Monthly Cost Reduction Strategy: Electric Bill – 1064 kW Savings

I live in Round Rock Texas, the average temperature in August was around 86’F.  My electric bill in August was a shocking $427.49. Our house was built in 1996 and I was aware that I needed to do something about the 17 year old AC unit since it has been serviced regularly every year and besides, my son was complaining about the helicopter noise outside his room every time the AC starts, the outdoor unit was making an annoying noise due to old age.

I did my research and found out these facts.
1. The average life span of an AC unit is 10 years, any AC unit that is 15 years and older are not very efficient. [I still have the R12 System]
2. If there is a failure of your AC unit every year, it’s time to get a new one. [if  unit is >10 years old]
3. The average electric bill of the same size of house that I have are in the $200-300 range.

I was presented with the following quote from a local company. I picked option #2
Option #2
10 Year Warranty
4 Ton
2 Stage Cool
2 Stage Heat
Variable Speed Blower
Condenser: Carrier 24ANB748-3
Coil Air Handler: Carrier CNPHP4821
Furnace: Carrier 58CVA090-1-16
Thermostat: Carrier Infinity WIFI [I can change the temperature of the house using my iPhone]
Cost: 11879.00
Installation Time: <6 hours

Options #1, #2, #3 [i picked #2 because of the energy savings #s and it is a 2 stage cool and heat

I am with TXU Energy here in Round Rock and they provide a dashboard of my electric consumption data.  Below is one of the chart that I analyzed to track the progress of my daily kW consumption. 
AC Replacement Date: August 20, 2013 [red vertical arrow]
Aerage Temperature in Round Round Rock: 86’F

Notice the shift of the kW consumption after the new AC was installed. According to my analysis, the current daily kW consumption is now 60kW.

Average daily kW Before +/-10days: 94kW, $13.54 per day [Raw Data]
Average daily kW After +/-10days: 78.35kW, $12.1 per day

September/August 2013 Electric Bill Comparison
September Bill is $145.00 lower
September Bill is 1064 kW lower
September ave temp is 83’F, August was 86’F

Conclusion:
1. My 17 years old AC Unit was very inefficient.
2. It pays to look at the daily kW consumption and analyze the data. [Not all of you has access to this type of data but if you are curious about your electric bill, use this procedure to track your consumption.
3. The outside temp has the biggest impact on electric bill.
4. Ask a few neighbors  who has the same size of house that you have.  I did not realize mine was very high until a neighbor told me that his electric bill was only around $200.00 in August.
5. Change AC filters regularly.
6. Lastly, if you have servers in the house, 1 Dell Poweredge 2950 III server registered a $23.26 per month in the Kill A Watt meter.  If you have a few servers running in your home office, get a Kill A Watt Meter from Amazon.  Home Depot also sells this unit also at the same prize.

Poweredge 2950 III SFF – Kill A Watt Tracker
NOTE: Redundant PSU does not double the power consumption according to my data below.

Extra Stuff:
1. Check if you live in the area where Solar City provides a service.  You can get Solar power at a very low monthly cost and no upfront cost.  I called them and they are planning to come to Austin next year. 
2. Use this Home Energy Calculator to determine how much your appliances are costing you.
3. Read more: TXU Energy Savings Solution

Ok, it’s your turn.  Do some audit around the house and see if you can lower your kW consumption per day.

Monthly Cost Reduction Strategy 2013: Timewarner Cable +Faster Internet Speed

My Timewarner Cable bill was not looking good and looking at it makes me feel that I am wasting resources. I have an internet service, a cable tv service and a digital phone service with TWC. At first, I did not know where to start but as I read and examine my cable bill, I noticed a few items which are $12.00 but I had 3 of each and I’m also leasing a modem box.

In my inventory, I found the following:
3 DVR cable box, $12.99 ea.
1 Internet Modem Lease, $5.99 ea
International Calling Plan, $20.00

When I did a walkthrough around the rooms in the house, I noticed that we rarely used all three DVR’s. Timewarner now has On Demand programming and if you miss your show, all you have to do is go to the Primetime On  Demand channel and watch it there. My only hurdle was convincing the wife but that was no brainer since she told me she does not use it regularly.

I went to the local TWC office and returned 2 DVR boxes, cancelled my International Calling Plan and cancelled my Internet Modem lease since they advertised that we can have our own internet modem now for as long as it is listed in their “preferred list’.

By the end of the day, I dropped around $90.00 off my cable bill.

Here’s the information on how to purchase your own internet modem if you are a Timewarner customer.
1. Purchase an internet modem, mine is Motorola Suftboard SB6141 from Amazon, the review is good. Here’s the full TWC Approved Modem List
2. Upon arrival of the modem, read the manual and connect the modem in place of the old modem.  If you have a digital phone service, you will need to split the cable signal using a splitter because you will need to have two modems at your end, one for internet and one for the phone service.  If you don’t have a splitter, get the splitter ahead of time.
3. Call Timewarner Cable and explain to them that you bought your own modem, they will activate the modem for you.
4. Once activated, run a speed test form your pc. Use http://www.speedtest.net/ 
5. END

Speedtest revealed the following:
Old Modem
Download speed =10Mbps
Upload Speed=.95Mbps

New Modem:
Download speed =16Mbps
Upload Speed=1.07Mbps

Speedtest results:

Modem Setup:
The two vertical boxes are the modems.  The black box is the old modem and the white box is the new Motorola modem.  Yes, I’m old school, I’m still using the WRT54G wireless router but this is not an ordinary WRT54G.  This router has been rooted with DD-WRT firmware.  Visit DD-WRT’s website if you are interested in a simple mod that can speed up your wireless connections.