Care to share your energy bill from the deep freeze?

[QVCshopper]

Wow. I'm never going to complain about my gas or electric bill again. We're getting a bargain here in Buffalo of all places.

Gas I'm budgeted @ $108 a month. The heat is set @ 70 and it's pretty much left there. My heat is usually on from November till March. Maybe a few extra days into April. I don't have central air.

Electric usually runs anywhere from $90-$120. I don't consider that to bad considering we are running 4 TVs and a combo of computers and plugged in iPads, cell phones and lap tops.

I'm right there with you for electric. But, for gas, I pay what we use that month. So, winter months are much much higher than summer, when mine might be $20 a month (for hot water). So, when you take into consideration your spread out payments, we are about the same.

 

[pixiewings71]

In CA, we had temps down in the teens (not normal), 17-22 for about month, our electric bill was $400.....house is 1400 sq ft. Our normal bill is $200 a month, we have 3 saltwater fish tanks and 1 terrarium, we know where we can the bill but we like the fish and the corals.

 

[Sacha_L]

Ha I'm happy with a $375 bill we got for December in N Cali. It's been a warm winter and we keep our heater on 60 degrees and supplement with a wood stove. That is for a 1600 square foot house. (Built in the 70's) In the summer we regularly top $500 for one month in an all electric house with the temp set at 75 degrees. We have lived in other states in larger houses and kept our house much much cooler/warmer and had bills that cost half. I HATE PG&E!

 

[swilshire]

Gas bill came today. Just south of $400. I knew it would be bad, but was surprised it was that bad, particularly since three of us were gone for two weeks and it was just my 19yo at home alone. He keeps the house warmer than we do, so I guess I should have expected it.

Sheila

 

[IDoDis]

Most recent gas bill is $74 and electric bill is $70 for an 1800 sq ft 2 story with a high ceiling. That was with all 4 of us home for 2 weeks over the holidays. We keep the house at 72 during the day when we are home (although I will turn it up to 75 if I am feeling too cold downstairs), and down to 61 at night. DH and I run a fan turned away from us in our bedroom year-round for white noise.

The cold air blasting 2/3 of the US has made for warmer jet streams in our area. We've had zero precipitation for January and sunshine with temps in the 50s and 60s. Usually we average in the low 40s for January.

 

[leebee]

2000 sq. ft., two story, 112 year old house in Bangor, ME. We use about 100 gallons of oil (heat and hot water) per month at this time of year, so our oil bill for the past month was around $375. We keep the thermostat at about 57 degrees. We need new windows and additional insulation, but have replaced 5 windows upstairs, laid insulation in the attic, and sealed in around the pipes in the basement with expanding foam. Windows that haven't been replaced have plastic over them. Most all windows have fleece curtains.

Our electric bill (lights, christmas tree, appliances, etc.) was $125. I will be happy when winter is over.

 

[tarak]

I think I win so far (or lose, really). Got our most recent bill while at Disney. $701. Our entire house is electric (we don't have natural gas in our area - only other option is converting to oil or propane). We keep the thermostat at 68 in winter and 72 in summer. The house is about 3500 square feet. During the summer, even when it's 95+ outside, the bill rarely gets higher than 175. So it's the heating that does it. We've added insulation to the attic, which has helped a bit. We also turn off the heated drying feature on the dishwasher, which shaved off about $50 per month, if you can believe it (we're a family of six, so it gets run a great deal).

 

[SAMCRO]

Mountains of western NC. 1400 sq ft house, furnace/heat pump combo for heat. Had 16 inches of extra insulation blown into attic two years ago. Best $500 I have ever spent. Keep theromstat at 71 and down to 65 at night.

Flat rate 11 month power bill of $112.00. Flat rate gas of $59.00.

Haven't got bill yet to see actual usage and what bill would have been. I'm scared.

 

[Muushka]

Mountains of western NC. 1400 sq ft house, furnace/heat pump combo for heat. Had 16 inches of extra insulation blown into attic two years ago. Best $500 I have ever spent. Keep theromstat at 71 and down to 65 at night.

Flat rate 11 month power bill of $112.00. Flat rate gas of $59.00.

Haven't got bill yet to see actual usage and what bill would have been. I'm scared.

I just love to read sentences that state

Best $(fill in the blank) I ever spent.

I always pay close attention to those posts! We need to do this. While our actual roof area that can have insulation added to is rather small (we have a Cape Cod style house so lots of slants) I think it is a good idea.

I see you're new to the DIS, welcome!

 

[gavenalex]

9500 sqft house in MN.
Spent over $4,000 this year in propane (pre-buy) and only have 600 gallons left.
Last electric bill was $500.

 

[QVCshopper]

I think I win so far (or lose, really). Got our most recent bill while at Disney. $701. Our entire house is electric (we don't have natural gas in our area - only other option is converting to oil or propane). We keep the thermostat at 68 in winter and 72 in summer. The house is about 3500 square feet. During the summer, even when it's 95+ outside, the bill rarely gets higher than 175. So it's the heating that does it. We've added insulation to the attic, which has helped a bit. We also turn off the heated drying feature on the dishwasher, which shaved off about $50 per month, if you can believe it (we're a family of six, so it gets run a great deal).

Oh, that's awful! My only advice is to insulate like crazy (windows, around doors, etc.) and turn your thermostat down to 60F. It's cold, but eventually you get used to it. I'm off to insulate my outlets, and we are hoping to replace the insulation in our accessible attic sometime this year. Wish we did it earlier, but we had an ongoing roof leak that was going on long before we bought the house from my in-laws and didn't want to ruin new insulation. (My in-laws have since fixed the leak -- fingers crossed.)

 

[mdrob214]

Just got our bill today for Dec 23-Jan 23. $147 Natural gas(furnace and water heater), 2400SF house. Cost was $4.76/day.

 

[tavettava]

Here in Michigan electric was $88.04 and gas was $59.73. I was shocked since it has been brutally cold. Our bill last year was way more.

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I live in a 900 Sq Ft Town Home. My last bill was $127 for electric and $72 for gas. I keep the house around 68 during the day and turn it down to 50 at night. We have to electric heaters we use to supplement the heat sometimes.

 

[mom2t]

Electric bill was the same we are still waiting on gas. 2000 sq. home western NC at foothills to the mts. Lucily this is our free month with electricity. I am sure we will use all ghost money for gas bill.

 

[1buckeyegirl]

All electric 1700 sq ft house in central ohio. Bill was $480, biggest bill we've had in over 10 years. House is 40 yrs old and we have a new furnace, new windows and just added a lot of insulation a few years back. Bill last month was $250.

 

[QVCshopper]

OP, here. Got my gas and electric bill for the newest month. 32 day billing period was $285--so it went up some. But, after the awful ice storm we had in southeast PA last week, I'm honestly just glad to have power. We did end up running our gas fireplace during our 3 day power outage, so that probably increased the bill some. But, I guess we saved by not having power, too--haha! House got to 45F before we left. A friend said hers got to 37F, and she was out for 5 days.

 

[mnrose]

I have two homes that we heat in the winter. Our main house is 4800 square feet and bill was 181 for the 30 day period beginning Jan 4. Our other house is 2500 and was $150 for the same period. The really remarkable thing is that the smaller home had a thermostat malfunction and ran continuously for a period of 75 hours (house got to 110 degrees!). I thought for sure it would be a budget buster. LOL! Anyway, very pleased with our bills....given our LONG streak of below zero (in some cases, ACTUAL temps of -20 and lower) weather. Shows the value of a well built, well insulated home.

 

[eliza61]

I have two homes that we heat in the winter. Our main house is 4800 square feet and bill was 181 for the 30 day period beginning Jan 4. Our other house is 2500 and was $150 for the same period. The really remarkable thing is that the smaller home had a thermostat malfunction and ran continuously for a period of 75 hours (house got to 110 degrees!). I thought for sure it would be a budget buster. LOL! Anyway, very pleased with our bills....given our LONG streak of below zero (in some cases, ACTUAL temps of -20 and lower) weather. Shows the value of a well built, well insulated home.

Wow that is great. what type of heat do you have? Im not digging my new houses heating. It has an air handler and it just never seems to get warm. Now the temperature has been in the teens here in Philly for a long time and I could never get the darn thing warmer than 69deg C. I'm going to call an hvac guy just for a check up to make sure all things are functioning properly. Home inspection was done and it was ok but just to make sure.

I will be so glad for spring.

 

[mnrose]

Wow that is great. what type of heat do you have? Im not digging my new houses heating. It has an air handler and it just never seems to get warm. Now the temperature has been in the teens here in Philly for a long time and I could never get the darn thing warmer than 69deg C. I'm going to call an hvac guy just for a check up to make sure all things are functioning properly. Home inspection was done and it was ok but just to make sure.

I will be so glad for spring.

They are both heated with natural gas. The larger home has a single boiler system which heats the water, the radiant in floor heat in the lower level and the forced air in the upper level....it is also passive solar. The smaller home is a regular high efficiency forced air system.

The real secret is 2x6 construction with massive amounts of insulation. If our homes in California has been built this well, we never would have had to run the heat. I have always thought that better construction and more insulation is the low hanging fruit in energy conservation. It's such a waste to see all these huge energy bills in places that are MUCH warmer than Minnesnowta.