Average energy bill in Austin? (Pflugerville: apartment, house, inspector)

[svetafeo]

Moving to Austin from San-Francisco and trying to make a budget.
We don't need air conditioning here in SF and our energy bill during summer time is $30 a month . But it looks like we gonna need one in Austin. So what to expect? $300?
Planning to live in 3br house.

[iloveflowers]

It all depends, of course. I'll tell you about our house and bill, and maybe others can too and you can get a rough idea.

We live in a 2 story 3,000 square foot newly built house. There are 2 thermostats, one for upstairs and one for down. During the day, we keep upstairs at 90 degrees until about 8PM, then turn it down to 82 degrees during the night until 8AM. Downstairs, we set to 88 during the day and 82 at night.

We moved here from Seattle, where we didn't ever have A/C. So we're used to it hotter than most people in the house. We moved in during the summer and the hottest month, August, was $120 for electric. (We have a gas cook-top.) Since our house is new, it's pretty energy efficient.

For comparison's sake, at the hottest in our 1200 sq. ft. apartment a year ago, on the first floor, the bill was 60 dollars. (We had electric stove-top there.)

Hope that helps. FYI, someone we know with the same size house as ours has more than double the cost of ours, for their electricity costs per month. They like their house much cooler.

[iloveflowers]

Forgot to mention we're a family of 4 living in a 4 BR house.

[willow40]

Temperatures can be over 90 from May to October. Most people I know who have a 1400sf home pay around $400 per month for electricity.

[tibbar]

My last bill was $187.50 for the electric portion and $347.02 for the whole city bill. The city bill is for elect, water, sewer, trash and street. There is $40 something in meter and customer charges in every bill.

Electrict rates are just one piece of the puzzile. I read yesterday that Pflugerville water supplier is asking for a massive rate increase that will result in over a $200.00 water bill for 10,000 gallons of water. I used over 18,000 last month. The citizens of Pflugervill must be having a fit.

Pflugerville to hold public hearings on Monarch water rate case (http://impactnews.com/round-rock-pflugerville/254-recent-news/15073-pflugerville-to-hold-public-hearings-on-monarch-water-rate-case - broken link)

[XLadylawX]

Age & house size are key. We were in a 3100sq ft home last year that was nearly 10 years old, our bill was nearly $300/mo with thermostat set at 74. We were paying $.14 per kwh. This past summer in our brand new 2300 sq ft home with same settings, maxed out at $198 or $.082 per kwh.

[neddy]

House 2500 sq ft, family of 4 all electric home 2 story with the 2 being kids that leave everything all the time..$240

[G Grasshopper]

I have a 2300 sq. foot home, four bedrooms, with 3 living in it. The house is 15 years old. Last month's bill was $203, the one I just paid was $157. That may be because we had fewer days over 100 degrees, and maybe was helped by the fact that I have been working on replacing incandescents with cfls since we bought the place. We keep the house at 79 degrees, and if we feel warm, we go for the iced tea and turn on a ceiling fan (we have 5 in the house.) We have gas for hot water and stove top (electric oven.) I'm still working on measures to save electricity and water - just put in 1.5 gallon shower heads last week.

[nickasarbata]

I just bought a 2,800sqf home, and was scared to get my first electric bill after the ultra-hot month of August. We had the A/C on 24/7 all month, and keep it between 78-80 all day. We also have three ceiling fans which we also keep running 24/7 because the inspector said that can help with energy costs. After the horrendously hot temps in August, the electric bill was just under $200. I was sort of expecting double. My home is 5 years old and has good attic insulation, but that's about it as far as built-in energy savings. I'm assuming that bill was the highest one I'll see all year -- I'm happy! I'm now already turning the A/C off most of the day anyway.

[CptnRn]

There is another recent thread on this topic here, with a lot more information, http://www.city-data.com/forum/austi...kwh-usage.html including this chart.