Utility Consumption--How Much Do You Use?
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (122442)
Gainesville, Florida
January 26, 2025 9:35am CST
I've got way too much time on my hands this morning! After going through and paying bills on Friday night, I left a pile of papers to be filed this weekend. Well, I finally got around to it this morning, and as I was about to file my utility bill, I actually took a moment to look at it closely. Which then roused my curiosity: how much electricity and water was I consuming each month?
I'm not sure if it's the same for each of you, but my utility bill has a graphic illustration (bar graph) of water and electric consumption over the previous 12 months. I actually took a closer look at it.
In Florida, electric consumption tends to peak in the late summer months as everyone's A/C is running full-blast, and then electric consumption tends to bottom out in the early spring months as the weather is nice enough that people don't have to run their heat or A/C all the time. My household is no different.
My highest month of electrical use is August, where our home used right about 800 kWh (kilowatt hours). My lowest was April, when I only used just over 320 kWh. I think I read somewhere that the typical customer in our area uses about 1000 kWh per month, so I am doing much better than the average. I have a newer home that is very well insulated, as well as heavily shaded from the tall trees scattered throughout my yard, so this helps contribute to lower electric bills.
My water consumption is constant year-round I noticed. I average 66 gallons per day of water usage. I was surprised at this amount, as I didn't think we used that much water in our household. But I guess with three people showering/bathing, flushing toilets, washing dishes, doing laundry, and cooking/drinking, this figure probably makes more sense.
How about you? Have you looked at your actual consumption amounts? Are you doing pretty well compared to the average in your area, or are you an electricity/water hog? No judgements here if you are! lol. What were your electrical and water consumption amounts last month?
11 people like this
9 responses
@marguicha (224605)
• Chile
26 Jan
Once in a while I check at my bills. And all the time I am very happy after checking. I do better than what poor people do here. It seems that I´m the only person I know that turns the lights off after leaving a room. And ever since I gave the garden to Luna, I only water the plants I have in containers.
3 people like this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 Jan
I am one of those people who turn off all lights when leaving a room, or when leaving the house altogether. I only turn on lights in rooms where I will actually need that light.
I see so many people who turn on (and leave on) all the lights in their house throughout the day and night.
What other utilities do you have to pay for other electricity? Do you pay for water, for gas/heating oil, or anything else?
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (110395)
• Marion, Ohio
26 Jan
Don't have to pay for water here. Electric is higher in the winter
2 people like this
@wolfgirl569 (110395)
• Marion, Ohio
29 Jan
@moffittjc We have a well and the water tastes great.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Jan
@wolfgirl569 Well water can be hit or miss, depending on where you are located.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan
It seems a lot of people don’t have to pay for water, either because it’s included free with their utilities, or else because they have a well. My water bill is probably less than 1% of my overall utility bill.
Your electric is higher in the winter, miner is higher in the summer.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan
Yeah, no kidding! I have a feeling a lot of us are going to see increases in our utility bills next time they come due.
@lovebuglena (45147)
• Staten Island, New York
26 Jan
Don’t remember the usage but usually the water bill (which is quarterly) is around $116 but can be slightly higher. Doesn’t seem that bad.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan
Dang! My water bill is like $5 or so. It seems like people in the northeast pay a lot more for water than elsewhere in the country.
@lovebuglena (45147)
• Staten Island, New York
28 Jan
@moffittjc are you kidding? $5 for what period of time?
@andriaperry (117861)
• Anniston, Alabama
26 Jan
Yes I do, each month. When it's higher than normal I question, are they reading it correctly or just putting down what they want.
A few months ago my water bill doubled and then some, I asked why? I wasn't home for 10 days. The the reply was " you got a water leak, a couple gallons every hour. I replied, that'll be fixed today.
I fixed nothing because there wasn't a leak, my bill went back to normal! That's why I question are they reading it or not?
2 people like this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 Jan
I had the same probably, but it was with my electrical meter. The meter reader recorded the wrong numbers. I saw the discrepancy on my bill and contacted the utility and asked them to re-read the meter again. They found their error and corrected it right away.
In recent years, they have since replaced all our meters with smart meters that they can read remotely now, without having to send out meter readers every month to look at the numbers on the meters.
2 people like this
@NJChicaa (121000)
• United States
26 Jan
I don't study the amounts month to month. I just know that I will pay more for gas in the winter and more for electricity in the summer. The water here is crazy. I pay more for a 2 BR apartment each month than we did at the house. Gas was $117 last month. Water was like $45. Whatever. At least I am able to pay it.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 Jan
The gas I can understand, but why so much for the water? My water bill was like $5, such a small percentage of my overall utility bill. And this included wastewater in the calculation.
2 people like this
@NJChicaa (121000)
• United States
26 Jan
@moffittjc I don't know. The water bill here for a 2 BR apartment with no yard is higher per month than what we paid for at the house.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
29 Jan
@NJChicaa It seems like from several other comments that water bills in the northeast part of the US seem to be much higher than elsewhere.
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (51114)
• United States
26 Jan
I have looked at it, but I don’t recall what it said.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 Jan
I always glance at my bill every month, but in the sense of just checking to make sure the total cost is within that range I expect it to be. I only look more closely if there seems to be an anomaly. But this time, it was more of a curiosity than anything else; my bill was right on par with what it should be this time of year, but I had a little time on my hands and decided to look at what I'm actually using.
Interestingly, a few years ago I got an electric bill that was twice the rate of what it normally was. I went down to the utility and met with customer service to try and figure out what was wrong. They sent a guy out to check my meter, and it turns out the meter reader recored the wrong numbers from my meter, leading to the higher than usual bill. The utility was able to correct it and it brought the cost back down to where it should have been. So it is good to at least pay a little attention to the bill each month.
1 person likes this
@JESSY3236 (20176)
• United States
28 Jan
My power bill had went up. The dryer had been not working right so that might be the cause of it and Chris has a hybrid car and plugged in his car when he was here for Christmas.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan
Those cars suck up a lot of juice when you plug them in to charge. I have a feeling that might be the culprit in your high electric bill.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (344627)
• Rockingham, Australia
27 Jan
This was a bit of a challenge! The water one was pretty easy. It seems we use 213L/day which converts to 56 US gallons so that sounds about right. There is only two of us but that includes watering the garden.
The electricity is more difficult as our bills are designed to be very difficult to decipher!! As far as I can work out we used 1041 kWh in a two-month period. Synergy (our provider) buys back units created by our solar panels.
The usage summary at the bottom of the account says: Buyback Peak Units 199 kWh, and Buyback Offpeak Units 842. These are Units Exported. Under Units Imported is Residential Anytime consumption which is 335 kWh. On the front, the average daily usage is 5.32 units which I guess is kWh. Our daily cost was $A2.81.
If you're confused, spare a thought for me!
The water one was pretty easy. It seems we use 213L/day which converts to 56 US gallons so that sounds about right. There is only two of us but that includes watering the garden.
The electricity is more difficult as our bills are designed to be very difficult to decipher!! As far as I can work out we used 1041 kWh in a two-month period. Synergy (our provider) buys back units created by our solar panels.
The usage summary at the bottom of the account says: Buyback Peak Units 199 kWh, and Buyback Offpeak Units 842. These are Units Exported. Under Units Imported is Residential Anytime consumption which is 335 kWh. On the front, the average daily usage is 5.32 units which I guess is kWh. Our daily cost was $A2.81.
If you're confused, spare a thought for me! 1 person likes this
@moffittjc (122442)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan
You thoroughly confused me with your explanation. But it sounds like you pay a decently low rate.
It’s nice that you have solar panels to help offset energy use.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (344627)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Jan
@moffittjc It really annoys us that the charges for actual usage are quite low. Most of the total is made up of charges for this, that and the other. So however much you cut down on usage, you still pay all these other charges.
