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Just like my 9th electric bill since buying my home was a record-setter, so is the tenth.  Record high, that is.  Total cost for gas and electricity for August 2008?  How about a whopping $244.40?  Yowza.  That tops the previous $221.36 record from last month.  Where did the extra cost come from?  Let’s see.

Natural Gas – Not unexpected

My natural gas usage increased by 140% – though my cost jumped by “just” 63%.  Normally I might be racking my brain trying to figure out the cause. However, we had my two sisters-in-law staying with us for almost a month.  Two teenage girls means lots and lots of hot water usage.  No surprise at all here.

Electricity – Unstoppable.

Another month passes, and I use more electricity than ever before.  My usage climbed another 13%.  Fortunately my cost climbed only 5% in the same time – due to some vagaries of electricity billing.  1,757 kWh sure seems like a lot of electricity for a family to use in one month.  But then again, big house + texas heat means lots and lots of A/C usage.

Overall

I had forecast $300 for my August bill, so in that light, I’m ahead of the game.  I figure we’ve peaked on energy usage for this year.  The next 2-3 months bills will be large, but shouldn’t top this one.  No more house guests, and eventually it will start to cool down.  Frankly, I can’t wait.

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Unlucky number 9.  That’s what we’ll call my latest and greatest electric bill.  Well, latest and highest, at least.  It’s actually 12% higher than June’s bill, which was my previous highest.  What was the damage?  A whopping $221.36.  Unreal.

Natural Gas – down, down, down

I used 37% less natural gas, which amounted to a 25% drop in my bill.  That funny accounting again.  With the summer being here, my only gas usage is for heating water and cooking.  I have made an effort to keep my showers a bit shorter, which I guess has helped.  Next months’ bill will be worse though – we have two houseguests staying with us.  More people = more showers = more gas usage.

Electricity – Unstoppable.

My bill is, at least.  My usage jumped by 11%, which by the electric company’s creative math, increased my electricity cost by 21%.  The disparity is mainly due to a “peak capacity charge” and a huge “fuel adjustment” mystery fee.  $60 for a mystery fee is a bit excessive.

What does the future hold?

These constant bill increases are hard to swallow.  I’m using more energy to be sure, but my bill is increasing faster than my usage.  This month will be tough, because of the aforementioned house guests.  My two sisters-in-law are with us for the month, which means increased energy usage.  On an upside, we did finally get around to installing 3 ceiling fans on my lower level.  With the air circulating, hopefully we can manage to keep the A/C a few degrees higher, and still remain comfortable.  Besides that, hey it’s summer in Texas.  It’s going to be hot, and the electric bill is going to be high.  All I can do is try to keep it (relatively) manageable.

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Natural gas – no surprises

I used 6% more natural gas, for an increase of 5% to my bill.  I won’t get worked up over such a small increase – it’s no big deal.

Electricity isn’t cheap

I used a whopping 1404 kWh of electricity this month – that’s 1.4 mWh.  That’s outrageous.  It’s a 67% jump over what I used last month.  The part that *really* gets to me is that 67% usage increase caused a 93% rise in the electric portion of my bill.  My utility company also introduced a new ( to me ) fee called “Peak Capacity Charge”.   That, along with the questionable “Regulatory adjustment” made up the a large part of my bill increase.

Summers are hot in southern Texas – really, really hot.  We’ve been giving our A/C quite a workout, and that won’t change too much over the next few months.  I’m going to make a concerted effort to get our ceiling fans installed next week.  We bought 4 fans when we purchased the house, but they’re still in a closet somewhere.  Our lower floor stays fairly cool, so with the addition of fans we can cut back A/C usage down there.  Besides that, I guess I just have to grin and bear it.  Owning a home is great, but it’s surely not without it’s downsides.

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That’s too hard

When I need gas, I go buy it.  Looking it up online, and then going out of my way to save a few pennies per gallon is way, way too much work.  Perhaps other folks have more time to fool around with things like that, but I doubt it.  Life is busy these days – why waste time with this?  I have a much better, simpler way to save money on gas.  It’s revolutionary, so you might want to sit down if you’re not already.  Ok, ready?

DRIVE LESS.

I know, revolutionary.  If you drive less miles, you will use less gas.  If you use less gas, you’ll spend less money.  Therefore, less driving = less money spent.  Unbelievable, I know.  But really, you don’t have to drive to the mall 3 times a week.  You don’t need to go out with your friends twice on the weekend.   You can say no.  In addition to saving gas money, you’ll save money by not purchasing things. 

Sometimes the best solution is the simplest.  Drive less.  Save money.

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Replace your showerhead with a more efficient unit

A “regular” showerhead has a flow rate of 2.5 gallons per minute, or GPM.  The Evolve Roadrunner has a much lower flow rate – 1.59 GPM.  That means it uses about 36% less water.  For every 5 minutes you’re in the shower, the Roadrunner will keep 4.5 gallons of water from going down the drain.  If you’re a 15 minute shower kind of person, that’s over 13 gallons of water saved each and every time you shower.

It’s not just water that you’re saving

Saving all that water is great, no doubt.  But unless you take icy cold showers, then you will be saving an absolute ton of energy.  Whether your water heater is powered by gas or electric, less water used means less energy used.  And that means more money saved.

ShowerStart technology

Before you hop in the shower, you turn it on to let the water warm up.  It’s ok, I do it to.  No one likes to shower in freezing water while it gets around to warming up.  You probably turn the water on, then go do a little of this, a little of that.  After you’re done  ( 3, 4, 5 minutes later ), your shower is ready.  It was probably ready long before you were, though.  That means more water and energy wasted.  The Roadrunner has something called ShowerStart technology, which senses when the water is warmed up, and then turns the flow down to a trickle.  You’ll notice the sound change right away, and know that your shower is ready.  Instead of gallons being wasted every minute, it’s just a small trickle.  Yet another way the Roadrunner saves you money.

It pays for itself

Evolve estimates that the Roadrunner will result in $230 in yearly utility savings, including 7,665 gallons of water.  At $230 per year, that’s about $19 per month in savings.  In other words, you’ll pay for the Roadrunner in just over two months ( it costs $39.95 ).  It’s one of those “no brainer” purchases, really.  I’ll place an order next month when I have a bit of extra cash to spend.  On another note, if you don’t like the feeling of low-flow shower heads, Evolve also sells regular flow heads that still use the ShowerStart technology.  They will also pay for themselves, but will take a few more months to do so.

Even if you’re not a “green” kind of person, surely you can appreciate saving money.  If it’s better for the environment, then so much the better.

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What month would be complete without Llama Money’s electric bill?  Well I for one wouldn’t mind skipping it – the actual bill, that is!  Unfortunately I don’t think that’ll happen anytime soon, so we might as well go over the details, and see how things look.

My total bill rose by 3.4% over April – really a pretty negligible amount.  A little over 4 bucks, to be exact.  Sure, I’d much rather see it drop by 4 bucks ( hey I like 4 bucks ), but I won’t lose any sleep over this month’s bill.

So long, natural gas

No I didn’t convert all my appliances to electric.  It’s just that I’m using less and less natural gas as the months go by.  I used just 15 cubit feet of gas in May – that’s 37% less than April, at a 28% lower cost.  Since we’re not using the heater anymore ( that’s gas powered ), all my natural gas usage is from the water heaters ( we have 2 ), and our stove. I expect this number to stay roughly the same throughout the summer.

Electric usage still climbing

Yet another month of increased electricity usage.  In fact, I used 840 kWh of electricity in May – the most I’ve ever used at my house.  That’s about 7% more than last month, but at a whopping 23% cost increase.  Why the funny math?  Because the electric company can, I guess.  It’s not like I can simply choose not to use electricity.  If I’m using more, then I suppose so are a lot of folks.  Higher demand = higher prices.  And it’s not even really hot yet.  I know I keep saying it, but I am worried about my summer electric bills.  I’ve never paid to cool a house before, and I’m not really sure what to expect.

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It’s that time of the month again – electric bill time!  It’s ok, settle down.  Try to hold on to your applause until the end, ok?  My April electric bill is the sixth since I purchased a new house last year.  I’m happy to say that it’s even lower than March’s bill ( which I was quite happy with ).  $119.58 was the total, which is about 6% less than March.  With the cost of just about everything skyrocketing, it’s refreshing to see a drop in my energy bill.  Let’s see what went right, and wrong.

Gas usage down again

I managed to use 29% less natural gas compared to last month, and that cost me 26% less.  Remember, the utility company uses some sort of funny math that mere mortals can’t comprehend.  I expect our gas usage to drop further as the summer months get closer.

Electricity usage creeping upward

The flip side to my gas usage dropping is my electric usage going up.  More A/C means more electricity.  I used 787 kWh ( kilowatt-hours ) of electricity, which is a 21% jump over March.  The electric part of my bill jumped just 10% though.  More funny math, but this time it works out in my favor.

Long term picture

This month I went all out and created a few Excel charts to show my energy usage and cost over time.  These first two charts show my Electricity usage in kWh and my gas usage in ccf.

You can kind of see the pattern – when electric is up, gas is down, and vice versa.

These two charts show the electric cost vs gas cost, and my total bill over time. 

Final Thoughts

A very good month all told.  We’ve had some hot days, with plenty more to come.  My electricity bill will be going northward, and I’ll just have to do my best to limit the damage.  That reminds me, I still need to change my A/C filters!

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Welcome to the monthly installment of my energy costs series.  March 2008 marks my 5th electric bill since I purchased my first home last year.  Click on the thumbnail to your left for a full-size picture of my cost breakdown.  I’m happy to say that my bill came in at $127.10 – that’s the lowest it’s been since December!  It’s a solid 13% less than I paid just last month.  Let’s see what went well / wrong.

Gas usage way down

I used 47% less natural gas than I did in February.  That was due to a combination of milder weather, shorter showers, and refusing to use the heat unless I couldn’t feel my limbs.  With that huge drop, the gas portion of my bill fell by 37%.  I actually paid less for gas than I did for electricity.

Electricity bill strange

I did use 3% more electricity in March, which I’m ok with.  That’s just 19 kWH, and not really anything to be concerned with.  However, that 3% jump in usage translated into a 24% increase in the electric side of my bill.  If I didn’t know better, I’d say that there’s some funny math going on here.

Final Thoughts

Strange math aside, I’m pleased with March’s bill.  I’m afraid it may be the calm before the storm though, as we’re heading into spring.  Southern Texas isn’t known for mild springs or summers, and my A/C will be getting quite the workout.  That reminds me, I need to change out my A/C filters this weekend.  Have you been changing yours regularly?

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It’s that time of the month again.  No, not that time, but time for my 4th electric bill at my new house.  The bill is to your left – just click on the thumbnail to see the information full size.  My total bill came to $146.65, or just a hair less than I paid in January.  Less than 1% less, in fact.  Perhaps my bills are just evening out to reflect my normal usage – I sure hope not.  $150 is too much to pay in the winter in San Antonio, at least to me.

Gas usage Up

Again, my gas usage jumped – this time by nearly 5%.  That translated into a 10% jump in my bill through some sort of funky electric company accounting.  The weather has been crazy here, but generally pretty cold at night.  Heating a 2732 square foot house just isn’t cheap, no matter how you slice it.

Electricity usage Down

I used 10% less electricity this month – which makes a 16% drop in the electric portion of my bill.  All those CFL’s sure make a difference, especially with so many lights in a house.

Final Thoughts

Overall my bill was nearly identical to last months’ bill.  More gas, less electricity, adds up to the same total amount.  I have to learn to be more efficient with my energy usage, or the summer will be pretty horrible.  For the time being, I’ll try to start using the dishwasher instead of hand washing dishes.  I already wash clothes in cold water ( except for white towels, they get the hot treatment ).  Shorter showers could help, since hot water isn’t cheap.  Less TV will also be a focus – less energy used, and less time wasted.  We’ll see if these things have much / any effect on my March bill.  Stay tuned.

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