Electric bills

[MotherGoose]

My parents have a brick home, similar to hours, in a similar climate.  It's smaller than ours.  However, nothing has been done to improve the insulation since 1973.  They did get new windows a few years ago.  They were having approx $500 in power billls each month,where our bills, in a larger house, (similar climate) were about half that. 

[redsquirrel]

Our heating bill was the highest it has ever been this past month due to the Christmas lights.  It was about $1,150.  I think it is typically more like $850 in December and $650 a month during the other winter months.  

 

We have a very large house and no special heating features. 

 

Yowzer! That would be the end of said Christmas lights at my house, lol.

 

My dh always wants to do outside lights and I always tell him they will use too much electricity. Now I will finally put that argument to bed, lol.

 

And it is too much for me electricity for me.  What other people want to do with lights etc is entirely up to themselves. I am a known cranky-pants so don't follow my lead. I am sure your house looks just beautiful!

[Guest]

Yowzer! That would be the end of said Christmas lights at my house, lol.

 

My dh always wants to do outside lights and I always tell him they will use too much electricity. Now I will finally put that argument to bed, lol.

 

And it is too much for me electricity for me. What other people want to do with lights etc is entirely up to themselves. I am a known cranky-pants so don't follow my lead. I am sure your house looks just beautiful!

Ha! Yeah, here, too! Our house is down a long driveway back in the woods. I have thought about exterior light before, because they are so pretty, but nobody would see them here. Now - I do get a small delight when I drive up my driveway and see the Tree through the front window, so that is nice. But full outside lights? It would seriously be just for the foxes and woodpeckers!

[TrixieB]

Our highest-use months' electrical bills are around $35. Our house is small-medium, in a moderate climate, no a/c.  Our heat and most appliances run on natural gas; the highest-use months are around $90. 

[Melissa in Australia]

We have solar. we sell the surplus to the power company. We make just over $1000 a year. So we do not pay for electricity at all.

[Guest]

We have solar. we sell the surplus to the power company. We make just over $1000 a year. So we do not pay for electricity at all.

This is part of my future vision.

[Carrie12345]

OMG, $2,000 is insane!

Ours is between $600 and $700 during the winter, but we're on budgeted billing so the bill is around $300/mo year-round.

House is barely more than 1,000sf, but we have vaulted ceilings, no attic, and drafts out the wazoo.  

[JFSinIL]

 Two-story American Four-square, with original (1906) windows (yup, sure is cold by those things!)..Our heat is gas, so is dryer and store/oven. so those do not show up on electric bill!  ComEd usually asks for about $100 a month except in July - Sept. when it can get closer to $300 if we have had to run the a/c a lot.  We get a $25 reduction per month since we signed up for them to be able to shut our a/c off and on on worse days (if they can do this with folk's a/c,alternating who's a/c is on and who's is off,  they can avoid power outages.The most they turn it off is 15 minutes per hour.)

[MeAndTheBoys]

Ours can get over $300 in Jan and Feb, but in the glory months of March, April, Sept, Oct, it can be well under $200, not running air or heat.  We have all-electric and a fairly big house with a heat-sucking two story foyer. 

 

We use space heaters and keep our house at 65 in the winter.  I suspect that makes our bill higher than if we raised the temp to 68 or 70, BUT it feels warmer to have a space heater.  We are all VERY cold natured.  We don't run the air much in the summer--we keep it at like 80.  But winter is hard.  I usually have on an underlayer, a shirt and a jacket or sweater.

 

B

[Southern Ivy]

We have a 2,000sq ft home, but it's rather old and drafty. I said it was medium. We do use our fireplace on the coldest days, so that helps offset the electric bill some, but not a lot. 

Nov-Dec bill was $185. Dec-Jan was $250. (This does include water/gas/trash)

[redsquirrel]

This is part of my future vision.

 

Our state/county just started a program that is making it possible for us to switch to solar. We are doing it this spring. We aren't allowed to put in more solar panels than we can reasonably use so it isn't like I am going to be getting a windfall, lol.

 

My dh knows the ins and out of the program, but we had to take out a small loan to cover the initial costs (2,000$). Once the panels are on we pay for them over 10 years but that takes the place of our electricity bill? I am fuzzy on that part, but I know that instead of paying for electricity we are paying for the panels, and it isn't supposed to be any more than what we are paying now. After 10 years the panels belong to us and then we won't have an electricity bill.

 

If a panel breaks or something the company that made them will replace it. In about 10-15 years we will need a new roof and they will come and take off the panels and put them back on etc for free.

[Ellie]

We have gas heat; during the cold months, our electric bill still doesn't go above, oh, $50. It's the summer months of constantly running AC that get us, but we're still around $300. I cannot imagine having an electric bill (or gas/heating oil) of $1000. :svengo: