How much was your last electric bill?

[Gomboman]

Wow, we just got our last electric bill. It's been very hot in Southern California so far. I believe it's been the hottest summer in the last decade.

Anyway, my electric bill this month was $270 for 1,335 Kwh's. We are on a tiered system depending on our usage amount. If we use more than our baseline (496 Kwh) we are penalized. The majority of my bill was at $.37 Kwh.

I don't think my spa contributed very much this month since my heater has been turned down to 80 degrees.

How much was your last Electric bill?

[Brookenstein]

Funny you should post this today.  Got this months bill today....


$432.04 for 1795 kwh.       :-/

Have I mentioned I have a 1227 sq ft single story 3 bedroom house.  Looks like I'll be living out of my minivan if this continues.  Can't wait for next months bill with the new rate increase.  

Oh and I do believe the increase to .49 is accurate... currently for more than 100% of baseline I pay:
.04660 for delivery related charges
.10369 for DWR Generation
.31935 for SCE Generation
= .46964 per kwh


Aye yaye yaye.

[Jack_L]

WOW, and I thought my bill was high.    Now I feel better.......  BTW, never really noticed any jump after tub was installed in May, but lets wait til the winter months and maybe that will change??  Here was my last months usage:

KWH used - 1233
avg KWH use per day - 41.1
Avg temp per day = 64F
Total bill = $91.25

[GoBlue]

Man, I'm glad I don't live on the left coast.  We have a tiered charge as well. .0537 for the first 600 and .0741 after that.  Add delivery, distribution, golf outings, kickbacks and general graft charges and you get .108 per KWH.  

$199.54

1838 KHW
June 2005 -1751 KWH (before spa)
.108 per KWH

[Vinny]

My electric bill is tiered too. First 600 KWH is at $0.143 and after that it's $0.151.

I paid $178.02 for 1218 KWH. Besides the tub, I have central air and a 1 hp pool filter running about 8 hours a day ... not to mention various electrical consumer products. I have to mention that I have gone to only using the tub once a week or so.

Brooke, the one thing that you should be concerned about comes from the statement "my house went from xº to yº in 30 minutes" ... I'm not an energy engineer but that's too quick for a house to gain that much heat.

My setback thermostat goes from 72º to 76º at about 8:45 AM and on Monday when I was home and the temps reaching 100º outside, my thermostat read 76º at 1:30 PM. It was warm in the house (at least to my liking) and I lowered it to 74º.

[Bonibelle]

So many issues have been resolved and so much great information has been shared on this forum. I know we can all get together and compile some sort of energy savings guideline. I know I have learned so very much about electric and energy savings in my recent persuit of my unexplainable high electric bills...Thanks to Cola, BobRex, Chas, Drew, Vinny and so many others, my house now operates using less electric (much less since my plumbing issues have been resolved).  This is all hot tub related as I am sure when energy costs are so high, the cost to buy and own a tub will prohibit many folks from having one. (one of the plumbers that helped me this week is getting rid of his because the electric is killing him).  I also think dealers could benefit because they would be able to say...follow these guidelines and by reducing your overall electric usage, you CAN afford to run a tub...
Gombo, you seem to me to be an analytical kind of guy, just from the questions you ask..I could see you investing in solar domestic hot water to offset your electric hot water bills....There is a tax credit this year and I am sure in California you get tons more degree days than we do out here. My 20 year old solar panels can do the job most of the summer and help out a lot in the winter....
Just switching out incandescent light bulbs (especially the huge ones in the high hats) will not only save electric but will be much cooler, so your air condition works less...
Brooke, the whole house fan thing...I love mine but it is only effective at night right now. I know you have a one story house, but they make huge units that could be mounted in windows...they are noisy but they can cool your house before you turn on your air. sometimes I would rather have the fan than be closed up with air condition.
This year I have increased the chlorine in my swimming pool and reduced the filtration times. I also bought an oversized pump so that the water filters faster.
Anyone with a hot water heater, be sure to wrap it tight with extra insulation on the outside of the tank. I have a stone lined tank for my solar water, it is also wrapped in insulation.
Steve (Cola) showed me what some things use as far as kWh and how much each could contribute to my electric. When things are broken down like that , it makes it easy to shut something off or remember to turn off lights ....
Ok, Off my soapbox, I have a weeks worth of laundry to catch up on....(another great energy savings....don't do your laundry for a week!)  

[Jack_L]

Man, I'm glad I don't live on the left coast.

It all depends on what part of the left coast.  Here in WA our state sells excess electricity to California so as per the example above we pay much less.  I also noticed on my bill that we are getting credits for wind-power.  Not sure what's up with that, but I won't complain about a credit.

[Vinny]

Reading Boni and Jack's posts it reminds me here in NJ they're running a solar energy program.

Apparently they are giving huge tax credits to install solar power cells on your home. If your house faces a certain way the roof can accept these cells and you can sell energy back to the utility.

I do like that idea BUT I have mature trees and I would hate to get rid of them at this point ... I believe they help with energy conservation as they shade my house in the summer, drop their leaves in the fall and maybe my house has some solar gain.

Boni's post about her plumber getting rid of one is interesting, when I was getting estimates an electrician told me (my wive was there too - that's all I needed ) that he had one and the meter goes crazy ... thankfully I bought a quality tub and it's not too bad.

[Bonibelle]

Vinny, if you have the right orientation, I would say just take a look. I think you may be talking about the PV cells that generate electric. I would love to put in a system like that but they are very expensive right now. I have two panels that use a small circ pump to circulate
antfreeze from the roof to my 80 gallon stone lined tank. I can tell you right now, I am cranking 150 degrees in the panels, so I have 80 gallons of water at 150, diluted to usable temperatures, means far more than 80 gallons.
We installed this system over 20 years ago in the first big energy crisis. It has paid for itself over and over again and I just love the fact that much of my hot water is free.
I have a friend that is having such success with his new system that he is selling electric back to PECO.
Remember, insulation and many other energy saving improvements are included in this government plan.  

[Brewman]

 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.  

[thearm]

here in the great state of NY I pay .13per kwh. last month was 1385 kwh usage for a bill of 179.15. I think we are second to California in electric costs in the nation. I guess at .37 kwh I can't complain to much.

[Vinny]

here in the great state of NY I pay .13per kwh. last month was 1385 kwh usage for a bill of 179.15. I think we are second to California in electric costs in the nation. I guess at .37 kwh I can't complain to much.

Naw, NJ has you beat ... We have more corruption!

[Vinny]

Vinny, if you have the right orientation, I would say just take a look. I think you may be talking about the PV cells that generate electric. I would love to put in a system like that but they are very expensive right now. I have two panels that use a small circ pump to circulate
antfreeze from the roof to my 80 gallon stone lined tank. I can tell you right now, I am cranking 150 degrees in the panels, so I have 80 gallons of water at 150, diluted to usable temperatures, means far more than 80 gallons.
We installed this system over 20 years ago in the first big energy crisis. It has paid for itself over and over again and I just love the fact that much of my hot water is free.
I have a friend that is having such success with his new system that he is selling electric back to PECO.
Remember, insulation and many other energy saving improvements are included in this government plan.  

My orientation is that I'm straight ... thanks for asking!

Seriously, my house is about perfect for solar energy cells. I own an A frame roofed house that aligns up almost perfectly to the east - west  plane of the sun. My trees are my concern (but ask me again in the fall -LOL!!), I would hate to either cut them down totally or trim them back for the panels to work at their most efficient level.

I went and looked at them after your post and they are probably a full story above my house. I have 5 in the back and 2 in the front - they are great to have and the ones in the front really are beautiful IMO.

I also know these systems are expensive, probably in the $60,000 range with the homeowner's final price after rebates and such to be around $20,000 , the article that I read said it was going to take 19 years to pay it off with the saving - don't know if this is true but that's way too long for a payoff IMO

I did my best to get my house as energy efficient as possible - I put in a 92% efficient furnace, 14+ SEER a/c unit, whenever I open up an outside wall - I add insulation (the stuff I'm adding is way thicker than what's in there from the builder - the house is 36 years old) and have used compact flouresent wherever I can but we rally don't like the quality of the light it puts out.

Something that's exciting in the future (I am a nerd) is LED technology. It's advancing fairly rapidly and hopefully they will produce a LED capable of producing enough light as a 60Watt bulb. It might only use 1/2 Watt to produce that light. Most new cars are using LED lights for stop/brake lights and they are making them brighter all the time.

[DPS]

Mine was $339 most recently for 2638KWH in my 3600 sq. ft. 2 story home.  We had 11 days straight of over 100 degree temps, with the average being around 98, so the AC was rarely off.

[In Canada eh]

Just in case anyone wants to use a out of country comparision. We live in the province of Ontario. We also have a two tier system .058 for the first 600 kwh and .067 for everything afterwards.

                   $184
                   1516 kwh used
                    included in the $ is debt retirement
                                                   transmission costs
                                                   loss factor

We also have not noticed any difference since the tub was installed in May.  The house is 1256 sq. ft. with central air, 3/4 hp pool filter motor( on a timer), set back thermostat and florescent lamps used were we can. I don't know but it looks comparable.