Electricity Bill?

[WoodiE]

I'd be beating someone if my bill was $200+



-Michael

 

[.21Rc10GT]

My house is 3800 square feet or so. Dual pane windows all around, insulation everywhere (double and triple in some walls). Maybe the energy rates are more this year, because it has been hanging around 6-800 in the past (well, ever since they started penalizing for going over the "baseline"). We have installed the shades this year, which i thought would help the costs... Weird.

 

[RatzoRC]

$283 last month, and setting myself up for a shocker this month.
Just added 1000 square feet, and another AC unit for upstairs.

 

[Monkey Wrench]

Our house is just about 3300 total square feet, which includes the finished basement and faces directly West. This Spring, I put that tinting film on the big front window that sits in the foyer or main entryway and on all the little side-light windows by the front door. Found it at Home Depot and wow, what a difference it has made! Really helps keep the house cool and will help in the Winter as well.

Also, when we get a really hot spell, we'll usually just hang out in the basement and turn the thermostat up a few degrees. Basement stays naturally cooler than the rest of the house, then at night, we turn the thermostat down.

One other thing I did was replace all the weatherstripping around all the exterior doors and replaced the rubber strip on the garage door bottom. Seems to have helped tighten the house up a bit.

 

[Mr T-Maxx]

2800 square feet including the finished basement...Programable thermostat (an absolute must!!!!), I like it cool, can't sleep in just your undies without some sort of cover...... on the budget for $106 a month.


Mr T

 

[robmob]

Basements are a rare commodity here in Cali. I wish I had one instead of the 2-3 foot high crawl space that is home to millions of spiders.

 

[Plaidfish]

LOL...the systems I designed for the last 8 years were all about energy management for large places like Univ of Miami and the FAA SE region facilities.....the best thing you can do is get dual pane windows or at least tint the windows.....each window is like a heat sink to the outside and it's just sucking BTUs out of you're house....the attic is the next to insulate unless you have a flat roof (those are still common here) if so that gets insulated first....next get a programmable T-stat....let it raise the temp a lil while you're away but set it to lower the temp about an hour before you get there so you aren't monkeying w/ the thing to drop the temp real fast (another big energy waster).....getting the newer digital T-stats are a must...no matter how good you are you will forget to do the setpoint for the thing at least 1/4 of the time.....and end up wasting energy......another thing is clean your A/C duct's AND the Fan unit.......seal all the doors w/ weather tape.....do the incense test and see if you have drafts coming through anywhere in the house....you got huge energy waste issues kid......pumps and compressors are both huge energy hogs....but there is no excuse for anyone's bill for a house to be that high....look for a buried hot water line (maybe to a garage or second building) and see if your pissing heated water out somewhere.....anyway that is way too much....you can buy industrial generators and run them all year cheaper than that.........rand ingersoll makes small permanent home style units for around 7k......I'd set 2 of em up and run natural gas for em before paying 1k/mo.....

 

[digger]

Yeah the metal halide lights really pull some juice, don't they?

Mine was about $70 I think.

 

[rossb]

My place is 2500 sq feet not including the full basement. It is a 2 story home with 4 bedrooms and volume ceilings in some rooms. I have dual zone HVAC and my July bill was $107 with the themostat set at 73-74 degrees upstairs and 75 degrees downstairs. My home is 2 years old and it is an Energy Star home in the NY/NJ area.

 

[rocknbil]

Yeah the metal halide lights really pull some juice, don't they?

<snicker>

Yeah it depends, some of you low dollar guys are living in apartments, right?

We do about $150 - $200 in the summers, highest in winters has been $400. We live out in the country so it's all electric - water heater and stove/ovens are killers. 1400 SF, really poopy insulation and vaulted ceilings, expecting to top it off this month because it's been up to 113 in the shade here, AC's been on pretty much 24 hrs the last week or two. Cooled off today though, it was only 100 degrees.

 

[vbgagnon]

We average 50-60 a month. We don't use AC though, the summer is so short we just enjoy the heat.

 

[SMaxxin]

My house is all electric, the bill is around $125-$150 in the summer and around $80.00 in the winter....Not too bad.

 

[Plaidfish]

I do live in an aptment but it's almost 2000 ft/sq.....but it's in a heavily populated area though...I think we get cheaper electricity.....after reading you're thread I went and slid a bunch of current sensors on each of my circuits to see what my avg monthly draw is....I hope my landlord doesn't go into my laundry room...LOL.....

 

[sweetdiesel]

I do live in an aptment but it's almost 2000 ft/sq.....but it's in a heavily populated area though...I think we get cheaper electricity.....after reading you're thread I went and slid a bunch of current sensors on each of my circuits to see what my avg monthly draw is....I hope my landlord doesn't go into my laundry room...LOL.....

Where can you get these current sensors? We've been using a portable air conditioner for the last week and I am curious to see which appliances are sucking up the most energy.



PG&E bill was $120 last month, I'm sure it will go up substantially this month from running a 1320 watt 12000 btu room cooler 24 hours a day. My house is under 2K sq feet with all new dual pane low-e windows.

 

[RatzoRC]

2-3 foot high crawl space that is home to millions of spiders.

AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!
I wouldn't be able to sleep!
Damn man! That just gave me the skeevolas!
I just assasinated a big bitch in my driveway. It was red and yellow, and BIG!

 

[.21Rc10GT]

Well, in searching around for some explaination, i don't know if my friends are energy hogs, or not. One friend has a house about the size of mine, runs a/c, blah blah blah, 900 for the month, they are EXTREMELY frugal with their electricity. Other friend, house about half the size of mine, their bill was about 850. They barely use A/C, but run about 6 computers at any given time, have lots of fans going, but still... I think energy is more expensive here for some reason. Do they give the price per killowatt on your bill?

 

[StrechM]

2400 sq/ft single story well insulated with shutters on every window in the house and a pool.
Last month $207, this month and next months bills will be around $450 as usual.
Those of you with 2 story homes seem to be the ones that get nailed the worst especially if you have dual ac units.

 

[okihost]

900 sq foot townhouse with double pane<sp?> windows runs be about 50-70/mo with the central a/c running and I like it COOOLLLDDD like 69-70

 

[Bouzouki]

Mine is INSANE! The last two months have been right around $400 a month!

Same, 400 with central air.

It's a little over 300 in the winter.

 

[rossb]

Please post pictures of your homes.