Hey guys. I'm trying to understand the higher electrical usage year over year in my house. I am using on average 6 Kwh more per day compared to this time last year. A few things have changed
My wife started working from home about ten months ago and she is on the computer all day in relation to that. Living up north it is also very dark much of the day and with an additional person home there would be more lights on and the furnace temp is set to 68 compared to 59 when she is not home. Having said that - I would have seen increases in electricity over the summer months too compared to prior year as she worked from home last summer whereas the one before she didn't. There were increases but not the 6 or so extra Kwh I saw in winter. From what I know, laptops draw very little power and bulbs aren't huge energy consumers (although i still have incandescents). Oh....other thing is she sells dresses on the side on Etsy using a serger and sewing machine and that use has gone up too
The two other things that changed were that I ran the built into furnace Wait 6000 humidifier this winter whereas I don't recall doing it last year. Also I ran a stand alone cool mist humidifier for half of this year's winter. Lastly I got a new furnace - a York Tm9x which I was told had a highly efficient ECM motor in it. This was an upgrade to my 25 year old Lennox which was making odd sounds at the end of last year and everyone told me it was better to replace rather than repair especially due to the 'energy savings'. My gas usage this year was abit lower then the previous year despite the wife being home as I mentioned so i suppose it was more efficient on nat gas usage - hard to say really. This was also a much milder winter compared to the prior year (Western Canada).
So my long winded question is......could the new furnace fan be causing the spike in electrical usage? I am hoping the other factors mentioned are explaining the increase. Might seem petty but our electric rates are high here and this is another $15 to $20 on the bill every month. Should I contact my installer to have them take a look and perhaps adjust the fan speed or something? Or did the other things I mention explain away the increase.
My wife started working from home about ten months ago and she is on the computer all day in relation to that. Living up north it is also very dark much of the day and with an additional person home there would be more lights on and the furnace temp is set to 68 compared to 59 when she is not home. Having said that - I would have seen increases in electricity over the summer months too compared to prior year as she worked from home last summer whereas the one before she didn't. There were increases but not the 6 or so extra Kwh I saw in winter. From what I know, laptops draw very little power and bulbs aren't huge energy consumers (although i still have incandescents). Oh....other thing is she sells dresses on the side on Etsy using a serger and sewing machine and that use has gone up too
The two other things that changed were that I ran the built into furnace Wait 6000 humidifier this winter whereas I don't recall doing it last year. Also I ran a stand alone cool mist humidifier for half of this year's winter. Lastly I got a new furnace - a York Tm9x which I was told had a highly efficient ECM motor in it. This was an upgrade to my 25 year old Lennox which was making odd sounds at the end of last year and everyone told me it was better to replace rather than repair especially due to the 'energy savings'. My gas usage this year was abit lower then the previous year despite the wife being home as I mentioned so i suppose it was more efficient on nat gas usage - hard to say really. This was also a much milder winter compared to the prior year (Western Canada).
So my long winded question is......could the new furnace fan be causing the spike in electrical usage? I am hoping the other factors mentioned are explaining the increase. Might seem petty but our electric rates are high here and this is another $15 to $20 on the bill every month. Should I contact my installer to have them take a look and perhaps adjust the fan speed or something? Or did the other things I mention explain away the increase.
