:002 Record your utility rates in your journal

Welcome to day two of 1:5:10:365. Each day’s minute may build on earlier minutes, This one builds on :001.

1:5:10:002 Tip: This week we are taking stock of our energy and resources profile. What I want you to do is find your utility bills and record in your journal what you are paying for electricity, gas and water.

Some public utilities are posting all this information on your on-line account. Otherwise you can find it on your paper bill.

For example at the third level you would pay 22.9 cents for electricity per kilowatt hour.  The more power used the higher the rate. Since we will be working at getting the expensive energy use down first you should also record the lesser amounts. Do the same for your gas and water.

 That’s my 1:5:10 minute for day two. Tomorrow we will be learning to read our electric meter.

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Additional Information

Every company’s utility bill is a little different, but they all generally have the same type of information. What you are looking for with the electric portion of your bill is something that looks like this:

Electric Charges 01/01/2007 – 01/31/2007

Baseline Quantity           73.8 Kwh

Baseline Usage                73.800 Kwh @ $0.11430

101-130% of Baseline      22.100 Kwh @ $0.12989

131-200% of Baseline      51.700 Kwh @ $0.22944

201-300% of Baseline       4.400 Kwh @ $0.32148

over 300% of Baseline      0.000 Kwh @ $0.36969

This example can be found at the PG&E website at: http://www.pge.com/res/understanding_bill/standard/page5.html

 

So this person has bumped up for at least a part of their energy bill to a rate of 32 cents per Kilowatt hour. A Kilowatt hour is 1000 watts of electricity used in one hour or equivalent to leaving ten 100 watt incandescent light bulbs running for one hour.

Do the same thing for your gas and water bills. Assuming it took the full five minutes to learn how to read your bills and ten minutes to find the information and record it, your journal entry might look like this:

___________________________

1:5:10:002 Read Your Utility Bills

Time Spent – 1:5:10 (example) 

Electric Rates

Baseline Quantity           73.8 Kwh

Baseline Rate                  $0.11430

101-130% of Baseline     $0.12989

131-200% of Baseline     $0.22944

201-300% of Baseline     $0.32148

over 300% of Baseline    $0.36969 

Gas Rates

Baseline Quantity      16.1 therms

Baseline Rate             $1.12898

Above Baseline          $1.34832

Water Rates (one water unit equals 748 gallons)

Baseline Quantity      12 units

Baseline Rate             $0.82

Above Baseline          $ 1.13

Comments: None

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Of course you would fill in your own data. Use the comments for recording other information. For example if you have no water meter and are on a flat rate.

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