$310 electric bill

[disneyseniors]

My electric bill was $310 last month, and I just looked and that's what it's projected to be this month too!!! I live in a very modest 3 bedroom townhouse and I have never paid an electic bill this high! These price hikes are getting ridiculous, is electic more expensive everywhere?

Wow, that sure seems like a lot for this time of year!

We live in northern Minnesota, so we get extreme cold for our long winters. Our highest last winter was $440. a month. Our absolute highest was $550 one bad winter.
Our electric bill drops a lot in the summer, and was only $140 last month We usually drop to $90. or so in August. We only have window air conditioners which are fine for our climate.

I haven't seen a big jump in our electric this summer like yours! Maybe the electric co. made a mistake? What is the usual cost for summer?

Our heat bills are actually more than the electric bill I stated. We also have backup LP gas which we use daily in addition to our electric in the winter.

I guess I would check with the electric co, and I hope it was a mistake!

 

[Wakey]

I’m in the UK and our electric and gas bill is expected now to be $7000 ish over the next year!

 

[fla4fun]

Ours has not increased yet. My bill varies from around $60 in Jan/Feb to $190 in July/Aug. I just budget $200 for six months of the year and $150 for the other six months, and then whatever I haven’t spent by the end of the year gets added to my Christmas shopping fund.

I have had three door-to-door salespeople trying to sell me solar in just the last month, even though I have a No Soliciting sign on the front door. One guy told me he couldn’t read the sign. Another told me about all the complaints about increases from our local electric company, and I told him mine hadn’t changed (although I never tell them how much the bill is). I would never, ever, buy something as expensive as solar from a door-to-door salesperson. Well, as a general rule, I don’t buy anything from door-to-door salespeople or from phone salespeople either.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

kind of curious-what are people's habits on heating/cooling? i know people that swear by turning off the a/c during the cooler evening hours to open all the windows, shutter the place closed in the morning and then turn the a/c on that it saves them but we've always found it (even when we lived in a place with regular daytime summer temps in the hundreds) less expensive to get the house to a temp with the a/c and then maintain that temp (if it cools at night we can open windows to aid in maintaining the temp).

We leave ours set at a stable temp all summer and all winter. When it's mild outside in the spring/fall we open windows but we don't turn off the unit. It just doesn't kick on because it isn't needed to maintain the temps. We open the windows because like the fresh mountain breezes blowing through. We do have a lot of trees and shade on our house which helps

The one thing we have done is have new windows installed about 10 years ago. Ours were 30 years old, roughly. House is 60 years old. The windows paid for themselves within 3 years, our bill dropped that much. We really need new insulation put in. I think it would drop our bill even further.

 

[cvjw]

Our electric bill is always around $100 per month. It will go up some in the summer when the A/C runs more. We have a 4000+ SF home with 3 levels and 6 bedrooms. We have 3 central heating/cooling systems - one for each floor. We keep our house on about 73 in the summer. Last month our bill was $200, but we had multiple weeks of around 100 degree weather. We are in the metro atlanta area.

 

[shh]

during the cooler evening hours

haha...what is this wondrous magical thing called "cooler evening hours" you speak of? Does this really exist somewhere? It's still well over 90 degrees here at 8pm. Color me green with jealousy. My bill runs about 180-200 in summer. Pretty small house - just a starter house, really.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

Ours was $450. I have a large house (about 7000 sq. ft) and that's running 2 AC units (don't run AC in basement). I usually have the temperature set around 74 or 73. My daughter's friends Mom told me, before the pandemic, their bill was over $1000/month.

 

[focusondisney]

the bill says:

the electic costs $0.082683

supply costs $0.069395
and transmission costs $0.024211

those are all per kWh

Supply Charges: $155.46
(name of electric company) Charges: $151.86

I don't have an independent electric supplier, it is the electric company that is supplying my electric but I guess that's what they charge, it's insane that the supply charges are more than the electricity!

my bill from this same period last year was:

Supply Charges: $89.38
(name of electric company) Charges: $105.27

We use gas for our heat, hot water tank, stove & dryer which is billed separately from electric. I just paid the electric bill today. My delivery charge is twice my supply charge too. This billing cycle ended June 29, the delivery charge was $44 & supply was 22. Add in the taxes & my bill was about $72 for the month.

We haven’t had a really hot summer so far. There have been several days that I have been able to turn the AC off & open the windows. When it’s on, I generally keep it at 73. We have a small 2 story & it’s just my DH & me, so not a lot of extra lights or electronics going. I can do more summer shorts & tees per laundry load & they dry a lot quicker than the heavy sweatshirts, sweaters & jeans we wear in the cool months. So less energy used there. Our gas bill this month was $57 (estimated), for connection, gas dryer, hot water tank & oven/ stove. This time of year is a break for our utility bills. They’re much higher in December- March when the furnace is running & we need more lights on for longer periods of the day.

Our furnace & AC are about 3 years old. The salesman recommended running the blower continuously instead of the intermittent setting to help even the temp thru out the house & do away with those hot & cold spots. I don’t usually do that with the furnace because the whole house is pretty comfortable without it. But I do find running the blower on low continuously & keeping the bedroom doors closed keeps them pretty comfortable.

 

[barkley]

The one thing we have done is have new windows installed about 10 years ago. Ours were 30 years old, roughly. House is 60 years old. The windows paid for themselves within 3 years, our bill dropped that much. We really need new insulation put in. I think it would drop our bill even further.

amazing what these kinds of changes can do-

first apartment i lived in had an over 35 year old fridge in in (they built um to last back then). when it went out and got replaced with a newer more energy efficient my monthly bill dropped by half,

first home we had was 30'ish years old when we bought it so we replaced the old windows with insulated double panes-saved us allot (and no more cold breezes from closed windows),

saw a bit of drop when we replaced our older washer/dryer a handful of years ago, same with the dishwasher,

interested to see if the new lvp we installed results in better insulation/energy savings. we had it installed over the existing tile and got pretty thick stuff so i've noticed that the floors seem to to not have as significant a variance in temp. utility usage will be interesting to monitor.

haha...what is this wondrous magical thing called "cooler evening hours" you speak of? Does this really exist somewhere? It's still well over 90 degrees here at 8pm. Color me green with jealousy.

we average about a 30 degree temp difference between night and day. the high this week one day is looking to be 91 with the overnight at 61 (don't hate me).

 

[DisneyLover83]

We were notified that effective 7/1 our cost per kilowatt was increasing 43% from TVA so the bill should be about 43% higher.... I have not received a bill since the increase but it's going to be much more than the past.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Ours has not increased yet. My bill varies from around $60 in Jan/Feb to $190 in July/Aug. I just budget $200 for six months of the year and $150 for the other six months, and then whatever I haven’t spent by the end of the year gets added to my Christmas shopping fund.

I have had three door-to-door salespeople trying to sell me solar in just the last month, even though I have a No Soliciting sign on the front door. One guy told me he couldn’t read the sign. Another told me about all the complaints about increases from our local electric company, and I told him mine hadn’t changed (although I never tell them how much the bill is). I would never, ever, buy something as expensive as solar from a door-to-door salesperson. Well, as a general rule, I don’t buy anything from door-to-door salespeople or from phone salespeople either.

Solar panels are about 50K in our area and would probably cover part of our electricity cost perhaps $1200 a year. We're in our early 60's and DH retires in a couple of years. How does that make sense?

 

[trip]

I just read an article about this. Precooling is both better for your HVAC and cheaper. The idea is, get the house as cold as possible at NIGHT (they recommend down to the low 60s if you can manage it) and then keep Shades drawn during the daytime hours and your AC shouldn't need to kick in until around 5pm or so, right about when energy prices lower.

This works really well when you have an energy efficient home. This is how we do things here, but our home is newer and super energy efficient and also doesn't get too much direct sunlight either. We have our thermostat set to 66 at night and 75 during the day. It doesn't come on until at least 4pm each day.

As for windows, we never open them. Terrible allergies. Plus, it increases the humidity in the house which makes it feel warmer.

That's pretty much that we do. Except we set it to 64 at night and 78 in the for the day. I'd rather be cool when we're sleeping and warmer in the day. Also we don't open the windows - don't want to let the humidity in.

 

[GreatLakes]

I just paid the highest electric bill I have ever paid, the first time it was over $200 for a month. The combination of higher KWh prices and the hot summer combined made it pretty high.

 

[meggiebeth]

Our gas and electricity bill has nearly doubled in the last few months. We are just going to try and wait it out and get on a better package when prices settle.

 

[denisenh]

Our bill for June was $400 something. It also said our usage was up 113% from last June. I honestly dont know how that is even possible.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Our bill for June was $400 something. It also said our usage was up 113% from last June. I honestly dont know how that is even possible.

Wow! I'd definitely be having someone come look at my air conditioner to see if something is up if my usage was more than double last June!

 

[TwoMisfits]

My water bill just went up $200 (quarterly bill) over last year. Apparently, sewer charge/rates and delivery and water charges increased on this bill. Hurray!

At least we've had a cool summer, so my electric bill is in check...I mean, it's higher, but not by a "OMG, how high is this now" amount...

 

[abdmom]

Our bill for June was $400 something. It also said our usage was up 113% from last June. I honestly dont know how that is even possible.

That can happen if your A/C is losing coolant and is having to be on longer to cool.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Solar panels are about 50K in our area and would probably cover part of our electricity cost perhaps $1200 a year. We're in our early 60's and DH retires in a couple of years. How does that make sense?

It doesn't make sense for everyone. Ours were half that cost, and then they were effectively a further 33% less than that due to the federal tax credit. We also have no plans to move, had just done a new roof on the house, and our house is well positioned to get maximum benefit from the panels. We calculated the break even point to be about 10 years out from installation, and from that point on we are effectively saving money. Though with the increase in electricity costs, break even may actually be sooner.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I'm in NE FL, and we have an electric co-op. Last month, our bill was $241.36. I bumped the a/c from 73 to 74; any higher and it is just too muggy, and any lower than 73 and it is cold! it is just too hot here to open windows. It's a brand new a/c system (when we moved in, we discovered it wasn't installed correctly, so the LL had to come get it reinstalled). The month before it was $193.49; but the temps outside jumped from low 80s to high 90s.


We pay monthly: an access charge of $27; subdivision lighting 1.40; Light PCA .12; taxes about $14. Then it's .0725 for the first 1000 kWh; and .0913 for the next thousand for our base; then we pay a Power Cost Adjustment, which goes up or down, depending on what the Co-op pays for the electric. Last month, we had to pay .0304 more per kWh, which came to about $55 additional. Once we are here a year, we can do budget billing, which I prefer.

https://www.clayelectric.com/news/fuel-costs-continue-rise-natural-gas-hits-14-year-high
Our water bill this month was $65.16; similar to what it was the month before. We pay a base rate for water usage ($11.14), then consumption charges per usage...Tier 1 is up to 5, billed at 1.54 per; Tier 2 is 5-10 for 3.88 per; Tier 3 is 10-15, @ 5.03; and Tier 4 is 15+ @6.45 per; plus an Alternative Water Supply Surcharge of $1.12. Then they add in Base charges for Sewer (which is prepaid for this one) @25.26 per month, then the consumption charges, which are based on how much water you use, so it's your usage x $3.77. Then a Cost Recovery Charge of $1.09 to cover fees or whatever.