How much was you electric bill last month?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kirbinster @ Jul 25 2006, 02:33 PM) [snapback]292091[/snapback]</div>

If you're talking hours of sunshine, then, yes, latitude isn't the determining factor. Regina, Saskatchewan gets the most hours of sun in Canada, despite being minus 35C in winter. But on the West coast in the rainforest, there's so much cloud cover and rainfall that solar really wouldn't make a great investment. Passive solar might not hurt, though, especially in combination with earth sheltering and geothermal.

 

No photovoltaic panels. Triple pane windows, R-100 ceiling (rigid, foil-faced polystyrene) with 60-year tile roof, insulated glass vestibules on entrances, fully insulated garage (including door and roof), full caulking, ceramic tile floors, R-45 walls with warm window coverings. Highest bill in 15 years just received: $55. Average monthly bill over last 15 years: less than $30 per month.

Payback time to break even for improvements: 2.5 years (over 10 years ago). It is more cost effective to rely on Negawatts instead of kilowatts and to hold onto what you already have rather than "go get more." Conservation and efficiency is the most cost effective both short and long term.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skruse @ Jul 25 2006, 01:14 PM) [snapback]292112[/snapback]</div>

A. Lovins, is that you?

Burritos, Sunny Boy is definitely a big name but there are several others out there with some pretty sweet products. I was just curious how you had it configured. Say one or two smaller inverters and so forth.

Seaside, sorry to hear that you're having to move for 'ealth reasons. Don't move to FL. Trust me. If you grew up in the west you won't like the bugs and humidity. Plus the storm activity there will cause you considerable grief. What about AZ or UT? Close to CA and plenty hot too!

 

Seaside, DO NOT MOVE TO FLORIDA! Our electric bill is around $180 for a small 2 bedroom house with all CFL lighting and energy star appliances. Having the A/C on all year is a real killer, but your as good as dead if you turn it off.

 

Our Electricity is charged per quarter. Last bill came to $A577. That's for a 4 bedroom house with 2 'young adults' (superannuated teenagers) who leave everything on, and their parents (my wife and I) who don't. Converting to USD, that's $145.31 per month.

The airconditioning doesn't have that much effect on the bill. We only use it in Summer, and don't need heating or a/c in winter (now). We also have solar hot water, which saves about $A100 per quarter off the bill. The total water booster costs for a year are about $A15, so solar is pretty effective here. It should be, since we're practically on the Tropic.

 

Thanks for the feedback group I thought about AZ, but I am not the desert type of guy... So-cal seems to be the choice, or Canada- but that would be tough to get citizenship!

 

~$120 ($180 recently with A/C) electricity per month for 2 people (lots of computers)
~$160 gas (and rising) per month (Prius)

Wondering if panels are affordable and will pay for themselves. Do they come with batteries? Maintenence?

 

$75 to $100 / month.

4 computers, one of which is a full-time server, central air, frickin' electric stove (and we cook a LOT), and all CFL lighting except one fixture that's on a dimmer and I've been too lazy to get dimmable CFL so far... that's on my list of things to do though

As for panels, I have 3 huge, beautiful pine trees lilned up along the south side of my house, and I'd have to cut them down to get any use out of a set of panels. I'm not sure whether that would counteract some of the energy savings, and I also can't bring myself to cut them down because, well, I'm a tree-hugger.

 

$62.50 last month. 3 bedroom house with A/C running.

 

$100 to 200 a month here in Boston area. Price is about 15 cents a kwh in off peak and 42 cents in peak hours. Peak is M-F 9 am to 6 pm. Rates are around 20 cents steady if you don't have a time of use meter.

 

Sounds like you're all getting away cheap! I hope my bills are like that once I move to the desert next month. Here in Maryland I just paid my highest bill ever (they just raised the rate by about 70%) at **$355**.

Now, we have to keep the A/C on 24/7 at a low 72 since I telecommute and my office upstairs gets to be about 5 degrees warmer than the thermostat setting. We are a family with two young children who are in the house all afternoon as well, usually with at least 1 TV on.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paco-shalom @ Jul 26 2006, 10:05 AM) [snapback]292629[/snapback]</div>

Which desert are you moving to? Here in western Nevada, we pay about $55 a month with A/C running at about 76-77, at least one computer on most of the day, TV and associated devices for video games on for several hours a day, and sometimes a ceiling fan or two on when it gets too hot (like now, stupid triple-digit temperatures, at least it's dry here). Our stove, heater, and water heater are all natural gas, and in the summer, we pay about $30/month (if I recall correctly), in the winter about $200/month. It's our first year in the house, so we haven't found all the leaks yet, but I know they're somewhere. The previous owners didn't even have a blanket for the water heater (among MANY other problems we keep finding). Hopefully this winter it won't be so bad.

As for gas costs, I'd say we spend about $30-$40 per month on gas. My commute is 30 miles round trip, and we try to minimize extra trips into town.

 

$164.11 for 1,672 kwh; $0.0982/kwh. Actual cost of electricity was $138.36 the rest is for taxes.

 

zzz

 

$65.41 for 1270 kwh - 3 bedrom home, AC set at 73 degrees. Has been about 100 degrees out lately.

 

Geez, I guess I am either a low consumer or it's the area in which I live but my average monthly electric bill is no more than $30. I have no alternative energy source, no kids, have a one story ranch house. Usually do not run A/C (unless it's over 85). Two people in the household. Usually one light running in the evenings (flourescent) along with one television. I have energy star appliances. I heard ComEd will be raising their rates so I'm sure I won't be this content much longer,

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skruse @ Jul 25 2006, 03:14 PM) [snapback]292112[/snapback]</div>

I'm also starting to be a negawatts freak - gave everyone a dozen compact flourescent bulbs for Christmas!

I like the ceiling idea - sounds easier and better than blown insulation or fiber-scratch! Did you do the ceiling yourself? Where did you get the rigid poly? Got any pics of the results?

Ceramic floors? How does that help? We have some ceramic floors and they are very COLD in the winter! We are thinking of installing underfloor coils to supplement our existing heat system.

By the way - our house is also a Hybrid - Carrier Infinity Heat-pump (electric) with hot-water baseboard (gas) for when the temp gets too low (<40 degrees) for the heat-pump to work efficiently, and of course we have a fireplace too!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Jul 25 2006, 10:49 AM) [snapback]292047[/snapback]</div>

For what it is worth, I haven't yet heard of a metering system that will make money on a residence.

The whole sordid story is spelled out in the EV link under my sig. Our current EV is owned. Bought new. The EV1 was leased because there was no other choice. The Rav4EV is now worth twice what I paid for it so the ROI so far is pretty high.