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First year kWh usage

nynick | Posted in General Questions on

I’ve been waiting patiently for our first year electric bill. We built a 28×38 3 car garage with a 2 bedroom ADU above it that we’ve been living in since last November. We have a Mitsubishi unit with ducts for upstairs and mini split heads for the garage. The building is pretty well insulated and pretty tight but there’s only so much you can do to garage doors. It is entirely electric with a HP DHW and HP Dryer. We have one hybrid car we plug in.

I’d like to hear opinions on our kWh usage. We do go to FLA a bit in the colder months. There’s 2 of us living here.

Nov 231
Dec 744
Jan 883
Feb 907
Mar 304
Apr 263
May 728
Jun 720
Jul 883
Aug 779
Sep 661
Oct 574

TIA
Nick

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Replies

  1. Expert Member
    BILL WICHERS | | #1

    You'd need to seperate out your car's charging needs from those kwh numbers to be able to gauge the structure's performance. The car might be a BIG chunk (lots of driving) or a small chunk (just a little driving) of the totals, and the car's needs have nothing to do with the rest of the structure.

    Do you have a way to seperate out the car's charging consumption from your numbers?

    Bill

    1. nynick | | #3

      Not really. We plug it in every day but only drive a few hundred miles a week, if that. I can tell you we bought that car around April 2024, however.
      Thanks for your input!

  2. Expert Member
    Michael Maines | | #2

    7700 kwh/yr seems very good to me. It's hard to gauge accurately because not many homes are built over a heated garage, and car-charging is another variable, but in my area (Maine), that would be about $1600, or $134/month, which is excellent in my book.

    1. nynick | | #4

      Thanks Michael. I didn't add up the cost, but Eversource is banging us pretty hard for Delivery and Public Works charges. This makes the kWh charge seem low while the bill is 1/3 kWh, 1/3 Delivery and 1/3 Public Works. Pretty tricky.

      1. Expert Member
        Michael Maines | | #5

        I understand; my electric company is consistently rated the worst for customer service in the US--even below Pacific Gas and Electric, which has caused huge fires and has frequent brown-outs.

        Our total rate is around $0.23/kwh. I bet yours is no more than $0.30.

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