Sell your cars.
You said you have solar (in our state, that applies to water heaters only). Do you also have photovoltaic, which applies to the rest of the house? We have both and have virtually no electric bill, just a service charge to remain connected to the power grid so we can draw power when we need and send power into the grid when we produce more than we need. Some folks produce surplus power and have it purchased by the power company and get a credit for the surplus they send.
I did not realize that the new dishwashers use such a small amount of water. We had a repairman here yesterday after my dishwasher flooded my floor. I thought the problem was just a simple door seal or something like that. He told us that a sensor was not functioning because there was several inches of water in the bottom. When the washer works properly, it supposedly only uses about an inch of water! I have no idea how that would work but my dishes, even with stuck on food, get clean. With my hand washing, I probably am using that much water to rinse each item. Our water bill is going to be sky high after 3 weeks of hand washing dishes and one week of son home from California. Although maybe son has gotten used to two minute showers with the water shortage out there.
If you are not using an appliance, you will safe energy by unplugging them. Having charger on (like iphone) when the device is not there will also use up energy. Smart TV use up most electricity because it is still running when you are not watching it. When I go on vacation, I pretty much unplug everything except for the fridge.
Agree with Oldfort about unplugging when on vacation. We do the same…but also to protect against unexpected power surges from storms.
We built a new house in Florida last year and I’ve been very pleasantly surprised (more like shocked) by how reasonable the electric bills have been. I attribute it to two things the builder encouraged me to upgrade - LED lights everywhere except decorative chandeliers and Icynene spray foam insulation. Even the unfinished attic-like areas upstairs stay very temperate and can be used safely for storage. We also have a clay tile roof. I wonder if that is more insulating than traditional shingles??
So what do your utility bills look like? We pay about $280/month electricity during peak air conditioning season and about the same for gas in peak heating season. When one is high the other is low so it evens out.
Our electric bill is $0, because we have solar. California has a somewhat unfair law that people with solar panels can sell their unused electricity back to the power grid at peak rates, up to the amount that offsets their electricity bill.
When we built our house (in the SF Bay area) the architects said it would be well insulated and we wouldn’t need air conditioning if we “operated the house” by opening windows and using the whole house fan at night, when it cools off. The builders were shocked at the idea that anyone would build a house without air conditioning. We temporized; we told the builders to make it easy to install air conditioning later, but not to put it in. The architects were right. We don’t need air conditioning.
Our strategy works because in our climate the temp drops when the sun goes down, but whole house fans are amazing and use very little energy.
Our electric bill is about $75 a month for a 3000 plus sq ft house. This includes all,the lights, and washer/dryer.
Hot water is on our furnace. Our annual bill including hot water and heat will be $2500 for the full year this year (we prepaid for 1000 gallons of oil which should be more than a full year supply).
We think that is pretty good given the size of our house.