Who has me beat?

[f6john]

January has been expensive! 3,900 kilowatts at a cost of $455.00. Whole house including the basement is heated so the Valkyrie and the Wing stayed warm!

[Serk]

For January 1,902 kHw total bill $232.48... (We have gas for heat)

.....however......

August we used 4,993 kHw for a total bill of $552.59..... (We do not have gas for air conditioning )

[f6john]

I can safely say I have never used close to 5,000 kilowatts in one month! Kentucky is strange to me that gas lines seem to be helter shelter with no apparent incentive to extend them into unserved areas.

[John Schmidt]

Heat is furnished in the apartment bldg. where we live, so everything else is electric. Therefore no gas...except for me. 

[Rams]

While there may be many reasons to beat John, this is not one I care to participate in. 

Rams

[Oss]

we got the utility company to remove our smart meters and have not gotten a bill in many many months

Last year we would get 800 dollar bills !

Smart meters are designed to cheat, when the compressor goes on it jumps to high rate and takes its sweet time to go back to normal even tho unit no longer drawing

analog is the way to go, in meters and voting

[Jess from VA]

Most recent Gas (furnace, stove, water heater)   $139

Most recent Electric (everything else and my ancient dryer)  $59

1100 sq feet (solo)

[Serk]

1100 sq feet (solo)

This is a very important variable in the equation.....

[Rams]

Our electric bills (like others) go up in the warmer months due to AC but drop like a rock in cooler temps due to natural gas heat.  When this home was built with a three car garage, HVAC also cooled and heated the garage.

Since we moved during the warmer months, that seemed like a pretty good idea but the first month electric bill convinced me I didn't need HVAC in my garage.   I blocked that venting and the bill went down as one would expect.   When working in the garage, I'm happy with just the air movement provided by a fan.  

When my shop is finally completed, I will spray foam the entire inside of the structure and install a Mini- Split HVAC there.   We also intend to spray foam the entire roof of the attic of our home as finances allow.  

I generally don't look at the bills that come but I do pay attention when the love of my life makes loud exclamations about how much this or that was.

As to beating John Smith, I've come up with several reasons he could get a good beating but, I'm not sure it would do any good.   As with most people in our age group, we're pretty much set in our ways.  

Rams   or     You decide.  

[Jess from VA]

1100 sq feet (solo)

This is a very important variable in the equation.....

That's why I noted it.  

And that $139 gas bill is the highest I can remember (even with a 2yo new HVAC).

Growing up on a waterfront Island in MI, in a giant old barn of a house, crammed full of old single pane windows (that in high winds might blow out a nearby candle even with them closed), we froze our ass off in Winters.  There was no upstairs ducting (for us three kids bedrooms), heat rose from the wide open 2-story house design, and if you closed your bedroom door at night, you would see your breath vapor in the morning.

We were forbidden to touch the thermostat (risking corporal punishment), and would fight over the chair next to the dining room telephone table because it was the warmest spot in the house (unless you were inclined to go into the old dark basement and sit next to the anemic furnace).  So standard winter house wear, was heavy sweats with or without long johns.

This made going to school more attractive, as it was actually warm there.  

But it was an idyllic place to grow up in with Lake Erie to swim, boat, sail and fish in.  Summers were the best, even with no AC (which you might wish for only 2 weeks of late August).

I know I've told this story before, apologies.

Postscript:  So having lived there from 1962 to 1984, it came to pass I departed for military service.  I told my family that I loved them, but whatever happened, I was never going to live in that long cold Winter climate again.  And ended up in VA.  My 95yo mom and brother are all that's left up there, and without any urging from me (but telling her about my walking regimen), she now makes the quarter mile walk down and back his long paved driveway once or twice daily (after the snow is plowed), slowly on her upright walker I got her, in MI Winter.  I am so proud of her (as are her good doctors).   

[Rams]

I know I've told this story before, apologies.  

I see no need to apologize, many of us grew up with much less than we have today.   The farm/ranch I grew up on had very little insulation and only a small propane heater that we installed in the living room.   Many winter mornings there would be ice on the inside of my bedroom windows and yes, it was breezy on the inside of the house.   That farmhouse was over a hundred years old, we blocked off the old wood burning fireplace, it was simply an escape route for any heat.  We built a new home in my teens and Dad made sure it was insulated to the best standards of that time.

Regardless, I (as the only male child) still had chores to do regardless of the weather.   Those memories of washing down the concrete hog slab every morning and feeding the livestock will always haunt me.   I distinctly remember coming back into the house with icicles on my cap and clothing.    

Rams

[Jess from VA]

Ron, that old house of ours also had a giant hand laid stone fireplace that went clear up the two story great room.  The hearth big enough to take a good size tree stump.  A great roaring fire in it was wonderful to behold, but we immediately discovered that it efficiently sucked every bit of heat out of the house in short order, so the flue was closed and packed with foam rubber every winter.  We'd make the very occasional small fires in cool fall and maybe Christmas day.  And the cold flue had to be primed with hot paper fire first or all the smoke came right in the house.  Shoveling out the basement ash trap was no joy either (choke/gag/sneeze).

[h13man]

1955 kw @ $.118 per kw equaling $283.00. Year ago, 1457 kw. We had a weeks worth of frigid temps. included.

[0leman]

Facts: we live in 2100 sqft home.  Ranch style.  Have a gas fireplace, gas HVAC.  Our last month electric use was 601 KwH for $102 (some extras for junk) for $0.17 per kwh.  I keep a spreadsheet showing cost, use and cost per $$. 

We keep the house at 68 during the day and turn down 60 at 6 pm.  Automatic thermostat.  Due use the gas fireplace in the evenings. 

We switch from existing Heat pump HVAC system 5 years ago to gas (AC is still electric).  Also reploaced a electric cook stove with gas.  On the average during the winter our gas/electric bill went down some $80 per month from the previous 10 years.

[LadyDraco]

The house was $98 the shop was $19...
I don't feel like checking the KW right now

[F6Dave]

Interesting numbers, but not surprising since we use different energy sources to heat and cool. A few years ago I found a neat spreadsheet on one of the DOE sites. You plug in prices for various energy sources, and it calculates the energy cost in dollars per million BTUs. I write software for the oil and gas industry and the numbers were about what I expected, but some people don’t realize prices vary so widely. Below are some examples. I used typical prices in my area, including all those fees utilities add.

Electric heat (room heater)
  $0.15/KW Hour = $43.96/MMBTU

Electric heat (air source heat pump)
  $0.15/KW Hour = $25.00/MMBTU

Natural Gas (furnace or boiler)
  $0.87/Therm = $10.61/MMBTU

Propane (furnace or boiler)
  $2.67/Gallon = $37.48/MMBTU

Wood pellets (room heater)
  $300.00/Ton = $23.31/MMBTU

A few things to note:
•   Heat pumps are far more efficient in moderate climates than cold regions.
•   Electricity rates are less in some areas, like the Northwest with abundant hydro power.
•   Electricity rates are much more in places like Hawaii, for obvious reasons. Californians pay about twice the national average because they use so much expensive wind and solar.
•   Natural gas is a bargain in the USA. At current prices it is about 1/3 the price of oil per BTU.
•   Europeans buy massive amounts of our LNG and pay 5 times what we pay. It costs a lot to liquefy and ship natural gas!