My Electric Bill Was "Only" $283 This Month; Gonna Be A Long Summer

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yes, the joy of living in Las Vegas, and the Southwest, is having an air-conditioner going 24/7. We have ours set at 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Not particularly cold, considering I know some people here who set theirs to 72 degrees!

Still, this month wasn’t even all that hot out…let’s just say I am not looking forward to the July and August bill.

On the upside, we were forced to buy a new fridge last week that supposedly only eats $62 a year in electricity - unlike our old one - so maybe I will save five bucks next month.

BTW, we have gas for the oven and water heater, so it is not like we have an “all electric” house. I think our plasma television doesn’t help matters much.

What is your electric bill like in the summer?

2

God that sucks. No wonder people in Vegas are driven into gambling.

It’s probably not going to make you feel better, but since you asked: I pay a fixed rate of € 74,-… This is up from 64 euros , though :eek:

3

Are Solar Panels popular in Vegas?
It seems that would get residents some benefit from the relentless heat…

4

My electric bill last summer was $14.00 a month. It was often 120 degrees outside and would stay above 100 even overnight. Really, just thank god you even have an AC.

Any chance you could try alternative methods to keeping cool, at least part time?

In my experience, fighting the heat is as exhausting as accepting it. Those people who fan themselves incessantly and storm around looking for ice water inevitably end up more uncomfortable than the people who just sit under a tree and relax. I drank tons of water, slept outside, planned physical activity for early mornings and evenings, learned to love my fan, kept the shades down and widows open, cuddled with frozen water bottles and spent lots of time wrapped in wet sheets. But mostly I just realized I was going to sweat a bit and be uncomfortable and that it wasn’t that big a deal. God doesn’t owe me total comfort at all times.

It all might be a little extreme, given that you can just turn on the AC. But I found myself a lot more comfortable once I stopped fighting the environment around me and instead changed myself to fit the environment. And I think there is some kind of cosmic benefit from living in your environment. I especially liked not having that nasty transition going in and out of air-conditioned places. Indeed, many people who lived in the same area found their transition back to the land of air conditioning quite uncomfortable for the first month or so.

I’m sure you have piles of good reasons why you don’t do this, which you don’t need to detail here. I’m just giving my two cents.

5

don’t you have even-billing as an option, DMark? Our gas and electricity bills are the same every month, winter and summer, based on our yearly consumption over the previous year. One bill a year is the adjustment bill, where we either pay a bit more (if we’ve used more than last year) or get a credit back (if we’ve used less or if gas prices have dropped).

Sure makes budgeting a lot easier.

6

Ours has been averaging about 270 the past couple of months. The temps are averaging around 100. But we have a much smaller house here (2500 sq. ft.) vs the 4000 sq. ft in El Paso–where the electric was around the same. But it was swamp coolers in EP, and refrigerated air here. At least it feels cool here when the humidity gets in the 25%+ range. In El Paso, that was enough to make the swamp coolers not work. I agree with Northern Piper–at least in El Paso–you had the option of averaging your bills for the year. That might help, and I would bet it’s available in Vegas (no pun intended!):cool:

7

If you can’t stand the kitchen as they say…

You’d think by now someone would have invented a solar powered AC. What could be better? The more you need it, the more power you have from the source.

8

In a recent post about touring grand, multi-million dollar homes, I mentioned that one, for “only $4.5 million” had solar panels and the entire house was totally green - average cost for all utilities per month for this huge 10,000 square foot home was only about $165.

However, in case you are not aware of the fact, installing those lovely solar panels runs about $75,000…which means it will take some time to get your investment back.

Yes, they do have the “pay an average” plan here…I just haven’t gotten around to doing it. However, I do throw a few extra bucks here and there towards the electric bill so, for instance, I already had a “plus” of about $140 when this bill came. Thus I only had to shell out $143 more to keep current, but threw another $250 towards it, which will chop off a bit from the next bill.

It is June, July, August and a bit of September that kill me here…the rest of the year, my average electric bill is about $120 a month. That is pretty cheap for Las Vegas. I know a woman who has a somewhat larger house than mine, but she has two teenage kids and a hubby with hobbies - they pay about $500 a month in the summer and $250 a month in the winter for electricity. Mine seems cheap in comparison.

We do have solar heating for the pool - essentially rubber matting on the roof of our house…as you have to keep a pool filter running at least 6 hours per day, all you are doing is running water up to the roof, through those black rubber tubes in the mats, and back into the pool. We usually have to shut that off every other day, or else the pool gets to 90 degrees or more. We once forgot to shut it off and our pool got to be 106 degrees Fahrenheit! You couldn’t swim in it - it was like the biggest jacuzzi in Nevada that day.

At any rate, as much as I complain, them are the facts of life when living in Las Vegas…in the summer, your electric bill is huge. One of my students told me he and some friends rented an apartment in Pahrump (the bordello capital of Nevada, north of Las Vegas) - and they had electricity that was brought in by three providers - costing them an average of $600/mo in the summer - just for electricity - for a three bedroom apartment! I guess I shouldn’t complain too loudly.

9

Thanks for reminding me! I got my bill yesterday, but forgot to put it in the system. It almost didn’t get paid this month.

10

I’m a bit worried about our electricity usage this year, myself.

We just moved to a house out in the woods. Where we lived before, we had to pay for gas, water, sewage, trash, and electricity. Here, though- no gas, we’re on a well, and we have a septic tank.

We’re also in an area where it gets hot and humid during the summer, and cold and snowy in the winter. I think we’ve traded in a bunch of bills for one big bill.

We run the AC a lot more than I’d like, and we keep fans running in just about every room. Oh, and we have to keep a dehumidifier running in the basement (which is where we spend most of our time). We haven’t gotten our first electric bill, but I think it’s gonna be a doozy.

11

$269.25 just outside Little Rock, Arkansas.
The baseboard heater helped keep the gas bill down last Winter, though.

12

Our bills in our apartment were just atrocious, but then we moved into a house with a 3 year old air conditioner- oh man. 2200 sq ft house that I keep at sub zero temperatures (ok, 72 when we’re running around in the house, 78 at night) and our bill this month was. . .$120.

Can you upgrade your system maybe?

13

If I said how much my bill was, you folk would come visit me for the express purpose of either throwing things at me or leaving all my doors and windows open. I am stingy with the electricity, though. The surge protector my computer plugs into is turned off when I’m not using the computer. I live alone. I don’t turn the air conditioning up very high. I use very low wattage light bulbs.

Unfortunately, our company raised our rates forty percent this past month.

14

Wow. Your ultility company raised rates 40%? Where are you?

15

Louisiana. My utility company is actually a small local one that uses power through a larger company. They are using a different company’s power now, and their rates are higher; consequently they are charging the customers more.

I was quite glad my bills were so low to start with, as it made them going up not quite so bad. My parents’ bill went from around $150 to $210.

16

I’m right above you in Arkansas. Entergy has some service in Louisiana, I believe.

17

You have my sympathy. You should see my winter heating bills. But I don’t have, nor need, AC. My summer bills are next to nothing.

But come December…oy.

18

SW Arkansas $185. But as it’s just now turning warm and I had a few around the $300 mark last year…

19

I only use electricity for fridge, stove, hot water, lights, and one window AC. It’s about $50-60 a month year-round. Maybe up to $75 if I use the AC a lot.

What sucks is they put in a new water heater, which is a little cheaper for electricity, but it’s 40 gallons and not 80. Now I pay a little less for a shower that now doesn’t stay hot for more than ten minutes. Grrr.

20

You never should have left L.A.

My balcony has a northwestern exposure and is shaded by a large banana tree. We’ve hardly used the AC yet.

So, um, bully for me, I guess.