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studio460_gw

Los Angeles energy rates = $0.31/kWh (tier 4). What's yours?

studio460
10 years ago

Living in Los Angeles county leaves us with Southern California Edison electricity rates. We're currently at tier 4, at $0.31/kWh. We have no air-conditioning, no pool, no spa, and our lighting is 100% fluorescent and LED. Currently, our gas appliances include: clothes dryer, tankless water heater, forced-air heater. Every other appliance is electric, but all are recent models, and fairly energy-efficient.

Unfortunately, for both cosmetics and ease of cleaning, I chose a quartz-electric cooktop. Induction would've been more efficient, but all induction cooktops have an ugly aluminum frame. Ours is just a continuous sheet of black glass with touch-controls (no knobs). Boy, is that sucker easy to clean!

Back to the point . . . at an energy rate of $0.31/kWh, operating an electric clothes dryer can be an extremely expensive affair. Say you have a 240VAC electric dryer drawing 24A of current. Using the power law (volts x amps = Watts), running that dryer for one hour results in 5.76kWh of power consumed. Multiply that times a Los Angeles-resident electricity rate of $0.31/kWh, and you get a running cost of $1.79 per hour. If it takes two hours to dry your clothes in a condenser dryer (assuming a 24-amp draw, which I don't know if that's accurate, since no one publishes their dryers' actual current-draw), that's a whopping $3.57 per load.

This post was edited by studio460 on Tue, Jun 18, 13 at 7:25

Comments (14)

  • studio460
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Of course, a 120VAC dryer would cost less. Again, I don't know the exact current-draw of these machines, but let's assume a 15-amp draw, so you have, 120V x 15A = 1,800 Watts. That means a 120V dryer would consume 1.8kWh of energy per hour. At a rate of $0.31/kWh, that equals an operating cost of $0.56/hour. Better. For a two-hour drying cycle, that's $1.12 per load (note that our gas dryer does most loads in under 30 minutes, and our gas bill is something like $18/month).

  • studio460
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Now, if you're running a 120VAC ventless condenser dryer for say, four hours, that would total $2.24 per load (for Los Angeles-area residents).

  • windycitylindy
    10 years ago

    Ours are $.0466 per kWh for the first 10 per day, and $.1071 for each kWh after that. A nearby area has rates of $.027 per kWh.

  • coco4444
    10 years ago

    Thank goodness for the Niagara Falls power plant I guess(!)

    Ontario in on time-of-use for residential:
    on peak: $0.118/kWh (afternoons in summer, breakfast/dinner time in winter)
    mid peak: $0.099/kWh (breakfast/dinner in summer, afternoons in winter)
    off peak: $0.063/kWh (7pm-7am year round)

    We average b/w 14-18 kWh/day depending on time of year

  • knot2fast
    10 years ago

    As someone pointed out in another thread, you've probably calculated a worst case cost, but it's unlikely the electric heating elements are "on" continuously. Once a thermostatically controlled air temperature is reached, they should cycle on and off to maintain the temperature.

  • rococogurl
    10 years ago

    Our two-month average cost was $0.05650 which comes out to $4.18 per day. That's less than the cost of a latte. So, stay home for coffee and pay your electric bill without even trying.

  • dadoes
    10 years ago

    Most recent billing period, all-electric house.
    31 days
    $0.11922/KWH
    1,266 KWH used
    $4.869/day

  • studio460
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    OMG! I knew we were getting screwed! We pay $0.31/kWh for our "tier 4" portion (about 30%), and our total usage this month is 809kWh. Approximately 75% of our usage is over the baseline "tier 1" rate (292kWh), as are most households. But, even though our highest usage is during off-peak hours (between 8:00PM and 2:00AM) we get stuck with a significant portion of higher-tiered rates. Our previous month's bill was $192.80. No pool, no AC, all fluorescent/LED.

  • dadoes
    10 years ago

    5-ton A/C. Water well & aerobic septic system. Tankless (electric) water heater. Two refrigerators, one is in the garage. One computer runs 24/7, one 6 to 8 hrs per day, laptop on continuous charge, cable modem & wireless router. The usual electric range, dishwasher, clothes dryer. Mix of CFL and incandescent lights. DirecTV unit, plasma TV, other electronics.

  • whirlpool_trainee
    10 years ago

    German average (according to Wiki) is $0.38.

  • dualref
    10 years ago

    Our rate here in Houston last year was 8.2 and this year it's 9.0 per KWH. We installed a new central a/c unit and even though it has been hot we only used 407 kWH last month.

    A few years ago it was 0.17 per KWH.

  • richard_f
    10 years ago

    I pay a market rate for the supply, usually about 8-9 cents per kwh, then the utility (Con ED in NY) charges me about 12 cents for delivery.

  • curiousshopper
    10 years ago

    809 kwh is a lot of energy for a residence with no heating or cooling and all CFLs. Something is using power, you should investigate carefully to see if the wiring is right and the power company is reading the correct meter. Don't laugh, I used to work at a power company and meter mix-ups happened all the time.

  • studio460
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks for your reply, curiousshopper. Yes, we really need to perform a total consumption audit. That said, even though we have no AC, or other large-appliance loads, we have a lot of stuff running.

    Here's what's powered-on 24/7:
    x1 24.1-CF refrigerator/freezer [557 kWh/year]
    x2 42-Watt DVRs
    x2 28-Watt non-DVR set-top boxes
    x1 84-Watt19" LED TV (security monitor), plus five more to be installed
    x1 security DVR
    x6 security cameras
    x1 cable modem/WiFi/router
    x4 routers
    x5 24-Watt LED desk lamps
    x2 30-Watt HDD power supplies
    x1 Dynalite battery/inverter charger
    x1 Anton-Bauer charger

    Here's what's on anywhere from 4-10 hours/day:
    x3 24-Watt LED desk lamps
    x6 40-Watt T5 fluorescent strip lights
    x2 36-Watt T12 fluorescent strip lights
    x2 24-Watt T12 fluorescent strip lights
    x1 525-Watt 65" LCD TV
    x1 100-Watt home theater audio system
    x1 289-Watt 50" plasma TV
    x1 80-Watt home theater audio system
    x2 280-Watt iMac computers
    x2 180-Watt 42" LED TVs
    x2 160-Watt game consoles with internal HDDs
    x2 laptop power supplies
    x1 230-Watt PC
    x1 135-Watt 13" CRT TV
    x5 40-Watt outdoor CFLs

    Additionally, there's dozens of 12VDC power supplies strewn around the house supplying power to musical instruments and other audio support equipment. The instruments are usually off, but the power supplies are still plugged-in (I really need to start powering these power strips down regularly).

    This post was edited by studio460 on Sun, Jun 23, 13 at 5:12

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