Your monthly Electric Bill

Lightning wrote:

SteveZee wrote:I just got my electric bill for last month. It was almost double it's usual $80-$90 rate. The other half was home all month (She travels to Uk for work) and we had several family members staying with us during the month. Bill was $155. All of that was washer/dryer and extra showers.

Electric hot water tank?

Hot water is a big piece of the monthly utility pie. When we have visitors, I definetly notice an increase in coal consumption.

Yep that's it Rob. When this one wears out, I'm gonna try one of those Bosch on demand tankless units. They work pretty good.

We are about to call the electrician next week because of this increase of electricity bill. We suspect that there is something wrong with our electricity, like a leak. We are family of 4 and the electricity goes somewhere around $250+

oceanseven wrote:We are about to call the electrician next week because of this increase of electricity bill. We suspect that there is something wrong with our electricity, like a leak. We are family of 4 and the electricity goes somewhere around $250+

Electric rates are going up for everyone.Before spending money for an electrician to tell you nothing. Do you know what your elec. load is,are you running a hot tub 24/7,kids watching tv too much,220 volt appliances running alot,any old/bad applicances need to be upgraded,ect. Find out what your monthly elec. usage was last year/monthly(look at your elec bill for comparison) The only thing the electrician can do is tighten up lugs, and you can do a kill-o-watt measuring,the meters can be bought at big box stores.Welcome

Yeah, why spend more money when your goal is to REDUCE your bill???

Resistance loads (heating elements) & electric motors draw the most electricity. Check to see if your heat pump (if that's what you have for heating/cooling) is working first. Could be on "emergency heat" due to pump failure. That is 100% resistance, and VERY electrically hungry -- read EXPENSIVE.

oceanseven wrote:We are about to call the electrician next week because of this increase of electricity bill. We suspect that there is something wrong with our electricity, like a leak. We are family of 4 and the electricity goes somewhere around $250+

I don't think electricity can "leak" but maybe.. If you want some advise, tell us what your bill was before it went up. Did it suddenly jump an excessive amount from one month to the next? Are you running an appliance that could be sucking the extra juice? Oh heres a good one, maybe you have an electric hot water tank and have developed a leak in the tank OR in a hot water line OR maybe a faucet is dripping hot water. Any loss of hot water would spike the bill.. What has changed that could cause the increase? More people in the house? A number of variables could account for the increase.

Before I heated with coal, and during the period while our home was all electric, I never paid any attention to the service charges end of the bill, but now that we are using 75% less electricity, I suddenly realize that more than 50% of our current electric bills is from distribution charges and the like, and somewhat less than half of the bill is for the electricity we're using.

I have natural gas and its only used for the water heater. But, the majority of the charges are just taxes and service charges, the actual fuel cost is minimal. I want to add another appliance(s) that uses natural gas, maybe a clothes dryer or gas range, which would help balance out the bill and make using natural gas more economical. This would then cut down on my electrical usage.

Here are my monthly bills for one year. My house in 6yrs old and uses 2 zoned heat pumps with electric back up. My hot water, well........basically whole house is electric. Also, have a 600 gallon hot tub outside which is on year round. We keep the house set at 68 degrees and run the A/C all summer long. I am in the process on purchasing a Liesure Line Pioneer stove to put on the main floor. Hopefully Dave can say me some money.



Bill Date Total Electricity Used (kWh) Total Charges ($)
4/24/2013 ------ 2560 --------- $271.02
3/25/2013 ------ 3103--------- $325.51
2/25/2013 ------- 4559--------- $471.60
1/24/2013 ------ - 3947-------- $410.98
12/26/2012------ 2672-------- $282.26
11/26/2012------ 1957--------- $209.06
10/24/2012------ 1696------- $182.34
9/24/2012------- 1566------- $169.04
8/23/2012 ------- 1376------- $149.59
7/25/2012 -------- 1989------- $212.34
6/25/2012-------- 1541------ $166.49
5/24/2012 ------- 1578------- $170.34
4/25/2012 ------- 2150------- $228.93

We're finally installing central A/C this year. Anxious to see how it compares to running the window shakers in the summer! Since we have no ductwork there will be an air handler in the attic, with the condenser out back. Drops to the second floor through the ceiling and first floor drops via closets on opposite ends of the house. Return air at the top of the stairs with the thermostat nearby.

ddersch4 wrote:Here are my monthly bills for one year. .....



Bill Date Total Electricity Used (kWh) Total Charges ($)
4/24/2013 ------ 2560 --------- $271.02
3/25/2013 ------ 3103--------- $325.51
2/25/2013 ------- 4559--------- $471.60
1/24/2013 ------ - 3947-------- $410.98
12/26/2012------ 2672-------- $282.26
11/26/2012------ 1957--------- $209.06
10/24/2012------ 1696------- $182.34
9/24/2012------- 1566------- $169.04
8/23/2012 ------- 1376------- $149.59
7/25/2012 -------- 1989------- $212.34
6/25/2012-------- 1541------ $166.49
5/24/2012 ------- 1578------- $170.34
4/25/2012 ------- 2150------- $228.93

HOLY CRAP!! You are in DIRE need of a coal fired appliance - especially in winter!! Holy crapper!! Can't help you with those summer costs though - you must have one hell of an A/C unit! My highest bill ever in this house with all it's leakiness was $115 this past summer.

ddersch4 wrote:Here are my monthly bills for one year. My house in 6yrs old and uses 2 zoned heat pumps with electric back up. My hot water, well........basically whole house is electric. Also, have a 600 gallon hot tub outside which is on year round. We keep the house set at 68 degrees and run the A/C all summer long. I am in the process on purchasing a Liesure Line Pioneer stove to put on the main floor. Hopefully Dave can say me some money.



Bill Date Total Electricity Used (kWh) Total Charges ($)
4/24/2013 ------ 2560 --------- $271.02
3/25/2013 ------ 3103--------- $325.51
2/25/2013 ------- 4559--------- $471.60
1/24/2013 ------ - 3947-------- $410.98
12/26/2012------ 2672-------- $282.26
11/26/2012------ 1957--------- $209.06
10/24/2012------ 1696------- $182.34
9/24/2012------- 1566------- $169.04
8/23/2012 ------- 1376------- $149.59
7/25/2012 -------- 1989------- $212.34
6/25/2012-------- 1541------ $166.49
5/24/2012 ------- 1578------- $170.34
4/25/2012 ------- 2150------- $228.93

Holy Crap Is Right!!! You pull some power thier friend. How old is your water heater? Those damn elements wear out inside and you could be pulling more power to compensate for a corroded or broken element. They are very cheap to replace. But wow I thought my 3 person family pulled some power but hell im doin good. I dont think your bill is too far off from what you are using though, some easy simple changes in habits could drop that a few bucks.

The outdoor hot tub is pulling serious power to keep warm in the winter also. I installed a water coil in my coal furnace dedicated to my hot tub. It easily cut $50 or more per month off my electric bill. For more information about this, look for a thread I wrote on it. I think it's called - Hot water coil Project. I'll try to post the link.

Here it is

Hot Water Coil Project

That's about the same amount of annual KWH's of electricity that we used to use, but our summer KWH's were nowhere near yours. More of ours was winter (heat) oriented. We hit 6,000 KWH's on the very coldest month in some years. Your air conditioning must really pull down the KWH's. We kept our thermostats set at 76-78 degrees in the summer.

Now that we are burning coal for both heat and hot water we average only about 510 KWH's per month if we don't run the whole house AC.

Your electric hot water tank alone may be pulling down about 300 KWH's per month.