Electric Bills

[5KidzRUs]

I remember when I had my first apartment, I thought electric bills were a small nuisance - never over 20$ - 30$.

NOW, even my most frugal friends and relatives are paying crazy-money for electric bills! My one friend has a small 3 bdrm and hers are often over 500$ in the winter. My moms small studio has been almost 100$ this winter. The electric Co. is always talking about and raising the rates.

I have read all the ways of cutting down elec. bills - even buying that little meter that tells you exactly how much each appliance uses. As far as I can tell, the only REAL way to cut the elec. bill is to go solar or turn off the power.

Edited December 5, 2010 by 5KidzRUs

[cathmom]

We cut ours significantly in two ways. One, I stopped using the dryer completely and hang all our laundry on indoor racks. Two, we had the three skylights in our house removed. We took them out because two of them leaked, but the effect on our electric bill was an unexpected bonus!

[NanceXToo]

Ours are close to $300.00 a month for a five bedroom, three story house. And we don't even have electric heat- we have oil!

[Nestof3]

Our electric is $200 in the summer, but we keep the house at 70 degrees then. In the off season, it's only about $70. We have an 1,100 sq ft house. Cheap utility bills is one advantage to having a small home. I'd much rather have a small home which is nice and cool in the summer. :)

 

We have gas heat.

 

Also, remember, apartments don't have as many exterior walls, so they are more insulated.

[LisaKinVA]

My dad's heat pump died a year and a half ago. His bills (with 10 people living in the 3,000 sq. ft. house, plus basement) were routinely $700-$900 a month.

 

He replaced the old system with a Geothermal, which also feeds the water heater hot water. Now, his bills are about $300... even in the months we don't run the a/c or heat (April and October, usually). I do expect that when we leave next spring, his bills will go down about $150, and ours will be about $200...)

[The Girls' Mom]

The electric bills here are giving me heart attacks. Back in TN we heated and cooled a 3000sq ft house for under $200 a month year round.

 

Here we have a 1400 sq ft house and our bill has been up to $570. It's horrendous. Part of it is the crappy insulation this rental has, but another part is just how high electricity is here. I'll be glad when our stent in this house is over.

[Annie]

Two years ago, I lived in a 700ish sq ft apartment by myself, and I was able to keep it around $30 in the winter (no air conditioner, dryer outside the unit). Now, there are two adults and a baby in a 3 bed, 2 bath ranch with oil heat, and our bill last month was $91. We should be able to get it a little lower by being more diligent with lights.

[hsmom]

Now my electric bill runs about $80 in the summer when running our swamp cooler and lights. The only things that are electric here are the basics light, fridge, computer, etc. The rest is gas. Well the fan on the heater. In the winter we run about $100. Running the heater, being home more causes the electric to be higher.

 

Now the gas bill is a different story here. (stove, heater, dryer, and hot water heater).

[Joker]

We have an 1100 sq ft 3BR and we've never hit $100 in the four years we've been here. I don't know what we'd do with numbers like these posted.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

We have a small (about 1200sf) 100 yo home in IL. Our bill is $270 for electricity and natural gas. We leave our thermostat set at 66. The rates here are high and are going up after the new year.

 

For those of you with really low utility bills, where do you live?

[Margo out of lurking]

My experience has been that electricity costs vary dramatically depending on state/location.

 

Same thing with water rates.

 

What baffles me is the big hoopla over hybrid cars that plug in--President Obama recently raved about the Chevy Volt. Why would paying to plug a car in be any better than paying gasoline prices? :auto:

[littlebug42]

We have a two story 1920's era home with a walkup attic and basement (approx 1800 sq feet). The level billing on our electric bill is about $175-$200 year round. We have gas heating and hot water which currently is costing us out of pocket $17 per month because we built up such a surplus on our level billing after we had new windows installed. That has made a significant difference in our bills. We also got a programmable thermostat that we keep set at 65 degrees in the winter and about 72 in the summer. I live in SW Ohio.

[Julie in CA]

I've got you all topped. I don't know where you all live that your electricity bills are so *LOW*.

 

We have a 2900 sq.ft. home, but it is zoned so that we are only heating/cooling the half we are using at the time. We have great insulation in the walls, attic, and crawlspace. Dual-paned windows, Energy-Star appliances, and our heating, cookstove, and water heater are on gas. We've removed half of the bulbs from all light fixtures, and are manic about turning off lights when not in use. We set our a/c at 79* in the summer, but again, it's only cooling half of the house at a time.

 

Take a moment to prepare yourselves for this..........

 

Our electricity bill is over $1,000 per month during the summer, and over $300 per month during the winter. :eek::blink:

 

We've asked the electric Co. for an energy audit, but apparently they don't do that now, at least in our area. All that they can say is that they suggest we set our a/c at above 80*. :glare:

Edited December 5, 2010 by Julie in CA

[mommyoftwinboys]

Oh my! Those are some large electric bills. We just built our new home in June and live in N.C. Our home is 2900sqft 2 story. The most we've paid has been around $150 (thankfully!) Our home is *almost* energy star qualified(the wood burning fireplace knocked us out of getting certified completely). I think it has to do with it being new and having Anderson windows and higher R insulation. Our last home was a historic cottage that was only about 2000 sqft and we would pay much, much more in electricity...

[Nestof3]

We have an 1100 sq ft 3BR and we've never hit $100 in the four years we've been here. I don't know what we'd do with numbers like these posted.

 

The A/C is what makes ours $200 in the summer. I also do a load of laundry a day and run the dishwasher daily.

 

I don't mind paying the extra because I cannot stand being hot. In fact, I have a hard time handling being in other people's homes in the summer because they are so hot.

 

I also get hot very easily in the summer. My inlaws had their house set to 74 for heat when we visited. It was so hot.

[Samiam]

We just move to a two story rental, it's probably 10-15 years old, although remodeled inside. Dual-zone, up/down.

 

I am fanatic with lights being off if not in the room, and using sunlight as lighting if possible. DH says I have us on a permanent "brown out", lol!

 

I try to change the thermostat to cooler at night down stairs when we are upstairs in bed, and vice versa during the day, for upstairs.

 

Although, I will admit, having just moved from FL to NC, our first winter here and I am not liking the cold, I do keep the thermostat on lows 70's.

 

Just got our first bill, from Nov 17th-Dec 1st: $130!!!! So that means I can expect double that for a full month.....ick!!! I can only hope that the summer months balance out with less A/C running.

[ChiMomNP]

We are in the Chicago burbs. Our electric bill in the winter runs about $55-$65 a month. It is $130-$150 a month July/August/September because we have central a/c. Our gas bill is sometimes $13-15 a month in summer, $50 a month in the fall once we turn on the heat and shoots up to $150 a month in the dead of winter because of the heat.

 

I miss our gas and electric bills from Southern CA. Gas and electric combined never topped $45 a month. We rarely used heat and didn't need a/c because we lived right on the beach.

[AngieW in Texas]

We have a 2-story 3600sf house. A/C bills are what run high here in Texas. The highest bill we've had in the past 2 years was $346 in record-breaking August heat. Our lowest was $170 (that was November).

[swellmomma]

I am in a tiny(1000sq ft) 3 bdrm bungalow. I pay around $160 per month for electric, gas in the winter is another story running the furnace, last month it was over $200 and my furnace was only working half the time, and when it was actually on we kept it at around 21C and wore sweaters/slippers/blankies to keep warm .

[KatieH]

I don't understand how our electric bill is so high. Our house is only 1K sqft, brick, with newer double pane windows. It's usually around $100 in the winter and $200 in the summer.

[missmoe]

When we had a 2200 sq foot house in the mid-west our electic bill topped off at $200 in the summer. Of course, our gas bill could be $500 in the winter!

 

Now we live in a 1100 sq foot town house in CA and our electric is never more than $60. We don't have air conditioning and rarely us our heater. Before we had our dryer, the bill was around $30. But it often took several days to dry a load of laundry because its always damp here!

 

Housing is expensive in CA, but we sure do save on the utilities! When we moved from San Francisco to the Mid-west, we just couldn't get over how much we spent on utilities. Couldn't understand how people really thought living in the mid-west was cheaper!

[Margo out of lurking]

Now we live in a 1100 sq foot town house in CA and our electric is never more than $60.

 

....

 

Housing is expensive in CA, but we sure do save on the utilities! When we moved from San Francisco to the Mid-west, we just couldn't get over how much we spent on utilities. Couldn't understand how people really thought living in the mid-west was cheaper!

 

That's so funny, because I found California utilities absolutely outrageous. My most recent example is my mom's house in Cupertino--1000 sf, electric heat that they would turn on just to get the chill off in the morning while making fires in the woodburning stove. They had basic appliances, dryer, dishwasher--and their bill was $500 in winter.

[Wheres Toto]

All summer our electric bill was around $250 but we have central air and keep it around 70 degrees. Now that winter is coming we are paying under $50/month.

 

We have propane for our heat, dryer, stove and hot water - we're on a contract plan so pay $275/month year round.

 

ETA: Our house is only 750 square feet and fairly poorly insulated.

[QueenCat]

We have levelized billing for gas, water and electric. Electric is $175-190, with minor month to month fluctuations. Gas and water is combined, $157, which hasn't changed in two years. 2400 sq. ft, 7 year old home. We use programmable thermostats. Upstairs, we vary it from 78-80 in the summer, and 67-70 in the winter, depending on the time of day. Downstairs, it's set between 79-83 in the summer, and 66-70 in the winter, again, depending on the time of day. Middle TN, where we're having a high in the low 30s for a few days.... a bit early for this nippy weather.

[Nestof3]

Oh, the other great thing about having a small house is that if we are gone all day in the winter, we can set the thermostat down to 65 or even turn it off completely, and when we get home, it takes about 5-10 to get to 70.

 

I wish the A/C worked that way. If we don't keep it running all day, it will get 74 in the house. Way too hot. :chillpill:

[Hannah C.]

Honestly, I'm one of those people in an apartment with the $15-$50 electric bill. My largest electric bill was for a first-floor apartment, in December. There was no extra insulation from inside walls because the apartment took up the entire first floor. (2 bedrooms, 1 bath). It was $300.

 

Heat goes on at 66 degrees F, AC goes on at 80. Somehow neither one ends up going on very much during the spring and fall, or even the winter. However, we live in TX, so our winters are not very cold.

[DawnM]

Ours ranges between $150-$200, although it did get around $270 for the first time this past summer.....which shocked us! But this summer was a particularly hot summer.

 

We have a 3500 sq. ft. house too.

 

Dawn

[Brigitte]

One problem is the fact that many people have switched their heating and cooling to heat pumps. Heat pumps work great in areas where temps never get too hot or too cold. But they are now being installed in areas that have cold winters or hot summers. They are very inefficient when there are extremes in outside temperature, so they work really hard and use up a lot of electricity. I compared utility usage for a few homes a client was considering - those with heat pumps had higher energy costs last winter when it got really cold. One house that had low bills has a heat pump, but uses natural gas when the outside temp dips below 30. The difference in the costs is quite startling.

[KidsHappen]

I've got you all topped. I don't know where you all live that your electricity bills are so *LOW*.

 

We have a 2900 sq.ft. home, but it is zoned so that we are only heating/cooling the half we are using at the time. We have great insulation in the walls, attic, and crawlspace. Dual-paned windows, Energy-Star appliances, and our heating, cookstove, and water heater are on gas. We've removed half of the bulbs from all light fixtures, and are manic about turning off lights when not in use. We set our a/c at 79* in the summer, but again, it's only cooling half of the house at a time.

 

Take a moment to prepare yourselves for this..........

 

Our electricity bill is over $1,000 per month during the summer, and over $300 per month during the winter. :eek::blink:

 

We've asked the electric Co. for an energy audit, but apparently they don't do that now, at least in our area. All that they can say is that they suggest we set our a/c at above 80*. :glare:

 

I think I would pay an electritian to do one myself. It seems to me that you have to have a leak or drain somewhere. With rates like that it seems like it is even possible that someone has hooked into your lines and is running their house off your meter. That is some on the highest rates I have ever heard. Have your asked any of your neighbors what they are paying?

[WeeBeaks]

We live in California, but it's pretty reasonable. We have 1800sf, around $100ish in the summer and about $200 in the winter for combined gas and electric. We have gas heat, stove and dryer. We rarely use AC though (few days a year) and keep the heat at 62 at night and 68 during the day.

[Renee in NC]

Our bill runs $100-150 in the "winter" (as it is in FL) and $300 in the summer. This is for a 1300 square foot trailer.

[Jen in PA]

We have a small 3 bedroom with oil heat (averages $700 per year, expecting it to be a bit higher this year), and monthly electric bills usually between $80 and $90.

[MamaAkins]

We have a 10 year old, 2 story, 1500 sq. ft. home in central NC. With 7 people (3 adults, 1 teen and 3 kids), the highest power bill we've ever had was $210. Everything in our house is electric (no gas). I would say that our average bill is $150/month.

 

I do dry our clothes, but we also keep our house on the chilly side during the winter (61-64) and not too chillly during the summer (75-78).