# Your last power bill



## Loco Gringo (Jan 27, 2011)

Im not one to ask something personal/financial, but was your power bill much higher than last month. Mine today was 185 and Ive never had one that high. And for the rrecord I run the heat pump about 2 hours when I get up in the morning till I get the fire going about 30 minutes before I leave at 6 a.m. We even dry our clothes on racks in the downstairs den where the stove is. Again Im not asking what your bill is but was it a steep jump too? Share what you want with about your bill though.


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## Cate68 (Jan 27, 2011)

Was that bill an actual reading or an estimate? If an estimate, some power companies might take that into consideration considering the unusual cold temps we've been having and estimate you've used more power. I believe it's been colder in NC than normal also. Your next bill will be significantly lower if it is an estimate... if it wasn't, I'm not sure. Have the utility rates in your area changed?


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## Loco Gringo (Jan 27, 2011)

Yeah we got an increase this month. I used to watch the reading. Ill be taking a look tomorow and start watching it more closely I guess. Can they just do an "average" reading?


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## Cate68 (Jan 27, 2011)

Loco Gringo said:
			
		

> Can they just do an "average" reading?



Well, that would make sense... so of course my answer will have to be no!


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## Backwoods Savage (Jan 27, 2011)

Ours was down just a tad. It was $54 and last month was $62, which is extremely high for us. Normal any more here is $50-$55 per month.


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## wkpoor (Jan 27, 2011)

Ours runs right at 100.00 yr around winter or summer with or without the air on. Thats with 4 persons and an electric hot water tank and 3 fridges. However that is the only utility bill we recieve. Not to shabby all things considered, climate, size of home, persons living in the home, style of home, and so on.


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## laynes69 (Jan 27, 2011)

Ours is around 170.00 right now, which is ridiculous. I found the points sticking on the well pump which costs about 25-30 a month and I think there is an element going on our water heater which is an 85 gallon heater. Factor that, 3 computers, 2 security lights and a furnace blower that runs all winter long, its higher. Plus the co-op increases rates for winter, then lowers them in the spring and summer months. The lowest I have seen is about 110.00 here.


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## ecocavalier02 (Jan 27, 2011)

80 bucks here on average. summer mine peaks up 130 a month. air conditioners running.


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## woodsmaster (Jan 27, 2011)

$140.00 last month. My cheapist in 5 years and our rates went up 11% in dec. family of 5 , electric stove and water heater, 3 girls . I put a check valve on the water heater, got a high efficency washing machine and put a time limit on showers for the girls. Soon I'll be heating water by wood and hope to take a little more off the bill. house and shop 100% wood heat
computer stays on 24 - 7 -365 and 47" LCD T.V. on most of the time.


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## begreen (Jan 27, 2011)

$97 last month, running the heatpump a fair amount, but with the wood stove doing the heavy lifting. Of course we have a lot more lights running in the winter and I have a small electric heater in my office. Summer bills average in the high 50's to low 60's.


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## JustWood (Jan 27, 2011)

Was electric deregulated in your state?
PA and MD I'm pretty sure were on 1-1-11.


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## KevinACrider (Jan 27, 2011)

Holy $h!t! My wife and I just bought this house on November 12th. I installed the fireplace insert on January 12th. Our house is completely electric baseboard heat in every room. The first month I was unable to find the thermostat for 3 of the heaters that I noticed were set a little higher than they needed to be. Our "prorated" bill for that month was $330. I assumed that was due to the thermostats that I couldn't find and didn't think much of it. The next month was our first full bill and the total was $440. This blew my mind! I know that this does not take into account the wood stove replacing our heat source but this is not my first rodeo. I've never paid a bill that high, ever! I do run a slew of computers and have a pretty extensive home theater system but this is still beyond what I've paid before (the home theater system and computers have been in use at our previous home as well).

The stove is now our only heat source, with all thermostats set to 0 aside from our bedroom being set to 65, the room with our dogs kennels is set to 55 and the main bathroom is set to 55. I DID make the huge mistake of not closing the damper in our fireplace before the insert was installed. Being my first home with a fireplace, I'm still learning! :-X

The differences between my $440 bill and my next months bill are:
- The fireplace insert is now installed and is our main source of heat. The chimney liner is also well insulated, keeping the warm air in the house instead of heating the neighborhood. That baby keeps this house warmer than the baseboard heat did.
- I've replaced every single lightbulb with an CFL bulb. (I bought 50 19w CFL's on eBay for $40 shipped!)
- I've learned to turn off lights and I now keep all of our printers and fax machines turned off and I power down 3 local servers that I used to run 24/7.

I'll update this when my next bill comes with the difference, but I hope to god it's significant!


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## Alan Gage (Jan 27, 2011)

I guess the big question is how many Kwh did you use compared to usual? Need to figure out if the price increase was because of extra usage, some fee, or just higher rates.

Since everyone is bragging/complaining about their bill I might as well jump in. My bill runs between $32-40, $29 of it being a hookup fee. I usually use about 40Kwh/month. The only things I usually have turned on are the refrigerator, a light bulb in whatever room I'm in (sometimes I splurge and turn on two) and my well pump. Oh, and some heat tape to keep the inside of the pipes liquid in winter.

It used to love it when the bill came, it was a game to get it as low as possible. It's pretty much bottomed out now so it's not quite as exciting, just another bill. Geez, I need a life.

Alan


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## nate379 (Jan 27, 2011)

Ok, well I don't feel too bad.  Mine was $74 and I about blew my stack until I saw in little letters it said "estimate".  My normal bill is around $70 in the winter, and $40-50 in the summer.

No one was home for 2 weeks in that billing cycle and not to mention I didn't even have power for ~5 days combined so no way I used that much juice.

Electric here is $0.16 Kw/hr


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## velvetfoot (Jan 27, 2011)

In the warmer months I'm under 300 kw-hrs, now, more like 370.


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## PapaDave (Jan 27, 2011)

From Dec. 10th-Jan. 10th, our gas use was 12 ccf, and elec. was 434 kWh. We usually use about 10-11 ccf, and the elec. can vary from 375- close to 500.
Winter is always higher for electric, since the minimal lights we do use are on much longer, and so are the laptops. My wife likes to keep the Christmas lights lit 24/7 from well before the 25th until about a week ago. If I run the furnace in the shop, and the lights, and the tools, both go up a little.


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## nate379 (Jan 27, 2011)

Wow that's really low on the gas.  I use around 50ccf in the summer even, that is to run the boiler for domestic hot water (indirect fired water heater) and the cook stove.


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## steam man (Jan 27, 2011)

These post make me chuckle. I'd say my electric bill runs typically from 140-180 on average. That's with about 900-1000 KW useage at maybe 19.5 cents/kwh. The month of December my bill was $265 at about 1465 KWH. I nearly fell over. My wife put up a Christmas tree with so many lights the power company has to put another generator on line. I have a large place with a number of electrcial items. I was traveling for work the last 2 months but when I got home I shutdown most of that crap. I am not a popular guy around here. LOL


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## BrotherBart (Jan 27, 2011)

Lost power in the snow storm last night about six o'clock. Fired up one of the generators and strung the extension cords. After everything was up and running I popped a beer and fired up my computer. Logged onto the power company site to find a message that it would be a multi-day outage. A few minutes later I received an email telling me my January bill was ready on-line.  :lol:


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## BrowningBAR (Jan 27, 2011)

BrotherBart said:
			
		

> Lost power in the snow storm last night about six o'clock. Fired up one of the generators and strung the extension cords. After everything was up and running I popped a beer and fired up my computer. Logged onto the power company site to find a message that it would be a multi-day outage. A few minutes later I received an email telling me my January bill was ready on-line.  :lol:



Respond to the email stating that the power company will be experiencing a multi-day delay on the payment of the current bill.


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## smokinj (Jan 27, 2011)

Loco Gringo said:
			
		

> Im not one to ask something personal/financial, but was your power bill much higher than last month. Mine today was 185 and Ive never had one that high. And for the rrecord I run the heat pump about 2 hours when I get up in the morning till I get the fire going about 30 minutes before I leave at 6 a.m. We even dry our clothes on racks in the downstairs den where the stove is. Again Im not asking what your bill is but was it a steep jump too? Share what you want with about your bill though.



175.00 was my last one just about Puke it up! Cloths going back on the line...


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## henkmeuzelaar (Jan 27, 2011)

The power bill for the very cold December month was approx. $300.  This is not bad at all when considering that our 2400 sq ft loghome (not counting the unfinished,  unheated walk-out basement) is electrically heated and that we live in a fairly cold part of Idaho at 5800 ft altitude. Right now the daily use is only 6-7 kWh, so I expect to see monthly bills around $ 200.

Although electricity is the ONLY utility provided to our fairly remote location we are fortunate that the very low kWh price (just under 5 cent per kWh) allows us to generate roughly the same number of BTUs available from 1 cord of wood at the local price (approx. $ 170) for a split, delivered and split stack.

I love modern energy conversion technologies and had been planning to put an efficient, low-emission indoors wood gasifier in the basement and/or install some of the newer heat pumps, but at these low hydroelectric power prices (the Palisades dam is less than 2 miles away) nothing else but simple, distributed electric heating makes much sense economically.

Of course, I can always hope that I made a mistake in my calculations (if so, please do let me know!!) or that electricity prices will go up far enough so I can convince my wife that we need some high-tech solutions!

Absent that, I am starting to check into geothermal heat sources (there is a lot of travertine-like rock in the ground under our house) while perfecting the home's insulation (e.g. chinkin the log walls both inside and outside).

Henk


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## PapaDave (Jan 27, 2011)

steam man said:
			
		

> These post make me chuckle. I'd say my electric bill runs typically from 140-180 on average. That's with about 900-1000 KW useage at maybe 19.5 cents/kwh. The month of December my bill was $265 at about 1465 KWH. I nearly fell over. My wife put up a Christmas tree with so many lights the power company has to put another generator on line. I have a large place with a number of electrcial items. I was traveling for work the last 2 months but when I got home I shutdown most of that crap. I am not a popular guy around here. LOL



Tell them to pay the bill. :lol: 
My oldest daughter used to turn up the thermostat so she could walk around the house in t-shirts and shorts.
She still hasn't learned, but is married and gone now.

Nate, that gas bill is to heat our water. Everything else is electric, and of course, we heat with wood 100%.
It's just the wife and I in a small ranch.


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## pring7 (Jan 27, 2011)

$219 last month, but the Avg Temp was 37 F.  This is the lowest temp since we moved to Eastern NC and the heat pump ran nonstop at night.  Next year the plan is to have a new woodstove to cut the electric costs.


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Jan 27, 2011)

Do you have Duke?  I'm in h-ville.   My bill went from 6.2 cents KW/H to 9.9 cents KW/H this past month.   My bill generally runs 35-50 bucks/mo.  That includes everything except oil furnace.   I don't run a dryer.


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## daveswoodhauler (Jan 27, 2011)

This is what we have paid for the last several months...month/kw used/days/cost

May    392    30    59.730
June     276    28    44.200
July    358    32    51.570
August    477    29    70.040
Sept    493    34    74.530
Oct    390    28    58.000
Nov    415    29    61.470
Dec    540    29    78.630

Actually, our KW of 540 last month was the highest in about 3 years....actually broke down and put up some xmas lights 
Family of five, and we have oil heat.


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## BrotherBart (Jan 27, 2011)

Mine is pretty consistent seasonally. 25 KWH a  day in the hot months of the summer with A/C running. 23 - 25 in the winter. 17 is the base load as determined in spring and fall. It would be less but the little brown haired girl is an invalid and Directv, the big screen and her computer are 24 hour a day companions. And a couple of mini-fridges and microwave up there. And since she is upstairs the farthest from the stove I keep an oil filled radiator in there set at 70 around the clock. It usually only comes on just before sun-up for a while. Bill runs from $75 to $110 a month. Accounting for all included charges we pay on average $0.1477 per KWH.

Well, we do when the power comes back on in a day or two. Right now we are paying $3.19 a gallon for electricity.


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## pring7 (Jan 27, 2011)

I have Progress Energy, but I heard recently that they were bought by Duke.  I wonder if that will be good or bad for us?


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## Cowboy Billy (Jan 27, 2011)

I usually run about $45 through the winter. But my last bill was $30.28. I don't watch tv. All I run is a fridge, radio, computer, fan on the wood furnace and a few lights. I haven't been using any water or running the dryer as I ran my well over and I don't have $ to have it fixed. But I have been getting my exercise Cutting a hole in ice with a axe. And hauling 15 to 25 gallons of water a day for the bathroom and my horse's water trough from the creek.

Billy


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## smokinj (Jan 27, 2011)

Cowboy Billy said:
			
		

> I usually run about $45 through the winter. But my last bill was $30.28. I don't watch tv. All I run is a fridge, radio, computer, fan on the wood furnace and a few lights. I haven't been using any water or running the dryer as I ran my well over and I don't have $ to have it fixed. But I have been getting my exercise Cutting a hole in ice with a axe. And hauling 15 to 25 gallons of water a day for the bathroom and my horse's water trough from the creek.
> 
> Billy



Wow kinda know it tougher but there is a silver linning!


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## yooperdave (Jan 27, 2011)

$70 for power--musta been the christmas light thing?  or probably all the time i'm on the computer (hearth.com)
$10 for gas


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## Loco Gringo (Jan 28, 2011)

~*~Kathleen~*~ said:
			
		

> Do you have Duke?  I'm in h-ville.   My bill went from 6.2 cents KW/H to 9.9 cents KW/H this past month.   My bill generally runs 35-50 bucks/mo.  That includes everything except oil furnace.   I don't run a dryer.


Yeah K, Im in Bryson City.


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## ChillyGator (Jan 28, 2011)

firemedic said:
			
		

> I have Progress Energy, but I heard recently that they were bought by Duke.  I wonder if that will be good or bad for us?



Progress here also.  I've read a little on the merger, not much positive for Progress ratepayers longterm.  Duke needs $$$ to move to more nuclear production.  Here in Florida, I'm already paying $8 a month for a nuke plant that may never be built.  Nice!

September:  1216 kwh $175.08
October:        507 kwh $76.93
November:     484 kwh $73.91
December:     728 kwh  $99.77
January:          667 keg.  $93.52


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## PV2U (Feb 14, 2011)

Oh, bless you wonderful people!  You have all brought a smile to my face tonight as I skimmed through everyone's power charges!! ;-P My January bill was $518 to heat a 1,700 sqft two-story (and let's face it, I'm in VA, not exactly the blizzard capital of the world!)!!

The previous bill was one of my "low" ones of $294, but my "budget" amount is about $360 per month and has been averaging $300+ for YEARS.  Reading the comments above has served to further underscore to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that something is bad wrong with my situation.

see thread over in Wood Boilers for the full scoop:  https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/70757/

In short, I am on a quest to find the cause for this obscenely huge power bill, and vanquish it!!  :O)


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## crossout (Feb 14, 2011)

$116 here for 927 kw electric every thing stove,dryer,hot water,water well pump,cfl light bulbs    3 kids 2 adults i guess that not bad for a family of 5....  no cable bill no monthly gas bill only paid 480 worth of fuel oil since dec 3rd and still have $120 worth of fuel oil left have about little over a cord of wood left hope thats all i need for the rest of this yr...


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## BrotherBart (Feb 14, 2011)

PV2U said:
			
		

> Oh, bless you wonderful people!  You have all brought a smile to my face tonight as I skimmed through everyone's power charges!! ;-P My January bill was $518 to heat a 1,700 sqft two-story (and let's face it, I'm in VA, not exactly the blizzard capital of the world!)!!
> 
> The previous bill was one of my "low" ones of $294, but my "budget" amount is about $360 per month and has been averaging $300+ for YEARS.  Reading the comments above has served to further underscore to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that something is bad wrong with my situation.
> 
> ...



Yep. Get wood heat Bro. My all electric house electric bill averages less than a hundred bucks a month. Been heating this 2500 sq. ft. barn with wood since 1985.

They keep replacing my meter every two years or so thinking it is broken. My neighbors' bills run about the same as yours in winter. Well, except the one on the place next to me that was being smart and plumbed the house for propane. Would love to know what that is costing him.


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## PV2U (Feb 14, 2011)

BrotherBart said:
			
		

> Yep. Get wood heat Bro. My all electric house electric bill averages less than a hundred bucks a month. Been heating this 2500 sq. ft. barn with wood since 1985.
> 
> They keep replacing my meter every two years or so thinking it is broken. My neighbors' bills run about the same as yours in winter. Well, except the one on the place next to me that was being smart and plumbed the house for propane. Would love to know what that is costing him.



LOL!  Yeah, your neighbor is feeling a "Pro-Pain" all right!  My sister has a big old farmhouse that they converted to a gas-assisted heat pump of some variety, and it is not unusual for them to get a $600-$700 gas bill ON TOP OF a $200-$300 power bill!

Just hope they don't give you MY meter!  That thin don't know HOW to read under $275, even in the shoulder months!!  =O)

I am certainly on the track to do SOMETHING different.  I would love to burn wood if I can figure out the particulars and logistics of where, what, etc.  If I thought I could end up paying less than $100 a month, I'd feel like I was stealing something! HA!


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## Dingeryote (Feb 14, 2011)

Y'all are scaring me.

It's rare that we get over 50 bucks even in the summer when running the AC.
2,500sqft heated with the Quadrafire 7100,CFL's everywhere, and only the clothes dryer is electric.

Propane for the on demand water heater,stove/oven and occaisional quick heat ups, ran us 600 bucks for last year.

In comparison, our 5hp constant pressure Irrigation well runs 24/7 from May through September and is on the same meter as the shop and barns.
It gets up in the 150-200 dollars range at commercial rates, when we are doing a lot of welding or running sorting lines. 

Our rates are pretty good, but some of you guys are getting hammered!


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## maverick06 (Feb 14, 2011)

I have been keeping track of my utility bills in excel since I moved into the house a few years ago. I have attached the charts that I keep. My power bill shows "peak" and "off peak" as I have 2 power meters, the off peak only runs at night and provides electricity at a lower rate. I only use it for me electric hot water heater. 
You will also see that my electric bill goes up when it is cold, this is because I have a heat pump. You will also see that the power bill has slowly crept up since we moved into the house, as we "grew" into it, and since then has stabilized.

It is interesting being able to look at all this data. In addition to the added electricity costs due to the heat pump, I am also burning ~30-50 gal of oil/year and about 2 cords of wood (oil and wood are $440 - $500 combined.) The previous owners burnt 775 gallons the previous year (775g x $3.30 = $2557/year to heat the house ). I am saving a ton with the heat pump and wood!


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## steam man (Feb 14, 2011)

Dingeryote said:
			
		

> Y'all are scaring me.
> 
> It's rare that we get over 50 bucks even in the summer when running the AC.
> 2,500sqft heated with the Quadrafire 7100,CFL's everywhere, and only the clothes dryer is electric.
> ...



Just what is your electric rate and kwh useage? I posted earlier that my last months bill was $265 for 1465kwh use. This month it is about $140 for 788kwh use, which is a low average. 2500sq ft and I use solar for DHW, currently using a wood stove, have a number of cfls. I have a gas dryer/cooktop/fireplace-propane at $4.00/gal with 120 gal fill last month, 110 gal oil top off last month at $3.30/gal so now I owe the oil/gas co. about $900. I typically use 500-800 gals/oil per year and don't use a lot of propane. Seems like all the bills converged on a perfect storm. I don't know how much more I can trim but I am working on it. 19.5 cents/kwh just really blows.


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## Dingeryote (Feb 14, 2011)

Steam,

Just checked the August bill. 240kwh @ 16 cents for the hooch, and January was 210kwh.

Heat is all on the Quad without using the remote runs, as the house is laid out for circular air flow, and gravity keeping the 2 second floor bedrooms toasty.

18" of combined blown insulation with 8" fiberglass S&R over 10" of blown cellulose, and insulated 2X8 walls.
Windows were the latest and greatest the wife approved of.


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## steam man (Feb 14, 2011)

Dingeryote, I have to say I could never expect to get my kwh useage down to anywhere near that low. Of course I have teenage son at home and a daughter part time. Both use quite a bit of juice. My wife is not much better. Multiple computers and tvs running quite a bit. I monitor random things with my Kill-O-Watt meter. No big surpises. Just a lot of stuff. I did have an issue when I was away traveling for two months and my refrigerator defroster was stuck on. Nice big fat bill. House is about the same specs, maybe too many windows and certainly those ridiculous holes in my roof called skylights.


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## jebatty (Feb 15, 2011)

The annual report from our power company just arrived, combined total for regular electric, off peak hot water heater, and interruptible electric heat - 3 meters. Electric heat is only used to keep our basement at 50F during the winter and when we happen to be gone for more than a day during the winter, but typically alone is right around $200/year. July and August is high for regular due to the dehumidifier being on. Anyway, 12 month average total for regular, hot water, and heat combined for 2010 was 31 kwh/day, $3.12/day.


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## steam man (Feb 15, 2011)

jebatty said:
			
		

> The annual report from our power company just arrived, combined total for regular electric, off peak hot water heater, and interruptible electric heat - 3 meters. Electric heat is only used to keep our basement at 50F during the winter and when we happen to be gone for more than a day during the winter, but typically alone is right around $200/year. July and August is high for regular due to the dehumidifier being on. Anyway, 12 month average total for regular, hot water, and heat combined for 2010 was 31 kwh/day, $3.12/day.



Sounds about where mine should typically be though at times this place sounds like a power station at times with everything running.

Mike


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## Kaptain (Feb 17, 2011)

Just moved into our place a few months ago and the average has been around 75 bucks.  Electric dryer, heat, and water heater.

We don't go out of our way unplugging chargers/power strips and the computer is on 24/7.  I've put CFL's throughout the house but we try to turn them off in rooms not being used.

The summer will be a different story when we're running the AC's but it should stay under 150 / month.


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## Wood Duck (Feb 17, 2011)

In central PA (Allegheny Power) my all electric house costs about $250 per month averaged over the full year. My current rate seems to be about $0.094 per kwh. I am not sure if the rate has changed since deregulation, and I am not sure if the averaged cost reflects a new rate or some average of the new and old rate (if in fact rates have changed here). I use a lot more power in winter than in summer. With the wood stove, new in December, I am using a lot less this winter than last.


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