I recently had occasion to reflect on how my winter electricity bills have been inching up over the years. Mrs. Geek and I live in an "all electric" apartment; it has electric heat and an electric stove in addition to outlets for all the usual conveniences. About the only thing that isn't electric is the hot water... that is heated somewhere else in the building, possibly by large natural gas-powered boilers.
The passage of time has gradually added to the electric bill around here. Get an electric washer and dryer, add a few bucks. Plug in that discarded 10 year old computer to use as a firewall for the home computer network, add a few more bucks. Upgrade the main computer with a new 600 Watt power supply, add even more bucks. Mrs. Geek moves in, add more than a few bucks. Get a bigger TV and a home entertainment system, just make that electric meter spin faster than the earth around the sun.
It's gotten to the point that we have to be careful what we have turned on around here. We can't have two computers, the TV, Mrs. Geek's hair dryer, and the iron on at the same time. On the few occasions when this has happened, bye bye circuit braker. We are electricity hogs.
I just paid what is usually the biggest electricity bill of the year a couple days ago. It's not the size of a car payment by any means, thank goodness. It is about $30 more than it was the first January I lived here in 2001. I should probably resolve to try to make it less next year. *sigh*
said drgeek
on 2005-02-08 at 9:42 p.m.
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