As noted in an earlier blog, we are at an RV park in which our electric use is metered. We pay a monthly rent plus a monthly electric use fee. Having a meter allows us to track our usage.
During the colder days that we were here, we used our furnace (propane with electric controls and blower), 1 or 2 small ceramic space heaters (1500 watt each) and electrically heated hot water. We used each sporadically but usually used one or two devices each day for a period of time. During a 60 day period from mid January until mid March, we used a total of 623 kilowatt hours (KWH) of electricity at $0.13 per KWH. This averaged out to 10.4 KWH per day or $1.35 per day for electricity.
However, since mid-March, the weather has warmed considerably. We have not used our furnace, space heaters nor the electric water heater--we used the water heater on propane instead. Therefore, our daily electric usage has nose dived. For each of these days, we have used approximately 1 KW--or, $0.13 per day for electricity. (1 KWH is the amount of electricity required to burn a 100 watt bulb for 10 hours.) This 1 KW of usage includes using our television and satellite antenna system.
On the weekend that we were at the Butt Foundation camp, our usage dropped to 0.5 KWH per day. The usage was to run the refrigerator, gas alarms, etc. Also, we did not unplug the television to reduce the usage further. So during these "not-home" days, our electricity cost was 6 1/2 cents per day.
Once the cooling season arrives, air conditioning will dramatically increase our daily usage and cost. However, we hope not to be at a metered park to determine exactly how much more we would pay.
Sometime in the coming months, we are going to try to determine how long we can live off just our 12 volt batteries and not plugged into the grid. Time will tell.
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