A second "Oh, dear." Utility costs

[Martha]

The electric can be separately metered, but that cost isn't bad. It is the natural gas. As we are on a one zone boiler, no way to separately meter the heat.

 

[W2R]

the air is running all day long...

Here, too. It's been a HOT summer.

These are the most recent bills I have received.

Electricity:
$73.37 fuel - - 1305 kWh @$0.056/kWh
+$104.40 fuel adjustment - - 1305 kWh @$0.08/kWh
-$2.62 Louisiana PSC Case Credit

$175.15 total bill (did I mention it's been HOT?!! )

Gas:
10 CCF @ $1.40522/CCF = $28.58 total bill

 

[Meadbh]

Electricity is $0.0608 per kWh
Gas is $0.05 per cubic meter

It's hydroelectricity. Where I'm at, consumption will rise dramatically over the winter.

 

[samclem]

As we are on a one zone boiler, no way to separately meter the heat.

Coin-op valve in the water lines going to their radiators. 50 cents buys an hour of heat. Sure, they'll grumble at first .. .

 

[HFWR]

Last bill:

Electric - $0.1364 / kwh

Natgas - $15.9514 / MCF

 

[youbet]

I wonder how everyone is calculating the cost per kwh?

Here in Chicago, ComEd has ten line items (including the tax line) adding up to the final bill! Way too complicated for me!

If I simply divide my August bill of $44.55 by the 326 kwh we used, the cost was 13.66/kwh.

The line item labeled "Electricity Supply Charge" is 7.6/kwh. But then there is "transmission services charge," "distribution facilities charge" and on and on and on.......

So..... using the number that was actually debited from our checking account, $44.55 and dividing that by the 326 kwh hours used = 13.66.

Four of the line items are fixed costs (the same regardless of kwh used) so I guess that in months were we use a lot of electricity, the cost per kwh will be less.....

BTW, we had a great August here! Hardly ran the air cond at all compared to last year and this low August bill was just like finding a $100 bill on the ground due to the nice savings! Thank you mother nature!

Our nat gas bill was $28.21 (furnace didn't run, cooking, clothes drier and water heater). Used 14.19 therms so cost/therm was 1.99/therm. Again, includes everything I paid including taxes.

 

[REWahoo]

I
If I simply divide my August bill of $44.55 by the 326 kwh we used, the cost was 13.66/kwh.

Yep, that's the only accurate way to do it. If all charges aren't included in your calculation you're just fooling yourself.

 

[Rambler]

Our solar electric system makes all of the electricity for our home in CA, grid inter-tie fee is about $4.50 per month. We are only there for about 10 weeks in the summer and 3 weeks in the winter, but the lights are all on (security) and the fridge runs constantly. The summer months are when the pool and HVAC use the most electricity so I don't see our usage going up significantly when we return for good. As it stands, best guess is that we use about 10,000 kwh/year now, and the system produces about 17,000kwh/year, so PG&E is getting 7000kwh for free. We will somehow find a way to use that extra when we get back, if it means I have to buy electric heaters for the winter months. (...and hoping Toyota will hurry the plug-in hybrids...).

We bought 425 gallons of propane in December of 2005, and the propane truck came and re-filled us up for the first time in June or so this year...I think it was about 250 gallons or so. This included a leak that neither the builder, HVAC, or plumber found when the home was built. We had an HVAC unit with a faulty compressor, and the guy who came to fix it found the propane leak. I think the +/-250 gallons cost almost $700 (it was a bit under $3/gallon), which covered the leak as well as us living there for about 30 weeks. I'm guessing we'll use about 425 gallons per year when we are finally able to go home for more than visits.

We also use wood for heating, which will take about 1-1.5 cords per year, at about $180 per cord.

All up estimate is:
Electric: $54 per year for grid inter-tie
Propane: $1350 per year
Wood: $270 per year
Total: $1,674 per year or $139.50 avg monthly

Oh if we didn't have solar, the rates would start at 16cents per baseline, and up to 28cents marginal rate at the highest tier. Based on our average solar output, which we will eventually use, the effective rate would be about 21-23 cents or so.

R

 

[hogtied]

Western, NY in August
Electric: 8.6c/kwh X 365kwh= $31.36, actual bill adds another $36.06 for delivery and taxes for a total of $67.42

Gas: used 12 ccf at $1.40 per ccf.

 

[Gardnr]

I wonder how everyone is calculating the cost per kwh?

Here in Chicago, ComEd has ten line items (including the tax line) adding up to the final bill! Way too complicated for me!

Yeah, I've seen those ridiculous kind of elec bills. Almost seems like they're trying to make it so complicated that you can't really figure out what you're paying for.

If I simply divide my August bill of $44.55 by the 326 kwh we used, the cost was 13.66/kwh.

The line item labeled "Electricity Supply Charge" is 7.6/kwh. But then there is "transmission services charge," "distribution facilities charge" and on and on and on.......

So..... using the number that was actually debited from our checking account, $44.55 and dividing that by the 326 kwh hours used = 13.66.

Mine was the all-in costs except I did leave the county tax out, but that's only 70-80 cents per month so it's negligible.

BTW, we had a great August here! Hardly ran the air cond at all compared to last year and this low August bill was just like finding a $100 bill on the ground due to the nice savings! Thank you mother nature!

Yep, this summer has been a mild one here in MO. We stay closed up most of the time with the A/C on though due to DW's allergies. We do have the windows open tonight though. Nice and cool out!

 

[aaronc879]

I use electric baseboard heat only. It's .108 per kwh which apparently is higher than average so it's a good thing I use less than 10kwh per day between may and september. Now with lows already getting down to the 40's i'll be paying much more as I have very low tolerance for cold. Never turned the air on all summer even when it hit 90 with high humidity. Never even turned the fan on except one day when I had several family members over who requested it. But cold is a different story. I'll keep my bedroom at 75 when i'm at home and my masterbathroom at 65. The rest of the condo will be at 50 and when i'm gone for work for 13 hours everything gets turned down to 50. I basically don't leave my bedroom in the winter unless I have to go to work and I limit that as much as I can using all 3 weeks of my vacation in late january and early february. I'm about as frugal a person as i've ever known but even when it's below zero i'll have my bedroom at 70-75 even if it means ramon noodles for a couple months.

 

[Helena]

$0.15/kwh for electricity in Texas, damn it.

Not near that high for me... I live in a municipal service area.


~

 

[rickier55]

Not sure what our rates here are (though I could look it up). I'm totally electric. No AC. around 2000 sq. ft. two level home.

I'm on a level pay account during 2007 we were paying 150+/month. In december they recalculated and starting in Januery it went up to 205+/month.

I was rather surprised. I'm not looking forward to what this years adjustment will be.

Rick

 

[uncledrz]

Martha
Michigan residential
Electric: first 600 kwh .047
after that per kwh .085
delivery charge per kwh .03

Gas: Per mcf 11.8

Rates are going up at MSPC has approved rate increase.


Having read through all of the posts, it's interesting the range of utility charges. Rates in Texas are very high, and I thought Texas was energy rich. I expect energy charges to become a very significant part of the monthly outlays, but to assure that its available (especially heat in the winter) is more important.

 

[DougViages]

Natural Gas Historical Price

 

[OAG]

Using the "all-in-one" or "true cost" concept (total bill including all taxes, surcharges, event charges and all other BS) divided by the energy used:

Last Electric bill (August): Total Cost $65.44 (when divided by total KWH used (617)) the cost PER KWH is $00.10606 (True Cost).

Last Natural Gas Bill (August): Total Cost $18.03 (when divided by the total Therm (6 adjusted to 7 (by some fancy, confusing, formula)) that comes to $2.5757 per Therm (or roughly $00.26 per Cubic Foot).

So Electric is $00.11 KWH and NG is $00.26 per CF.

 

[DougViages]

Sorry, couldn't get the Chart to Copy

Natural Gas bulk price is DOWN 50% since May/June 2008. When do we users get some bebefit out of this?

 

[Lakedog]

I'm surprised to see such low rates in comparison to this part of the country since my utility (Southern Co - Alabama Power) claims we have some of the lowest rates. My 1500 sqft house is all electric and average monthly cost is just under $80 (last 12 months $957.65). Cost per kwh was .1174 for an average of 680 kwh per month.

 

[RonBoyd]

Denver CO:

July 2008
Electric - $242.06/2,063 KwH = 11.7¢ per Kilowatt Hour
(Natural) Gas - $23.07/11 Therms = $2.10 per Therm used

July 2007
Electric - $141.48/1,694 KwH = 8.4¢ per Kilowatt Hour
(Natural) Gas - $17.44/12 Therms = $1.45 per Therm used

Yikes!

 

[dgalbraith100]

Here I am paying:

Electric last month - .10/kWh
Gas last month - $2.81/Therm

I do budget billing with the power company (gas and electric), so they average my usage and charge me one price for a year. Each year they recompute and if I was underbilled (like last year) I have to make up the difference over the next year.

Last year I paid $88 a month (gas/electric), this year I will be paying $141 a month (to make up a shortfall that $88 a month created, since I added a hot-tub last year) . Still that isn't anything compared to what some of you are paying...

I think it helps that I am only heating/cooling 1350SF in a mellow climate.

Laters,
-d.

 

[Nords]

Yep, that's the only accurate way to do it. If all charges aren't included in your calculation you're just fooling yourself.

We'd pay $16/month even if we didn't use a single watt, so I subtract that out.

We're also getting rebates from HECO overdoing their last couple rate increases, so I add those back in.

Then I divide the resulting charge by the number of KWhrs and get something close to the average rate that HECO advertises on their website.

 

[OAG]

Everything we do on the site boils down to "it depends". The longer these things go the more defined/refined they get, although if you do not read the entire thread you will be confused sometimes as to what is being discussed.

 

[ejman]

Here in SW Oregon electricity averages out to about $0.105 a KWH. The summer heat is very dry so we don't have AC, a window swamp cooler is enough for the few warm afternoons so my electric bill is pretty low (less than $100). During the winter months use about two cords of wood from my property for heat which would be about $175/ cord if buying.

 

[LOL!]

Natural gas: $10.50 per month if you use nothing plus about $1.24 per one-hundred cubic feet (CCF). For August we used 12 CCF and the bill was about $27. We have gas water, gas dryer. We won't run the gas heat until December. February gas bill is about $200.

Electric averages about $160 a month with as high as $220 in summer and as low as $50 a month in winter.

This is for a 3000 sq ft McMansion near Houston. Our bills in 2007 and 2008 have been lower than in 2006.

 

[CCdaCE]

Wife turned the heat on last weekend too. (I know there's a joke in there).
So, this is for last month for electricity.

Basic service charge = $5.50
Fuel clause Adj. = $18.86
First 1000KWH summer rate = $0.062/KWH = $62
After 1000 = $0.053 /KWH (only 6 KWH at this rate) = $0.32
Interim Rate Adj. = $10.14 - no idea what this is. They undercharged in the past and now they're trying to make it up... is how I recall the explanation.
City fees (2%) = $1.94

Grand total = $98.76 for 1006 KWH. = 9.81 cents/KWH

The summer rate of 6.2 goes to 5.3 or 5.4 in the winter, everything else stays the same. Even though we heat with gas.

Nat gas is $19.04/mo. whether we turn it on or not. Used to be split up into delivery and gas charges plus fees. Now it's $19 + gas + fees.
Last Oct., it was $18.48 plus $0.635312/therm.
Used 32 CCF. They adjust for heat content but it doesn't change anything. 32 ccf = 32 therms. This equates to $20.33 for the gas.
Plus 2% for city fees ($0.78 ), 2% for state tax ($0.79).

Grand total is 40.38, = $1.26/therm or ccf. Again, this was back in Oct. Too lazy to dig out any other month unless someone requests it.

Eastern ND - where the hot is hotter and the cold seems colder, the hardiness zone chart for plants is lying.

-CC