May 2008 Electric Bill ( Number 7 )
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.
May 19th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
“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”
Prepare to be shell shocked ^_^
In my experience I paid a lot more during the winter to warm my house up. But then again I’m in Colorado and you’re in Texas so your mileage may/will vary.
May 19th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Oh yea, I expect it to hurt, pretty bad. It’s not like I didn’t expect higher utilities when going from an apartment to a large ( to me ) house. Still, I’m hoping it’s not $400 bad ;|
I’m thinking a heating bill in Colorado would be just as evil and horrible as a cooling bill in Texas. Just out of curiosity, are you on nat gas there or heating oil? I hear heating oil is crazy expensive.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Natural gas here, there’s just something about heating oil that says “Danger!” to me both financially and literally
As far as cooling measures are concerned, have you given any thought on swamp coolers?
May 20th, 2008 at 8:25 am
I married the world’s prettiest polar bear, so it’s all A/C for me. Though she’s slowly acclimating to a slightly warmer temperature, it’s still pretty chilly in our house come summer time.
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:57 am
people here in the UK are always complaining that the summers are not hit enough. However, putting my dislike of being hot aside, I am still grateful that we do not have to indulge in air conditioning just to function. I wonder whether our winter heating bills are the equivalent of your summer cooling bills.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:16 am
I do hear that it gets pretty chilly over there in the winter months. In my head ( which doesn’t always translate well to reality ), most of the housing over there is old, and probably lacking in insulation / efficiency as well. I don’t imagine that does much good for your heating bills.
I suppose there really isn’t a *perfect* place, where you can avoid huge cooling AND huge heating bills. Maybe SoCal?
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:48 am
It is getting warmer now with global warming. Many people have single glazing, no loft insulation and draughty doors. many people are improving their insulation now with all of the ‘green’ hype.
I cannot imagine there is a perfect place with a good temperature balance either.