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You may remember the launch of Campaign Screw You HELCO! back in May after we hit a bill of $225.47 for 29 days of usage, an average rate of 29.9 kWH/day. CSYH! was instituted to get the rate of electricity use down to 25 kWH/day.

After turning the hot water tank’s temperature down to a toasty 130 degrees Fahrenheit from a blistering 160, and a concerted effort to use the clothesline instead of the dryer, June’s bill was a low low $181.50, or 21.1 kWH/day, shattering our target.

July saw poor weather, which meant more use of the dryer, and correspondingly July’s bill hit $195.41, or 23.2 kWH/day. Still below our target, although the increase in usage was a bit of a concern.

Enter August. The forces of fast clothes drying took a blow when their Commander In Chief stopped pumping out hot air. That’s right, our dryer broke. It runs fine except for the heating of air bit. This forced us to use the clothesline (or take our wet clothes to a laundromat), and as a result, our August bill was a record low $164.81 and we used 18.0 kWH/day.

We’ve had lower bills (April’s was $151.26) and lower usage (February’s was 16.3 kWH/day), but April’s bill only covered 30 days instead of August’s 32 (August had a lower electricity usage) and February was when we first moved in and weren’t running a lot of electrical appliances like computers or dryers or washing machines. And in April Alice and I weren’t here for three weeks, we were back in Canoodia.

Screw you, HELCO!