About to have a ****ing heart attack. electric bill.

611 freaking dollars this month!!!! Good god, so much for buying anything for a few months. Funny thing is the house i am about to move into is 3 1/2 times the size and its electric was on 300 this last month. Stupid POS house, and this is with the thermostat on 80 all day.

Man, that is ridiculous. I have an old farted out 25 year old house with crappy insullation and it's all Electric and this months bill is $288. Now inside I have a 2 refrigerators, a kegerator, and a 21 cu. ft. upright frost free freezer. In the garage, I have two chest freezers and a fridge, and a fridge down at the barn. The A/C is set to 76 during the day and 72 from 10 PM to 6 AM. Oh yeah, an electric hot water heater too.

Something is wrong with what's going on at your place.

I'm just about close to you Ed...$266.



Ryan...take a walk around your house to see if any of the neighbors are plugged into your place???

homebrewer_99 said:

...Ryan...take a walk around your house to see if any of the neighbors are plugged into your place???

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I agree something has to be wrong. I'd even think about getting an electrician in to find out where all the power is going. Either that or your power provider is worse than cellular service providers up here in Canada!

Sound like your neighbor might be running an extension cord from your place to his growhouse when your not looking

that bill sucks
BeerCanuck

when you put an air conditioner in a window remember to make sure it blows towards the inside of the house.

Yeah, we even had an air conditioner guy come out a few weeks back, cause I think the aid conditioner is FUBARED, but he said its just an old unit and probebly fine, all the lazy ass did was look at the filter (Which I replace every month) and felt the vents and said looks good to me. Even though the house struggles to stay at 80. Oh well I move to the new nice house next weekend. Just sucks cause that is a **** ton of money for jack ****.

Sorry abt the bill ...

Take an informal energy audit ... or hire an electrician. But first call the utility ... the meter may be wrong ...do you think they care ??

We rented a place years ago where the owner had 2 space heaters running 24/7 in a crawl space to keep the pipes from freezing .... $500+ electric bill ... we got the electric company to come in, and they discovered the mystery heaters..BIG issue with landlord, who refused to pay etc ... (I just shut the heaters off)..

I guess there is only one thing to do then. DRINK warm beer. Yes turn that kegorator off and enjoy those suds warm in a warm house.

$611! That's 3/4 of my retirement income.

Insulation is your friend. Before I moved in, the average winter month (electric heat) was $300-400. This is for 1050 sq.ft. Tripled the insulation in the attic (R-40), put R-19 in the floor, wrapped all of the air ducts & installed the best 2-ton heat pump available. I think the $8,000 investment is paid off already; haven't seen a bill over $95 and I have A/C now.

dude, www.powertochoose.com !!

Our last bill was $450, but thats bc I screwed up w/the electric company. Our contract ran out before I switched to a new company (which I found through that site), instead of 1 more month at the same rate or switching to the new company we moved up to the 'market' rate, which raped us!

Oh, and Ed.....you guys have regulated electricity right?

I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about our $50 bill, then. Especially since that's paying extra to have it all come from a wind farm. Granted we live in a new 1100 sq. ft. condo, but still I can't imagine paying that much for electricity, especially as a poor grad student!

Alamo_Beer said:

dude, www.powertochoose.com !!

Our last bill was $450, but thats bc I screwed up w/the electric company. Our contract ran out before I switched to a new company (which I found through that site), instead of 1 more month at the same rate or switching to the new company we moved up to the 'market' rate, which raped us!

Oh, and Ed.....you guys have regulated electricity right?

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City of Austin (Austin Energy). I'm guessing it is regulated.

I heat with electricity also. My bill in April was $180. I'm not complaining considering how many appliances & computers I have running.

it will be interesting how much it goes up when the brewhaus goes on line.

That's insane Ryan. I know you're moving but I would('ve) called the electric company and have them do their free analysis. It's been 100+ for the last month here; 2 AC's, 4 fridges and pool I was under 200. Maybe they got a jacked meter and owe you a couple grand.

DesertBrew said:

That's insane Ryan. I know you're moving but I would('ve) called the electric company and have them do their free analysis. It's been 100+ for the last month here; 2 AC's, 4 fridges and pool I was under 200. Maybe they got a jacked meter and owe you a couple grand.

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I agree with Ralph Nader's Mom! I mean, cheese und krackers, last months bill should have been $400.

how much are yall paying per kilowatt?

Actually Ed, the State of Texas voted a couple years ago to de-regulate the electricity companies, probably around the same time you saw you bills skyrocket. I have a relatively small apartment here in Fort Worth and am paying about $150 a month to TXU (bastids).

They may have misread your meter. Or that might be a deposit included? That may not all be for a bill.

I'm probably paying the same as you Ryan, but I'm on the second floor with an apartment above, below, and on two sides of me with no south facing walls.

411 here. ****ers!

And I am getting a 31% rate increase soon.

MikeFlynn74 said:

411 here. ****ers!

And I am getting a 31% rate increase soon.

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Damn dude, I figured yall would have it cheap up there.

My last gas/electric bill (5/8 to 6/9) was $97. Then again, that's about the cheapest bill of the year. May is warm enough to need relatively little heat (although it was cold this year) and cool enough not to need A/C...here in Wisconsin, anyway. With one person in the house I used 354 kwh's @ $0.11/kwh.

I switched to using my laptop (90 W) instead of the desktop machine (350 W), and switched all the bulbs I could to CFL's (save 75%). I have two extra fridges now that I brew--the kegerator in the kitchen and the lagering freezer) and an electric stove, but that's a small price to pay. Comparing May '07 to May '08, it looks like the extra fridges are only ~30 kwh/month.

Damn dude, I figured yall would have it cheap up there.

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You would think considering the NG is drilled and pumped 20 miles from here directly to the powerplant.

Its a ****ing scam- They arent paying a thing for NG while we get screwed because of the market

MikeFlynn74 said:

You would think considering the NG is drilled and pumped 20 miles from here directly to the powerplant.

Its a ****ing scam- They arent paying a thing for NG while we get screwed because of the market

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Get your hand's on some Mineral rights.

No such thing in the Sate of AK

sigh besides Its finally summer and I could give a damn less

I've been bitching about my $150 a month bill, and my ac is set on 68, and I have a kegerator, 6 computers running, 2 big screens, and all these damn lights, swmbo keeps on. It's a 100 year old 2000 sq. foot house. But my rent is $600 dollars a month. And my minimal 45000 a year, is starting to sound good........

k1v1116 said:

when you put an air conditioner in a window remember to make sure it blows towards the inside of the house.

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Now that sounds like the voice of experience. Ohhh

Ryanh1801 said:

how much are yall paying per kilowatt?

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Can I just say, something is very wrong there, or your kids are playing with hydroponic grass growing.

OK, living in Hawaii, every BTU seems to be shipped in by the ounce.

Date KWM =SUM:
200806 337 0.295
Somehow it just seems a lot more.

Now, this is not counting the 15 lines of charges, and credits showing on the bill. Just the KW per month divided by the cost. At home I have a heater, Estar: A Fridge, Estar: A keggerator, (was) Estar: An OLD electric stove and a Fermentation Fridg old as I am I think: Multiple computers, LCD TV. But I'm never home so the lights are few and never on with no heating and no AC. MAN I HATE NO AC.

Side note, that is why I have some money in Energy stocks, old school NG and oil. If you see any good alternative plays yell it out.

Final answer, move as quickly as you can.

I agree, call the electric company and have them reread the meter. If it's doubled in a month and no excess usage that you know of, something is wrong.

I live in Iowa in a 1300 Sq ft. house built back in the 1930's and my bills in the summertime are only 120 or so. I would say you are getting ripped off. Even in the winter time with it 73 in the house and 15 degrees outside it is 350 bucks. I would have it checked out.

My electric bill has gone up 40% in the last few months... yet i am still hovering around $120/month. With the recent oil prices i cringe at the thought of another New England winter coming.

Scotty_g said:

and switched all the bulbs I could to CFL's (save 75%).

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I actually got rid of all those mercury laced EPA Hazards back a long time ago and picked up a couple cases of GE incandescent bulbs. Real light at about 25 cents a bulb with no waiting for them to warm up.

My electric bill has gone up 30% over 2 months, but it is still less than $110 a month. Using the A/C only on the humid days. Gotta learn how to conserve a bit or something is really wrong.

MattMann said:

I've been bitching about my $150 a month bill, and my ac is set on 68, and I have a kegerator, 6 computers running, 2 big screens, and all these damn lights, swmbo keeps on. It's a 100 year old 2000 sq. foot house. But my rent is $600 dollars a month. And my minimal 45000 a year, is starting to sound good........

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.....


I have a ~700sqft apartment that, while all utilites are included, still runs me $1,400 a month..... And it's STILL at around 78 in there all the time...


I need to get the hell outta this place

I average about $30 per month. I have been as low as $19 though...only as big as you need is my thinking.

mine is about 150 in the summer( I Hate the heat) and between 65 and 80 in the winter. I heat with wood in the winter, and those costs include NG for cooking and hot water, and I use the electric dryer too much.

Our 12 month contract just expired at 12.5 cents per kWh. Last month's bill shows 15.9 cents per kWh. When I looked at the offers in www.powertochoose.org, the offers range from 14.1 cents to 22.7 cents per kWh.

Here's what we've paid in Texas over the past few years:

2002 = 8 cents per kWh
2003 = 9.2 cents (14% increase)
2004 = 10 cents (9% increase)
2005 = 11.2 cents (12% increase)
2006 = 14.1 cents (26% increase)
2007 = 12.5 cents (changed providers & signed 1 yr. contract)
2008 = 15.9 cents (27% increase)

At this rate, going solar might be worth while in a few years if our energy costs per kWh continue to increase at a 15-20% clip annually.

I have a 1300 sqft apartment second floor and mine was about $130.00 last month. I'm expecting it to be around $160.00 this month.

Depending where your electricity comes from, the coal-fired power plant will emit more mercury out its stack to light the incandescent bulb that is contained in the CFL. I haven't done all the math, but Wisconsin gets ~65% of its electricity from coal so I'm pretty sure I'd be ahead if I smashed the CFL when it burned out...and they can be recycled to recover the mercury.

CFL's from the last few years warm up a lot faster than they did 5 or 10 years ago. I leave the lights on in the kitchen all the time so the short warmup, while irritating, is pretty minor.

EdWort said:

I actually got rid of all those mercury laced EPA Hazards back a long time ago and picked up a couple cases of GE incandescent bulbs. Real light at about 25 cents a bulb with no waiting for them to warm up.

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Id rather have the money saving Mecury bulbs than pay the electric companies full price