So what's your utilities bill look like?

madmax

$180 per month electric as a yearly average (all electric), $32 water. Electric can get a little high in the coldest month but goes pretty low in the summer. Highs are around $300, lows are around $60. Electric and tube heat , wall AC unit, 70 degree ave temp throughout the year.
madmax

faster100

My electric was $160 last month, and $178 this month,(the highest ever in almost 8 years.. no central a/c all window units.. we live in a 1938 home and everything is electric.. and leave all the ceiling fans on and have an extra fridge in the florida room which is a 30's admiral fridge.. OH and i work nights so me and the kids are home all day most days..

BlueMDPicker

All electric, dual-zoned, heat pumps, 3400 sq. ft. I bit the bullet last year and replaced both outside exchangers and have lowered my average billing by 35% (to Russ' formula.) That won't last long. The local supplier, BGE, is raising rates about 50%.

disneyjoe7

venomclan wrote:

Hi Joe,
$340 seems high for the A/C at 79. I have the same pool pump as you. Mine is 1 year old + a clorine generator. If your pump is old, it may pull more juice. We have a 12 SEER a/c that is 3 years old. My house is about 2000 ft. w/vaulted ceilings. We pump the A/c to 71 at night and 77 during the day. Our bill was 240 last month, which is higher because my wife is a teacher and off in the summers, watching tv with the ac on lower.

Things to help lower the bill:
We had FPL - Florida Power and Light do an inspection of our whole house for $30. Well worth it. They find stuff to save $.

If the ac condenser is old, consider replacing with a 13 SEER or better. Change filters frequently.

We use all florescent bulbs and they save a bundle and give off less heat.
Shut off ceiling fans when not in the room, they eat $8 each per month.

Put your clothes dryer on medium heat.

This stuff works for us and is no big deal.
Venom

The same here pool 1 yr old with a chlorine generator (salt pool) I have some really nice AC filters that I installed in the returns 2 of them. Had FPL out last yr and had a duct test done which then had the ducts resealed. I didn't understand the ceiling fans draw thing and I did start shutting off them when not needed last month. And believe it or not I use florescent bulbs ever where for about 2 yrs now.

My wife does a lot of laundry or is my AC drawing to much? (not sure I did put an amp sensor on it it was drawing 28 amps with the outside fan, don't seem to bad for me)

ohskigod

steveinaz wrote:

$350 for GAS...GOOD GOD. Are you heating an olympic size pool in the back yard??

northeast winters dude, plain and simple. it gets damn cold round these parts.

you wanna really freak? you should see what we pay in property taxes

Mike682

ohskigod wrote:

northeast winters dude, plain and simple. it gets damn cold round these parts.

you wanna really freak? you should see what we pay in property taxes

You got that right Lou.

steveinaz

whew, I think I'll stay in Arizona.

Skynut

My bill lately has been around $300.00 gas/elect.
The wife pays it and I do not pay much attention but it seems to have gone up as my system has gotten bigger.
We pass the base line and the next level also. Every month.
1800 s/f house with 3 ton a/c set to 85 during the workday and 77 at night.
Soon to be adding a 2 hp pool pump.

izafar

I am in a 1200 SF Apt and my bill was $140 last month with no AC (the weather has been good in New England this summer ).

In winter I paid as much as $350 for coldest months.

George Grand

Just got a quarterly water bill today and the last 92 days will set me back $115. That does not include the bill for sewage treatment. That quarterly can be as much or more. I might've turned the irrigation system on four times so far this year. Zoo Jersey.

You don't even want to begin to ask about Jersey property taxes or car insurance rates. I think we're #1 in the nation for both categories.

george daniel

2200 sq. ft-loft,18 ft. ceilings, 75 degrees,(ac),"Jawga" humid :eek: june electric-176.00,which is currently the highest its' ever been,typically 120/mo in the summer.

disneyjoe7

I don't think my utilities are much out of line, but I do wonder what my payoff would be to replace the AC unit, or replace Hot water tank for an instant HW thing?

I should add I have 10ft+ ceilings, flat.

I-SIG

disneyjoe7 wrote:

I don't think my utilities are much out of line, but I do wonder what my payoff would be to replace the AC unit, or replace Hot water tank for an instant HW thing?

I should add I have 10ft+ ceilings, flat.

I've never heard of residential rates having demand penalties like commercial rates do, but if they do, be very careful with the instant HW units. That is a pure resistive load. Some cabins I'm getting power to are using these systems. To run a kitchen and two bathrooms they had to use a 320/400 amp service rather than a standard 200 amp service. Did I say demand?

Wes

venomclan

disneyjoe7 wrote:

I don't think my utilities are much out of line, but I do wonder what my payoff would be to replace the AC unit, or replace Hot water tank for an instant HW thing?

I should add I have 10ft+ ceilings, flat.

The biggest draw is of course the a/c, the next are the appliance. The dryer uses a lot of power. An older/large water heater will also use juice. I would not recomed getting a tankless water heater, even though they save power, they are expensive and my mother-in-law has one and hates it. The water never gets hot enough.

Only replace the a/c if it needs it. If it is 10 years old, I think it is time. Also, you never mentioned if you had a digital thermostat. If not, that is a must. They are cheap and make a world of difference. The non-digital ones can be 8 degrees off, while digital is usually less than 1.

1 more tip - do you have an attic vent fan? In FL they are important. The atiic can get 150 degrees and stay hot even ar night, making the a/c run extra. They are cheap and will pay for themselves.

I am a power conserving nut. The more I save, the more I can run my amps

disneyjoe7

I think tomorrow I post some pictures of house, so all know what I should do...

Thanks

The AC unit and attic fan got me thinking.

dragon1952

We have a gas stove, washer and dryer. Other than that all electric. For the month of June we went from $150 to $300 due to A/C. Very hot month.

disneyjoe7

venomclan wrote:

Only replace the a/c if it needs it. If it is 10 years old, I think it is time. Also, you never mentioned if you had a digital thermostat. If not, that is a must. They are cheap and make a world of difference. The non-digital ones can be 8 degrees off, while digital is usually less than 1.

1 more tip - do you have an attic vent fan? In FL they are important. The attic can get 150 degrees and stay hot even ar night, making the a/c run extra. They are cheap and will pay for themselves.

Well I've decided to not post pictures of house, sorry.

But the attic vent fan sounds really sweet to me. I have a large AC return that runs though the attic so I thinking that heat is warming the AC return to much. I have always seen condensation on my AC unit in the AC closet. Less now then before I had the ducts resealed. I know that my old house also in Orlando area that the AC could run 6 - 7 hrs straight during the day trying to cool the place down I've even see it even raise 1 degree first. Placed an attic fan and the AC worked just fine then. The difference between this house and the other is ridge vents #1 vs. the larger vents like hood scoops this house. So I didn't consider it here before, maybe thinking it wasn't needed? I don't know WHHYYYYY.

Skynut

I installed a whole house fan in the ceiling. At the time I did PG&E was offering a $150.00 rebate; I paid $175.00 for the fan and installed it myself.
It (obviously) only cost me $25.00, money well spent.

I left it on last night and the house this am was 74 degrees. I close up the house before leaving for work and open it again when the outside temp is cool enough to warrant it.

I still have a high power bill but the kids always leave lights on and forget their ceiling fans when they go to school. That screws the bill pretty good.

venomclan

disneyjoe7 wrote:

Well I've decided to not post pictures of house, sorry.

But the attic vent fan sounds really sweet to me. I have a large AC return that runs though the attic so I thinking that heat is warming the AC return to much. I have always seen condensation on my AC unit in the AC closet. Less now then before I had the ducts resealed. I know that my old house also in Orlando area that the AC could run 6 - 7 hrs straight during the day trying to cool the place down I've even see it even raise 1 degree first. Placed an attic fan and the AC worked just fine then. The difference between this house and the other is ridge vents #1 vs. the larger vents like hood scoops this house. So I didn't consider it here before, maybe thinking it wasn't needed? I don't know WHHYYYYY.

Hi Joe,
No need for pics. The fan should make a difference. I have a huge attic with a gabled (barn) roof and it gets hot up there. I do not have a fan yet but it is my next purchase. They make fans that are solar powered and I may get one of those. My air hadler is in my garage and not in an air conditioned room. I am going to seal off a section of my garage and insulate and a/c it so my air handler will run more efficiently.

Another thing that may help is to tint your windows. Depending on your sun exposure, it may overheat some rooms and make the a/c work harder. My master bedroom gets afternoon sun direct and is about 5-7 degrees hotter because of a sliding glass door in the room. I just put up hurricane shutters over the door that blocks the light. The room is a lot cooler now. The tint will work almost as good.

Reme,ber, it is the little things that add up.

disneyjoe7

Venomclan,


I'm thinking gable type fan under the roof vent which is the 30" wide 8" deep type. It's a look thing around here where I live more then anything. Do you think this would work, I thinking air moving is air moving

disneyjoe7

Skynut wrote:

I installed a whole house fan in the ceiling. At the time I did PG&E was offering a $150.00 rebate; I paid $175.00 for the fan and installed it myself.
It (obviously) only cost me $25.00, money well spent.

I could check but I don't think I could use a whole house fan more then 1.5 months in the year. Just way to much humidity.

ND13

I have a whole house fan. They're designed to suck out the hot air inside the house....or at least that's how mine is set up.

RuSsMaN

How often do you get caught in it?

steveinaz

Years ago we had a home my dad installed an attic fan in. It worked real well for spring/fall warm days...

george daniel

disneyjoe7 wrote:

Venomclan,


I'm thinking gable type fan under the roof vent which is the 30" wide 8" deep type. It's a look thing around here where I live more then anything. Do you think this would work, I thinking air moving is air moving

FWIW,, I've used both,and the "power type roof ventilator/fan",is far superior,,IMHO

Ricardo

We pay gas/electricity together; this month was $170, obviously most of it elec., but we were out two weeks.....probably the next one will be around $200. In cold winter months the bill runs close to $300. My AC is set at 71 degrees, heating at 69.
Water averages $70, and I rarely water the lawn.......

jgido759

Skynut wrote:

I still have a high power bill but the kids always leave lights on and forget their ceiling fans when they go to school. That screws the bill pretty good.

I feel your pain. My wife & kids do the same thing. I keep threatening to install motion sensors in place of light switches.

Skynut

jgido759 wrote:

I feel your pain. My wife & kids do the same thing. I keep threatening to install motion sensors in place of light switches.

Thats funny, I have said the same thing.:)

jcaut

This is an interesting topic to me, and I almost posted a poll the other day to find out what everyone pays for utilties.

I live in and work for the City of Paris, Arkansas. I'm the water plant manager. Paris AR also has their own electric department: One of only about 12 communities in the state that do, and probably one of the smallest. We purchase electricity, but we have our own poles, wire, linemen, transformers, and bucket trucks, etc..

Electric is THE big money-maker for the city. In fact, they subsidise everything else with the revenue from the electric dept. There has been a lot of talk lately about the electric rates, because everyone's bill is going up, and in fact electric bills in the City are slightly higher than those in surrounding communitites which don't have their own electric dept. Without going into too much detail, the City buys hydropower from Southwest Power Administration, as its primary source of electricity. When it's dry (like this year) there's not enough hydropower, so the City has to purchase additional electricity from OG&E. SWPA charges us about $0.01/kWh for hydropower, when it's available. In contrast, OG&E charges Paris $0.07. The base rate that is charged to customers in Paris, is $0.06/kWh, but there's also a fuel cost adjustment that serves to make up the difference, so that the City's income is the same regardless of who the power comes from.

Last month our cost adjustment was pretty low, about $0.025, but it has been up as high as $0.07 and probably averages $0.04.

Anyway-
Last month my total bill (elec., water, sewer, trash collection) was $128.
I don't have the bill in front of me, but I can tell you that the water was about $7, sewer was about $8, trash pickup was $12. The rest was electric and fees. And, no, I don't get a discount on water! I'll try not to get started on that, for I will become irritated. Suffice it to say that Paris apparently likes to give away the water that I work rather hard to treat.

My bill's not bad- My house is old (1938), all electric (central AC/heat pump), two story, and not very well insluated. And right now it's 97 Fahrenheit with 48% humidity outside according to the National Weather Service, 75 downstairs n the house, 82 upstairs.

Jason

Ron-P

Water / Trash = $60
Electric = $80
Gas = $40
Phone w/ DSL = $60