Electricity Bills

HMTKSteve

Now that I have my own house full of appliances that I have purchased (as opposed to rental units with landlord purchased appliances) I am noticing a huge difference in my electricity usage.

Right now I am averaging 9Kwh of usage per day. My monthly bill hovers around $50. When I was renting my usage and costs were about triple that.

Am I an outlier here or is my bill typical for most everyone?

Dromaro

Electricity costs are not uniform across all areas. I think you'd be better served trying to find data for your state/county. That said, here in SoCal with a household of three people, our bill is ~$150/month.

HMTKSteve

That is why I included my average daily usage in KWh.

muppet

Ever since we bought a house, I've found that our usage has been much, much higher. I really suspect that there's something wrong with the grid on our street. My neighbor complains of $400 electric bills that she can't explain. She's had electricians out many times with no resolution.

My bills get higher and higher in the winter, which doesn't seem to make sense either. We're homebodies and we're indoors almost as much in the summer, fall, and spring as we are in the winter, but the bill can increase as much as 40%. With nothing but CFL bulbs in the house? Makes no sense at all.

Apreche

Mine is usually 40is, but goes up if I use the air conditioners in the summer.

Always remember to check your meters yourself. Sometimes the utility company won't actually come to check and will bill you based on how much you used on average for the same time period. I remember reading a story about a guy who went on vacation for a month, came back and had a utility bill that was as high as if he had been home all month. He called them out on it, and got it fixed.

Rym

Ours is about $90/mo, but that's averaged between summer (lots of AC in the big tower) and winter (hardly anything other than lights and technology).

Luke Burrage

I had to pay 1000 euro in a lump sum this year as since 2009 they had been estimating my use rather than paying attention to the readings I had sent in.

HMTKSteve

When I first moved to CT I encountered a meter misreading. It was winter and I couldn't believe how cheap the bill was so I kept the electric heat on 24/7. Yeah... Next month a $500 bill came in!

This morning I checked the meter to be sure my bill was accurate and the reading was correct. What is weird is that every other dial is numbered backwards. I couldn't tell that at first from the angle so I thought my reading was way off.

So, yeah. I used 260Kwh last month. I had one extra person in the household last year but I don't think one person can be responsible for 500Kwh on their own.

Josh Bytes

My electric utility has a smart meter installed. So the utility can read my usage without having to send someone down every month. Last summer I had roommates that ran the AC 24/7 bill was around 150. This summer new roommates used the AC about half the time. Bill has been around 75.

Dr. Timo

What are your prices per kWh? Ours is 6 cents plus 3.66 cents for transmission costs. The base fee is 20 euros/year. All in all our family of three gets by with about 20 euros/month.

We did invest in energy efficient appliances but still, it seems like electicity is waaaaaay more expensive in the states.

EDIT: Aaah, the AC is probably the culprit.

muppet

Our bill is routinely $180/month. It spikes to $270 for two months in summer when the AC is on.

I mean, I have a saltwater fish tank with pumps running 24/7, but it still seems absurdly high.

Dr. Timo

but it still seems absurdly high.

Exactly, I mean I am used to being able to laugh at your ridiculous data plan prices but I had no idea you are paying this much for electricity.

And then I find out in the house hunting thread that 4% is a reasonable rate for a loan?! My rate is ~1%. WTF is going on in this free market utopia you're supposedly living in?

EDIT: I checked and we pay 30ish per month for electricity which is in line with what Scott pays.

Matt

In my experience, it's simply not worth the time to contest an estimated bill. I am not living paycheck to paycheck, and if they overcharge me by $50 one month, it'll come right back to me the next time they do an actual read. I could easily just read my own meter and input it online, but I'd rather have that shit on autopilot and out of my mind.

I'm paying way too much for electricity right now. Over $300 in the summer when the AC is going. My company charges 10 cents plus 6 cents for delivery cost. I am very jealous of Timo!

The house I am living in (until next week!) is shit as far as efficiency goes. It's huuuuge and old, but I'm renting it so now fixing anything. My old house, I got a sweet deal from the NJ gov't. Got $6k in free money and $10k 0% loan w/ a commitment to reduce energy consumption by 25% or more. I paid for an entire new furnace, AC, hot water heater, and attic insulation. The money saved in bills more than paid for the monthly loan payment. BOOM.

Rym

I don't pay for heat (comes from hot water radiators that I can control electronically).
I don't pay for water or hot water.

So, cooking, lights, air conditioning, and technology account for 99% of my bill.

Anthony Heman

Usage on my bill says 796 but not units. Bill was $97. So roughly 12 cents per something?

Dr. Timo

My company charges 10 cents plus 6 cents for delivery cost. I am very jealous of Timo!

Once you convert $ to € that is only 10% to 20% higher. The 1000% difference is the AC, a bigger house, and poor insulation I bet.

Dazzle369

I plan to get some solar winds

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generating-energy/Choosing-a-renewable-technology/Wind-turbines

Josh Bytes

Dvorak on TWiT talked about how outside the US you can own your own mini nuke power generator.