1300 sq ft all electric and my bill ranges from $75 to $160 a month. I keep the temperature at 70 degrees year round due to my computer gear and indoor worm ranch.
How much is your electric bill?
We just moved into our house in Maine in January. The first full months electric bill was $275.00, next bill was $297.00! We have a 2200 sq foot house , nothing fancy. To cut the bill down we unplugged our 2nd fridge, started hanging just about every load, washing in cold and wearing jeans twice etc to cut down on loads, shutting off computers at night and shutting off all lights unless we are in the room. Also, we turned the thermomstat down 2 degrees even though we have oil heat. Well the next bill comes and its $225.00. Better, but still not good. In May we washed all dished by hand and haven't used the DW once, figuring this will drop the bill even more.
Today I get May's bill and it was $275.00 again!!!! I just can't believe it. It was very rainy last month so I had to dry more than hang and we got our baby chicks so we had a brooder plugged in 24/7 but $275.00 is so rediculous. I called our electric co in march to have someone come out here and see whats going on and no one has showed up still.
Is this average or is something drastically wrong?
Today I get May's bill and it was $275.00 again!!!! I just can't believe it. It was very rainy last month so I had to dry more than hang and we got our baby chicks so we had a brooder plugged in 24/7 but $275.00 is so rediculous. I called our electric co in march to have someone come out here and see whats going on and no one has showed up still.
Is this average or is something drastically wrong?
21 - 40 of 64 Posts
I agree with agmantoo that you need to do some meter monitoring.
Before you dry a load of clothes go read the meter, then again after the load is finished. How many kilowatts did you use. Since you are drying a load daily that adds up pretty fast.
Again do monitoring when you are baking to see the kilowatt use.
I don't know if "QuiverOf9" means that you are a household of nine people, but if 9 people are bathing with water from an electric hot water heater I suspect that is your biggest energy usage. Also 9 people opening and closing a refrigerator door while snacking would be a big energy usage.
You may also wish to use a "kill-0-watt" meter to determine where smaller usages go.
Since you asked what our bill is, my current bill was for 228 kilowatts and was $20.47. The previous year bill shown on the current bill was for 221 kilowatts. I've added a refrigerator which accounts for the additional load.
Before you dry a load of clothes go read the meter, then again after the load is finished. How many kilowatts did you use. Since you are drying a load daily that adds up pretty fast.
Again do monitoring when you are baking to see the kilowatt use.
I don't know if "QuiverOf9" means that you are a household of nine people, but if 9 people are bathing with water from an electric hot water heater I suspect that is your biggest energy usage. Also 9 people opening and closing a refrigerator door while snacking would be a big energy usage.
You may also wish to use a "kill-0-watt" meter to determine where smaller usages go.
Since you asked what our bill is, my current bill was for 228 kilowatts and was $20.47. The previous year bill shown on the current bill was for 221 kilowatts. I've added a refrigerator which accounts for the additional load.
It sounds wrong to me. It was pretty cold and wet here last month but that bill sounds ridiculous even for northern Maine. Call up the electric and get someone out there asap. I find running an electric heat lamp for a month might jack the bill up by $20 or $30, but I can't imagine what's causing that kind of bill...Quiver0f9 said:We just moved into our house in Maine in January. The first full months electric bill was $275.00, next bill was $297.00! We have a 2200 sq foot house , nothing fancy. To cut the bill down we unplugged our 2nd fridge, started hanging just about every load, washing in cold and wearing jeans twice etc to cut down on loads, shutting off computers at night and shutting off all lights unless we are in the room. Also, we turned the thermomstat down 2 degrees even though we have oil heat. Well the next bill comes and its $225.00. Better, but still not good. In May we washed all dished by hand and haven't used the DW once, figuring this will drop the bill even more.
Today I get May's bill and it was $275.00 again!!!! I just can't believe it. It was very rainy last month so I had to dry more than hang and we got our baby chicks so we had a brooder plugged in 24/7 but $275.00 is so rediculous. I called our electric co in march to have someone come out here and see whats going on and no one has showed up still.
Is this average or is something drastically wrong?
Remember, the elec. company has no incentive to get out there quick if they think they're benefiting from your problem. Call them and tell them your meter's hasn't been running for a few days and they'll be there in an hour. When the reader gets there, tell them it hasn't been running well for a few months and the receptionist must have taken the message wrong...
Get a plug in watt meter and monitor your own useage. I think a brand name is Kill-o-Watt and about 40$. Check the HomePower web site for all kinds of info.
mikell
mikell
$400 - $500 / month in the summer. In the winter it drops to just $200 or so but the gas bill makes up most of the difference. I work in the energy industry so I guess I'm ensuring my job stability by usings lots of energy.
Michael
Michael
Coops suck! They tell you it's owned by the customers... HAHA They buy their electric from the regular electric company and then they jack the price through the roof... I'm glad I don't have to deal with them anymore!
We have about 840 sq. ft. Our bill is about $75-80 on the budget plan. We have 1 computer running 24/7, another running every evening. 2 televisions that sometimes run simultaneously, oil forced air heat in the winter, 2 window air conditioners - one for just a single room, the other 14,000 BTU which keeps the rest of the house cool, electric dryer, electric stove, electric water heater, 2 VCRs, a DVD player and stereo plugged in all the time with clocks running.
The new house will have central air, but also an attic which will reduce the time that we'll be using the A/C I plan to use all energy efficient light bulbs in the new house, and will have a clothes line. I hope to just sustain my current usage, but it'd be nice to have a reduction - perhaps a timer on my electric water heater...
BTW, those of you who use a timer, how long does it take to heat the water back up? What do you use for start up and shut down times? Are dishwashers big energy users?
We have about 840 sq. ft. Our bill is about $75-80 on the budget plan. We have 1 computer running 24/7, another running every evening. 2 televisions that sometimes run simultaneously, oil forced air heat in the winter, 2 window air conditioners - one for just a single room, the other 14,000 BTU which keeps the rest of the house cool, electric dryer, electric stove, electric water heater, 2 VCRs, a DVD player and stereo plugged in all the time with clocks running.
The new house will have central air, but also an attic which will reduce the time that we'll be using the A/C I plan to use all energy efficient light bulbs in the new house, and will have a clothes line. I hope to just sustain my current usage, but it'd be nice to have a reduction - perhaps a timer on my electric water heater...
BTW, those of you who use a timer, how long does it take to heat the water back up? What do you use for start up and shut down times? Are dishwashers big energy users?
1600 square feet, all electric except the heat, and my bill averages $40-$60/month.
Edited to mention that also includes one barn and two poultry barns equiped with heat lamps, brooders, and incubators.
Edited to mention that also includes one barn and two poultry barns equiped with heat lamps, brooders, and incubators.
Quiv...
I think you have major wrong. We too, are in Maine..'round Manchester, 2000 square foot 175 yo Cape, oil heat and hot water, 175' well, attached barn with peeps under lights, refrig and freezer, electric dryer and stove...used daily (2 little kids and grain mill+oven/bread baking), Daddy's major computer stuff always left on and his woodshop in the garage...top electric bill from CMP over 2 years....$87.00!
Your electric would put me in the poor house
He Who Is Smelt.
I think you have major wrong. We too, are in Maine..'round Manchester, 2000 square foot 175 yo Cape, oil heat and hot water, 175' well, attached barn with peeps under lights, refrig and freezer, electric dryer and stove...used daily (2 little kids and grain mill+oven/bread baking), Daddy's major computer stuff always left on and his woodshop in the garage...top electric bill from CMP over 2 years....$87.00!
Your electric would put me in the poor house
He Who Is Smelt.
Do you by any chance have a circulating pump on your plumbing? This feature will give you instant hot water at every faucet. It also costs on the average of 80 to 100 dollars more a month on your electric bill.
We have one, and when we disconnected it we saved 100 dollars a month. The hard thing is, because our house was plumbed for the pump it takes a full 5 minutes to get hot water upstairs. Our water bill went up between 12 and 15 dollars a month.
We don't like it but we will certainly live with it.
good luck
We have one, and when we disconnected it we saved 100 dollars a month. The hard thing is, because our house was plumbed for the pump it takes a full 5 minutes to get hot water upstairs. Our water bill went up between 12 and 15 dollars a month.
We don't like it but we will certainly live with it.
good luck
That does sound like an awful lot for one house. You're only about $50 (after currency conversion) off our low bills and we have two houses a kennel 2 barns, 2 dishwashers, 2 washer driers, 7 freezers, 4 frigs, 4 all night yard lights, a well................. Ontario isn't one of those cheap areas either. I'll see if I can find our watts used.
I'm in a '96 single wide trailer, all electric besides Heat and cooking. Mine averages $75 through the year.
Watch the electric company's average billing. I used it here for a bit. I started keeping track of the bill and trying to calculate the bill just as they said they were. I ended up having to call them every month to figure out how they were calculating it. After the third or fourth month of having to change the formula I finally came to a place where I couldn't changing the formula to where it would come up to their amount. I called the electric company and spoke to 3 different people. No one could help me "fix" my formula to match theirs and all my numbers were correct. I finally talked to a supervisor who couldn't do any better, so I got off their "averaging" program. Looked to me like it was "averaging" up for their benefit. I was paying them an "average" of $80-$85. Now my real yearly average is around $75. I figured if they couldn't tell me how to calculate the amount I was paying they were just making it up. /shrug :no:
Watch the electric company's average billing. I used it here for a bit. I started keeping track of the bill and trying to calculate the bill just as they said they were. I ended up having to call them every month to figure out how they were calculating it. After the third or fourth month of having to change the formula I finally came to a place where I couldn't changing the formula to where it would come up to their amount. I called the electric company and spoke to 3 different people. No one could help me "fix" my formula to match theirs and all my numbers were correct. I finally talked to a supervisor who couldn't do any better, so I got off their "averaging" program. Looked to me like it was "averaging" up for their benefit. I was paying them an "average" of $80-$85. Now my real yearly average is around $75. I figured if they couldn't tell me how to calculate the amount I was paying they were just making it up. /shrug :no:
Bob in WI said:What is your connection charge each month?
Where we live the coop, in its money grubbing ways, charges us $31+ per month just to be connected kw rate .073/ hr, and we live in town currently. What a rip-off, and since they are a coop they don't get regulated by the government the way a public corporation would. So they are able to charge what they want for a hookup. There is no competition with a coop.
That's too bad about your coop, ours has the best electric rates in our area and the connection fee is $20/mo. We got our new electric hot water heater from them for free. We only had to agree to let them turn it off during peak elec. use times and that was no big deal because we would have done that anyway. All the people that we have dealt with, that work for the coop, are very helpful and always polite!
Our bill is between $95.00 to $115.00 - towards the higher end if I have to use the dryer, electric stove, fans in the summer (closer to $120-125 if we run the room air conditioner much in the summer but that only happened one year). We have two large chest freezers (one old) and one small upright freezer (old), refrigerator, hot water heater, electric cook stove (use wood cookstove in winter), computer, well pump but no electric heating. We have five adults taking showers and baths and a good amount of washing clothes that need hot water at times.
You know, in addition to everything else, I switched to an non-electric coffee maker a few months ago and saw a pretty huge decrease in my bill.
Of course, I drink coffee day in and day out. But I use an insulated electric tea kettle to heat the water and the new coffee maker is an old porcelein Melitta. I think that whopped off another $5/mo. at least.
BTW, I'm in an electric coop and they're great. It really depends!
Of course, I drink coffee day in and day out.
But I use an insulated electric tea kettle to heat the water and the new coffee maker is an old porcelein Melitta. I think that whopped off another $5/mo. at least.BTW, I'm in an electric coop and they're great. It really depends!
Don't compare dollars, compare usage and rates. Then you will get a truer picture of whether your using too much or they're charging more.
Our last bill was $47.32 calculated for 28 days 621 KWH which averages to 22.1 KWH per day. Our bill shows past usage which was 20 KWH per day last month and 18.4 KWH per day one year ago.
This is a good topic and one more thing to look at when relocating. Many times less populated areas have higher elec. bills because fewer people have to absorb a higher maintenance fee per household. Add in the weather and terrain factor and you can see how rates can be higher in many areas.
Our last bill was $47.32 calculated for 28 days 621 KWH which averages to 22.1 KWH per day. Our bill shows past usage which was 20 KWH per day last month and 18.4 KWH per day one year ago.
This is a good topic and one more thing to look at when relocating. Many times less populated areas have higher elec. bills because fewer people have to absorb a higher maintenance fee per household. Add in the weather and terrain factor and you can see how rates can be higher in many areas.
My last bill was $141.53 for 1335 Kwh used. I'm in a coop too.
I have the house, two workshops, two barns, the chicken coop and well house. Two refridgerators, two freezers, don't use my dishwasher or dryer, I have central air.
I appreciate all of the tips given here, I'm going to do more to lower my bill.
I do have free gas though, makes it nice.
I have the house, two workshops, two barns, the chicken coop and well house. Two refridgerators, two freezers, don't use my dishwasher or dryer, I have central air.
I appreciate all of the tips given here, I'm going to do more to lower my bill.
I do have free gas though, makes it nice.
I have a 200 acre farm, 25-40 head of cattle, all-electric kitchen, electric water heater, deep well, a shop with welder, seasonally run a few smaller grain augers, and so forth.
I average $35-45 per month year-round here on Minnesota REA.
Find your meter, pull your main disconnect, see that it stops. Connect the main, pull your individual buildings or curcit breakers, and find out which branh is making your meter spin so fast. Trace that branch & find out what is on it, and what is causing the problem.
It is very rare for a meter to misread high, when they wear out they tend to mis-read low, so unlikely your utility to blame - but they can help find the problem I'm sure.
Your $$$ would be normal for electric heating, but not without that.
--->Paul
I average $35-45 per month year-round here on Minnesota REA.
Find your meter, pull your main disconnect, see that it stops. Connect the main, pull your individual buildings or curcit breakers, and find out which branh is making your meter spin so fast. Trace that branch & find out what is on it, and what is causing the problem.
It is very rare for a meter to misread high, when they wear out they tend to mis-read low, so unlikely your utility to blame - but they can help find the problem I'm sure.
Your $$$ would be normal for electric heating, but not without that.
--->Paul
This thread is great - I started looking for the kill-a-watt, then I checked my local electric co-op and saw they lend these out through our local library!
Our usage last month was 1325 kWh (bill was $92.11) for a 1750 sqft and 5 people. We run a large freezer, older refridgerator, older hot water heater (atually have 2, but one is always unplugged), dishwasher (1-2 times a day), washing machine (1-2 loads a day) and a couple of computers. We have no ac or dryer. Heating and cooking is propane. All light bulbs are compact flourescents. We unplug the stereo, TV, VCR, computers etc. whenever they are not in use. I should unplug the microwave too as we hardly ever use it, but it is the only clock downstairs. The thing is no matter what I try the usage does not seem to change much, hopefully the kit from the library will help.
Our usage last month was 1325 kWh (bill was $92.11) for a 1750 sqft and 5 people. We run a large freezer, older refridgerator, older hot water heater (atually have 2, but one is always unplugged), dishwasher (1-2 times a day), washing machine (1-2 loads a day) and a couple of computers. We have no ac or dryer. Heating and cooking is propane. All light bulbs are compact flourescents. We unplug the stereo, TV, VCR, computers etc. whenever they are not in use. I should unplug the microwave too as we hardly ever use it, but it is the only clock downstairs. The thing is no matter what I try the usage does not seem to change much, hopefully the kit from the library will help.
OK got my bill out of the van. We are billed .054490 per KWH. last month we had 2001 KWH which works out to $109.XX then tax which works out to $113.XX. Then there is a supplier delivery charge of $159.74 . The delivery is the charge for the polls, getting electricity etc to my house.( this is what lady on phone said) I repeated that I need someone out here and she said it had ONLY been 2 MONTHS since I requested someone come out. I am like ONLY 2 months??? Good grief. So anyways she is going to recall him and see if he can get here "sooner"
I will show my hubby your replies and maybe tommorrow we can test out meter ourselves and see whats up.
I will show my hubby your replies and maybe tommorrow we can test out meter ourselves and see whats up.
Sounds like they may have been splitting the charge to run electric to your house - did you ask them to do that when you first moved in?Quiver0f9 said:OK got my bill out of the van. We are billed .054490 per KWH. last month we had 2001 KWH which works out to $109.XX then tax which works out to $113.XX. Then there is a supplier delivery charge of $159.74 . The delivery is the charge for the polls, getting electricity etc to my house.( this is what lady on phone said) I repeated that I need someone out here and she said it had ONLY been 2 MONTHS since I requested someone come out. I am like ONLY 2 months??? Good grief. So anyways she is going to recall him and see if he can get here "sooner"
I will show my hubby your replies and maybe tommorrow we can test out meter ourselves and see whats up.
I know they charge a large amount to get electric poles set and run the lines here, if they don't already exist. Last I heard it was $1800
We were fortunate, ours were already here and all they had to do was put a new meter in, the old tenants trashed the one before.
So, if thats what they did, split the charges up into monthly payments and then add taxes for that and the usage it may be high until those are paid off. But, they should be willing to breakdown the bill and clarify the charges for you over the phone.
2 months is a LONG time to have to wait for something like that, but it may depend on how many workers they have for that particular job.
Good Luck - I hope you get some answers soon!!
With your breakdown of the expenses shown above on the utility bill it appears that you are doing a decent task of controlling the power consumed with the size of the family. You may be able to reduce it by another 15% but it will be difficult. Ask the power company the duration of the payments for running the power into the site and ask what interest rate they are charging as a carry cost. You may be able to get better financing if you were to pay off the utility and go to a private lender. If you are using the place as a farm you may also be able to take part of this fee for a deduction on the farm at tax time.
21 - 40 of 64 Posts
- This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Homesteading Forum
A forum community dedicated to living sustainably and self sufficiently. Come join the discussion about livestock, farming, gardening, DIY projects, hobbies, recipes, styles, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
Top Contributors this Month
View All
GTX63
510 Replies
Danaus29
364 Replies
Alice In TX/MO
238 Replies
Recommended Communities
