Summer Electric Bill Pain
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FacebookI’ve written in the past about working to reduce our electric bill. Given that we’ve only been in the house a coupe of months, I still don’t have a good feel for what to expect, but I do know that the previous owners had a year-round average of $165/month.
We’ve done quite a bit thus far in terms of insulating a few nooks and crannies, switching over to compact fluorescent bulbs, playing with the air vents to balance the upstairs/downstairs heat load, and raising our thermostat from 70 (which is what the previous owners had it set at) to 77, which is still quite comfortable. But I also knew that we were in for a (relative) whopper of a bill after the unseasonably hot July that we just experienced.
Well, I just got on e-mail from our online billpay service, and guess what? Our electric bill jumped from $129 in June to $220 in July. Ouch! I still haven’t seen the bill itself, so I’m unsure how much of this is due to increased usage, and how much is due to fluctuating energy prices. Either way, I’m hoping that it heads back down sometime soon…
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Published on August 23rd, 2006 - 4 Comments
Filed under: Energy, House & Home
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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August 23rd, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Wow! That’s a bit excessive. Quite the jump! I only had a $29 electric bill from July, and that was a decrease from June despite hotter weather.
Look on the bright side though; winter down south is bound to be a bit easier for you.
I find it hard to believe that the energy prices fluctuated that much, though. Does your energy company bill you monthly but only check your meter every other month, estimating the off month? Maybe you are paying for part of June that you weren’t billed for then. Maine recently passed a law that makes them come check the meter every month so that bills are more accurate all the time.
August 23rd, 2006 at 3:16 pm
I would love a $29 dollar elec. bill in the summer, we are budget $203 for gas and ave. 105 for elec. July for a 1500 sf house minimal air, was 202. Gotta love NJ
August 23rd, 2006 at 4:09 pm
This may not apply in all situations but is worth checking out…
One thing that made a huge difference in my electricity bill was having my A/C unit professionally serviced. We bought our house mid-summer last year, and while the A/C unit was cooling the house sufficiently, it did seem to have to run a bit harder than I expected in order to cool the house.
For about $75 I had the unit serviced. First, they cleaned out the outside unit’s coils/fins with a hose (which you can do yourself for free, but be careful with the fragile fins). Next, the technician discovered that the unit needed charging with coolant, which I think can be done by a professional only.
Once it was serviced, it cooled much more efficiently, meaning that it ran much less, and this reduced our electricity bills significantly, which more than offset the cost of the A/C service call.
Perhaps this might help some readers out there..