Your electric bill

[tripleshot]

We just built a house and our electric bill is $250. It's a 2200 sq ft ranch and is all electric. The only gas is the fireplace. We're in OH and it's been about 50-55 degrees here. It's not even really cold yet. I'm scared what the January bill will be.

So how much is your electric bill in the winter ( if you have electric heat)?

ETA: apparently I'm a dumbass. DH says we have gas heat. I swear he said earlier the gas is only for the fireplace. But I still don't like the $250 bill. Maybe it's catching up for last Month's estimated bill.

[Becca]

Say what? Electric heat? I don't know anyone that has that - sounds expensive!

Our last gas/electric bill (arrived yesterday) was $70. Once we hit the middle of our MN winter, our combined gas/electric bill will creep up closer to $300 for the worst month (January).

I know that doesn't help since we don't have electric heat though, sorry :/

What are you keeping your thermostat at?

[Deleted]

$116/month on the year round budget plan. 1700 sq ft ranch in Michigan.

[tripleshot]

We do have a programmable thermostat, but we haven't really used it to its potential. It's set at 70 b/c I'm always freezing. This bill is the kick in the pants I needed to get the manual out and set it up to be cooler while we're at work and sleeping. The builder we used prides itself on building energy efficient homes.

[pamela]

With electric heat, you're screwed. Electricity is the most inefficient way to heat a home. We've had electric as a backup to a heat pump, but never on it's own. That's insane to have it that far north.

[Deleted]

We had electric heat at our old house, 1300 sq feet, and our bill was around $250-$350 in the winter. We have gas heat in our current home, but we still pay about $100 in electric for 795 square feet. ETA: We have high electric rates here.

[tripleshot]

Updated in OP. I'm a moron apparently.

[Pom]

We are in Texas. Get this, I just got our first full bill at our new house which is 2400 sq ft. I was panicked, because our 750 sq ft apartment was $112 last month. The house (weather in the 80's/low 90's during most of the last month) was only $113!!! Same electric company. I think they rip off the customers in certain areas of the city and we now have a house about 15 miles outside the city limits. I call bullshit. And definately use your programmable thermostat, we do here and in our last house. I think it makes a huge impact.

[moolarkey]

I'm in Central Ohio and have 3600 sq ft. We have gas and heat rather than all electric. I do have 3 bedrooms shut off upstairs and the vents closed so we don't use any more AC or heat in there than can be avoided.

My electric for August was $275, and remember it was a very hot summer.
My gas was $27

For last February my electric was $32 and my gas was $153

Maybe your bill includes a deposit for having the electric turned on in your name? You may want to check with neighbors, if they have all-electric and see what they pay.

[Pom]

I saw your update. Are your appliances all new? Electric dryer? Stove? That seems high. Start turning off lights? Does it say on your bill that there is a new customer charge or deposit? I've been hit before with a $100+ deposit. Hopefully that is the reason.

[tripleshot]

Oct 13, 2012 17:55:38 GMT -5 Pom said:

I saw your update. Are your appliances all new? Electric dryer? Stove? That seems high. Start turning off lights? Does it say on your bill that there is a new customer charge or deposit? I've been hit before with a $100+ deposit. Hopefully that is the reason.

Yep, everything is brand new and the dryer and stove are electric. We've been good turning lights off. I'm hoping it's because last month's bill was an estimate (and we had the a/c on 68). There's no special charge on the bill. Thanks for the ideas ladies. I'm definitely going to figure out how to set times on the thermostat.

[puppydoggie]

Min. elec bill no matter the month is around $85. Max elec so far has been $290. 4k sq ft.

[nital]

That's your electricity bill when you have gas heat? Holy crap. Our highest electricity bill ever was about $300. In Phoenix in July right before our A/C unit died (it was going all the time trying to cool the house). In a 2600 sq foot house. Lately our electric bill has been closer to $80-$100, but it should go down as temps to down.

[mollybrown]

Oct 13, 2012 17:53:02 GMT -5 Pom said:

We are in Texas. Get this, I just got our first full bill at our new house which is 2400 sq ft. I was panicked, because our 750 sq ft apartment was $112 last month. The house (weather in the 80's/low 90's during most of the last month) was only $113!!! Same electric company. I think they rip off the customers in certain areas of the city and we now have a house about 15 miles outside the city limits. I call bullshit. And definately use your programmable thermostat, we do here and in our last house. I think it makes a huge impact.

I'm not in Texas, but I agree that the pricing seems arbitrary with some people getting ripped off. We moved from a 1500 sq ft house to an 800 sq ft apartment, and our bill is about the same. Even worse, our water bill doubled, even though we have 2 fewer bathrooms and no yard. When we moved, we had a several hundred dollar credit with the electricity company. Apparently, they hadn't even been reading our meter.

We've been paying an average of $125 in the apartment. Last month was $77.

[M]

I'm in S.Florida so our electric is cheap in the winter. Like $100 in February and March for a 4200 sq ft house. It's about $140 in the summer when we have the AC on. It helps that we have a separate master unit.

Our home in NC is 2000 sq ft and the estimated electric is $180 (no gas heat either) so I'm imagining a normal winter is about $250, but we'll only be there a week each month and probably 2 weeks for Christmas so I intend on turning the heat really low when we're not there.

[ellipses84]

That's seems really high for a new house with energy efficient appliances. Hopefully that included your deposit. It could be due to the AC, but in that case, I wouldn't expect your winter bill to be any more than that.

For gas/electric, our 1300 sf house on the West Coast was $200 in winter before we replaced our very old furnace. Now it is $150 and only $70 in the summer (no AC).

[kaylie]

I agree that it sounds high. I would call them and ask for an explanation. I got a $400 bill in our old apartment and once I made a few phone calls I found out that we'd been overcharged and they refunded me $150.

[dapotato]

if you have a smart meter (see the thread i started), get online and track your usage! it's fun. well, if you're a nerd like mh and me.

[statlerwaldorf]

We live in Ohio and have aep. We have gas heat. Our electric bill is usually between $130 and $180. Our rates have gone up a lot over the past two years. Our actual rates and not just usage. This summer has been hotter than normal, so we've seen some bills that were higher to make up for the difference between estimated and actual meter reading. Plus this is our first year in this house. The electric companies I've used have had a deposit for new customers.

[pamela]

Oct 13, 2012 17:53:02 GMT -5 Pom said:

We are in Texas. Get this, I just got our first full bill at our new house which is 2400 sq ft. I was panicked, because our 750 sq ft apartment was $112 last month. The house (weather in the 80's/low 90's during most of the last month) was only $113!!! Same electric company. I think they rip off the customers in certain areas of the city and we now have a house about 15 miles outside the city limits. I call bullshit. And definately use your programmable thermostat, we do here and in our last house. I think it makes a huge impact.

Pricing is not arbitrary or based on certain areas of the city. Pricing is very transparent and public knowledge. Depending on the part of the state, you could be in a regulated (like SA) or deregulated (like Houston) market. If you're in a dereg market, shop around frequently. If you're in SA, your rates are dirt cheap compared to most of the country. I don't know about Dallas.

[Deleted]

The only way I can heat my apartment is by electric heat. Well we could use the fireplace but it wouldn't heat the bedrooms anywhere near warm enough. During the spring and summer when we don't need the heaters we pay between $50 and $60 for our electric bill. During the late fall and winter when we need our heaters on we pay anywhere between $120 and $160 depending on how warm we need it.

ETA: We have a 700sqft apartment just outside of Seattle.

[chessie]

Sounds abotu right. 1100sq ft raised ranch and our electric bill is around 200 all the time, well, all appliances, fridges, freezer, horses stuff is all on electric, including the electric heat, its rare we use it, which is top over 200 at that point. Honestly at this point though its a wash with heating costs, oil, propane, electric. They did a study years back it actually is more efficient. If your really concerned about the bill look into other resources for heat, wood, pellet, I could go on...then again you have to change the baseboard heaters. To heat my house with wood for 12 cords was around 800 a year not including 4 weekends of work to split, and stack.

[Deleted]

That sounds a lot to me especially on a house that's supposed to be energy efficient.

[somersault72]

Wait, the $250 is electric and gas together, right? That is how high mine usually is in the winter months, but for this month it was $93. However I keep my thermostat at 68 and only turned my heart on last weekend . We have a 2600 sq feet house and live in Ohio.

[gt7301b]

It seems high to me. We are all electric ($2,500 sq ft) and our bill was ~$100 last month. The average for this year was $167.

[Deleted]

My electric bill was $114 (AEP) last month and we used our AC maybe 4 times. 1356 sqft house newer house too. Central OH

Last winter my electric bill was in the $80s (we have gas heat). I'm not sure what it's going to be with the next round of rate increases. Our gas bill was only in the $60s (unusually low but it was a warm winter).

If you use AEP and are set up on autopay, they don't charge a deposit.

[StJess80]

We have electric heat. Actually everything is electric, and we don't have a gas bill at all. Our bills are generally $125-$150 a month depending on how hot/cold it is.

[knitty]

That's what ours is in a house quite a bit bigger than yours in August with air conditioning when it's too hot to go outside. ie, it sounds off to me if it was not an a/c month. With no A/c and no fan for heating it'd be around $75.

Is there a deposit? They take that out over several months if you switch companies.

[schrodinger]

Have you compared your priced per kW or your kW-hr from the old place to the new place? That seems really high for electric when you have gas heat. Google for lists of electricity "vampires" and get some surge protectors where you can kill power to multiple things at once when you leave the house.