$737.00 electric bill!!!!

[antkim]

Gotta LOVE New England! My monthly budget WAS $258.00. Last month I called to ask a question about my bill and was told that my year end reveiw was coming up this month and at that time I owed an extra $250.00. O.K. I could deal with that BUT apparently after this past months EXTREME cold it cost us an additional $250.00!!!!!!!! The slap in the face is my house is still not toasty warm and I also spent $400.00 on wood for the stove to heat the main part of the house! I can only imagine what my NEW budget amount is going to be! Man, DH REALLY needs to get that new job so we can get the heck out of this house!!!

Kim

 

[preshi]

Oh my gosh!! Ours was $190.00 this month and I thought that was alot!

that is nuts!

 

[bumcat]

That is awful! That is almost my house note!

 

[AZKathy]

<a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_6_213.gif' border=0></a>Oh my gosh! That is terrible!

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

That right there is one of the many reasons I am glad I live in Texas and not in the frozen North. The amount you quoted is almost as much as our monthly housepayment. How on EARTH do you afford to pay that much in heating?


TOV

 

[jel0511]

I sympathize with you. My monthly bill in the winter usually is around $600, but with this cold, I'm dreading the next bill. I still don't think it's warm in here, and I keep the thermostat at 74!!! There's too many darn windows in this house, only the room where the thermostat is 74!!!! We don't do the budget plan, but these winter bills are certainly a killer. My summer bills, with the airconditioning, are only around $350, I live for those now!!!!

 

[DopeyRN]

And I thought my $400 mid summer bills were bad!!!

 

[antkim]

Not sure HOW I'm going to pay for it! Hoping I can just pay it over a few months. We had to have our water main replaced a few weeks ago also- haven't gotten that bill yet! Looks like we'll be eating a lot of mac & cheese!! LOL We'll get it paid EVENTUALLY! LOL

Kim

 

[Desnik]

WOW!!! That's high. What kind of heat do you all have? Those that are paying $400-$700 a month! Is it oil or gas? Radiant, forsed air or baseboard heating? Also could you all be loosing heat with poorly insulated windows/doors and maybe even the house? I'm sorry so many questions I just can't believe how high those bills are. Our heating bill per month is around $150. We have radiant gas heat.

 

[always quiet]

I cringed when I saw a $190 on our last bill. We have oil heat, so you have to add the $160 in oil we used for the month as well! When is spring again??!!

 

[antkim]

My heat is electric but this is not a monthly bill. Like I said my budget wasn't high enough so this is what I owe for the past months budget PLUS the extra cost that hadn't been factored in-say about 500! We have been below 0 almost every night for a month and below 0 or single digits during the day too! This is not a typical month THANK GOD!!

Kim

 

[jel0511]

Originally posted by Desnik
WOW!!! That's high. What kind of heat do you all have? Those that are paying $400-$700 a month! Is it oil or gas? Radiant, forsed air or baseboard heating? Also could you all be loosing heat with poorly insulated windows/doors and maybe even the house? I'm sorry so many questions I just can't believe how high those bills are. Our heating bill per month is around $150. We have radiant gas heat.

We have forced air gas heat. My house is only 4 years old, so it's not an insulation problem, it's just that I have over 4000 sq ft to heat!!!! And TONS of windows like I mentioned. I have 30 windows in this house!!! I know, I had to count when I ordered the blinds!!!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Wow, very high. Do you use a humidifier? And you too, jel0511. Higher humidity means comfort at lower temps.

 

[jel0511]

Originally posted by Dan Murphy
Wow, very high. Do you use a humidifier? And you too, jel0511. Higher humidity means comfort at lower temps.

Yep, have one of them too. It's on 35% humidity.

 

[GeorgeG]

That's very high, and I work for a utility!

I would call and have them do an investigation, including testing your meter. Also, go through your house and make sure nothing has been inadvertantly left running. A friend of mine managed to double his bill when he left his hot tub running 24/7.

If everything checks out okay, I'd start thinking about relocating to a milder climate.

 

[Sleepy]

Originally posted by jel0511
Yep, have one of them too. It's on 35% humidity.

WOW, 35% is really low. Doesn't the air seem dry to you? We always keep our house at around 60%.

 

[CEDmom]

Originally posted by jel0511
We have forced air gas heat. My house is only 4 years old, so it's not an insulation problem, it's just that I have over 4000 sq ft to heat!!!! And TONS of windows like I mentioned. I have 30 windows in this house!!! I know, I had to count when I ordered the blinds!!!

Don't be so sure you're well insulated even in a new house. We had our slider replaced a few years ago when our house was about 5 yrs old. The amount of insulation the builder put in was pathetic. Also the standard windows installed on most houses are not the greatest and the caulking around them is lacking so having a lot of windows can really hike up the bill.

 

[goofy4tink]

Wow!! I don't do the electric company's budget plan, I kinda do my own. My all electric house has been costing about $250-300 a month so far. And I keep my heat at 68 daytime, 62 nighttime. All my windows are brand new, as is the slider. But I don't think my insulation is that great. But, about 5 years ago, we had the electric company come out and do an energy audit. MY neighbors called me while the audit was going on to ask if my house was being quarentined!! They put this huge fan thingie with a cover over my front door. But, they added about 2' of insulation in my attic, recaulked any and all little cracks to the outside. It really made a difference. And, it cost me nothing!! But....my electric bill this month was $414!!!! My 'budget plan' is to pay part of it this month and part next month and the rest in two months. Man, this cold weather is expensive!!! Love those August bills of around $125. Of course, the dehumidifier is expensive to run.

 

[Dan Murphy]

35% for NJ is probably fine, as compared to maybe 60% in VA. The lower the temperature the lower the humidity needs to be or elas you will have moisture damage. Always a fine balance between comfort and condensation. We too have a humidifier and it stays around 30-40%. If we had none, it would be about 5%.

 

[Tuffcookie]

For the past severl months I have been going round and round with Dominion East Ohio. They sent me a letter stating it had been over a year since they had gotten an actual reading and insisted they needed to get in the house. Well, we scheduled for a Saturday morning. I waited and waited but no one came. I hate to waste a Sat. morning and have someone "no show". Well, at noon I left. Guess what? The utility person showed up at 1:30! So finally the utility company sends me another letter. Another appt. is made. They get in the house. The lady that shows up states "Oh, you have a credit coming"! She also noticed that the meter number on my bill does not match the meter in my house! She put in for a correction on that. (Honest, I didn't change it! ) I'm all excited, thinking I'm getting a credit on my next bill (this was in November). Low and behold, my next gas bill comes and it's....$1700.00! I got on the phone pronto and called the gas company. The lady I talked to said she would send my account "upstairs" for further investigation! Well, finally the gas company tells me they want to send another reader to my home to get another meter # reading. So, once again I take off work to run home to let them in to read the #s! Finally my bill is straighted around. But get this. All the time they were working on getting my bill straightened around I was told not to send in a payment. So what did they do? They turned around and got me knocked off the lower energy cost supplier list! I had to reapply to get back on that! Dominion claimed it was out of their hands! Anyway, I finally got my account fixed. And, thankfully, because of the credit the first lady told me I had coming, and when the really first cold month hit here, my gas bill was $190. My highest gas bill, so far has been 194. Normally I keep my thermostat at 72 but I have turned it to 70 (just can't bring myself to go below 70 ) Thank goodness my house is insulated very well and I have a 90% energy effiencent furnace. I don't know how some people are making it.

TC