My Bill / Your Bill

Comparing Bills? Do It Wisely!

When comparing electric bills with friends and neighbors, keep in mind that there are other things to look at than just the dollar amount. Service Days, appliance electrical wattage, hours of use and other factors must be understood.

Service Days

Each day of service adds dollars and cents to your bill. If your bill averages $2.00 per day, a 30-day bill is $60 and a 33-day bill is $66. Look first at how many Service Days are in the bill.

Appliance Electrical Wattage

In other words, how many watts does the appliance consume? Some clothes dryers are rated at 4,500 watts. Others are rated at 5,500 watts. But what difference do 1000 watts make? They make a difference of about $0.16 per hour used. If both dryers are run for 10 hours, the 5,500 watt dryer will cost $1.60 more than the other dryer.

Hours of Use

The more hours something is used, the greater the cost. For example, a yard or security light rated at 150 watts may be used eight hours in winter months. During summer months, the same light may be used only four hours. That is 600 watts less per day. 600 watts per day multiplied by 30 days becomes 18,000 watts (18 kWh) or $3.00 per month. Hours of use do make a difference in your bill.

Think About These Facts

When you change appliances, do not expect to see significant drops in your electric bill. You may experience some savings, but it is more likely that you added some features to the new appliance
that were not on the old. For example, if you remove a refrigerator, but replace it with a refrigerator that has an ice-maker, you can expect your refrigerator to cost more to operate. [For appliance efficiency information go to the government web site www.energystar.gov.]

Think about the weather when you are looking at a high bill. The weather causes many differences in electric bills: the furnace will run more in cooler weather; the dehumidifier may run more because of a rainy spell; air conditioners and fans are turned on in hot weather.

Even though your neighbor’s family might be the same size as yours, it’s highly unlikely your electric bills will be the same. Even if they run the same number of loads of laundry you do, or also have a two-story home, or keep their outdoor light on the same number of hours, you still cannot do a valid bill comparison by just using dollar amounts. Consider every electrical item in your home, the service days, appliance electricity wattage, hours of use, then compare bills wisely.

An easy way to do comparisons is to do a Bill Analysis of your home by clicking here. Then, when you talk with a friend or neighbor about their bill, have them do a Bill Analysis also and compare results.

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