200 dollar electric bill for an APARTMENT? (Dallas, Austin: apartments, rent, motorhomes)

[tickledpink]

Ok, so I know it's been hot this past month but come on. My boyfriend lives in a 3 bedroom apartment that is a little over 1000 square feet. They are in the middle of the complex and on the lowest level. They keep their air conditioning on 78 during work hours during the week, 72 at night and 74 Sat-Sun. They just changed their air filter at the start of the month as well.

Their bill for the past month is 198 dollars. They have Austin Energy for electric service.

Is this typical?

[compSciGuy]

Sounds about right for running the A/C 24/7 in Texas during the summer. 10 years ago I was living in Dallas in a studio. I was never home so, my electric bills were typically around $6 a month. Then a friend was crashing at his place while he was taking a summer class at the local community college; He had a cat with him, so he had the A/C on 24/7. The bill was then about $80 for the month.

[achtungpv]

If you have a manual thermostat, I would go buy a Honeywell programmable thermostat for $50 and install it (very simple to do yourself and takes 5 minutes) or ask the apt mgr if the maintenance guy can install it for you. You'll save around 15-20% by using a programmable one.

Those are very cold temps to keep a place at. They must be in their early 20s. Seems like all young guys keep it cold. Try 80 when not home, 75 at night, and 77 during the day. With ceiling fans on that is plenty cool...unless you're packing a lot of extra insulation.

[Poltracker]

Welcome to TX home of high electric rates, yes that sounds about right though there are several things to bring that down as mentioned above.

[reverse]

Apartments sometimes have horrible A/C units meaning, they don't do an adequate job of cooling the area (read: inefficient). As others have stated, the temps you are keeping the place at are rather low and will cost you as you can see.

If you have no pets that are home alone when you leave, you might as well turn the A/C off when you leave and back on when you get home. No point in cooling the place with no one there, basically just wasting energy or at least turn it up to around 82-85.

You may want to have the complex also check to make sure there is enough freon in the unit to cool properly, otherwise it will run ALOT trying to keep it as cool as you want.

[Mckellyb]

Apartments aren't known for their build quality, so if the A/C system is losing 20% of the cold air from the ducts before getting to the rooms, just due to air leakage, I'd not be surprised.

Apartments are built on-the-cheap. It's initial build cost, not efficiency. They're not a long-term investment, but a 20 year, usually maximum, cash generating machine.

Also, last month, there was a 30% rate hike, at least in our kwh rate, though I'm unsure of who the electric company is. Our one-bedroom (okay, it's one of those big diesel motorhomes) went from $80 to $120, though it is hotter, and we keep it pretty chilly. It's worth the $4/day...and a damned sight better than Vegas, where interior 80F temps are wishful thinking, even with the A/C cranking, I mean compressor on, 24/7.

[another_hot-day]

Doesn't Austin energy also incude water and trash in their bill?

I'm with PEC have a 3 bedroom 2 story house andwe keep our AC on 24/7 at 70 degrees. Our electric bill was $240 last month. $60 dollars higher than the previous months.

[AustinTexan]

Originally Posted by tickledpink

Ok, so I know it's been hot this past month but come on. My boyfriend lives in a 3 bedroom apartment that is a little over 1000 square feet. They are in the middle of the complex and on the lowest level. They keep their air conditioning on 78 during work hours during the week, 72 at night and 74 Sat-Sun. They just changed their air filter at the start of the month as well.

Their bill for the past month is 198 dollars. They have Austin Energy for electric service.

Is this typical?

$200 for a 3 bedroom apartment is pretty good these days. I'd be counting my blessings instead of complaining. This is Texas and it's been really HOT this summer! If you want lower electric bills, Minnesota has actually been pretty cool this summer.

Also, that $200 bill from Austin Energy includes water, sewer, and garbage so in reality your electric bill is probably more like $140. Look on the electric specific portion to see what his electric bill really is.

[brattpowered]

That doesn't seem too off to me. I'm in a 700 square foot apartment-- top floor, 40 year old building. Last month's bill was $91

[Mckellyb]

An apartment wouldn't likely have a garbage bill on the electric...dumpsters and all that, y'know.

Water or sewer, either. All that should be rolled into monthy rent cost as it's a bill to the complex, not the individual units. At least I've never seen an apartment with a water meter....