Wth? $380 for gas and electric?

Ouch! One advantage to living in SoCal is that the heating bills are tiny.

You might want to look into beefing up your insulation / weatherstripping, or even replacing your furnace and a/c unit if they're old and inefficient. Or making sure that your heating ducts aren't leaking.

 

A couple ideas/thoughts.

A lot of utility companies or states have free energy audit programs for houses. I would check into it and, even if not free, find someone qualified to do one.

Do you have a way to check on fuel/energy usage as compared to past years? Is it just higher fuel costs or an unexplained spike in usage?

What type of heating system do you have? Some utility companies have no-interest loans available to upgrade to more fuel efficient systems.

What temperature do you keep the thermostat? We keep ours at around 60 degrees here in the winter in an effort too keep fuel costs down. We turn it down to 58 degrees at night and throw on a few extra blankets. We wear sweaters in the house.

Do you have a programmable thermostat? They don't cost much these days and can help quite a bit.

 

When I bought my house in 1988 I was stuck with an "electric only" neighborhood. Now, I am quite happy w/it. My bills are rising fr slower than others. I also just got a programmable thermostat and it is nice.

I also do level billing to keep the hurt off in winter.

 

ok... shouldnt say nothing i guess. but i dont have gas here. (in an area that sells its hydroelectric power to other places...gas aint cheap) but i dont use heat for the most part. some of my friends dont like it, but i am pretty much used to it. most of the time the weather is mild enough that i dont really need it anyway. plus, i sleep better at night when its cooler. right now my house is at 58.1º. did have heat on and set to 50º for about a week and half because outside temps were in the 20's...result??

my electric bill....$35.71, bit higher but probably from the heat i used for that cold spell.

imm, conserving gasoline in your car just to burn it up in your house aint where its at for me

 

Time for some detective work, to find out where your energy $$ are flowing.

I personally advocate layers instead of heating. I usually start with a T-shirt, then a regular cloth button shirt, then a nice sweater. If it is real cold outside, and I am driving without heating, I find an underlayer of wool pajamas under my pants quite helpful. It has not been windy enough this winter to wear a coat.

More generally, the entire notion of 'central' AC is just so wasteful as to be moronic. Heat yourself up, not your suroundings.

 

When I was in the Bay Area last September, there was an article in the San Jose paper mentioning that PG&E gas rates were going to effectively double this year in your area.

You might want to dig through the on-line archives for the details. I don't remember the primary reason for the hike; I want to say increased demand throughout North America (particularly due to power plants that run on natural gas), but I'm not sure.

 

I don't know if you live alone (I do) -- but I found I could set the house to a cool mid-50's temperature, and then retire behind the closed door of my media room, which is the closest room to the furnace. I then supplement that room with a small ceramic space heater (when required -- the proximity to the furnace, media components, and 300W halogen pole lamp keep it pretty warm).

My bed also has an electric blanket on it. I too find I sleep MUCH better warmed under a blanket in a cooler room.

This was a good immediate solution that can be implemented in a single day, but we both should really look into the other recommendations being made here as well!

 

I received statement from my gas company saying that [rough quote] "We are raising your monthly budget billing to $290 in anticipation of rising natural gas prices this winter." That is not $290 for the next couple of months, that is >>>$290 * 12<<<, my natural gas will cost me $3480 this year. This is effectively triple what I was paying when I first moved into the house 6 years ago.

 

Heating -- in Georgia ?!

 

I've been doing that for the past several months and have been amazed at how much of a difference it's made. I invested in a few digital thermometers (the kind that remember the highest/lowest temperature) during a 3-week period this summer when my furnace and a/c were out of commission, so opening and closing blinds and windows were my only means of climate control. I'd originally decided to leave the blinds open in one room so that the cats could have a sunny spot to sit in -- the peak temperature in that room was about 15 degrees higher than the peak temperatures in other rooms that day, and also about 15 degrees higher than that same room on other days with similar weather when I closed the blinds.

Of course, I have 70-plus-year-old windows that are probably single-glazed, so the difference may be less pronounced in a house with newer, more energy-efficient windows.

 

You got that right. Our 22-year-old 1100 sf condo gives us an electric bill of $65/month and gas bill of $20-25/month. I'm not complaining. Our washer/dryer (we do many loads of laundry), stove/range (I cook a lot), and fireplace (hardly ever used) all run on gas. We rarely, if ever, need to use the a/c or the heater. I'm very thankful for that.

 

If you have gas hot water heaters, replace them with on demand units. If you have electric, install timers. I've also been experimenting with LED lights. They are not yet up to par with CF's and incandescents. However, they still work just fine in areas where I only need enough light to see by. I have them on my porches, carport, entry to the house, one bathroom, hallway and all closets. The bulbs all consume only .6 to .8 watts each. I'll be ordering another batch for my master bathroom.

 

This is partly why I'll soon be in Florida...

It's absolutely ridiculous. This is the 21st centry, not friggin' 1756...

I just pay the damn bill, or at least, hold out as long as possible, F wearing sweaters.... :angry:

 

Thankfully, living in Sacramento, I have SMUD for our electric (so much cheaper that a good portion of Yolo County . . . Davis, Woodland, etc. are trying to jump over to SMUD.) Unfortunately we still have PG&E for gas.

A friend from the Chicago area mentioned these heater . . . use them only in the rooms you spend most of your time.
ECONO-HEAT
http://www.eheat.com/

As for cooling Jack06 . . . WHOLE HOUSE FAN!!!
http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/info/.../pdfs/26291.pdf

PG&E even does a $100 rebate.
http://www.pge.com/res/rebates/whole_house_fans/

We live in an area which receives wonderful cool ocean breezes in the evenings during the summer . . . AKA the “Delta Breeze.â€
http://ams.confex.com/ams/Annual2005/techp...paper_84880.htm

With a whole house fan, you suck in the cool night air (which also blows out the super heated attic air) and close up the house tight during the day.

I rarely have needed to use our central air because the WHF does the job.

I have it hooked up to Intermatic SS7C timer and have it programmed to also come on early in the morning for a couple of hours. (Also connect a regular switch between the timer and WHF to act as a master on/off switch, and a third as a high/low switch . . . any licensed electrician can figure it out)
http://www.intermatic.com/?action=prod&pid=193

Once suggestion - get a quiet WHF. If it is noisy, you are less likely to use it. Massive air moving power is not necessary . . . running it on low for longer periods is better.

 

I have to say though, that we do use our heaters in Florida too. Of course, it's far less than everyone else. It's the summer time where our bills jump. Our average electric bill is from $350-400 during the summer to cool our house. During the winter it drops to around $200 with heating.

 

Wow...I can't even imagine an electric bill that high, summer or winter! Back in the summer (August/Sept) when we had this heat wave come through for a couple weeks bringing us 85+ degree days and I had the A/C on for ~3-4 hours per day and our Edison bill shot up to $121, my eyes about popped out of my head. That was our highest electric bill for the year too.

 

wow. in our last place in WI we paid 120/mo for gas and electric in the winter, in a somewhat well insulated house. i'd guess 1500 sf. our last winter there was winter 2003 before energy prices went up so much.

here in this brand new apartment it's been about $40/mo for 1100 (i think) sf. we do lots of laundry (hell i'm married to a mechanic for cryin out loud) but keep the temp at 67 unless i'm home all day, in that case it's 69-70.