First "summer" electric bill of the year.... HOLY CRAP!!!

by Elsewhere 57 Replies latest jw friends

  • TD
    TD

    SRP does a yearly average thing here in the Phoenix area. (You pay the same amount every month based upon your annual usage)

    It's a real lifesaver. --For us, there was nothing unusual about $400.00+ electric bills here in July and August.

  • greendawn
    greendawn

    That is expensive for an appartment, in the UK there is no need for air conditioning but heating usually is needed from October to Mars. The fuel used is mainly gas and deregulation brought prices down.

  • stillconcerned
    stillconcerned

    i aspire to live somewhere that i need a sweatshirt in the evening; over shorts of course.

  • Scully
    Scully

    I think of electricity as a very cost effective slave. $180/30 days = $6/day for a "slave" that keeps you cool, cooks your food, keeps your beer cold, runs your computer, lights your apartment, plays your music, runs your TV and other entertainment equipment, washes and dries your clothes, powers your vacuum cleaner.

    For everything electricity "does" for us, can you imagine living 75 - 100 years ago without it like most of our grandparents did?

    That said, maybe it would be less expensive to purchase a good fan to keep you comfy in the heat, instead of running the a/c (especially if you run it when you aren't in the apartment), or keep the temp set a couple of degrees higher when you aren't home and adjust it when you get home. I also recommend cool showers a couple of times daily (standing in front of fan afterward is optional ) and drinking lots of water as alternatives to air conditioning.

  • juni
    juni


    We do take things for granted Scully. You made a good point. I think the problem is that the cost of EVERYTHING is going up. So our budgets are very stretched.

    I'm glad our kids are grown now - especially for the cost of food.

    Juni

  • Finally-Free
    Finally-Free
    For everything electricity "does" for us, can you imagine living 75 - 100 years ago without it like most of our grandparents did?

    Yeah, imagine being stuck at home on the weekend and not receiving a work related phone call or email for 2 whole days! No one waking me up on a Sunday morning because they can't establish a VPN connection to the office to check their email!

    W

  • Scully
    Scully
    imagine being stuck at home on the weekend and not receiving a work related phone call or email for 2 whole days! No one waking me up on a Sunday morning because they can't establish a VPN connection to the office to check their email!

    and instead you still have to get up at 4am to milk a dozen cows by hand, gather eggs for breakfast and then go shovel their manure.....

    We may be 100 years further along in technological advancements, but even in this day and age, we have our own variety of $h!t to shovel on a daily basis.

  • Elsewhere
    Elsewhere
    $180 for an apartment is ridiculous. I just got mine yesterday and I was afraid to open it, but it was only $80 for my house. Do you leave your air conditioning on during the day?

    Wow! I was actually worried that your historic house would be very expensive to heat and cool due to the way houses used to be designed with openness in mind. I suspect all of your huge trees in your yard help a lot by blocking the sun.

    I suspect the reason my bill is so high is because my apartment is on the uppermost floor and in the South-West corner with no shade trees... I basically take the brunt of the summer heat. To make things worse some flying rats pigeons have nested in the insulation above my apartment. I have called the apartment office several times but they never seem to be able to find the birds. I find that hard to believe because I'm always hearing them scratching around and making their pigeon cooing sounds. I guess my mistake is I always wait until the fall or winter to have the maintenance people go in because I just don't have the heart to kill all of the little baby birds I can hear making peeping sounds.

    In the summertime when I leave for work I normally set my thermostat to 78 or 80 degrees and then about 74 when I get home. Today I'm working from home, so I need it to be on. What I did this morning is I closed the doors to the rooms in the SW corner an stuffed news papers under the closed doors to prevent any of the AC being wasted. So far it seems to be working very well... the AC is not spending very much time on.

  • Big Tex
    Big Tex
    In the summertime when I leave for work I normally set my thermostat to 78 or 80 degrees and then about 74 when I get home

    Exactly what I do. I also have installed an attic fan for upstairs and I keep the ceiling fans going 24/7 until October. I'm overdue for changing the indoor filter however. Need to do that this weekend.

    I don't really see much of a difference between the power companies. They're all crooks and liars. Much like politicians.

  • JH
    JH

    I just checked Hydro Quebec's site, and it's a little over 6 cents per kilowatt hour. That's not too bad, although it was still cheaper 2 years ago before they starting hiking us regularly. have a look http://www.hydroquebec.com/residential/bill/tarif_d.html

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