Author Topic: Painful Gas/Electric Bills  (Read 3685 times)

serpentstooth

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Painful Gas/Electric Bills
« on: October 03, 2013, 07:52:36 PM »
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« Last Edit: May 17, 2016, 05:12:04 PM by serpentstooth »

iamlindoro

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Re: Painful Gas/Electric Bills
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2013, 08:06:56 PM »
494 kWh, 10 Therms, $88.

Per PG&E (California) this puts me well under similar homes in my area which used on average 609 kWh and 12 therms.

You didn't tell us anything about your residence.  My home is a 1000 square foot condo with gas heating.  I work from home at present but leave everything but the fridge and PC off throughout the day.  I always turn off lights when I leave the room and generally leave them off even when I'm in the room.

327 kWh sounds pretty low to me personally.

iamlindoro

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Re: Painful Gas/Electric Bills
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2013, 08:17:50 PM »
Here's me for the last year.  I generally sit a little bit underneath the average for the nearby homes of similar size.  I am the blue, the average is gray.  The green is the 20% most efficient homes of similar size. June and July were hard because it was very hot, my home faces the afternoon sun and gets unbearable, and in order to survive and work I had to run the AC more than I would have liked.


daverobev

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Re: Painful Gas/Electric Bills
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2013, 07:53:11 AM »
We use about 10kWh a day, a bit less during the summer, and that's a 1000 sq ft 2 bed house. Not sure how a therm relates (don't want to look it up :P) but we use zero gas in the summer.

$170 is really expensive for what you're using, I think, but that might just be New York! What is your standing charge, what is your per-kWh charge?

For comparison: Our electric bill is $50-60 of which half-ish is service charge; our gas bill is $20-ish service charge that we pay even when we use no gas.

One new fridge (small fridge/freezer), dehumidifier in the basement, computers, not much else - oh, electric for hot water, that's our biggest user.

(Edit: house is 1000 sq ft not 100! Ha)
« Last Edit: October 04, 2013, 11:27:03 AM by daverobev »

umterp1999

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Re: Painful Gas/Electric Bills
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2013, 08:05:10 AM »
The taxes on my bills often make up the biggest chunk of my bills.  There is a monthly fee of 10.00 for keeping the gas "on".  there are also state and county taxes.  I noticed with my water bill nearly 40% of it is taxes and fees.  Efforts to conserve water don't really amount to all that much in savings because of all of the taxes.  Cell phone is 25% taxes.  That makes it hard for my family trying to keep our monthly expenses low.

theSchmett

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Re: Painful Gas/Electric Bills
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2013, 08:23:33 AM »
Did they lump in two months together? I've gotten some double-sized bills and it turned out that my auto-deduction didn't go through properly.

I've got an 1100sqft house in NJ, and during August I used appx 500kwh. Central Air, lots of CFLs and LEDs, and all gas appliances (and a new fridge).

Do I need a facepunch??

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!