Occasionally I will see on the news where they are predicting a peak but never have gotten an email or mail about it.

We are certainly different on our useage LOL. We like it cool and I believe the thermostat is set right about 70. When we built we used a higher efficiency than required insulation (not sure I termed that right but YKWIM). Our house is pretty easy to heat up or cool down and hold the temp. Our AC doesn't run excessively, even in this weather/humidity. I do generally have the other bedrooms closed off when we are not here during the day. I run the dishwasher as needed but generally for the 2 of us that's not more than twice a week unless we have guests. Washer/dryer are run whenever I feel like it LOL. I hate doing laundry all at once.

How do you get by with so little lights? We are usually outside in the evenings after dinner until dark, but once it's dark, the main living area is always lit (I love lamps in the evening) and our bedroom. If hubby is "piddling" in his workshop, that means the garage and workshop are lit up. We are usually doing something in the evenings so that's why I asked how you get by without lights. Tonight I had a little project I was working on (pillows) before I came here. Next will be a soaking bath and I may read for a bit unless the soaking makes me too sleepy LOL. Hubby is in the workshop. In the daytime, on days I am home or Fridays (hubby works 4 day weeks) blinds are open and back of house has uncovered french doors plus sunroom always has roman shades drawn about 1/3 - so we get alot of natural light.

Oh and our ceiling fan always runs at night (only). We're hooked. LOL

More than you wanted to know but it's an interesting topic.

That's interesting - you must have newer meters than we do. Our electric company still 'reads' our meters by driving by the house once a month. So unless they drove by daily they wouldn't be able to measure our usage on a day by day basis.

The electric company at our vacation home in PA operates the same way.

I googled 'smart meters' and I guess we won't be getting them soon here...

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2014/05/neither_bee_nor_bark_of_dog_keep_nj_meter_readers_from_completing_appointed_rounds.html

............'The alternative, two-way smart meters, can remotely calculate individual gas, water and electric usage, send a signal when a customer’s power goes out, and in some cases, help cut energy consumption and manage peak demand.

But the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and the state’s ratepayer advocate haven’t supported the technology, whose system-wide installation would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, a cost that would get passed on to customers.

The state Division of Rate Counsel, which represents consumers in utility rate cases, maintains that human meter readers are still cheaper and more effective than their high-tech counterparts."...............

I also found it interesting when I found this info on my bill, the new smart meters were installed last year.

Mdln, we get a similar type of report every month. We are also more efficient than the typical efficient homes. Yes, they do compare by square footage.

Lukki, it seems that you keep your temps pretty cool, so I am sure that is why you were not efficient. They had on the news that the A/C cools most efficiently at a 20 degree differential, so if it's 100, they recommend setting the thermostat at 80. I asked the maintenance tech about it, and he said yes that's true. Uhm, no. I don't like super cool, either but I need to feel it's on.

Tina, We are way up north so in the summer, it doesn't get dark until 9:30 or 10:00 at night, so that helps. We watch tv in the dark and I'm on my Ipad in the dark, even as I'm typing this out. Luckily, I'm a good typist so I don't need light to use a keyboard, DH's not so lucky, he has to turn on his light to find the keys. lol The house is an open concept and we have dimmers in the kitchen and dining rooms, I also keep a night light on in the bathrooms, but we find evenings with low or no lights to be very calming; in the winter when it gets dark earlier it's a little different, we may turn a light on if we're reading but when we use the kindle on our pads, it's really not necessary. I know....it's an odd quirk!

Maire Cate we do have one of those smart meters. They installed it a couple of years ago. I am not thrilled about it. I don't even use loyalty cards because I hate being tracked so much. There were all kinds of promises about how it would improve our service, blah blah blah, but we still have lots of outages that we were told would stop. Of course they're just long enough to be annoying and kill all the settings in the house. We also have to call when power is out which they promised we wouldn't so yeah, I'm not impressed. In the email last week, they threatened that people who didn't conserve during specific times would see considerable hikes in their bills...so, to control people is indeed why they installed them. The only positive is we don't have a strange guy walking in front of the window and upsetting our dog.

gsscience you misread my post because we WERE efficient in spite of the quirks. Out of 100 homes in the neighborhood, we were in the top ten of the most efficient. 80 will NEVER happen in our house, nor will 75 or even 70. I'm way too heat sensitive.

mdln, I haven't seen that in our bill. Are you with DTE?

No, not with DTE. Was surprised to find the info when I recently switched to online billing & payment. Not sure how long it has been available. Due to recent rebuild have all new more energy efficient appliances and mostly LED bulbs. It makes me feel a little better as I drive my gas guzzling SUV. :-)

Ha! I know that's right, my Jeep is terrible with gas. We have energy efficient bulbs and appliances too, need new windows though. Guess every little bit helps, but your savings on energy is great.

Twice in July, we got a phone call saying the next day was some sort of energy conservation day during peak hours of 10am-8pm or something like that and if you reduced usage, you would get credit on your next bill. We are a family of 6 and with all kids home during those hours in the summer, it's near impossible to reduce. Of course both days, were two of the hottest all summer (90s and humid).

first, we are a three story house so the third story where the bedrooms are, gets very hot. However, I can't stand it being super cold in the house. During the day, I keep it about 78 in the house and at night turn it down to 74-75. We also have ceiling fans. This is fine for us - I just like the a/c to take the edge off the humidity. If it's below 80 and low humidity, I turn the a/c off - I prefer fresh air and open windows!

with four kids, I'm doing laundry and running my dishwasher daily. And of course, there are hot showers for all those people. On the first day of this energy saving, I had a house guest. I did all my necessary laundry before 10am and ran the dishwasher early though I think it didn't finish until after 10am. I forgot to mention to my houseguest about the program. And just my luck, even tho he rarely did laundry (he was staying with us for 4 weeks), he chose that day to do his and of course did it smack in the middle of the day. I'm sure there were other things we didn't do well.

We had another one on Tuesday of this week. Again, didn't do any laundry myself, but my dd did a load in the afternoon. Our dishwasher isn't working properly, so we've been hand washing until I get around to getting it fixed (dh tried but can't find the leak). I keep,the thermostat same as usual but kept all lights off during day. Next day we got a call that we were getting a $4 credit. Whoopie. I wasn't in it to save money but at least wanted to see if anything changed.

occasionally we get something in the mail showing our energy usage compared to neighbors and ours is always well higher. To be expected with our large family and we are surrounded by retired couples, couples w/no kids, and single adults. There are other families but in our immediate surroundings, the few with kids only have two and they are young. Funny thing tho' someone on our neighborhood FB page posted about that letter we all get b/c she said everyone she has talked to said their letters all say they have high usage. Everyone who responded said the same thing...so it seems we have no idea who these neighbors are with much lower usage!

It will be interesting to see how our bills change as our kids leave for college. It'll be years before the last one is gone though!

Where I come from, if any corporation or utility tried that kind of customer shaming, we would increase our consumption to twist them off. Let the highly paid CEO take a pay cut and use the money to upgrade the power grid.

That said, when I lived in Manhattan we had to be very careful because of the density. There were always flickering lights and brown outs on peak days and transformers in certain areas were notorious for never being entirely fixed. So we were diligent about turning off lights, only running the DW at night, and using the a.c. only in the rooms we were in. Not fun to get stuck on the 12th floor in a building with 200 people and with no elevator or a.c.

Our bill includes a bar graph with consumption for our house this year vs last. I find those handy to monitor myself as we took advantage our our state's energy conservation program and did air sealing and insulation of the house. Our consumption always goes up in the summer as we have central air. We generally keep that temp at 72.

Now I'm going to have to look at my bill more closely. I have not noticed anything about us vs. the neighbors, but ours is drafted and I will admit I don't look at it closely. We do have the graph that shows last year and last month's use. As we are in the hot/humid south, our summer bills are usually our highest (typically July/August and maybe September).

Lukki, you stay light a bit longer than us. It's somewhere after 9:00 here but before 9:30.

I look at our graphs all the time for both gas and electric. The usage has only flexuated slightly from year to year, my guess is its due to changes in weather trends more than anything. I would love to put panels on our roof and bank it Annie, that is a great investment.

Interesting to hear of experiences that allow you to compare your usage to your neighbors. Research on environmental habits has showed this is one of the most persuasive methods to encourage a shift toward a new behavior. So it's cool to see it in action in some areas.

I am hoping smart meters NEVER come to my area given all the health risks/concerns over them. Rococo's comment on "customer shaming" seems right on, and a perspective I hadn't considered.

If it's not singling people out, then I don't see it as shaming. Shaming would be if they hung a red ribbon on the mailboxes of those who used a lot of energy. But if they report to you how you stack up to your neighbors does that count as shaming?

Yes, you're right. I thought you were in the bottom vs. the top of the list.

It seems more of an encouragement to me rather than shaming. . .

Actually, it's just information, and people can respond to situations if they have awareness whereas they can't if they have no insight.

I didn't know there are health risks with these meters? Anyone have insight?

Smart meters, dumb science

No smart meters here yet.

I'm shocked that 58 degrees is comfortable for you, Lukk. Even moi with her nightly hot flashes would find that too chilling. Our summer temps average mid-high 90s and mid-high 70s for a low. We've settled on a 75 degree setting 24/7. I'd hate to stress the a/c unit anymore than we already do.

I'm the same about lights at night. We spend most of our time in the kitchen/keeping room where we have a TV and computer. I turn off the under cabinet lights. Have night lights on 24/7. The table lamp on the hutch is turned on, but for the most part the rest in the house are off. In the fall & winter string lights add to the low key ambiance.

I know of no health risks with the meters.

brrrr, i can't imagine being comfortable in a house set at 58 in the summer either! i have our thermostats set down to 58 in the winter at night the last few yrs after buying an overly warm (for me!) comforter set- i still need to periodically throw off the cover to cool down at night in the winter, but usually briefly! i change to a much lighter cover during the summer and crank up the fan over our bed so i am comfortable with just a sheet at 71 at night...

in the summer, our thermostat is set at 78 during the day and i have it coming down to 76 in the evening when we're all home and the outdoor temp drop a bit too. i usually wear shorts and tanks/sleeveless in the summer, and not counting periods of hot flashes, i am comfortable! we keep the house in the mid, then upper 60's in the evening in winter and am comfortable in sweaters... 58 at night.

i think compared to a lot of people, we are quite energy efficient, tho we don't have smart meters here either- only have a bar graph of own usage for the past year...

I need to clarify, I set it that low at night, in the daytime, while we're at work, I shut it off. It takes all day for it to go back up to 65(ish) by the time I get home. We do like it cool though, 63-64 normally.

What I really prefer and wish there was more opportunity to do is to have everything open; especially when there are nice breezes. When it's not humid, we will open up everything even when it's warm because we have a lot of shade which still keeps things feeling cool. Unfortunately, Michigan runs humid in the spring and summer months.

Cindy, glad to see there is at least one more dim lighting lover in the mix. To us, it's very relaxing. I think part of the issue is that our room is on the upper level which runs warm to begin with. With the thermostat set at 58 during the night, our room is typically going to be about 68. I hate stagnate air so we run a ceiling fan as well for ventilation. The cold was the saving grace for me when I was getting a lot of hot spells. I think my experience with those was much easier than most. I never experienced waking with my clothes drenched or even any sweating. I just had a rush of heat come over me that would last a few minutes and be done.

I don't wake drenched, but definitely have to toss the covers. The day flashes stopped a long time ago, but it looks like I'm one of the lucky ones who gets to deal with the night version for the rest of my life. :(

no, we don't get any notifications like that. Maybe those other 8 people were out of town.

Ha! Maybe!! It is vacation time! We have more hot days a comin next week. I told my dh that I'm tempted to turn off all the breakers and use the generator for the time they say is the peak time of the day, I think it's 3-7, I don't even get home until 6 so it would only run for an hour or so.

We love fresh air too but too humid to not have the AC on here. Like you - very warm days the next week. I'm allergic to mold and it's bothered me the past couple of weeks. Regardless, we are still outside most evenings from 7:00 - 9:00 ish. Someone mentioned string lights and I love those outside and my lanterns and torches too. Sadly with all this rain - even though everything is so lush and green - we are seeing more skunks. I'm not so inclined to stay out after dark when they are around!

Hot humidity just sucks the life right out of me. We've been having some smelly visitors too lately but I haven't seen any racoons which is odd. We've also been seeing quite a few frogs. I seldom ever saw frogs and now they are popping up everywhere, especially in the evenings. It didn't rain all last week but today is the day, the thunderstorms on their way. I love when it's humid and smaller thunderstorms hit. The immediate cool down, the sound of the rain (but not so much the thunder) and the breezes that come with it feel so good.

oh, right! we have dual zones... I forgot when we had a house with the single zone of air set with the thermostat on the main level... it did get boiling hot upstairs and we did have to set the downstairs cooler to get it comfortable upstairs! I had forgotten about that! upper and lower zones make a huge comfort difference!!

Yes, I wish we could afford to do that BB. I didn't even realize that was an option until someone posted about their thermostat breaking a couple of weeks ago. It totally makes sense. As is works out in the end because the house still stays cool all day for the dog without running the a/c.

http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/smart-meters-not-so-smart/

Information on many concerning aspects of Smart meters.

How smart are smart meters

I'd be more concerned with regular cell phone usage.

"I talked with one of the members of that panel, engineering dean Emir
Jose Macari from Sacramento State University. He said, “There is no
proof of any health impacts from radio frequency (RF) waves.” But he
added, some people seem to be especially sensitive to electromagnetism;
studies have been done on them and non sensitive people, “and the
results are 50/50. There is no conclusive evidence that they can even
feel the effects of radio frequency.” Still, Macari observed, people
continue to object to the smart meters — people “who really don’t want
the government or anybody intruding into their homes and seeing that the
energy is being used.” Bottom line for him: “more studies need to be
done.”

So what is a home owner or a cellphone user, to say nothing
of a journalist, to make of these dueling scientific and almost
scientific statements? You could read studies till you fall asleep
(which wouldn’t take long) and you still wouldn’t know the answer. Harm
from wireless signals — especially from smart meters — hasn’t been
proven or disproven, though those who object to wireless signals
probably need to document more scientifically their ailments. The burden
of proof, given the prevalence of wireless devices, seems to be on
them."

I'd like to hear from the people who are number 1, 2, and 3 most efficient on those peak day "competitions". I don't use my AC unless I have guests, so on those days I wasn't using it. No lights, either, but running a fan where I was, part of that time. I was 25th for the first peak day, and 12th for the second. What in heck do I have to do?????? If not using AC, I HAVE to have that fan!

How old is your fan, clempert? Old fans (25+ years old) can use as much energy as the A/C does, even though they last forever.

ETA As a Floridian, the A/C settings here are kind of shocking to me. My summer settings are 80 during the day and 77 at night. Yeah, when I was in school up north and came home from a blizzard to FL in May, it was hard for the first few days, but you do adapt.

We don't get any info like that and we just went through a major heat wave here in MN. I use AC as little as possible because I like to have my windows open. I have had it on 24/7 though until yesterday when it cooled off here. We generally keep it at 78 when we're home and I turn it up a little during the day when we're gone but not too much because it takes a while to cool back down. If I'm running around the house doing a bunch of stuff or cooking then I turn it down to 76. Our new house has a ceiling fan over the bed and I find I can keep it at 78 with that on. In our old house I would turn down to 76 at night for sleeping.

I've never quite understood how I'm good set at 78 in the summer but only need it at 68 in the winter.

Clempert, It's been a year since I posted this thread and while we are still very low in our rankings we're not as low as we were. Looking at it now, I think their stats are actually quite miss leading as there are a lot of variables besides across the board usage to consider. For example, the neighborhood you are in and how large or small your home is compared to the others or even how many folks are on vacation. We have a 1700 sf home, but our area is comprised of much larger sized homes. We also have low ceilings as opposed to open cathedral. You don't know what the margins between each rank is either, you may just be falling mid range because the homes in the 100 surveyed are similar in size and style and everyone is doing the same thing as you to conserve. For all you know, there could be just a difference of a kw or two or less, who knows.

Many many years ago the local utility company contacted my grandmother to find out how she could possibly live in Palm Springs year round and have such low utility usage.. She always aired out the house between 4-5 am and then closed the well insulated house up by 5 am. Window coverings were kept closed until the eaves above the window had provided at least a foot of shadow (so south facing windows remained covered all day every day for the entire summer). On really hot days she went to the library or shopping mall for "free" cooling. During the summer she did not use her oven except on bread baking day. She refused to use her dryer and dried everything out on the line. Bath water ended up watering her lavish garden. It was all doable but it made me crazy to live in a house without really living in it... but she was a product of the depression and there would be no "waste"....so yes, sometimes the utility companies do wonder how people do what they do and they come and ask.

Whew, you all are making me glad that our cloudy winters mean cooler summers! We don't have AC and until we lost some trees around the house, never needed it but for maybe 2 days out of the year when temps were above 90 for several days running. Today I think it was 95 but we keep the curtains drawn all day long and open up when the sun starts going down (around 9pm) and leave some windows open all night. All we need is a couple of fans. I do have an AC unit for the master bedroom-but didn't even set that up this year.

So that said, we don't ever get notices from our electric co about curtailing days. We do get a lot of incentives from them for lowering our wattage and we can choose a 'green' power source if we want (costs are a little higher). Since our power is based on hydropower we have a good, clean supply.

Regardless, I'm all for reducing our energy footprint so we keep lights off all day. We have a skylight in the main bathroom (interior) so there is not even a need to turn it on during the day. At night I have a light on in the hall and one over the stove. We do keep our LED post light on all night.

I don't think in the 10 years we've lived in our house that our energy bill has gone up $10-must be doing something right! However, I did tell DH I really want to upgrade our furnace system and put in an AC. We currently use a pellet stove to heat our home because the existing furnace is ancient and I won't use it. So if we do that, I bet our energy costs continue to lower by keeping consistent temps year round. (our furnace is natural gas).