Ask Lemmy

ETA I just checked and with an EV (short trips) my house averages about 25 a day (past month only no heat no ac) of which 16 is the overnight car charging rate. I’d be tearing the place apart looking for a server rack.

Outdoor workshop having 200a service isn’t that surprising. It’s a shop, you need power for things. Maybe they planned a big electric heater and a dozen big power tools like saws and or lathes. Or welding. Chances are the cost between 100A and 200A wasn’t much. Saved money not populating breakers.

Figure out how to read the meter; they usually have some kind of display for instant consumption. Turn all the breakers off - that should be zero. Flip them on one by one and watch for spikes. The noninvasive option is to buy a clamp meter but you have to know how to use it and how to be safe in a live panel.

Non-LED lighting can add up fast. Electric clothes dryers are arguably the least efficient use of electricity in a home. Portable AC is pretty bad too. Well pumps can draw quite a bit - make sure the pressure tank is working and the well pump isn’t running a lot. There’s efficient models but they’re expensive. Side note - put that UV on a battery backup. It doesn’t need to be much but any water usage during an outage, or simply a longer outage means the lines are potentially contaminated and need to be disinfected. You could have a fridge that has bad seals or a freezer that’s set too cold - I pushed my freezer one setting cooler and it runs A LOT so I set it back to default.

Things like older TV can draw more than you think. Passive draw from standby appliances can add up but you still need a lot to make a difference. The blowers on the furnace and water heater if you don’t have a chimney are going to be pretty beefy. Old furnaces have fans that are not too efficient.

Hour by hour analysis could be useful to look at. Look for a Green Button in the billing portal.

You could also enter the dark side and set up something like the Emporoa Vue and Homeassistant and get all the data.

last month I used on average 126kwh a day.

keep in mind my house is around 5600sqft and is tri-zoned for heating/cooling.

I also have a full server rack that runs 24/7.

You can easily get usage monitors. They clamp around the service wire and give you a reasonably accurate view, down to the second. Depending on model/features, they can help you identify load by time, with additional sensors on whatever circuits you want.

Once you know where the load is, the rest of the decisions will come naturally.

European here. House with ACs and we use 10 to 26 Kwh per day metered. So to me yours seems awfully high except if you tell me you're 6 people and using the washing machine twice daily and baking something multiple hours.

Yeah, something seems off - that seems high. For context I’m in NW Oregon and the screenshots show my last month of usage (by day,) as well as the last year (by month.)

We have a single-story home, 1500 square feet. 2 adults but we’ve had some guests this month. Everything is fully electric. Heat pump, resistive heating, water heater, stove, etc. are all electric. I take long showers and prefer keeping the house comfortable so we use the heating and cooling a lot. We also have an electric car.

Our home was built in the 80s and is very poorly insulated. It’s also leaky. We had an energy use audit/home efficiency audit done and the report showed that we had the equivalent of a 16x16” window open at all times. We’ve done some work to fill gaps, blow in insulation in the upper crawl space, etc. so it is likely a little better now. Our floor is uninsulated but it would be very costly to add insulation, and we would then need to also insulate our pipes so they don’t freeze. Our furnace/fan stack is in the garage, which is even more poorly insulated and so we lose a lot of heat to the garage before it makes its way to the house.

We have a smart thermostat and use time-of-day billing which is more expensive during peak hours (5 to 9 pm), roughly the same price as normal billing during the other daytime hours (morning to 5pm) and half price overnight. The car only charges overnight and the thermostat will try to heat or cool the house before 5 pm if it can.

The daily spikes above our baseline usage are from days when I drove a lot and thus needed to recharge the car after using nearly the whole battery up, vs most days when I only need to add 17-20% from my commute.

You mentioned that you do not have electric heating as your primary heat source, nor do you have an electric water heater. I assume no electric car either. You mentioned being in Western Canada, so it’s very likely colder than where I live. Your usage seems really high. If it was just the total bill being high I would guess that you’ve got an electric company with high rates per kWh, but that isn’t the primary issue here.

For some additional context, a daily usage of 80 kWh would charge my car’s battery from 0 to 91%. That would give roughly 280 miles of range. It’s the equivalent of 2.37 gallons of gasoline, if the gas can be used completely efficiently (e.g. not like in a car where a very large portion of the energy is lost to heat.) 1 gallon is equivalent to 33.7 kWh. Your usage is a lot of energy.

I’m on mobile so can’t see all of the comments and responses while I’m typing here, so I apologize if these things have already been covered. These are the things I wonder about, in no particular order.

• Is the usage history/screenshot you shared from your usage, or is that from when the previous owner was in the house? If it’s the previous owner’s usage, I probably wouldn’t worry too much just yet because you don’t know how your usage will compare. I also wouldn’t jump immediately to make large changes to your behaviors - just use things normally for a few months to see how your usage looks under normal circumstances. Then you can make informed decisions.
• How much does the usage change month to month over the course of the year, and how does that correlate with outside temperature? Heating and cooling will naturally cost more as the temperature differential increases - for your location I am guessing the indoor-outdoor differential is bigger in winter. I know you said your primary heat source is gas, but you did mention an electric heater.
• What kind of electric heater is it and how often does it run? Electric/resistive heating can be quite energy energy-intensive. Perhaps it has a label indicating how many Watts it uses, so you could calculate the theoretical maximum (k)Wh it would use in a day if it ran constantly, and check to see how much of the daily usage that could account for. Most plug in ones are 1500 Watts, so that’s 1.5 kiloWatts per hour or 36 kWh per day, which is quite a lot and could account for a big part of the usage, if it is running often.
• How old is your home, and how large is it? What is the insulation like, and is it drafty? Where is the electric heater - in the house or not? Is that space drafty, and what is the insulation like? If it’s drafty and/or poorly insulated, the electric heater is fighting a battle that it’s constantly losing. Since your primary heat is gas, we can kind of ignore that part, but I assume your air conditioning uses electricity. Does energy usage go up a lot when the air conditioner would be used? Is your AC having to work harder because of a lack of insulation or your home not being sealed well?
• How tall are the ceilings? This can be related. High ceilings and those cavernous “great rooms” that were/are popular can make heating and cooling costs go up quite a bit because you have a lot more air to deal with, and depending on the layout of rooms and air ducts/vents, you may be sending freshly heated or cooled air into areas where it isn’t mixing well, is stagnant, or pools in the high ceiling areas instead of the areas humans actually occupy. Perhaps a ceiling fan or strategic changes to vents could help.
• I would strongly consider using a usage testing device like other comments mentioned. I don’t know much about how they work but my understanding is that you could go circuit by circuit to see where the electricity is going. I would suggest checking each circuit for an extended period of time, like a whole day, before moving on to the next one.
• You could also get a device like a Kill-a-Watt, which is plugged into an outlet. You then plug something into the outlet on the K-a-W itself, and you can see how much energy it is using over a period of time. If your electric heater is a plug-in type, I’d strongly suggest doing this - especially if it’s the kind of heater that would switch itself on and off with a thermostat. Otherwise you would have to be next to the heater all day to see if it’s running almost constantly or not.
• You mentioned some sort of outbuilding with its own electric panel, which will obviously need to be investigated as well in the same manner.
• Perhaps you’ve already done this - walk around both the outbuilding and your home to look for extension cords in exterior outlets. If you find one, where does it go? It’s possible you’ve got a neighbor helping themselves via an extension cord. Also check the property for other exterior outlets. Sometimes folks may have run power underground to an outlet that’s somewhere outdoors, maybe in a ground-level or sunken box, or on a post?
• I’m assuming these don’t apply to you, but are there other outdoor things using power? Heated driveway or walking paths? Those can be nice in places with snowy winters and perhaps could be configured wrong and might be running when they shouldn’t. Outdoor lights? A pond or pool or hot tub with pumps? Is the well pump constantly running? I can’t imagine it would use a lot of electricity under normal usage but don’t think they’re supposed to run constantly.
• This probably should go up higher on the list, but I would strongly recommend finding a local company to come and perform an energy/efficiency audit. I believe we paid around $500 USD for ours. It was extremely informative. We were given infrared photos of leaky/poorly insulated spots, specific details about our appliances and their usage, recommendations for remediation and estimated costs, etc.

If you live alone that's a lot, if you live with 2 or 3 other people that's regular amount

40 is absurdly high for 2-3 people who do not use electric heating.

We do on average 20kWh a day with 2 people and that’s already crazy high. According to the monthly energy usage report I get from the energy company that’s about a normal usage for a familiy of 5. It’s that high because I have a lot of computers (servers), a home cinema with a large TV and a big amplifier driving 11 speakers and multiple subwoofers. In addition to the normal stuff like 2 electric ovens, a Quooker (basically my kitchen faucet keeps a 7 liter vat of water at boiling temperatures 24/7 so I can have instant boiling water from the tap) an induction stove, dishwasher, dryer and washing machine. Also in-floor heating which while gas powered means there’s an electric pump running 24/7 to keep the water circulating.

Me and a few colleagues are a bit obsessed with tracking energy usage, we all have solar panels and home batteries and with variable pricing you can make a little money buying electricity when it’s cheap and selling it back when demand and prices are high. We’re talking a few euros a day, not really worth the effort but it kind of became a game.

Just to say, we discuss energy usage a lot at the office. One colleague who lives alone in a regular size house uses about 2-3kWh a day. Another colleague who has a large house with full electric heating (heat pump) and who drives an EV may do 30-40kWh/day in winter, and that’s with a wife and 2 teenage kids.

My parents had a similar issue and it was the well pump cycling on and off constantly. Fixing the pressure tank solved it for them.

It was an older tank that needed bleeding, until at some point my parents replaced it to get a new bladder

That oil filled heater is the issue. That’s effectively resistance heating, which is wildly more expensive than a heat pump.

This is my usage as a single person in a 100sqm house who cooks on electric stove or oven 3-4 times a week, with electric hot water and no AC or dryer usage in the last month. About 16-18kwh per day.

Using the AC, dryer, or cooking more frequently would increase my usage, but not by much, maybe to 20kwh per day at most.

I do run 3 servers 24/7 but they don't seem to consume much power.

Incidentally these stats are from my solar power system and show that I'm almost fully self-sufficient on my battery and solar, so I'm not very miserly with power, it's basically free to me so I use it pretty carelessly

40kwh a day seems extreme for a single person, but for a family of 2 or 3 it's probably reasonable.

How olds your fridge? Is your water electric or gas? Are you running AC?

I have an all elctric place and have not had to use my hvac system much because the weather has been in the moderate fall mode. I looked at my electric report and days that are low usage are like 18KW and 36KW is exceptionally high. Im in a condo though so we are talking not much above 1k square feet. However my wife has a tortoise and turtle so we have heat lamps going quite often. The hot water heater is a large part of costs when not using the furnance.

Our usage is higher than that, not 80 but higher than 30 always. and yes I think it's high. I cook at home, a lot. AC runs a lot, 2 heat pump units. One person working from home. High ceilings. Everything is electric. Our bill is lower in the winter than the summer but our winters are mild.

if the company knows daily usage then there's some kind of digital metering.

You should be able to see that too so look for it.

Energy companies love free loans by asking huge monthly payments based on incorrect energy usage predictions.

They have no ability to estimate your usage since you just started living there. Maybe the previous owner had an electric car and a pot farm.

Do they provide hourly usage numbers? Sounds like it might not be consistently high but there are some peaks. Could you use those as clues?

I have a < 1000 sq foot house with a propane furnace and electric stove. We have an AC, and a few dehumidifiers. I have a well and a filter. My spouse works from home. I have a pottery kiln but I've used it like 8 times so it's not pumping those numbers up too much.

In the previous year our average daily usage was 38 kWhr. Our usage is highest in the summer.

My max daily usage last billing period was 90 kWhr and I ran the kiln that day. My second highest day was 49 kWhr. From the hourly data I'm seeing a big peak at 6 and 7 pm. I'm guessing that's from using the oven and both taking hot showers in quick succession (electric water heater). Might have also been the day I did a fuck tonne of handing with the orbital sander.

Anyways, getting a device to measure usage of devices is great but you might also be able to gleen info from a more detailed bill.

Here's my consumption for this year. 90m², 100 litre electric water heater and heatpump for heating the house. I only reach that 60kWh consumption in december to february when it's -15°C outside.

We have one plug in oil filled heater outside in the detached storage / workshop area.

See that spike in the electricity consumption recently? It's the day I was running a single 2kW electric heater in my carage while working on my truck.

In the middle of summer, we use 7kwh/day.

Looks like we averaged 30kwh/day in September. We have awesome insulation and windows in a 7-yo small house, 2 adults, all electric appliances, heat pump, $127. I can't find any single day's usage over 44kwh.

Can't show October's use because a hurricane took us out for a week and then it got cool, that bill will be way lower than normal.

You dont say where you are.

I'm in the UK and we have smart electric meters. The app provided by the company let's me see my usage over the last 12 months by day/week/month.

I've also just had solar panels installed that came with an app that lets me monitor real time usage.

My house's base load is approximately 200w per hour (fridge/freezer/lights). And we use about 8kwh per day which includes turning the oven/microwave on.

On days when we charge the car that goes upto about 30kwh.

So yes, it sounds like you're using a huge amount. If I was going to guess why,it'll be the oil heater. It probably isn't clicking off or isn't reaching temperature. Next culprit will be the air conditioners. The pump probably only uses 300w tbh.

Let us know what you decide to do, or if you have any updates!

If you live alone that's a lot, if you live with 2 or 3 other people that's regular amount

As a rule of thumb the most energy is used by things that deal with heat, that is heaters and heat pumps/AC, so i'd focus on efficiency of these

is your hot water heater gas?

Mines $200/month now. Yay ai data centers

That seems very high to me. I live in an old two story house (so not very well insulated), in Norway, and everything is electric. I'm not even close to that kind of energy usage in winter.

It seems high to me. Do you have an electric immersion heater stuck on without a thermostat?

My usage is about 60kWh a day but that's heating a pool and a hot tub which are by far the biggest consumers. It would be closer to 20kWh without those.

Where do you live and who is your utility?

Typical monthly American residential energy use is ~1000 kwh, but that varies a lot.

Do you have central AC?

The well might be using more than you think but I doubt it.

If you're really into this, get a C-clamp product and self-meter each circuit inside your main electrical panel. Those clamps read the current per circuit which tells you which circuit (appliance) is using which amount of energy. Emporia and Sense sell this kind of thing.

I would also meter that 200A workshop panel to see if any loada are connected to it. You never know

Once you have everything self-metered, compare that value to the total value you're billed for. If they don't match (or close), then you have something on the property that's drawing power that you don't know about

Source: work in residential energy for many years

I get reports from the electric company every year, you might be able to request it to see what the average has been for the past few years

If it's a forced air ng furnace, I've heard the fan which pushes the air takes a lot of power. I've also heard the glow stick for the ng oven ignition takes a lot of electricity, if you're using the oven a lot. Can't comment any specifics.

That does seem high. I am in a 2 person apartment and this month on average we have used 24 kWh/day (heaters on most days). I have a couple servers and networking equipment, and I game a lot on a beefy PC. I also cook almost every meal I eat on our electric stove. We are all electric here except for water heater. Granted we are an apartment, but less natural gas usage/more electric.

I honestly don't think I've ever hit 80 kWh in one day here. Our highest usage day this year was 50 kWh in March.

When we rented a house, I'm not sure what the exact wattage usage was, but we were paying a lot just to heat the place because it was so big, even with our thermostat uncomfortably low.