I replaced my 10 SEER air conditioning system with a 14 SEER to help with my future solar power system.
Before I install a solar powered system for my house, I thought the first thing to do was to reduce my electrical load. We have been in our new house for about one month now and the first electric bill came in at 1,384 Kilowatt hours (I am guessing that is a lot).
We had a central air AC system (5 ton) that was 12 years old rated around 9 or 10 SEER. Every time it turned on it was really loud and your could just feel the money leaving our wallets.
I had Brothers Plumbing and Heating come out and provide a quote. They recommended a new Amana unit that would pay for itself in 5 years with savings on our electric bill. Even though it was a lot of money, 5 years seemed pretty short to get my money back so I accepted their bid.
The new Amana ASX14 (14 SEER) was just installed yesterday and is so quiet you might not even know it’s on. I will have to report back what are electric bill looks like next time.
Chris the tech that did the installed did a great job and took him about 9 hours to install the unit outside and the coils on top the furnace by himself.
If anyone wants to share, please let me know what your ‘kilowatt hours used’ was on your last bill.
Our average Kw-hrs for the past 14 months was 1428 KW-hr. That is a heat pump for winter heat & summer AC. Also our electricity from Duke power. (Nuclear plant). (I can send you the average for 4 full years to smooth out the seasons here)
Dave — Your brother’s 1428 Kw-hr month seems high (if it is truly a monthly figure).
According to: “Electrical Energy.” The New Book of Popular Science. 2000 edition. Grolier Incorporated, 1998. The average US household consumes 8,900 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, or a little more than half what George is stating.
Meanwhile, over in Chappaqua NY, Bill and Hillary are downright green, at least compared to your brother’s house.
In an interview with Grist, Hillary said: “We have taken quite a few steps to make sure our house is as green as possible — common-sense and simple steps that everyone can take advantage of. For example, we have switched not only lamps to compact fluorescent light bulbs, but also downlights, track lights, and vanity lights. We’ve installed motion-sensor light switches so lights automatically turn off when there is no one moving in the room, and switched to buying our power from ConEdison’s green power program. We’re also reducing our demand for energy by replacing windows and doors to keep more heat and cold in. This has taken our total [kilowatt-hour consumption per year] from about 14,000 to about 4,300. ”
Now I’m pretty sure they use gas or oil for heat so they don’t have George’s heat pump to pay for, but 4,300 yearly kilowatt hour consumption is at least worth of the nomination, if not the general election.
Remember, Americans consume more total energy air conditioning than India consumes energy — then again its hotter there and there are many more people… D’hoh that makes us even worse doesn’t it.
Ira,
Thanks for stopped by. Actually that is my Dad in Charlotte. (My brother has the same name so I understand the confusion.)
Would you like to share your kilowatt hours used last month?
556 KWh last month for us. We run the whole-house fan at night and it cools the house down nicely. In the morning, we lock up tight. Main level stays a very comfortable… gets up to 77 or 78 by the end of the day. Upstairs gets warmer… low 80′s, but still not too bad. This is hot day, worst case (mid to upper 90′s outside) scenario.
Really glad we put the fan in. Besides saving money, we prefer the fresh air at night.
Tom I am impressed! With that type of number I am guessing you don’t have an AC unit for your house?
How cool can you get the house in the night before you lock it up?
No, we do have the AC and duct work for it (since we have radiant heat, no heat ductwork required). At this point, I view it all as a waste of money…. though I suppose it may be good for re-sale.
House generally gets down to the 70-72 degree range. In fact my father-in-law was in town for a couple of days, and when I came down this morning around 7am, he was on the couch wrapped in a blanket because it was too cool.
I was good about closing the house up early yesterday and it was hot out (95). Upstairs bedrooms were 79 and 80, downstairs was 76 when I got home around 5:30 or so.
Now what I really need to do is build some storm windows for the old part of the house to get ready for winter.
1250 used on my last bill, so it went down but not as much as I would have liked. But one week of the bill was still with the old AC unit.