Use Less: My Monthly Utility Report For December 2009.

To help me keep track and to hold me accountable, this year I am going to track all my utility expenses for the year. I am hoping that by doing so, I can encourage everyone to look at their bills and see just how much energy and water you use on a daily basis – and then try to reduce it any way that you can. The average household uses 936 kilowatthours (kWh) of electricity and 400 gallons of water per day, while the average individual uses 250 kWh of electricity and 70-100 gallons of water – just so you have a baseline to judge against. Each month, as long as I can remember to do so, I am going to post the total dollar amounts for each utility along with any usage numbers I am provided with. To start things off, I just went online (I don’t receive paper bills anymore from anyone) and looked at my December statements from the electric and water companies here in Colorado, and here are the results:

Electric Bill & Usage – $19.54 total. I used 106 Kwh for the month, or 3.53 Kwh per day.

Sewer, Water & Gas – $7.56 total. $1.14 in water (710 gallons), $1.82 for sewer, $0 for gas. $4.25 of that bill, the majority of it, is just the service fee for even having service!

Now, keep in mind that I was away for 10 days in December so my bill for January will be higher by about 1/3. We shall see once the bills come in. And I imagine my gas bill will go up as I have actually used the heat a few times during the day lately. My water usage is a way-below-average 23.66 gallons per day and my electric less than 1/2 the national average, so hopefully I can keep that up for the rest of the year. We will see what January looks like in a few weeks. What do your utility bills look like? Can you reduce your consumption?

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