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I think that I might win for least energy-efficient house ever

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$135 last month for all my utilities (water/elec/gas/garbage) on a 2100sq ft house. Have never seen it above $200 yet.
 
That's crazy. From 6/16 to 7/17, I used 1240 kWh, which cost $104.86. This is for a 1700-sq-ft house in southern Missouri. I keep the temp at 74 when we're home and 81 from 8-5 when we're not.

A programmable thermostat would be a nice plus if everyone's out of the house for several hours every day. You could just turn it up when you leave and back down when you get home, but mine takes about 45-60 minutes to cool it down from 81 to 74 on the near-100 days we've had lately.
 
Originally posted by: Genx87
When at school my house in Fargo was built in the late 1800's. We had no insulation in the walls. My senior year we didnt get above 0 degree's for over a month in the dec-jan timeframe and our gas bill was 780 bucks. I had to see it to believe it as the rent for the house was 950 lol
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i didn't know there were still housing that old in fargo, where'd you live?
 
Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
Originally posted by: Christobevii3
Mine was $280 last month with only 1280kwh...fucking natural gas based rate hit 21cKwh
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Welcome to Texas, land of abundant energy resources, yet the highest energy rates in the nation.
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I call bullshit.... here in Alaska, we pay the highest energy costs. I'm going to be paying over $700 a month to heat my house this winter. My "average" power bill is less than $100, but once you add on the "fuel charge" it's over $200 a month.

Beat that bitches.... 🙁
 
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Originally posted by: xSauronx


what was the bill?
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$317.15. I was hoping for about $180.
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That's about what the bills were at my wife's and my house we rented in Florida (about the same size too). Some POS 1950s build, with an AC unit certainly not much newer. We usually had the AC set at around 80...never lower than 78. It was outrageous.

Our 2000 sqft house set at 78-80 was only $95 this last month (a record breaking streak of days over 90 in CO).
 
2000 sqft home. 3 ton 13 seer unit put in last year.

Charleston, SC where the temp is 90 or higher most of the summer.

We average around $140 for cooling a month in the summer

We keep our thermostat at 74 degrees between 4am and 4pm. 4pm til 10pm it is set to 72 degrees. From 10pm til 4am it is set to 68 degrees.
 
1480 sq/ft here
~400KWH
5 people

We don't use much more than $35/month in electricity, and maybe another $30-$60/month in natural gas (closer to $60 in coldest part of winter)
 
wow, that is expensive. Mine during the winter months was $42 with a file server, 2 tivos, 32" sony crt-hd tv, but I didnt' use the heat as my downstairs neighbors kept my apartment at a nice 75 degrees. During the summer months, I have been averaging $72, with thermostat at 77 degrees, and the same as above. I dont like my AC unit, it is fairly old and not very efficient.
 
Originally posted by: Codewiz
2000 sqft home. 3 ton 13 seer unit put in last year.

Charleston, SC where the temp is 90 or higher most of the summer.

We average around $140 for cooling a month in the summer

We keep our thermostat at 74 degrees between 4am and 4pm. 4pm til 10pm it is set to 72 degrees. From 10pm til 4am it is set to 68 degrees.
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SC and 68 degrees? If someone turned my thermostat down to 68 I'd start sleeping under the thermostat so I could shank the offender.

On 85+ days it'll be 76 during the day and I'll let the wife turn it to 74 at night so it keeps the humidity down.
 
Looking at that AC unit, it simply looks like it is inadequate for the space of the house. Having a unit too small for a room forces it to run 24/7 and it generally doesn't help things much in the long run. I think your initial though to replace it is right on.
 
I live in Oklahoma and my electric bill for July was $97! I have a 1020 ft^2 house, total electric (no gas what-so-ever), and my house stays at 78F during the summer. BTW - it was 107F with 10% humidity today. It was fricken hot!

To defend this low energy usage, I'm one of two system administrators for an $850 million bank in Oklahoma going through a complete bank conversion this year (we bought another $400 million bank this spring). So, in essence, I leave a 8am and rarely ever get home at 5pm (avg is 7-8pm).
 
Originally posted by: krotchy
Looking at that AC unit, it simply looks like it is inadequate for the space of the house. Having a unit too small for a room forces it to run 24/7 and it generally doesn't help things much in the long run. I think your initial though to replace it is right on.
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Yeah, I have a guy coming out to look at it. My guess is about $3K. I was just saying the other day that I had an extra three grand laying around. 😛
 
Originally posted by: feralkid
Electric bill too high; can't afford water.
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I took those pics before I bought the house. I've done a little gardening back there and removed all of the dead plants. My flowers are coming along nicely.
 
Our electric bill was $42 last month for our ~600 sq-ft apartment in CA with A/C, all-electric kitchen (we cook a lot), dishwasher, washer, and electric dryer. A/C set to 72 degrees.

Having the middle apartment on the bottom floor pays big when it comes to the A/C bill. It barely had to run, even when the temperature outside neared triple digits.
 
My last electric bill was something like $450-$500 for a 2800sqft apartment in Chicago, but that was because the previous 6 months were "estimate" readings and they finally came out for an actual reading. Ouch.
 
i never turn off my AC in a 3000 Sq foot house, and barely hit $150/month on a 20 year old AC. unless you guys have the fan on at high and set the temperature to 65, i don't understand how it can ever be that high. Chances are, the other stuff (washer/dryer/fridge/computer/etc...) are making the difference.
 
Yeah looking at the picture your A/C unit looks way to small for the size of the space its cooling. On top of that its from 1979 so it's well past its expected life. Better to get it replaced now and not have to worry about it and lower the power bills in the same time.
 
I have a high efficiency Whirlpool AC unit in my 3 level Townhouse condo (not sure of the square footage) and with it running all of June and July my monthly bills were in the $88 range. Normal consumption without AC is around $67 - $75 range.

Heating in the winter when its really cold costs me about $150 in natural gas while electricity averages $90.

I use a programmable thermostat and it has helped a lot to reduce my costs.
 
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