Ouch!!!

[Marilyn]

Just opened our electric bill. It's $421.51 this month!!! We used 2424 KWH's. This is not the most we have ever used, but our rate has gone up significantly. We were paying $0.12/KWH a year ago after we changed providers to save money. Our current rate is $0.167/KWH!!!!

There is a website we can go to here to compare rates offered by the various suppliers available to us www.powertochoose.org, so I got online and the rates vary, but we are on the lower end. Many companies are at $0.17 up to over $0.20/KWH.

I guess as gasoline goes up so do other types of energy. It probably costs more to get the coal to the coal power plants, and other power plants in the area use natural gas which is also getting higher.

Time to evaluate our thermostat settings again. It's supposed to be 101 deg in Austin this weekend. It will be a little cooler where be are, but not much.

[AngieDoogles]

WOW! I can't imagine using 2424 KWh in one month. Last month Brendon and I used 412 and the month before that only 300. Admittedly, we are very conservative with energy and also only have a 2 br, 2 ba townhouse, but that difference still blows my mind!

On top of that, your rate is MUCH higher than mine. I couldn't find a figure on my statement, but I did the math and it came out to $.084/KWh. Crazy!

Hopefully next month will be lower. This reminds me of Tink's "announcement" about the light at the end of the tunnel.

[Marilyn]

We turn our computers off when we are not using them. The thermostat upstairs is set at 79 (I did have it turned off, but hubby had me turn it back on and set it high since we are in a high humidity zone). The one downstairs is at 73 when we are home and 78 when we are away. We turn off lights and televisions when not in the room. We use the small florescent light bulbs, have double insulated windows with tinting. Lots of insulation and attic venting, a high effency HVAC system, newer high efficiency appliances. I'm just not sure what else we can do. Hubby attends energy conservation seminars for his home building and is one of the most energy effecient home builders in the area. I just don't understand where the energy consumption is coming from.

[Mandy]

It's the same here - disgustlingly expensive!!
We too have newer high efficiency appliances, turn off lights when leaving a room, turn computers off when finnished, have double insulated windows.
I dont know what more we can do, and i seriously cant figure out how they add it all up!

[Janet]

Looks like I need to do some conserving in a bad way. We used 1,678 kWh this last month at a cost of $140.60. The average cost was $0.0783 per kWh. Not sure what was going on but the average cost last month per kWh was $0.0826.

We leave our ceiling fans on all the time to keep the air from turning on so much and my son and I do leave our computers on. I check in on and off throughout the day and it would be a real PITA to turn it on and off, plus according to the computer tech it's hard on computers to turn them on and off. Ours are only shut off during a storm.

Guess I need to put energy cost savings on my list of things to do too.

[HALEY]

Wow that is alot for one month! i hate to see ours, the a/c been running for days now.. look out !!! i bet ours is going to be around 200.00 this month

[Dobie]

Are you sure they are doing actual readings and not just an estimated reading? We are also very energy conscience and couldn't figure out why our bills are so high - until I read more closely and found out that our bill was "estimated" - based on what most of the other people in our neighborhood use.
Apparently, in our area, we only get an actual reading once or twice a year, the other times it's all estimated. We now call in the reading every month and the bill has been greatly reduced. Although they do give a little bit of an attitude on the phone - basically saying "If you are lying about what you are calling in, there is a big fine"

[judy]

Originally Posted by Dobie

Are you sure they are doing actual readings and not just an estimated reading? We are also very energy conscience and couldn't figure out why our bills are so high - until I read more closely and found out that our bill was "estimated" - based on what most of the other people in our neighborhood use.
Apparently, in our area, we only get an actual reading once or twice a year, the other times it's all estimated. We now call in the reading every month and the bill has been greatly reduced. Although they do give a little bit of an attitude on the phone - basically saying "If you are lying about what you are calling in, there is a big fine"

I had the same issue years ago. I couldn't afford it. I was a single parent at the time, so they put me on a payment plan. I'm still on it and it's much better. It just evens out over the year.

I've had my a/c on for the past 3 weeks day and night. I probably will be paying a steep bill when I close the account before I move!

[goofywife]

I am not sure how many kwh we used but our bill was $155.00. I thought that it was high. We have a programable t-stat. DH has it set to go to 84 after we leave in the morning. It goes back to 74 half an hour before we get home. We also planted lots of trees. Our big bill the is water/sewer. It was $202.00. We have to water the trees.

[teri88]

We just moved into this house in November, and the utilities are killing us! They are 3 times what we estimated they would be. Between that and the way gas has gone up it's costing my husband $70 a month just to drive back and forth to work. He works 3 jobs and the one part time job just covers our gas for the month. We are seriously considering moving out of NJ when Megan graduates from HS.

[DianaB]

I keep our thermostats at 78* and if we get hot then we turn it down. You know when it's 100* outside then 78* feels pretty good. We also turn on the ceiling fans when we need a breeze on us and sleep with them on in the night. We haven't had very many really hot days yet and have actually had a nice summer so far with the cloudy and rainy days.

We had blinds installed in our windows on the west side of the house soon after we moved in because of the heat that comes in so when it's hot the blinds are turned to reflect the sun. When it's really hot I close them completely in the afternoon. It really helps to keep the kitchen cooler. I try to keep my computer on stand-by when I'm not using it because then the fan doesn't have to run......now if my family could just get that little trick through their heads!!!! Just press a key and it automatically comes back on.

My bill last month was $82.20 and we used 712 KWH. We read our own meter and send it in with our bill and I know that next month's bill will be higher. Our home is 2,350 sq. ft. with a full unfinished basement (4,700 sq. ft. all together).

[Marilyn]

I just don't get it. All of you have so much lower rates and lower bills. Diana, your rate calculates to $0.115 per KWH, so you are higher than most, but your usage is sooo low. Hubby and I live in a home build in 2003 with oodles of insulation, high efficiency everything. It's just soooo frustrating.

If we were paying Janet's rate, our bill would be $189.80.

At Angie's rate, our bill would be $203.62.

At Diana's rate, $278.76.

Our bill is $421.51!!!! And that's using non-profit, COOP power!!!!

We also use gas to heat our water, so our total energy bill is even higher!!

If we used some of the higher priced companies in our area, our bill could be as high as $509. We are using almost the lowest priced option in our area. We need more nuclear or something!!!! Maybe we need to violate the subdivision restrictions and start hanging the wash outside on a clothesline. That would look nice on the 15th fairway, don't ya think???

[Janet]

There is no way, honestly, that we would be able to pay your electric bill Marilyn. I forgot to mention that we are total electric also. I guess I shouldn't complain too much about what we pay.

I was also told...don't know how true it is...but that changing the thermostat settings is what makes most bill go up. I guess the reasoning is, once it's at a certain temp..it doesn't take much to stay there, but if say you turn the air up while you're gone...then it has to work harder longer to get cool again...same way with the heat. So we pretty much leave ours the same all the time.

[DianaB]

I want to say that if you're total electric you get a different rate, but I could be wrong on that.

We use gas for our clothes dryer and hot water heater so we're not total electric. I think that I save a lot by keeping my thermostat turned up. I'm comfortable with it higher because I don't handle it much cooler than 75* (Thanks to low thyroid). When my family is hot we just turn it down a notch and usually are comfortable. We have a pretty effecient home with Pella windows. Our home was built in 1999. We pay less for utilities than we did in our old, old home that was half our size!!! Did I mention that it was really old?

[Tink]

We used 890 kWh last month @ .09675 for a total bill of $124.67.
My refrig is 16 yrs old, my range 6 yrs old, my dishwasher, washer and dryer are too old to even remember when we got them; and we have 3 window air conditioning units going. I thought OUR elect bill was high till I saw Marilyns! LOL

We have natural gas for the water heater and furnace.