Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Cost of electricity

It's the middle of summer. Highs are in the mid-80's and it's often pretty humid in Iowa. Most of us run our air during the summer. The real debate is how often to run it.

Consider how much you use your air conditioner and what temperature you set it at.

Now consider how much you'd use it if electricity costs were 1/8th of what they are now.

I pay about 40% of the price of electricity as I would in the US. Emiraties pay 12% of the American bill. So a $100 electric bill in the US would be $12 for them and $40 for me.

I still try to conserve and only run the air in my front room and bedroom - leaving half of my apartment in the nineties. If I paid American prices I'm sure I'd conserve more.
With cheap electricity it's common to see doors wide open. 110+ and doors wide open. These doors can't be closed. They're held open mechanically.

3 comments:

  1. RobbyJuly 14, 2009 at 5:26 PM

    Sounds like a good energy bill to me. A closed door policy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SmburkeJuly 14, 2009 at 11:06 PM

    You must have edited this because I believe you quoted a .41/kwh price in the US. I don't know who is paying that but it sure as heck isn't me! I just looked at my utility bill and I pay approximately .10/kwh. I believe I paid .11/kwh in Rochester. Perhaps there are some states where energy is more scarce and they have to purchase electricity from other states - maybe they pay a lot higher of prices.

    We haven't run our a/c in about 4 weeks. Ours isn't currently working - but we haven't missed it. Since it may get hotter next week, we finally called someone to come look at it this week. I could easily live without it for most of the summer - but I sure couldn't where you are at!

    It seems like an awful waste to have open doors. My dad (who worked for the electric company for 39 years) would have a fit!

    ReplyDelete
  3. SteveJuly 15, 2009 at 8:11 AM

    Yes... I should have known nothing would get past you!

    I mistakenly wrote that the price in the US was $.41/kwh.

    What I meant to write was 41Dh/kwh... which the equivelant of $.11. Doing all of the conversions between dollars and dirhams was giving me a headache so I just abbreviated it.

    Americans pay 41dh/kwh while I pay 15dh here and Emiratis pay 5dh. Therefore I pay about 40% of the American price and Emiratis pay about 12% of the American price.

    Anyway you slice it, the subsidy encourages waste.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)