My electric bill was $27 last month!

My electric bill was $27 last month! Peaked at $68 in January with electric heat! That's the month it went below 20F !!

Mods to my house include:
- insulated windows
- adding double walls to my bedroom (two layers of exterior wall!)
- six more inches of attic insulation
- replacing central gas heating with electric room heating
- replacing bulbs with CFLs
- ceiling fans in living room and bedroom
- this summer I hung shade cloth from the western eves.

The shade cloth alone dropped the interior temperature from 80ish to below 75.

I am still using a gas water heater for $12/mo.

This is for a 1300 sq.ft. house!

The outside temperatures this year have ranged from 12F to 95F.

And I am adding more insulation to the attic this winter to try to knock another $20 off the heating bill. Last time, the 6 inches of insulation paid for itself in three months.

Thats is really "cool".

Don't you own a fridge?

That's impressive, my electric bill was about 10 times that last month, but we had a huge run of 100 degree + days here in North Texas. The A/C was getting a good work out. I did switch electric providers which dropped my KW/h usage from 13.9c to 8.5c and charged my A/C which was way low on freon last year.

I ran my A/C starting Memorial Day weekend which is not bad going for Texas, everyone I know thought I was bonkers for holding out so long. I will probably turn it off for the rest of the starting next week and then the electricity bill will go down to about $70 month.

Wow our electric bill runs $250.00 - $300.00 monthly and our home is not real large. Lots of complaints in this area of bill hitting close to $1000.00 :(

You guys probably don't have kids! I have two girls who run hair dryers, straighteners, flatteners, cell phone/i-pod chargers, laptops, TVs, etc, etc.... and they leave stuff on!
Al, I wish we could select our electric provider... rates of 8.5 c per KWH are unheard of around here...ours is double that.

Some people around here spend $500-600 a month to air-condition their McMansion, then they use electric heat in the winter.

nathan, how much heat do you have in there? a friend of mine and me visited a woman one night who was bragging about how low her heating bill was. i said it's because you don't have any heat in here. she invited me to get in her bed and pull the blankets up if i was cold. she was constantly scratching the whole time we were there. i got away real fast when she said that. i wouldn't even sit on one of her chairs. i left my friend there.

That is impressive. What is the rate charged for electricity?
How come you didn't mention the 6 cords of fir that you burn each year ? :devil:

We pay about $160/month for electricity and water. $81/month for gas. 1200SF Main floor, 1200SF basement. I'll still take that over Florida Power & Light at $450/month.

What is your thermostat set at?

Do you run around nekid in the summer and dressed like Nannook of the North in the Winter?

:)

$27.00...I wish. 230.00 last bill for 3500SF. That's just the electric. Naomi, if I received a $1000 utility bill I'd have to think of ways to get "off the grid":)

That's really good! Our combined gas and electricity bills for our 1400 sq ft home peak at about $150 in January, and dip to a little under $60 in the Summer. That's with a gas fireplace for most heat, with supplemental zonal electric. Two refrigerators (second one an ancient kegerator in shop), plasma TV about 3 hours every evening, one small freezer, two computers, gas hot water, electric range and clothes dryer, no air conditioning, and mostly CFLs.

I think the real killer for lots of people is air conditioning. Probably essential in many parts of the country, but optional here in Western Oregon.

We do heat our house in the Winter. When I'm home alone I keep it down to 68 or so, but my wife gets cold if it isn't 71.

This is Mudsnow watchin' TV.

http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/pedgen/ultimate_pedal_tv.html

Probably the fridge accounts for most of the remaining bill. The computer runs 24/7 and actually provides a lot of the heat during the winter. It is rated for a steady 400 Watts.

The electric rate is 11 to 12 cents.

I have a 35" Philips LCD that doubles as a TV and monitor.

I keep the bedroom/office/den and bath at 65F to 68F in the winter and wear a sweatshirt indoors. The bed has a 180 Watt heater that will roast me if I turn it up.

Besides doubling the attic insulation, I framed and insulated another wall right inside the existing wall, so there is:
wooden siding | fibreglass | drywall | fibreglass | drywall.

When it was 20F, the inner drywall was cold to touch, now it is just a bit cool. The whole wall is probably about a foot thick now. This is more effective than just one thick layer of fibreglass, and doesn't require any demolition. It has more "thermal mass" and is much quieter also.

I wrote another thread on here about the shade cloth. It is amazing how much the stuff helps. I hung it all along my western eaves so that wall is all covered in shade. It really did lower the indoor temperature about 5 degrees to around 75 from 80. I should get an infrared thermometer but the outside of the west wall went from "fry an egg" to just warm.

If I still lived in Arizona, I would hang shade cloth over the roof on wires.

The east side is covered by trees which shade the roof all morning, but it heats up fast during the afternoon.

The winter before, I was spending $170/month on gas to heat the whole house evenly. Compared to about $40 for electric heat with the bedroom/office/den the warmest and the rest a little cooler.

If I can give you all advice, it is:

- invest in insulation, probably the best returns you can get for the money
- keep the sun off your house during the summer and get as much as possible during the winter
- if you live where it is cold, paint your house a dark color and dark shingles
- if you live where it is hot, paint it white and get a white roof
- get a mattress heater, it will keep you toasty warm no matter how cold it gets out

That's good advice, I have an electric oil filled radiator that I keep in the bedroom. I use it to hear that room only while I sleep and it works pretty well so the central heating is never on for more then a few hours a day.

It's a heck of a lot cheaper then heating the whole house.