Electricity

[Sunset]

San Diego, CA-- home of SEMPRA.

$350/mos: jacuzzi, a/c, 1100 sq ft home 1 mile from the coast.
Gas dryer and water heater.
....

Our home is 1500 sq ft, A/C , gas dryer and water heater, I did super insulate 1/2 the ceiling (will do other 1/2 when cooler).

monthly elec in summer $99 , in winter $55 the difference must the the A/C

 

[swakyaby]

2900 sf home in inland northern California, no pool or spa. Electricity ranges from $90 in the winter to $130 in the summer. Also have an electric car.

 

[swakyaby]

San Diego, CA-- home of SEMPRA.

$350/mos: jacuzzi, a/c, 1100 sq ft home 1 mile from the coast.
Gas dryer and water heater.

Wow, that is crazy expensive when you consider all those mild coastal breezes.

 

[TwinkleToes]

We are in the Dallas area and our electricity costs have gone down considerably since we switched providers. This summer, our highest bill for our 1400 sq ft house was $162. Previous summer bills could be as high as 300+! All electric house, set at 76 pretty much all the time.


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[target2019]

This is 2 year electricity graph that shows effect of (2) new HVAC systems, beginning May 2016. Reduction in KwH is pretty dramatic. I don't have exact numbers handy, but it appears to be 40-50% less useage.

This is for 3,000 SqFt in NJ. We have natural gas heat, so the savings in winter will not be as dramatic.

Sep column is actually August temps, and the bill was $140.

 

[Totoro]

I'm no benchmark, couldn't resist to post anyway ..

Electricity use is <20kwh per month. Bill is <$5 monthly.

Obviously: No A/C, heating (that's gas), single person household.

In fact it's easier to list what I do use: 1xlaptop, 1 LED light, phone charging, washing machine, a bit of cooking [induction & microwave]. And a base load of 10W from the venting system.

 

[Golden sunsets]

2,900 SF house in New England. Heat is oil. One room air conditioner run perhaps three times this past summer. 12 month running average is $118/mo. For what it's worth we have been converting to LED throughout the house and brought our bill down from our old average of $150/mo.


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[brucethebroker]

Where we live, natural gas is much less than electric. We have gas furnace and water heater, so we really only have high electric use in the summer. Even though our electric rates are reasonable, I still let most washed clothes air dry overnight in the basement before using the electric dryer. They are about 80% dry before going into the dryer.

Could have bought a gas dryer, but they are more expensive and require a gas hookup being installed. Too cheap.....

 

[Music Lover]

$50 - $60 per month for electricity, which goes to $70 - $80 for 2 months in summer that I need AC

Heating (natural gas) is about $400 total to heat my home for the entire winter. This is for a 1000 sq. ft. house on the Canadian prairies.

 

[JoeWras]

AEP Ohio provides some nice graphs of usage (we have a good sized four bedroom home with gas heat that switches to electric heat pump when the temperature is mild):

We get the same graph from Duke power. At first, I was irritated by another mailing. But now I've grown to like it.

My recent swap out of every light in the house to LED moved me from "average of similar home" directly to "energy efficient". I'm pleasantly surprised.

 

[samclem]

Could have bought a gas dryer, but they are more expensive and require a gas hookup being installed. Too cheap.....

Yep, I did the math on that and decided to stay with the electric dryer due to the long payback period. Interestingly, according to some internet sources I saw, a gas dryer is somewhat less likely to cause a lint fire because the temperatures are lower (though there is actually more heat transfer=faster drying of clothes). I didn't double check that, but it sounds reasonable. Anyway, one less combustion appliance is probably overall a safety advantage, or close (considering CO, gas leak, etc).

 

[Cricky]

2100 sq ft split level mostly shaded in the Atlanta forest. Early 60s house has poor wall and roof insulation. Gas furnace, water heater, and grill. Over the last year electric bill has averaged $132.50--much higher in the summer, much lower in the winter.

 

[Sunset]

I'm no benchmark, couldn't resist to post anyway ..

Electricity use is <20kwh per month. Bill is <$5 monthly.

Obviously: No A/C, heating (that's gas), single person household.

In fact it's easier to list what I do use: 1xlaptop, 1 LED light, phone charging, washing machine, a bit of cooking [induction & microwave]. And a base load of 10W from the venting system.

Probably most folks are quoting the actual bill number which would include delivery charge, account fee, taxes, etc.

How is your's so cheap ?

 

[Sunset]

San Diego, CA-- home of SEMPRA.

$350/mos: jacuzzi, a/c, 1100 sq ft home 1 mile from the coast.
Gas dryer and water heater.

Ridiculous. My dividends from XOM pay it. Yeah!

That is super high.
Could it be the jacuzzi needs an insulating top? Or does it already have one and they are that bad anyhow ?

Do you use LED/CFL bulbs ?

Could it simply be your meter is broken, sometimes they "break" and overcharge. Could be worth questioning the electric company.
Have you compared to neighbors ?

 

[photoguy]

Electricity use is <20kwh per month. Bill is <$5 monthly.

The refrigerator in my last apartment used more than that -- 2 kwh per day. That's when we were traveling and it was sealed shut.

I've always lived in small places. My last few apartments have been roughly 6 kwh/day when present. No AC, washer/dryer on separate meter. Maybe 2-4 computers in various stages of usage (sleeping or running stuff in background) most of the time.

Now I'm in a condo in san diego. It's too soon to tell but it appears to be a similar baseline 6kwh. If I use AC it might go up to 7-10 kwh. Multiple electric dryer loads could push it as high 18 kwh.

SDGE has a tiered system where effectively people at the coast pay more for electricity. I'm still in the bottom tier due to low usage so about $0.20/kwh. It goes as high as $0.40/kwh.

 

[eytonxav]

My electric bill for August was $135 for a 2500 sq ft home with 2 AC units. This August was pretty mild vs prior years, but don't recall many bills that were much more than that. We keep temp at 76 degrees.

 

[scrabbler1]

I live on Long Island, an expensive area for electric power. But I live in a studio apartment in a co-op, so the power users are the fridge and (summer only) the A/C. My average bill, non-summer, is $35-$40. In the summer, it rises to about $70-$75 per month, with the August bill the highest because the billing cycle runs from the 20th of the month to the 20th of the next month.


I also pay a small part of the co-op's overall electric bill for the power used for its common areas (lights, mainly; and laundry room, and A/C for the super's office). This runs about $15 a month.

 

[Bestwifeever]

There is probably an increase in electric use when more than one person lives in the home--ours for two people, house <2000 sf, for central AC, lights, clothes washer, etc., is around $80 in the summer and $60 in the winter, while gas (hot water, furnace, dryer, cooking) is just under $20 in the summer and $100 in the winter. I know both would be a little less for a single person as we are using lights in more than one room, doing more laundry, washing more dishes, but we are still well under our "most efficient" neighbors according to Comed--all of whom have much bigger homes and more bodies living there. Another huge factor is that we are gone on and off six to ten weeks of the year and set the thermostats accordingly, so the utility costs would certainly be higher if we stayed home more.

 

[Totoro]

Probably most folks are quoting the actual bill number which would include delivery charge, account fee, taxes, etc.

How is your's so cheap ?

I pay roughly 20 cents per kwh. That's including network costs and taxes. Actual production is about 4 cents, the rest is distribution and taxes.

I have no fixed service fee - managed to find a contract without (hard to do, most charge about $5 per month).

 

[Independent]

9,200 Kilowatt hours per year
$780 per year

That's average for the last three years.

1,200 sq ft ranch in Iowa. We have central air, two fridges, and an electric clothes drier.
We have natural gas heat.

 

[Helena]

9,200 Kilowatt hours per year
$780 per year

That's average for the last three years.

1,200 sq ft ranch in Iowa. We have central air, two fridges, and an electric clothes drier.
We have natural gas heat.

How much does it cost to heat in winter ?

.

 

[Totoro]

The refrigerator in my last apartment used more than that -- 2 kwh per day. That's when we were traveling and it was sealed shut.

I only use the refrigerator sporadically. A new model small size only should use about 0.5 kwh daily.

Europe does have high standards for energy efficiency though, so it may be different your side of the pond.

 

[Independent]

How much does it cost to heat in winter ?

.

Our annual natural gas cost has averaged $870 over the last 3 years. (that's 996 "therms")

Our lowest summer bills are around $25. That's the cost of hot water and a gas stove.

Natural gas prices are variable. We paid more than $1.00/therm in early 2014, and we've been around $0.60/therm this year.

Our highest single monthly bill was $193 in Jan 2014.

 

[socca]

1700 sq. ft. all-electric Florida ranch, one person: $50 / month without A/C (4 months of the year); $70 / month with A/C (8 months of the year).

 

[mpeirce]

The refrigerator in my last apartment used more than that

I admit: we have three frigs. A normal one in the kitchen, then two in the garage. One is a Gladiator - built for garage use. It has no problem with keeping the freezer compartment properly cold in the winter. For us it's mainly a bulk freezer. We also have a smallish regular frig for drinks and other random items. We thought of getting rid of it, but DW uses it extensively during the holidays.

They cost, but we use them and so it's worth it to us.