How much is your heat/electric bill?

[I Believe In Magic]

I just got my heat bill, it also has the electric on it. My total for December was 378.00 My house is FREEZING all the time, it is actually embarrassing when people come to visit and ask for a blanket when we are in the family room. Hang out in the kitchen? Forget it. Cold cold cold. I keep the heat on 64 during the day and at night and when we come home from school/work it goes to 66 at the highest. My kids leave their coats on half the time. I had this problem last winter and I called my heating company and after like 6 months of super high bills they said the meter was giving false readings. How can our bills be this high? It is drafty, but we have newer windows and a newer roof (well 10 years) and we had insulation blown in the walls like 11 years ago. So I try to keep the bills down but this is ridiculous. My house is 1700 sq ft, so not huge. Please tell me I am not the only one. I will post separately about those heaters you see in USA Weekend, they are supposed to work, but if you have one, let me know here in case you miss that thread. I feel like the Disney trip we were talking about can just pass us right by. The whole winter these bills are going to be like this. I am just sick over it. Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Krischaser]

I hear ya! I keep my house at 68 and 69 (new baby in the house) and it is still cold in here! My electric bill was 245.00 and electric was 160.00 I do not know what to do anymore. I can't turn the heat down because we have a five month old. Oh and we have a fire at night in the main room. I'm curious about those heaters also. I thought I read somewhere that they did not work well---but I'm not sure.

 

[DawnM]

Ours has been surprisingly low for the size of house we have (over 3000 sq. ft). It is around $200 at the most and some months lower than that. We have no gas or water bills as we are on a well....so the electric bill is all we have.

I do know that our house is very well insulated. It has 2x6 walls and holds heat well.

Dawn

 

[skw444]

Our gas bill was $178 and our electric bill was $80. We keep our house at 70 degrees during the day and turn it down to 67 at night. Our house is 2800 sq feet. This has been our highest gas bill.

 

[I Believe In Magic]

I hear ya! I keep my house at 68 and 69 (new baby in the house) and it is still cold in here! My electric bill was 245.00 and electric was 160.00 I do not know what to do anymore. I can't turn the heat down because we have a five month old. Oh and we have a fire at night in the main room. I'm curious about those heaters also. I thought I read somewhere that they did not work well---but I'm not sure.

Krischaser.
Well we are both in MI, so I feel your pain!! I hope I hear more about the heaters, I hate to waste the money on one if its no good!! Hopefully we have a short winter!!

 

[QVCshopper]

More utility threads! My last bill was $96 gas (heat and hot water) and $71 electric. Live in PA, family of 4, SAHM/WAHM so I'm here a lot. I expect our next bill to be higher as we turned on our gas fireplace and have been using the dryer this past month. Keep the house at 64 right now (may go back down to 62 after next bill) and 57 at night. I try to conserve, recycle, and reduce--as long as I stay out of Target!

BTW-OP, I'd call your utility service. Maybe it's false readings again? Or, maybe your furnace is old? The summer before my AC blew up, my house was SO hot although I was paying to run the AC. Turns out, it was OLD, and not working right. New AC kept the house cool and was cheaper to run, too.

 

[singnring]

I feel your pain!

Got my gas bill yesterday; $330!!!

That on top of the elec I got a few days prior for $199! Now, granted, that one includes usage for our Christmas light display, but that would have only been about $65 of it.

If our bills are already that high, I don't know what we'll do in the coldest part of the winter!

We have new windows, fully insulated walls, temp stays @ 68 degrees all the time.

I am always freezing in my house. I have throw blankets all over so I can wrap up in whatever room I'm in. But still I get these outrageous bills!

 

[deerhart]

my last electric bill (our heat is electric) was $180. In the deep winter (dec,jan,feb) and the summer (june, july, aug) it averages about $175. We keep the house at about 72-73 in winter ad about 70 in the summer. The other months, it averages about $90-$100. Our townhouse is about 1800sqft and we have a couple huge big drafty windows. We bypassed the plastic covering this year because we haven't seen any difference.

I am considering buying insulated drapes for the really drafty windows (since one is the bay window in my bedroom) to try to keep down the drafts. We also keep the chimney flue shut unless we are using the fireplace.

 

[maddiesmom0116]

I have geothermal heat, which I set at 70, but it never feels warm. I have a 3500sqft house including the basement and my electric bill was 420 last month and 280 in November. I posted in your other thread, I use an edenpure upstairs and I did see it tack on $75 a month.

 

[mamo-4-wdw]

My electric bill (our heat is electic) from this month is $350. After all the low temps for the 3 last three weeks I hate to guess what the next electric bill will be.

 

[dis-happy]

Ours has been surprisingly low for the size of house we have (over 3000 sq. ft). It is around $200 at the most and some months lower than that. We have no gas or water bills as we are on a well....so the electric bill is all we have.

I do know that our house is very well insulated. It has 2x6 walls and holds heat well.

Dawn

Living in Charlotte rocks! Yeah Duke Power!! Lower prices and none of those rolling brown outs we used to put up with in VA either. My highest bills in the worst of the winter chill are never more than $200. and our house (3600 sf) is everything electric...water, 2 heat pumps, stove, etc. I always have lots of lights on all day too. We keep the downstairs set at 65 at night, turn the upstairs unit off (that way the warmer air drifts up without drying everything out); during the day both units are set to 70-72.

 

[IDoDis]

Our most recent gas bill was $80 and electric was $66.00. We keep the heat at 72 when we're home. We are gone during the day and turn the thermostat down to 60. However, for this most recent bill, we were all home for the Christmas break for two solid weeks so we had the heat on during the day.

The month before the gas was $68.00.

Our house is 1750 sq ft 2 story. The upstairs is always warmer, of course. Our days are not as cold as where you probably live (average in the low to mid 40s most days), but our nights and mornings drop into the teens and low 20s this time of the year.

 

[Disney Anna]

$42 for my electric. Live in sunny San Diego.

 

[lisaross]

We are on the budget plan...2100 sq. feet home..

Electric - $175 month
Gas - $100.00

 

[mjkacmom]

I can't feel sorry for you - our gas/electric is $500 a month, 12 months out of the year ("budget" plan). Our home is almost 100 years old, 1800 square feet. We've gotten new storm windows and doors, and had insulation blown into the first floor, and insulated the attic. I don't know why gas for heating is so expensive here, since gas prices for vehicles is one of the lowest in the country.

 

[J3nn78]

Ugh- got ours the other day $925 and we keep the house at 68*
We are 8 people living here, but that is still crazy. We have all energy efficient appliances, light bulbs, time of day, etc...

 

[DawnM]

We have Union Power Coop for electric.

Dawn

Living in Charlotte rocks! Yeah Duke Power!! Lower prices and none of those rolling brown outs we used to put up with in VA either. My highest bills in the worst of the winter chill are never more than $200. and our house (3600 sf) is everything electric...water, 2 heat pumps, stove, etc. I always have lots of lights on all day too. We keep the downstairs set at 65 at night, turn the upstairs unit off (that way the warmer air drifts up without drying everything out); during the day both units are set to 70-72.

 

[lilstint]

I know this is going to win the award here. My daughter called me yesterday in a state of shock. Her gas and electric bill was $611.21! It was about evenly split at over $300 for each.

Heres the kicker...She was GONE for 10 days in December. The heat was down to 55 and 1 energy saving light was on. She has Niagara Mohawk (our supplier here) coming to her house tomorrow to try to find out whats going on.

 

[lilstint]

Ugh- got ours the other day $925 and we keep the house at 68*
We are 8 people living here, but that is still crazy. We have all energy efficient appliances, light bulbs, time of day, etc...

UHH..you win! Hands down.

 

[RachaelA]

We just got our first gas bill at our new house. It was a longer billing cycle (33 days) and it was $184. I almost cried. Electric will probably be $75-$100. Our house is almost 2500 sq. ft and we keep it at 64 degrees all the time.

We just changed the temp to 64 when we are home and awake and 62 when we are sleeping and not at home. I can't imagine how much it would be if we kept it between 68-72 like some of you guys! I'm jealous of your warmer houses.