Power Bills

We have a small house-I think it's about 1900' sq ft. It's all electric-heat, central air, all appliances. But it's a log house and it's very well insulated. We use a wood stove all winter, and I don't think our electric bill went over $70 per month all year. And in summer, because of the insulation (and living in the woods) we don't even turn on our air unless it's over 90 degrees for several days in a row. So we are very fortunate when it comes to that.

Another thing that helps is, all of the wood that we burn is free. Any dead trees on our property, we cut up for fire wood. And any trees that fall down or are cut down in lots of neighboring areas-people call my husband and ask him to come get it! They give him the wood for free because they just want the trees out of their yard without paying someone to do it!!!

[Marilyn]

We have a fairly large home with two electric central air and heat units. Hot water and cooking are gas. Our peek summer electric bills were running $500 to $600/month. Our home is only 5 years old and was built with very energy efficient features, double insulated tinted windows, high efficiency appliances and HVAC. Our power was $0.16/kwh. Our daughters moved away, so we closed off the second floor and shutdown the AC and Heat on that floor, switched to a COOP power company at $0.12/kwh, changed our most used light bulbs to florescent, and our highest bill since has been around $310. for one month. Big improvement. I also started shutting down computers at night and reduced the time that televisions are on. I've heard that the new HDTV's are energy hogs.

Wish we had bills like some of you.

Hubby and I are planning to move to the Austin/San Antonio area in the next few years and when we do are seriously considering building a home with super insulation, solar panels, wind generators and a water furnace HVAC system which is a heat pump using a water well as a heat sink (some people refer to it as a geothermal system).

[DianaB]

I couldn't tell you what our utilities cost. We live in a 9 year old home that's 2,350 sq ft. with a full basement. We have central heat and airconditioning. We are on propane and it's filled whenever the company is in this area, so it's not a monthly bill and during the summer it's not filled at all. I'll have to have my husband check and see how much it costs us.

[Janet]

We are total electric with central heat and air and our SF is approx. 2300. Our electric runs 2146.00 or around 178.00 a month. We could probably lower that and really need to.

[pearl]

i don't know what i would do with some of these bills!!! i don't know if i have a very well insulated house or what. the $94 is my budget billing amount, averaged over a year so that is what it is. i'm also on the wind energy program and 100% of my electricity is wind generated, and that is an extra $20 per month to be on the program. so i'm actually lower.

[Janet]

They are considering a company wanting to build a windmill farm here in Clinton County since it is so windy here. That would be great if it could lower our bill like that!!

[DianaB]

Windmill farms are really kinda' pretty from a distance. We have one between here and Wichita. You wouldn't believe how big the windmills are, or even the blades. I think that harnessing wind power is a great idea!!!