On Oct 29, 3:45*pm, "Julie Bove" > wrote:
> "sf" > wrote in message
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> > Got the PG&E bill today. *Electric was $104 and Gas was under $3.
> > Huh, not even $3? *The water heater and gas stove are used daily. *We
> > did have a little heat wave, but the furnace was used. *I need to call
> > them to see if they made a billing mistake, because I will *not*
> > appreciate it if they tack what they should have charged onto my next
> > bill.
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> > I figure at least a third of that electricity was used by the kitchen
> > lights. *What I really want to know is this: how do you keep the light
> > factor high and your electric bill low for kitchen use? *I'm thinking
> > I won't use the "pot" lights as much and just use under counter
> > lighting to see if I can lower that charge next month.
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> > Unfortunately, I think the biggest electric hog is the TV and that's
> > not getting turned off any more than it is already.
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> Wow that's cheap! *How many months is that for?
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> I only have a gas water heater. *Bills used to be around $35 a month until
> we got the new water heater. *Bills gradually went down and now are around
> $17 a month.
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> We have electric heat. *I am using it now but didn't use it during the time
> period of my last bill, which was almost $110 for two months. *It can reach
> over $500 for 2 months.
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Know this:
EVERY SINGLE BIT of electricity that you use gets converted into heat
exactly as efficiently as if it were used to power your electric
furnace--with the exception of the tiny amount of light that goes out
the windows. In the Winter, when you are running heat anyway, you
save zero electricity by turning off appliances such as TVs,
computers, radios, etc. or by using energy saving light bulbs.* In an
interior room where no light escapes to the exterior of the house, it
is exactly as energy efficient to heat with 10 100w light bulbs as
with a continuously operated 1000w space heater. The advantage of the
furnace or space heater over light bulbs and other appliances is that
the replacement cost for the light bulbs/ballasts/other units is
higher than for the furnace, which is optimized for producing heat.
Back when compact fluorescents were much more expensive, I used to
change back to cheap incandescent bulbs in the Fall, and put the CFs
back in in the Spring.

* If you heat with gas or oil, you will get some cost savings because
gas is cheaper per unit of energy than electricity, but typically not
a whole lot.

--Bryan