topic Re: Electric bill in SmorgasBoard

Electric bill

FicoMike0 — Wed, 28 May 2025 19:37:31 GMT

Just got electric bill. I paid $56 for delivery and $32 for electricity, 480 kwh. Seems like the power should cost more than overhead, lol.

Then again, we do have very reliable service, seldom fails, always restored quickly.

Re: Electric bill

Vinjints — Wed, 28 May 2025 20:01:45 GMT

If you'd like, I can send you my power bill and I'll take care of yours.

Re: Electric bill

pizzadude — Wed, 28 May 2025 21:22:58 GMT

Moved to Smorgas

Re: Electric bill

FicoMike0 — Wed, 28 May 2025 21:32:00 GMT

I'm not likely to take that offer. Were cooking with gas here. Really only see larger electric bills during a.c. Season. Even then we pay less than 8¢ a kwh. None of that high priced wind and solar here, mostly coal and gas power.

Re: Electric bill

dfwxjer — Wed, 28 May 2025 21:44:38 GMT

Dang, I haven't seen an electricity bill like that since my first apartment! Ours dips down to ~$300ish during the winter since our heater runs on gas, but well over $400 in the summer.

Re: Electric bill

Varsity_Lu — Thu, 29 May 2025 09:54:00 GMT

Wow, that's low. I have geothermal and am all electric. My bill get almost to $400 in the winter but drops almost in half in the summer since geothermal is super efficient at cooling. But that's my only utility.

Re: Electric bill

Thomas_Thumb — Fri, 30 May 2025 12:14:11 GMT

The 1980s house my DD and S-I-L are buying in Santee (North East of San Diego) was fitted with solar panels on the roof. The current water heater is hybrid electric (incorporates a heat pump). I'm told the solar is sufficient to meet all electrical demands for the home - including A/C.

I'd take a $0 monthly electric bill along with no worries for brown outs affecting A/C.

However, not everything is electric. A gas furnace is used for home heating.

Re: Electric bill

Schwartzinator — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 20:15:52 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
I'd take a $0 monthly electric bill along with no worries for brown outs affecting A/C.

California can get real nutty with billing depending on which Net Metering policy they're under--especially when it comes time for their true up. If they don't currently have a bill for their basic charge and few other miscellaneous taxes and fees, CA is hellbent on moving towards them with their proposed restructing/removal of grandfathered plans. For example, my solar offset last year was 114% of my annual usage, but I am still billed $15.92/mo in base charges here in Oregon.

One other thing to note about solar is that most of it is grid-tied and without a select few panels that incorporate microinverters or the installation of a home battery, they won't be producing anyting if/when the grid is down.

Re: Electric bill

Thomas_Thumb — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 20:39:28 GMT

Good points. Not sure what gets affected by the change in home ownership. My impression was the system has a home battery.

Re: Electric bill

Gregory1776 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 01:00:53 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
I'm not likely to take that offer. Were cooking with gas here. Really only see larger electric bills during a.c. Season. Even then we pay less than 8¢ a kwh. None of that high priced wind and solar here, mostly coal and gas power.

Is that why my electricity is so expensive in NJ? These people worship that crap. Electric heat, pushed $400 this winter a month. I turned the heat off and stayed cold.

Re: Electric bill

Realist — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 05:47:01 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
Wow, that's low. I have geothermal and am all electric. My bill get almost to $400 in the winter but drops almost in half in the summer since geothermal is super efficient at cooling. But that's my only utility.

Best cooling system around.

Re: Electric bill

AndrewF — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:26:33 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
Just got electric bill. I paid $56 for delivery and $32 for electricity, 480 kwh. Seems like the power should cost more than overhead, lol.
Then again, we do have very reliable service, seldom fails, always restored quickly.

People who own an entire house in Illinois are opening their summer power bill and finding that thanks to the completely preventible 20% price hike in summer electricity due to various things like data centers and the PJM actively resisting hooking up clean energy to the grid, their power costs have gone up at least $100 a month.

People's Gas is almost as bad as ComEd, but thankfully everything in my apartment is electric so I have no gas bill. When I lived in the city, the only thing gas was the stove so I had the landlord take the stove out and cap off the pipe, and I used a giant toaster oven because it was cheaper than paying $40 a month just to have the gas on plus whatever gas you used.

Re: Electric bill

FicoMike0 — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:50:19 GMT

@Varsity_Lu .

I had geo in fla, it was great. If coures, the water table was at about 3 feet, not too expensive to drill the wells.

@Thomas_Thumb

I lived in Santa Barbara for a short while. The place I rented had a fireplace for heat and no a/c. Never really got hot or cold. I don't think the heat bill will be much in San Diego.

Re: Electric bill

Varsity_Lu — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:54:09 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
I had geo in fla, it was great. If coures, the water table was at about 3 feet, not too expensive to drill the wells.

My geo lines are horizontal. But I can do that because I have a lot of land. Just dig a 5 foot deep ditch that's 4 foot wide, uncoil your lines, and then just cover them back up. Quick and cheap.

Re: Electric bill

Thomas_Thumb — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 01:54:39 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
@Varsity_Lu .
I had geo in fla, it was great. If coures, the water table was at about 3 feet, not too expensive to drill the wells.

@Thomas_Thumb
I lived in Santa Barbara for a short while. The place I rented had a fireplace for heat and no a/c. Never really got hot or cold. I don't think the heat bill will be much in San Diego.

@FicoMike0

Their home is in North Santee which is inland and somewhat arid. Average daily highs in July-September are 87-89. A/C is used daily. Average nightly lows in January/February are 42-43. Heat is on daily.