I think it's important that everybody understand that electricity is sold in kilowatt-hours. This means that even a maximum-power electrical appliance like a toaster-oven used to toast food uses less power than a single ordinary lightbulb left on all the time: toaster oven: 1500 watts, used 30 minutes per day (0.5 hours) = 0.75 KW/H (12.75 cents per day, $3.89 per month) 60 watt lightbulb left on: 60 watts, 24 hours per day = 1.44 KW/H (24.48 cents per day, $7.47 per month) the big ovens might be 3000 watts, maybe 5000 watts, but you see my point. electric water heaters are definitely something, because they are maybe 4000 watts and are on for a total of a couple of hours per day possibly. we do not need to worry about anything that is only on for a short period of time, such as tools or ovens. We do need to worry about LIGHTS LEFT ON. Anything left on all the time will cost us money. Here is a list of all the lights I encountered on a walk around the Omni. lights 17x f96t12 (1275W) downstairs (all on, 2 people) 10x f40cw (400W) basement lawlibrary (on, no people) 1x ccfl (14W) southeast lower stairwell (good for safety) 12x6 25W (1800W) chandelier bulbs in ballroom (off) 2x F96T12 (150W) + 23W ccfl + 15W ccfl near entrance (CCFLs were off) 1x ccfl (23W) outside entrance (was off) 17+18x F40CW (1400W) barroom (all off) 2x 23W ccfl (46W) kitchen (always on) 3x 96W refrigerators, (287W) mostly empty (all plugged in) bulb rope light on floor, (50W) (always on) 1x ccfl (23W), ADA bathroom, (always on) 1x ccfl (23W), sudo bathroom, (always on) 2x6x F96T12 (900W) in sudoroom & CCL (on at night when open) 1x ccfl (23W), stage overhead light to see by (was on) 5x23W ccfl + 5x75W bulb (490W) stage real lights (were off) 1x ccfl (19W), stageside room (was on) 108W fan and 23W ccfl (131W) room above stageside (both on) bulb xmas lights (20W), above stageside (on, good for safety) sudoroom & CCL servers and internet equipment - 150W perhaps? john&mary ??? i turned off the lights in the basement "law library" room, there was no one there. I turned off the fan and light in the above stageside room. That saved us 531 watts, or $66.08 per month (always on versus never on) all the remaining stuff that was on and I didn't turn off adds up to: 1275 + 14 + 150 + 46 + 287 + 50 + 23 + 23 + 900 + 23 + 19 + 20 + 150 = 2980 watts, which if left on 24/7 would be 2181.36 KW-H or $370.83 per month. That is based on a rate of 17 cents per kilowatt-hour. PG&E charges rates based on Tiers: http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/saveenergymoney/plans/tiers/index.page It looks like if we use more than the average amount of electricity (based on the chart they show on that page) our average energy rate might be closer to 25 cents per kilowatt-hour bringing the above count to $545.34 we don't know what John and Mary are using upstairs, and we haven't added in any other uses of power (such as ventilation fans) so i don't know why our bill was $900 last month. Maybe the 1800W chandeliers were on a lot? Maybe i'm wrong about the chandelier bulbs being 25W and they're 40W each? Most likely, i'm guessing our energy usage is so far above "average" that we are mostly in Tier 4, putting our electric rate closer to 32 cents per KW-H. If that's the case, we should consider switching to Time Of Use: http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/saveenergymoney/plans/tou/index.page Either way, we should save energy by turning off the fucking lights when we're not using them. -jake