paid 11.8 cents per kWh, however thats only because I was under my baseline. My usage of 224 kWh was much less than my baseline, or 1st tier, of 351 kWh. The electic company calculates how much electicity you should be able to live off of and call it your baseline. If you go over your baseline, you have to pay a higher rate on the electricity over your baseline.

For example, let's say I used my 10,000 watt air conditioner every day and it ran for a total of 4 hours per day. This means that 10,000 watts, or 10 kW times 4 hours per day for 30 days. This is 10 * 4 * 30 = 1200 kWh. Add this to my origional bill of 224 kWh for a total of 1424 kWh! I'll pay 11.8 cents per kWh but only for the first 351 kWh. After tier 1 the cost goes to 13.7 cents for tier 2, and all the way up to 28 cents per kWh for tier 5. I'll save you the math, but this would make my bill...$301.19! This means that air conditioning cost would cost $274! Notice that because of the tiers, in this example if I increased my usage by 6 times, my bill would go up by 11 times as much!

Of course, this is only an example. I have met people who get $700-$800 electric bill over the summer! So, if you are one of those people who gets a $100, $200, $500 electric bill, remember that you can help the environment and your finances by cutting the electicity. Because of tiers, cutting your bill in half can actually lower your bill my 70% or more.