Am I an electricity hog???

[dfchelbay]

This is my current electricity bill. This is WITHOUT the air or the heat running, just straight electricity we are consuming for things plugged in to outlets. Are we in the ballpark with what two people should be using? Are we in the ballpark with rates per KWH hour? I think we get grossly overcharged for all utilities here. My bill says 895 KWH Used and also says 29.8 KWH Usage.

I called the utility company to ask some questions, and she basically was reading from her screen. I ask a follow up question and she pauses and says, lets me scroll up, and reads from her computer screen...she could not even answer the basic of questions.

Here are the dollar amounts for my current bill. How does yours compare? Please note this bill is for Sept. 25 - October 25, so its before daylight savings, and we don't turn on lights til its basically dark. How many kilowatts do you use, and what do they make you pay for each KWH? We have unplugged nearly everything, all appliances are newer, and the bill is still $130.

Are we kilowatt pigs???

Power Supply Charges:

Power Supply Energy
510 KWH @ 0.06726 $34.30
385 KWH @ 0.08136 $31.32

Renewable Energy Plan Surchg $3.00
Other Power Supply Surcharges* -$2.60

Delivery Charges:

Service Charge $6.00
Distribution 895 KWH @ 0.04195 $37.54
Energy Optimization 895 KWH @ 0.002538 $2.27
Other Delivery Surcharges** $11.28
Residential Sales Tax $4.92

Total $128.03

 

[budafam]

Mine is usually that amount. I don't think we overuse any electricity either. I only turn lights on when we're in that room and unplug anything we're not using.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I was just looking at our power bill. It doesn't say how much we pay per kWh, but we used 808 kWh last month and our bill was $98.83. We have our thermostat set on 62 and unplug almost everything. Our appliances are pretty old, though.

 

[JennyKS]

My gas bill is separate from my electric bill. I don't have the bills as I just paid them and I don't keep the stubs. But my electric bill was 45 bucks and my gas bill was 25 bucks. I live in Kansas.

 

[ah1126]

I am in Florida, and my bill is for 9/14 - 10/14. We have the air on, set to 75 in the day and 71 at bedtime. This is for 3 of us, 2 home during the day.

Our usage is 1139 kWh and our bill was $149.16

We are on the budget billing, so we pay an average of $140 a month, every month.

 

[scrapquitler]

This is my current electricity bill. This is WITHOUT the air or the heat running, just straight electricity we are consuming for things plugged in to outlets. Are we in the ballpark with what two people should be using? Are we in the ballpark with rates per KWH hour? I think we get grossly overcharged for all utilities here. My bill says 895 KWH Used and also says 29.8 KWH Usage.

I called the utility company to ask some questions, and she basically was reading from her screen. I ask a follow up question and she pauses and says, lets me scroll up, and reads from her computer screen...she could not even answer the basic of questions.

Here are the dollar amounts for my current bill. How does yours compare? Please note this bill is for Sept. 25 - October 25, so its before daylight savings, and we don't turn on lights til its basically dark. How many kilowatts do you use, and what do they make you pay for each KWH? We have unplugged nearly everything, all appliances are newer, and the bill is still $130.

Are we kilowatt pigs???

Power Supply Charges:

Power Supply Energy
510 KWH @ 0.06726 $34.30
385 KWH @ 0.08136 $31.32

Renewable Energy Plan Surchg $3.00
Other Power Supply Surcharges* -$2.60

Delivery Charges:

Service Charge $6.00
Distribution 895 KWH @ 0.04195 $37.54
Energy Optimization 895 KWH @ 0.002538 $2.27
Other Delivery Surcharges** $11.28
Residential Sales Tax $4.92

Total $128.03

Not compared to us, you aren't

We are in CT, highest electric rates in the country, except for Hawaii, I think

Oct 8-Nov 3
1304Kwh
Customer service charge: $11.70
Energy Charge: First 700KWH 700X0.097900 $68.53
Over 700KWH 604X0.094500 $57.08
BaseBill $137.31

Power Cost Adjustment: 1304X 0.008415 $10.97
Energy Conservation Fund: 1304 X 0.002500 $3.26
Total Electric Charges: $151.54

This is with no heat (that's natural gas), lots of computers running (DH runs his business from home and has at least 3 of his computers running 24/7)

Honestly, this month's bill is the lowest it has been since the spring, since this was the first month with no air conditoners running. In the summer, our bill was more like $230.

 

[skysmom99]

We paid $94 for 595 kWh for October. This is with 5 people (including 3 children who've never passed a light switch w/o turning it on). Of course, dh is the only one home during the day on weekdays, and I'm sure he doesn't use much more than the computer he's using to do his job. I'm expecting higher bills now that it is dark so much earlier.

 

[undertheradar]

Our average use for a family of 5 in Southern California is 1200 kwh at an average bill of $260.00 per month. AC in the Summer takes us well over $390.00 in the Summer months.

 

[squirrel]

I'm up in Canada but I used 812 kWh last bill which is for 63 days. My average daily use is 13 kWh.

I didn't tell you the price I paid as you would be very sad. It's much lower than what everyone else in the US has posted.

I work from home so there is a light on most of the time. We go outside for a few hours in the morning and they nap for about 1 1/2-2 hrs a day so almost 4 hrs not on.

I'm bad I don't unplug the computer, TV, coffeemaker, etc. I do unplug the vaccuum and hairdryer.

I don't have A/C and I believe the furnace is run by gas.

 

[AlwaysMoving]

We used 338 kwh. Bill was $48.48

 

[Disney845]

We are in FL and get our electricity from FPL. It is still warm here and the air was still on at times for this bill.

For the billing period 9/23/11-10/24/11 we were billed the following:

kWh = 988

New charges (Rate: RS-1 RESIDENTIAL SERVICE )
Electric service amount 91.98**
On call credit 10.50CR
Storm charge 1.08
Gross receipts tax 2.12
Franchise charge 5.08
Utility tax 5.87
Total new charges $95.63

The Electrical Service Amount breaks down as the following:
Customer Charge $5.90
Fuel Charge $37.54 (based on first 1000kWh @ $0.038)
Non Fuel Charge $48.54 (based on first 1000kWh @ $0.04914)

The On Call Credit is a program we are part of that allows them to interupt service on certain things (a/c, heater, water heater, pool pump) during periods of high consumption on the power grid. We have had it for over a year now and never noticed them activating it for us.

At its highest during the summer the bill is still under $150 and at the lowest in the winter it can be as low as in the $50s.

 

[MomtoGKC]

Yikes - we use a ton. We also live in south Florida and we use FPL so we probably have the same rate. From late Sept. to late Oct. we used 1987 kW including air, pool pump, plugged in things, lights - everything. We paid about $230. The month before - late Aug. to late Sept. - we used 2791kW and paid over $300! This is for 5 people - 2 adults three kids. We keep the air about 77-78.

Oh - and FPL has a cool feature on their website that shows a graph of what you have used the past few months along with the average temperature for that month. You can look by the day and by the hour and I think you can compare to the year before.

 

[vicki_c]

Ha ha - we pay $325 month combined for gas / electric on balanced billing.

 

[atp]

Interesting thread. This month's bill was 104kwh. Converting it to dollars, it cost me about $23.

We don't have central heat or airconditioning here, though. But I do leave the TV on about 6 hours per day on average, sometimes more, specially on weekends. Plus my computer, modem, wireless router, cable thing, DVD player on stand by most of the time, frigde. And I use the washer and dryer about once or twice per week. I also run an electric fan about 1 hour per day.

I guess maybe heating/cooling uses up a lot of energy. Refrigerators over there are usually bigger too, so that must eat up a lot as well. My refrigerator supposedly consumes about as much energy as a light bulb, so maybe that helps.

Anyway, it seems that energy is cheaper in the US than it is here. Even with the currency exchange where I need almost 2 of my currency to buy one dollar.

 

[MomtoGKC]

I'm sure house size makes a big difference in this, too. And when the last poster mentioned laundry - with three kids and a dog I do at least 2-3 loads a day! My least favorite chore to do. We also waste electricity because the back door gets left open for the dog a lot - we've been trying to be better about it, but I haven't figured out how to teach her to close it behind her yet.

 

[seashoreCM]

Do you have an electric water heater? That, together with a leak somewhere in the hot water pipes, can eat up a lot of electricity.

Are you being billed for the wrong meter? Check the meter readings on your bill and be sure that matches with your meter.

 

[kerplop]

We have a 1,098 sq ft. apartment (second floor ugh) with insulation like a cardboard box. We pay $0.13 a kwh rounded up and I think our electricity bill was $135 last month for 927 kwh. Of course we also live in southeast Texas and have direct sunlight half the day, plus I work at home so the electricity is going pretty much all day from 8am-10pm.

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

The largest consumers of electricity in the house are the large appliances.
Fridge is number one. So if you have an older fridge, get rid of it for an efficient one.
Dryer and hot water tank are next. A lot of people have direct vent gas hwt but I have an electric(they are better IMO).
When we leave for weekend trips in the summer we turn the hwt off at the breaker panel.
We use the clothes dryer a lot so we are usually up around 900-1000 kwh per month.
I also have a fifty inch plasma tv which uses quite a bit...I think it's around five hundred watts. Also living in northern Canada it is getting dark now at 4:30 or 5:00, so we just use more than somewhere with more light.

 

[bumbershoot]

Never been so glad to live in the NW with $0.066407 total per KWH. And that seems to include two taxes as well.

 

[Mommee]

563 kwh for 28 days of billing. No air, family of 6. electric stove, but gas water heater and clothes dryer. LOTS of electronics