Lower My Electric Bill! (Or, How Ben Franklin Could Save You A Buck)

No, this is not the first generation of Americans to wrestle with energy conservation. Nor the second, nor even the fifth.

Ben Franklin himself railed against energy hogs more than 200 years ago, back when workaholics literally burned the candle at both ends to see at night.

During a prolonged stay in France, Franklin wrote a sarcastic letter to the Journal of Paris in which he professed a most remarkable discovery — that the sun actually rises at 6 o'clock (Parisians, he noted, rarely woke before noon). By his quill-on-the-envelope calculation, Parisians spent as much as 96 million livres collectively to burn candles for seven hours each night during the summer months.

"An immense sum! that the city of Paris might save every year, by the economy of using sunshine instead of candles," Franklin wrote.

The simplest solution to cut back on the high cost of burning so many candles in the dark of night, he wrote, was to wake up and do business by the light of the sun. He proposed (at least partly in jest) a tax on window shutters, candle rationing and a citywide wake-up call comprising church bells and cannon fire.

Though lighting still represents one of the biggest power draws in the average household, a slew of other appliances now suck the juice at all hours of the day. Forget candles. Now you consume kilowatt-hour upon kilowatt-hour of electricity.

But while electricity consumers haven't faced anything as draconian as Franklin's tongue-in-cheek candle-saving measures, Southern Californians have had their share of forced rationing. Brownouts, rolling blackouts, tiered electricity rates—and now a surcharge rate hike in Los Angeles — have all been used to encourage the power guzzler to restrain himself.

Then again, you really don't have to be all that greedy to run up your bill. So how much energy use is a lot, and what can you do to keep those charges under control?

The average household in the United States uses about 950 kilowatt-hours (KWh) of electricity per month, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In California, likely because of the milder climate, energy use is much lower, coming in at less than 600 kWh per month per household.

To put the numbers into perspective, a single 100-watt light bulb burns one-tenth of a kWh in one hour. Central air conditioning, on the other hand, downs about 1.3 kWh every 60 minutes.

Run that air conditioner even five hours a day and by the end of the month you've already consumed nearly 200 kWh of electricity.

In Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power, one of the nation's largest public-owned utilities, charges a higher rate as you use more electricity. It's a tiered structure that starts at only 7 cents per kWh and moves up as you pass certain benchmarks to 8.5 cents and 12 cents, respectively.

The point at which you move up to the next tier depends on where you live. LADWP has marked off two zones based on the area's microclimates. For customers in coastal and cooler regions, tier one ends after only 350 kilowatt hours of use per month. Customers living in the valley, which is much hotter, get a slight break. For them, tier two doesn't start until they've used more than 500 kilowatt hours.

If you're an Angeleno trying to lower your bill, you probably want to stay within the first and second tiers. Trouble is, it can be very difficult for a family to meet that first limit. In fact, it's almost a given that at least part of your electricity use will be billed at the tier-two rate each month.

Still, however you look at it, lowering your energy use will save you money in the end, and the best place to start is with that air conditioner. Air conditioning, lighting and heating can account for a third of your electricity use each month. Be aware, too, that your water heater might be electric. Yes, that's right, a good chunk of your electric bill could be going to those long, hot showers. (Gas water heaters are far easier on the pocket book, but it's good to remember that LADWP has a tiered rate structure for water use, too.)

Appliances make up two-thirds of your energy use, on average. Topping the list of thirsty appliances is the all-important refrigerator. While you can't very well cut back on refrigeration (aside from keeping the door closed while you figure out what you need!), you can save on other appliances.

One way to figure out what's boosting your bill is to look at the energy rating sticker that comes affixed to just about every electrical appliance you can name. It should list the wattage. Divide the number of watts by 1000 to get the number of kilowatt-hours the appliance uses in one hour. If the sticker only lists amps, you can still get a very rough estimate of kilowatt-hours. Just multiply the amps by 120 (the normal voltage required for appliances to work in the U.S.), and then divide that number by 1000.

If you really want to audit your energy use, you can buy something called a multimeter and hook it up to a specific appliance like, say, your computer or TV. The multimeter will display exactly how much energy has been used by the appliance in real time.

Sound a bit obsessive? It's not far-fetched to say we all may soon be monitoring our energy use as closely as our finances. You can already get real-time updates on your energy use by reading your electric meter. Just compare the number on the meter to the one on your previous bill. With the advent of smart meters, this process should get much easier. Google has even partnered with some utilities around the country to download the data directly from your smart meter so you can view it in your Web browser's home page, complete with graphs and charts.

At the end of the day, however, even with all that data at your fingertips, you're still faced with the same tough choices. Do you shut off the air conditioner and sweat it out? Dry your clothes outdoors on a line? Work in the dark? Go to bed early? The point is, if you want to lower your bill, you have to change some habits. And, as Franklin urged his Parisian comrades, you just might want to think twice the next time you consider "burning the midnight oil."