June Electric Bill

[IHateCNBC]

Wow.   

My June 2006 electric bill went up 312% month over month.

$73 to $228. 

June 2005 my electric bill was $62. 

Good thing there is no inflation.   :

 

[Dawg52]

Wow.   

My June 2006 electric bill went up 312% month over month.

$73 to $228. 

June 2005 my electric bill was $62. 

Good thing there is no inflation.   :

I don't know about where you live, but this has been the hottest summer we have had since 1980. I didn't get that kind of an increase though. 

 

[lets-retire]

The last time I had an increase like that I checked my meter and discovered the company had misread it. I also replaced my a/c and wound up saving $80-90 per month.

 

[Scrooge]

Good thing there is no inflation.   :

Utilities are generally tightly regulated, which can result in residential prices lagging behind market prices for a while and then catching up rather abruptly. Sometimes utilities try to sweeten the pill, for example:

Pepco announced on April 1 that due to dramatic increases in the cost of fuel for generating electricity, rates for its Maryland residential customers would go up an average of about 39 percent beginning June 1, 2006. Given the magnitude of this electric rate increase, the Maryland Public Service Commission approved a Pepco proposal to give residential customers the option to phase in the new rates over a one-year period.

And yes, more efficient air conditioners can save you a bundle. I had mine replaced last year and my June 2006 bill is one of the lowest summer bills I have ever had.

 

[HFWR]

May '05 - $125 > May '06 - $178
June '05 - $195 > June '06 - $272

I believe natural gas fuels many Texas generators...

Plus, this summer, so far, has been hotter (i.e. more normal) than last...

 

[justin]

My bill went down from ~$150 to $120 from June 05 to June 06. We have the air set lower this year too. I don't remember any cool times this summer, but maybe last summer was particularly hot?

I do know that the local util co is proposing a big double digit rate hike soon.

 

[astromeria]

June 2005--$127
June 2006--$132

BUT...we were away the last half of June 2006 and left the thermostat at 82F, and the 2006 bill had one more day (DH normalized them per day to 2005--$4.14 and 2006--$3.86). Just goes to show how much we could save if we left it at 82

EDIT Forgot that we were also away for a week in June 2005! But we only left the thermostat at 80 that time. I think we should travel more in the summer...and the winter

 

[Andre1969]

Where I live the billing cycle ends about 2/3 of the way through the month. I remember the bill from ~May 20 to ~June 20 was about $118, which was actually DOWN from about $150 the same time last year. On average, the temps were a bit higher this year, but it was actually a rapid change. I remember going from running the furnace to running the a/c almost within a week.

I can think of a few things that might have helped the bill go down, though.
1) For the most part I've only been running two air conditioners instead of 3
2) I bought a new, more efficient a/c unit earlier in the year to replace this heavy, ancient, inefficient Airtemp by Chrysler unit I had been using. I'm not sure how old it was, but I thought Airtemp division went away about the same time Iacocca went to Chrysler, back in the late 70's!
3) I have two refrigerators. One of them used to sit out on an enclosed side porch off the kitchen, which gets deathly hot in the summertime. That was our beer fridge, so needless to say we'd go out there alot, opening that door and letting the heat into the kitchen. I moved the 2nd fridge into the kitchen, so we hardly ever open that door anymore. Plus, I'm sure the fridge doesn't have to work as hard in the kitchen as it did on that porch.

I haven't gotten the bill for June-July yet. I'm sure it won't be a pretty sight. Last year it was only around $130. However, it's been hotter during the same period of this year, plus I think they raised electric rates by 15% starting July 1. As long as it's not over $200 I won't cry too much.

 

[brewer12345]

$194 was the bill I got yesterday. But we are now cooling more of the house, with the new baby and many visitors, and the local utility bumped up summer rates by about 2 cents a KWH (~30% increase).

 

[Sarah in SC]

June 2005 $98
June 2006 $117

As soon as it gets cooler, I'm putting in some of that radiant foil stuff Nords suggests. Ours is a rural electric cooperative, but price still up for same usage.
That beer fridge will cost you--we used to keep one on the back porch at the beach--now we just keep all the beer in the main fridge and buy less food!
We set the thermostat on 86 during the day (while we are gone) and 79 once we get home.
Sarah

 

[HFWR]

That beer fridge will cost you--we used to keep one on the back porch at the beach--now we just keep all the beer in the main fridge and buy less food! 

Yeah, you don't want to eat on an empty stomach...

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm

Louisiana - last June - $221 - 1345 sq ft - 5 cents/kwh
Missouri -this June --- $160 - 1100 sq ft - 7 cents/kwh

My killer is water/sewer, trash, gas all new up here - add 81 bucks per month and I haven't started watering the lawn much yet.

heh heh heh

 

[BarbaraAnne]

In the Dallas area its 14.4 cents per kWh!!  After deregulation we pay among the highest rates in the country!  We personally use one of the lowest cost providers,as the largest provider, TXU, charges 15 cents per kWH!

With temperatures over 100 I don't even want to tell you what our bill is...it gives me a headache...

 

[justin]

We set the thermostat on 86 during the day (while we are gone) and 79 once we get home.
Sarah

Wow! We set the thermostat at 75 during the day while we are gone, then 74 on weekends during the day (when we are there sometimes) and 71 between 9 pm and 9 am. (We like it cool I guess). I don't know how much extra it costs to have a very comfortable environment inside, but it's worth it!

 

[Brat]

Cooling?? Open the windows and enjoy the sea breeze! God provided an efficeint, cost effective, heat pump that cools the air in the summer and moderates winter's chill.

 

[astromeria]

When we first moved here, I tried 78 all day (remember I'm ER--at home) and 75 at night. Now I do 75 when I'm at home, 78-82 when I'm out (depends on how long I'm out). And I run the ceiling fans. And I drink ice water. Sometimes I think I got stuck in a permanent hot flash!

As for $ per KWH...we use SCE&G (South Carolina Electric & Gas):

First 800 KWH = 8.888 cents
Remainder = 9.702 cents

We used 1264 KWH in June 2006, and we were away and left the thermostat @ 82 half the time. But our house is almost 2500 sq ft.

 

[Texas Proud]

I got the 'cheap' provider at 13.1 cents plus billing fee which made it 13.4...

But, the old provider was in the 16.5 cents per KWH...

 

[Scrooge]

(We like it cool I guess).  I don't know how much extra it costs to have a very comfortable environment inside, but it's worth it!

Different people have VERY different comfort zones.

When I was in my mid-20s and had almost no body fat (a nurse once told me that it was unhealthy ), I had the thermostat set to 88-90F during the winter season. (Hurray for "all utilities included"!)

<10 years and 50 pounds later, my comfort zone was in the high 60s. Now that my body weight is somewhere in between these two extremes, I like the mid-70s.

 

[astromeria]

Cooling?? Open the windows and enjoy the sea breeze! God provided an efficeint, cost effective, heat pump that cools the air in the summer and moderates winter's chill.

That worked beautifully when we lived in San Francisco--we didn't even have A/C, and just a tiny electric baseboard heater in each room. (No comment on God's provisions for the sultry and freezing parts of the world

 

[eridanus]

I keep it at 86 when I'm gone and 76 when I'm at home. With fans on, I'm comfortable.

I used 413 KWH last month and I pay 5.25 cents/KWH.

 

[HFWR]

Cooling?? Open the windows and enjoy the sea breeze!  God provided an efficeint, cost effective, heat pump that cools the air in the summer and moderates winter's chill.

If I could just bottle some of this 100+ hot air for winter use...

 

[ladelfina]

Our electric bill is regularly about $100 month, but we use much less electricity. Few lights, no A/C.

Our latest bill covers March 11 - May 10.
61 days and 857 kWH consumed.
(Wow! astromeria, that is 1/4 (sorry, 1/3) yours.. uhmmm... and you weren't even home for 2 weeks  )

total €172 ($217) of which about €32 seems to be taxes and fixed monthly fees.

kWH cost for March: 0,166 [$0.21/kWH]
kWH cost for April: 0,1756 [$0.22/kWH]
not counting taxes (extra 10%) and fixed costs

eridanus, where the heck do you live that you pay $.05?
Dubai?

 

[Andre1969]

When I lived in my condo, which had a heat pump, a few times I tried setting the temperature higher during the day when nobody was home and then lowering it when I got home. Unfortunately the heat pump wasn't strong enough to cool the place down quickly, and if it had been a hot day it would often be well into the night before it got down to a comfy temp! So I'd just set it and forget it.

The window units in my house seem to cool much more quickly though. During the day when nobody's home, I lock the dog in the kitchen and just leave the a/c in there running. Then when I get home, I crank that a/c a bit more and fire up the second one, and it gets the house cooled down pretty fast.

 

[astromeria]

(Wow! astromeria, that is 1/4 (sorry, 1/3) yours.. uhmmm... and you weren't even home for 2 weeks )

Apparently we're evil electricity consumers . Hopefully balanced out somewhat by driving a Prius. There was a heat wave here, like in much of the US, while we were away--apparently 82 was a lot cooler than the outside temperature. Maybe Sarah has the right idea--87 when one is out. I hope my violin & furniture wouldn't crack at that temp, not to mention the refrigerator freaking out. I think I'll inch my way up and see what happens. We're going away for 3 days tomorrow--with hubby's agreement, I'll try 83.

 

[ESRBob]

In the Dallas area its 14.4 cents per kWh!! After deregulation we pay among the highest rates in the country! We personally use one of the lowest cost providers,as the largest provider, TXU, charges 15 cents per kWH!

Barbara Anne -- Con Ed in NY has Dallas beat: 15.9c per kwh, though there is another 1.67cents per kwh on top of that for an 'adjustment factor', for a total of 18.57cents/kwh. Not the kind of competition I wanted to win, frankly....

Astro -- do you ever consider just turning off the AC entirely when you go away? we do that -- the plants don't seem to mind much. and there is a bit of ventilation through some upper windows left open a crack. Could be the way to deal with future price increases?