What's your average monthly electric bill?

[b4u2]

2 adults 2 kids 1 college kid and then my two kids 4-6 weeks a year. 2 story 1200 sf with small basement. Built in 2003. electric runs 180 on budget plan and gas is 80 which I always seems to be ahead on. My bill seems very high compared to others here. I have a kill-a-watt but can't find anything unusual. The tankless electric water heater might be killing us. It draws 27kw when being used. Looking for an alternative but not sure what is cost effective right now.

A few questions:
Do you use AC much?
How often do you use a washer and (big one) dryer?
Stove electric or gas, and does it get used much?
Fridge...HE or not?
Don't know anything about electric tankless water heater. I guess I'd have to ask, do you luxuriate in long, very-hot showers? Dishwasher?

A/C in the summer set on a programmable thermostat, along with the heat (gas). Washer is front load. Dryer is electric (house did not have gas line ran for dryer). Stove is electric and it's an Amana glass top about 12 years old. Fridge is old but on the kill-a-watt only seems to use 175 a year if I put the right numbers into it. The sump pump runs about every 5 minutes. Dehumidfier in the basement. Small freezer in the basement that currently is mostly empty but per kill-a-watt was like $3 a month. Most electric devices are shut off manually via a power strip or a smart power strip is used. There is a dishwasher and it runs every night. We are on time of day meter so we try to run things at the cheaper time at night and on weekends.

[Patrick A]

Two people.  Pacific NW.  1600 Sq ft house.

We have gas and electric and so we pay both sets of connection fees.  Water heater, furnace, and cooking appliances are all gas.

Summer:
Electric:  $20
Gas: $18 (pretty much 100% connection fees and cooking, insulated extremely well so we only need heat on about 5 months of the year)

Winter:
Electric: $35
Gas: $80


Even though we have mostly LED lighting, electric goes up in the winter due to having to use a dryer and having lights on a lot more . . . I think that's most of the change.  Still working on getting the heating bill lower, have some spots around the house that need attention for better sealing.

[Tom Bri]

2 adults 2 kids 1 college kid and then my two kids 4-6 weeks a year. 2 story 1200 sf with small basement. Built in 2003. electric runs 180 on budget plan and gas is 80 which I always seems to be ahead on. My bill seems very high compared to others here. I have a kill-a-watt but can't find anything unusual. The tankless electric water heater might be killing us. It draws 27kw when being used. Looking for an alternative but not sure what is cost effective right now.

A few questions:
Do you use AC much?
How often do you use a washer and (big one) dryer?
Stove electric or gas, and does it get used much?
Fridge...HE or not?
Don't know anything about electric tankless water heater. I guess I'd have to ask, do you luxuriate in long, very-hot showers? Dishwasher?

A/C in the summer set on a programmable thermostat, along with the heat (gas). Washer is front load. Dryer is electric (house did not have gas line ran for dryer). Stove is electric and it's an Amana glass top about 12 years old. Fridge is old but on the kill-a-watt only seems to use 175 a year if I put the right numbers into it. The sump pump runs about every 5 minutes. Dehumidfier in the basement. Small freezer in the basement that currently is mostly empty but per kill-a-watt was like $3 a month. Most electric devices are shut off manually via a power strip or a smart power strip is used. There is a dishwasher and it runs every night. We are on time of day meter so we try to run things at the cheaper time at night and on weekends.

Hmm. What does Kill-A-Watt say about the sump pump? I'd guess that might be a big drain (pun intended).
Also, in my house the summer electric bills shoot up, and I suspect the basement dehumidifier, which runs pretty much constantly all summer. I'd suspect any machine that can turn itself on and off, and has to stay plugged in.
Are you in a floodplain? Why is the sump pump running all the time?

[RetiredAt63]

I can't speak for others, but my sump pump runs a fair bit in the summer even though the house is on a bit of a rise (landscaping) and rain is directed well away from the house.  The pump even runs occasionally in winter. The house is on clay, and clay holds water.

For the same reason, fields around here have tile drainage.

Are you in a floodplain? Why is the sump pump running all the time?

[FerrumB5]

Same here.. sump pump runs very very often even in dry weeks and even in 0F weather.. water level must be high

[Dicey]

Just chiming in to make some of y'all feel better. We are four adults in a 2600 Sf single-story home. Common areas of home have 14' ceilings, rest are 9'. House is only 10 years old, so fairly energy efficient. Scores of can lights, all LED's.

We live in this house to care for my MIL, who has Alzheimer's. This winter, DH decided it might be cheaper to leave the heat at a constant 68 degrees 24/7, as there is almost always someone home. Last month's gas & electric bill was $432.00. To add insult to injury, I often find MIL wandering around with a coat and knit hat on. We have to laugh and be happy that we're FI, or it just might be too hard to take.

Did you notice that we live in California? We also receive expanded baseline hours because DH uses a C-Pap. Off the top of my head, I'd say we average somewhere around $175/mo, but this month was a doozy, and there's not much to be done about it. Someday, when MIL is gone, we'll downsize and eventually make up for this exploding volcano of wastefulness, we hope.

[coffeelover]

2 adults, and 2 kids that go back and forth, then 2 smaller kids.
19 year old moved out and it seems as though our bill has dropped in half since she left. Its crazy that this has happened, that one person affected our bill so drastically.

When we first moved into this house in June of 2015 our bill was 150. Even in Oct it was 180.
It now averages between 85 and 100 for a 2000 sq foot house with heat also going into the unfinished basement. We play down there with the kids on trampoline, bikes etc.
Heat bill is separate though, we are in the Midwest, cold cold MI to be precise.

[jms493]

2900 sq ft house with 2 kids 2 adults.  avg 113 a month.  I need to work on this.  I need to replace some lights and check on some on going electronics.

[jim555]

Just got my 2 month bill, $75.10, includes a $5.50 a month low income break.

[warmastoast]

2300 sq ft house,  4 people (+1 who just left for college so comes home for holidays).   Electricity bills have been enormous.  Topped out last January at $475 when it got cold and kids were sent home from school for a few days - house heated to 72F with ...... heat strips.  I've written about this in another thread. We have a/c and live in south central texas - last august's bill was $315.   I've now started getting this under control and so far have seen reductions of 30% on the electricity bill.  Everything in our house is electric. I'm keeping an eye on this month's bill and looks like I will manage to just about keep it under $200 (2000KWh).   I'll be changing the a/c condensor units to heat pumps and installing foil in the attic before the summer really kicks in to keep summer bill under control.  Also swapping out pool pump for a variable speed one which will save on electricity too.

[Greenback Reproduction Specialist]

200 sqft Off grid living, 4kw generator to charge the batteries a few times per week... ~$20/mo

[Tom Bri]

200 sqft Off grid living, 4kw generator to charge the batteries a few times per week... ~$20/mo

Okay, now that's getting towards hard core! :-)

[slackmax]

ALL ELECTRIC townhome. 1200 sq feet.  Heat pump which also acts as a/c.  Lowest is Spring and Fall when it is $60 per month using NO a/c or heat. Highest is Winter. Last Winter Jan and Feb were around $180 each. Heat strips were coming on to supplement the heat pump which was working 24 hours a day.  12 cents per KWH. 
Currently (Jan) have thermostat set at 60 (brrrr) which seems to be reducing heat pump usage compared to 64.  Been a very mild Winter so far here in East (knock on wood) so no heat strip usage yet  either.  Dec 2015 bill was only  $90.   

[Gunny]

My wife started keeping a daily log of loads of dishes washed, loads of laundry washed and dried, numbers and length of showers, hours oven or cook top is used, stuff like that.  We were able to use the data to show us areas where we could save the most while cutting down on energy consumption.   I a, also very concerned with water waste.  Not just because of my costs, but for environmental reasons. 

[music lover]

$55 - $60 a month year round (electric HW tank) except for July and Aug $80 due to some minor AC use. Gas (heating) totals $400 a year, surprisingly low considering that it gets to -35 here on a regular basis and the furnace is on from Oct to April.

[francophile]

In NYC. Heat & hot water are included in rent, our one window unit a/c is not.

I am not a fan of summer or the heat and we have big west facing windows (no cross ventilation either) that really heat up in the afternoon each summer. A/C comes on when we're home, or when it's over 90 and I don't want my poor old cat to roast all day.

Winter is about $25-30/month for our one bedroom home of two people, and in the summer it can rocket up to as high as $175/month from our one little window unit used as sparingly as our comfort level allows. I really hate summer in this city!

[clarkfan1979]

When I lived in Fort Myers, FL, our electric bill averaged 100/month which is really good for south florida. I bought a new a/c system to make that happen. The house was 1750 sq. ft.

[sstants]

Boston apartment dweller here, 800 square feet: We pay about $45 bucks a month on average. I work from home, so this includes my 2-3 laptops and displays running 50-60 hours a week.

Gas is just for the stove (our heat/ac are wall units that are quite efficient) and it averages about $12-15 a month.

I love that my utilities only cost me 30-35 bucks (split with the boyfriend)! Now if I can get him to ditch the cable TV, then we'll be in good shape...but try taking that away from a die-hard sports fan.

I don't really think we can get much more efficient...but I think the secret to our success is living on the 3rd floor! We've only turned the heat on 3 times so far this year, and just for a few hours. If you're apartment or condo hunting in a cold area, definitely choose a higher floor!

[Ebrat]

Ours averages about $160 for gas+electric, mostly from electric.  Gas oven, fireplace, and heat.  Everything else is electric.  We averaged 24 kWh/day last month.  I have no idea why it's so high for 2 people in a 1,000 sq ft house.  My only guess is it must be the electric water heater in the cold basement (lots of days around 0 here during the winter).

[hops]

Around $28 in the winter, $120 in the summer. That's for a 900 sq. ft. house and two adults. When I lived by myself it was $8 lower in the winter and $30 lower in the summer. We keep almost everything plugged into power strips that are turned off when not in use. Lighting is all CFL or LED, and we don't use a clothes dryer.

Gas is around $27 most months (the minimum charge isn't much less than that). In the winter it jumps to an average of $95 per month.

[Elizabeth]

I have a 2 bedroom semi-detatched house in the Paris .The house is quite small, 20 years old and fitted with double glazing.  We pay $100 a month for electriciry .let's just say, its Too Much

[FerrumB5]

So far in a new house we pay $75 average for el+gas per month (starting September), water and sewage are extra. Total is 120 so far