How much was your last electric bill?

[Bama]

I'm a firm believer in ceiling fans to help beat the heat.
I keep my air con set from 68* to 70* (*degrees) and keep all my ceiling fans going non stop. My home is very cold to some.  To me...and my haywire thyroid, I'm still burning up!  LOL    I have a two story home with zoned air.  Heat pump on lower level and gas heat/electric air upstairs. I have approx 3K sq ft.

My bill during this last heat wave here in Alabama, my bill was high... $123.68:  1273 kw @ 10 per kilowat.
Our yearly average is 915 kw per mo. @ 8 cents per kw=$81.23 per month.

 I do not have a hot tub yet.  Still looking.  In most of my rooms I have not just your typical one ceiling fan....I have at least two and three or four in open style rooms.  
It's also shady around here.  That helps.
Does that seem in line with you guys?

[cappykat]

Here's my breakdown:

1,000 KWH  @ 0.09295 $  92.95      
  968 KWH  @ 0.11295 $109.34  

Brewman...where do you live?

[Brookenstein]

Cappy... you used 200 kwh more than me and my bill was more than twice yours.

I can only imagine how high next months bill will be.  We reached a high of 114 yesterday.  I don't think we've been under 100 in about a month and there is no end in sight.

My garage reached 130 yesterday, so we went ahead and unplugged the extra fridge.  I will have to go to the grocery store MUCH more often as the inside fridge only holds 2 gallons of milk and I usually go through 5-6/week.  I still have the freezer plugged in.  We thought about bringing it in the kitchen nook area instead of the table, but I think we will just see want next month brings with our other methods.

[Tatooed_Lady]

the inspector that checked out the house for us before we bought said the WORST place to put an extra fridge/freezer is in the garage, due to major temp fluctuations. He recommended the basement, though, as it normally keeps cool in summer and doesn't get too drastic either way in winter. With us having all sorts of electrical items around here (sorry, I'm a gadget FREAK), I don't think our bills are too high....budget of $145 for gas and electric combined each month.

[Bonibelle]

Brooke, the only thing I can say is at least you won't be getting killed this winter when heating oil is $4.00 a gallon .. .That really won't surprise me! Could you get a small dorm type refrigerator for your milk? And that might fit somewhere under a counter? I am still going to get rid of my freezer. It is 20 years old and I found an energyStar to replace it, only about 3/4 the size. I will get some references together to help you reduce your overall energy usage.  

[ndabunka]

North Carolina.  4-year old home.  3350 square foot 2-story home.  Wife keeps AC @ 78 in summer and keeps the Heat around 70 in the winter.   We are under Duke Power energy and we have the stable payment option so that the monthly payment doesn't flucuate too much.  Monthly cost is .....(This is goign to KILL some people on here)....$139/month.  Home prices here are also pretty reasonable as well.  By the way - We ALSO have the "fridge" in the garage but ours is a an upright freezer instead of a fridge.

[Brewman]

Here's my breakdown:

1,000 KWH  @ 0.09295 $  92.95      
   968 KWH  @ 0.11295 $109.34  

Brewman...where do you live?

I live in a suburb about 20 miles south of Minneapolis.  For some reason, electricity is relatively inexpensive compared to many other parts of the country.  
It's the price of natural gas that scares us up here in the snow belt.   Winter heating bills were pretty high last winter.  Not sure what this year will bring, the doom and gloom announcers who usually warn us about this stuff have been pretty quiet so far.  

[cappykat]

Brooke, if our bill gets as high as yours we're going to be living in our shed.  I think I'd have to consider moving....to Minneapolis..

[Tatooed_Lady]

Brewman, check into getting onto a budget program. At least that way over winter you don't get absolutely KILLED with the bills.
We had to do that because during winter I get laid off, and we can NOT afford higher gas/electric bills during that time. Actually, this year sucks for construction as well....  :-/

[NittanyLion]

We have an old house in PA, no whole house AC due to no ductwork, heat by gas boiler and hot water radiators, and our 75 yar old house has little to no insulation with no way to add w/o ripping all the plaster down.  We do have two floor mounted AC units, but due to cost we usually just run the bedroom one at night when it gets too hot.  Winter heating bills this year almost made me faint.

On to the purpose of my post, we are thinking about installing a geothermal system, not sure if anyone has experience with them but they mostly consist of a heat transfer field installed one of three ways; a grid-type system a fet feet below ground (good for large lots), a system of one or more vertical deep wells (good for smaller lots), or in a body of water.  A pump in the home pumps a solution out through the field which in the winter gains heat from the ground or in summer dissipates heat from the home into the ground.  A thermal accumulater in the home amplifies the heat transfer.  

The beauty is few moving parts, basically just the pump, and the majority of your heating and cooling is free, also in summer the accumulater can use waste heat to heat your hot water for free.  I believe you still need a redundant heater for winter here in PA for when its real cold.

An aquaintance of mine installed geothermal last year and I'm waiting to hear how summer goes for him.  Only problem for me is I think we would have to retrofit ductwork and switch to forced air, but if I do that and rip out all the copper pipe and radiators I can probably sell the scrap to cover the cost.

[Brewman]

Brooke, if our bill gets as high as yours we're going to be living in our shed.  I think I'd have to consider moving....to Minneapolis..

Hey, we have several nice homes for sale in our neighborhood.  Would be nice having a fellow tubber on the block.  

[Brewman]

Brewman, check into getting onto a budget program. At least that way over winter you don't get absolutely KILLED with the bills.
We had to do that because during winter I get laid off, and we can NOT afford higher gas/electric bills during that time. Actually, this year sucks for construction as well....  :-/

We do have budget options available to us, I'm really not that interested, though.  We just accept high gas bills December thru February as a way of life.  
The other months of the year are much less, right now it's just $20/month or so to run the dryere and water heater.

[Bonibelle]

Nittany, your system sounds great but I bet the start-up is expensive (I am thinking drilling wells and all). I don't have duct work because I have baseboard hot water, but I was able to install the ductwork on the lower level of the house through the basement. My first floor has traditional central air. My second floor has
ductless split air units (Sanyo). they are great because each room has an individual temperature control and no ducts were needed. I also added one of these units to my sunroom. That way my house is zoned for both heat and aircondition. I love the ductless units, they are efficient, quiet and that way you can aircondition only the area that you are in. For example, in the day, I don't aircondition my upstairs or the sunroom, only the main part of the house. I can keep my air set at 80 degrees and be confortable since my airconditioner unit is a very effective dehumidifier. I also love the ceiling fans and use them too.
I can imagine that in the next 10 years, we will all see some pretty amazing life style changes as we try to absorb these tremendous increases in energy costs!

[Bonibelle]

Some of the resources that I used to try to reduce my electric usage:


http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/general.html

this one is in a  recent edition of a womans magazine:


http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/gallery/0,21863,1206325,00.html

There is also information on the government's energyStar site with calculators to help figure out energy usage.

[TN__HOT_TUB]

Our rate is about $.07/kwh.  Year round, we average maybe $120/month or so.  Summertime the A/C runs a lot and that up's the bill.  In winter the hot tub takes a bit so it stays pretty level.
 This month has been pretty hot- I'm not looking forward to our water or electric bill.  
 

That sounds about right for me too here in good ol' TVA country.