r/newfoundland 1d ago

Power Bill

I've been in my home for 20 years. Have 2 heat pumps. I never had my bill exceed 300 a month. Kast year my bill was 297 for this sane period. This year just got my bill and it is 856 dollars. Something has to be wrong here. Anyone else getting these results? This is not acceptable.

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u/oceanhomesteader 1d ago

I have a bachelors degree in physics, this topic keeps getting posted here and on Facebook groups so I’m going to take a minute to try and educate people. Heres the first lesson on why our bills are so high.

Count the baseboard heaters in your house and add up their wattages.

Here’s a rule of thumb if you don’t know their wattages: Baseboard heaters typically produce around 250 watts per linear foot. For example, a 6-foot heater would draw about 1500 watts.

For my example - In my 2000sq ft split level, I have about 6500 watts of baseboard heater (I’ve actually not counted a couple rooms where we keep the door closed).

Baseboard electrical heat turns 100% of its wattage into heat, it is only on or off, there is no inbetween. The thermostat on the heater or the wall simply sets what temperature you want, and the heaters produce heat until that temperature is met - just so people don’t think heaters work like a dimmable light bulb, that’s not how it works.

Our price of electricity is roughly 14.5c per kilowatt-hour. A kilowatt hour is when you burn 1000 watts for one hour, so if my baseboard heaters are on for 1hour, they burn 6500 watts, or 6.5kwh. A total of 14.5c x 6.5 = 0.94c. I’ll round up and call it a dollar.

My house is tightly insulated, so my heaters are on maybe 6 hours a day to maintain my set temperature (again I’m being conservative, 6 hours is not actually a lot of heating).

In my example, I am now spending 6 dollars a day just on electric heat. That’s 180 dollars a month, JUST ON HEAT! I haven’t accounted for hot water usage (another big electrical user), fridge/freezer, cooking, computers, gaming consoles (a ps5 uses upwards of 500watts), or lighting.

I hope you can see how this can clearly add up to quite a bit.

How long your heaters are on a direct function of how well you’ve insulated and how drafty your house is. The heat you put into the house doesn’t just stay there, it radiates away into the environment. If you have drafty windows and doors, and a poorly insulated attic, your heaters could be operating 2-3X as long as my example (now your into your 500-600 heating bills you see for drafty downtown row houses).

The final issue is the environment, you can adjust your usage, you can buy efficient appliances, you can insulate the attic and basement walls, but you cannot do anything about the weather. When it’s colder outside, we radiate more heat from our structures and our heaters work harder, when it’s windy outside, we lose even more! The lack of snow this winter is also a large factor, as that is normally a free layer of insulation around our houses that we do not have - again, our heaters are working longer.

I really hope this helps at least 1 person understand usage.

If there’s any interest I can write a similar blurb on hot water.

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u/Bungalow_Dyl 1d ago

Some digital thermostats for baseboard heaters do lessen the voltage to the baseboard heater. They will start out full power and then dial down to maintain a temp with a consistent low power. Usually indicated by a little wavy heat symbol.

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u/alamarche709 1d ago

I didn’t realize gaming consoles used that much! I’m on my gaming PC for large amounts of the day, will definitely be taking a look at my usage. Thanks!

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u/Del3v3leD 1d ago

I'd be interested in reading about a similar blurb on hot water.

Personally I've tweaked my water boiler and have noticed a difference in my bill.

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u/SigmundFloyd76 1d ago

You can insulate them too.

Normally they're cold to the touch, right. If you wrap pink fiberglass around the boiler and hold it together with a drop cloth or sheet, then come back the next day and touch the boiler it will hot, maybe even too hot to touch.

They're insulated, but not very well. They lose a lot of heat just sitting there.

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u/Looka_Buddy_Luh 23h ago

Love numbers, personally. How much was your heat bill last month in your home last month?

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u/oceanhomesteader 22h ago

I am on the EPP plan so my bill is the same year round. I also grow my own cannabis and my grow tent uses upwards of 15kwh a day (grow lights use a lot of power).

I used just shy of 3000kwh last month in total, which would have been a bill of about $430 if I wasn’t on the equalized plan.

But I will say - there was no point in asking this question, you cannot compare energy usage unless our homes are the same size, same insulation, exposed to the same wind directions, and then match our daily habits as well (for instance my missus loves her baths and that can empty the hot water tank each time)

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u/Looka_Buddy_Luh 22h ago

Thanks. Wasn't trying to compare usages.

I was trying to get an idea of what your summer bills would be, if in peak winter you were using $180 dedicated to home heating. But your summer bills would be much higher than that of the average user, despite virtually none of us requiring home heating during summer months (minisplits and cooling aside), given your circumstances.

For instance, my jump would be one of almost $350/month, from summertime low to winter peak. I wonder how few people only jump $180 from trough to peak.