Cost of average utilities in Jacksonville/Mayport

[VirataMama4]

Hi all,

It almost time for a new duty station and we're hoping to get Jacksonville/Mayport! Would love to get closer to Disney! Trying to figure out if we should live on base, or off base in either an apartment or house. We would be looking at a 3 bedroom place either way with hopefully at least 1200-1500 sq feet. Would any of you that may live in the area mind telling what your average utilities are? I'm guessing we're looking at around $300 for electric in the summer, but have no clue about water or garbage... We live on base now and don't have to worry about any of it, so I have no clue what would be normal use for us.

Thank you!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I lived 2.5 hours south--but offering what we paid to give you perspective on a Florida utility.

A lot will depend on the current efficiency of the equipment in your rental.

For example--we had an old A/C unit in our almost 1600sf home and summer utilities were pushing well over $300 per month.

When we replaced it, we saved a few bucks a month. But the real kicker was our horrible windows. We replaced those last year with current hurricane code/insulated/tinted windows. Our last summer in our home--we had utility bills around $240 at its peak. That was after I just had a baby and had a home packed to the gils with stuff getting ready for a move. Boxes everywhere. We also had a pool. So absent that, and a smaller place that is fairly energy efficient, I would plan on $200/mo at your peak. Winter for us prior to the remodel was in the $150 range. I would guess it is a little bit less, but we didn't stay long enough to know. The AC and heat are run off of the same unit and the heat will be used. If the winter is very cold, then you will see bills near the levels of summer.

Our garbage was covered by property taxes--no additional bill. That included recycling. I *think* Duval county might be the same way. (Duval is Jacksonville btw.)

Water ran us no more than $50 per month. It was less, but I'm not sure by how much.

 

[doxdogy]

As stated by a previous poster, it would depend on when the house was built and well the house is insulated. Most of the houses/apartments right on Mayport Rd, were usually built in the late sixties, early seventies. I have not been out there in a couple of years, so I don't know how well the area has built up. Our electric bill runs around 200 a month in the summer (horrible insulation in the house). The sewer charge for the water portion is actually higher then the water portion of the bill.

If the housing at NS Mayport is anything like the housing at NAS Jacksonville most of it was built in the sixties and are concrete block homes. Personally if it was me, I would go for base housing.