Calculate your electricity costs

by Jen (July 8, 2008)

Michael Bluejay’s Saving Electricity site gives you the low down on electricity costs and how to save them. He breaks down everything so nicely - even has a calculator to help you estimate what your electricity consumption is costing you (more on this in a minute).

He breaks down some myths that are really common, like the one about it taking 20 minutes’ worth of electricity to turn on a lightbulb, making it better to leave the bulb on than to turn it off:

There’s a surge but it’s so tiny you can’t easily measure it. That’s because it happens for only a fraction of a second, and the surge itself is modest. It’s certainly not costing you any extra money, not even a penny. So there’s no surge in practical terms. As far as you’re concerned there’s no surge at all.

He’s right about that.

His writing is also great because he’s so straightforward there’s no question where he stands on his topics. For example, his response on solar power:

Thinking about going solar? Solar is indeed now affordable in many cases. My concern about this is that, just like with cars, people are looking for an alternative fuel source so they can continue blissfully using ridiculous amounts of energy. I would prefer that we all first stop consuming so freaking much!

It’s great to find renewable fuel sources that produce less waste when you’re wasting stuff, but most of us can’t behave wastefully in one part of our lives and frugally in another - we do much better when we commit to being reasonably frugal in all areas.

And finally, my favorite part of the site: the calculator. It’s set up for American users - you select the sort of appliance you’re talking about, the number of hours you use it per day, the number of days per month, and then select the electricity rate for your state, and bingo - you get an estimate of what it’s costing you per month and per year. I found a similar calculator set up for British users, so hunt around. If you can’t find a calculator for your area, you can still get most of the numbers you need from Saving Electricity and do the rest of the math yourself.

It helps you make informed choices about your energy usage, and that’s what you need in order to save money and reduce your carbon footprint.

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