Finally, Electric bill report

In the month of June and July (from the 19th to the 19th because that is how we are billed) I decided to challenge myself to see how much less electricity we could use. We worked pretty hard at it, using the dryer for only 1/2 load each week (for Ken's dress shirts so I wouldn't have to iron them), taking short showers, turning off lights, cooking over a campfire some and working to use as little electricity as possible in the kitchen. It was a fun challenge.

There were some things we weren't successful at too: I wasn't very successful with our box solar cooker (though it did heat up our lunch one day!) so I kind of gave up on it, maybe later I will want to work on it again. I also tried to turn off the computer more but still didn't do it real regularly. Some of my crockpot cooking didn't work out so well either (they had to be thrown into the microwave or in a pot on the stove at the last minute).

But here is our final results:

We used 1,002 KWH for the price of $105.99

The year before in that time period we used: 1,172 KWH
So we used a whopping 170 KWH less.

I guess I wasn't over impressed with our results. It seemed like we worked pretty hard and had very little to show for it. It wasn't that I minded that much, I actually like hanging clothes on the line, cooking over a campfire is great fun and baking all in one day is actually practical in several ways but still...

Oh well, we did save something and it was fun to try. I admit though with such minimal results I have gone back to leaving lights on around the house and I sometimes enjoy a 10 minute shower instead of a 5 minute one.

I am very curious though on how we might compare in electricity use with others. Is your usage similar for a family or a lot more or a lot less? Have you tried using a lot less and actually been successful? I would love to hear your thoughts on using electricity!