Gas prices/ heat/ a/c .... (Colorado Springs, Fountain: houses, buy, construction)

[hoyaczech]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are so glad we found this resource!
We are contemplaiting moving out west, I thought I would start asking some specific questions to help our decision...

Can anyone comment on the following:

1) what's gas cost these days in the Colorado Springs area?
2) Also, what do people typically use to heat there houses there (the newer construction ) gas/electric? (any estimates what it may cost to heat a 2,000 sqft home per month there)... do people use a lot of A/C in the summer or are fans mostly sufficient due to the lack of humidity...

thanks in advance,
Simone and Erik

[aussielover]

Originally Posted by hoyaczech

Hi everyone,


Can anyone comment on the following:

1) what's gas cost these days in the Colorado Springs area?

Hi!

My husband and I were just out there this past week checking out the area. The gas prices on Thursday were 2.99 and 3.03 for regular. We're at about 3.40 in SoCal!

[Vision67]

Gasoline just pushed above $3.04 this week.

As for the cost of cooling and heating, I don't have air conditioning. I do have a whole-house fan at the top of the stairs that draws in outside air and blasts it through the attic. It is very effective because during the summer, it always cools to at least 55 degrees at night. I do have one window AC unit that I put in the family room for those few 95 degree days.

As for the cost of utilities, natural gas use drops in summer, but water use soars if you have a yard. My average monthly utility bill is about $300, but my house is 4700 sq ft finished, and my lot is 1/2 acre. I'd bet it would be about half that for a normal sized house and lot.

[MattDen]

The winters and summers are fairly moderate in Colorado Springs.

Air-condition helps, but most people could probubly go without A/C in Colorado Springs although I would recommend at least window A/C.

They do have several days each year of temperatures in the mid 90s during the day but the temperatures tend to cool off quite a bit when the sun goes down. But still temperatures on the warmest of nights might still be in the
70s at 10 or 11pm at night.

I would say in general its possible to go without A/C but probubly one-week out of the year unless your up in Northern or Western El Paso County that it will be quite warm though.

Fountain and Security tend to be warmer then the rest of the county so air conditioning is more needed, Northern area of the county is above 7000 feet so usually lots of 40s at night in the summer and even on the wamest of days low temperatures will still be in the 50s up north and western El Paso County.

The utilities in Colorado Springs are municipally owned and fairly moderately priced. You can call up the Colorado Springs utilities and ask them what the KwH usage on average is for a certain sized home and what the rate per KwH is also.

[COflower]

Last I saw, fuel for cars was $3.09 9/10 for a gallon of gas.

As for heating your home, it depends on the size of course. I live in a 1,600 sq ft house witha two car garage and my utilities average around $150 a month. Keep in mind I am on budget billing with the city (gas, electric and water) so that is average throughout the year. But it's just me and I work out of my home so I use more than most single person might in a regular situation.

My heating is via F.A.G. aka forced air gas and have a new heater but with recent natural gas hikes, the new heater doesn't really make a dent in my overall bills in the winter.

Once you've lived in C Springs for a year in the same location, catch up on it with "Budget Billing". It's better than sliced bread. Granted my bills are lower in the summer but I don't have to worry about the winter as much as it's much easier to stay on top.

Also, the nice thing about C Springs is that (while I am a libertarian) the utilities here are city owned. They can't make a profit and all hikes are due to market conditions. Typically, http://www.CSU.org aka Colorado Springs Utilities tries to bargain the market for winter heating in the summer so they are locked into a rate for the winter months.

Most of our utilities are bargained throughout the months when natural gas (which they also use to create electricity) demand is low.

We are one of the lowest for a city our size for utilities. Heck, we surpass bigger cities for heating and such for lower pricing.

[Lisa_from_Debary]

What you save on paying for AC you will spend on paying for lotion and chapstick...I thought I would dry up and blow away when I was there. I used to borrow my sisters humidifier and sleep underneath it.

[Nadine]

I am surprised no one mentioned swamp coolers or correctly named evaporative coolers. There are down drafts that sit on roofs and those that can be put thro windows. Some are built into a wall. They put moisture in the house which is good for us as well as our furniture, conditioning needs humidiifers to help here. I never have had air conditioning so really can not give a cost. But the swamp cooler runs cheaply. Hard to put a price on it. The down draft might be put in with vents into separate areas as some conditioners are. Or they may be just down drafted into one area as a hall, the cool air is pulled into other areas by opening a window there. Or maybe a fan to pull into a hard area. Anyway. They work and are cheap to run. They do not work well with higher humidity. Which we don't much worry about here. I know that ceiling fans are not supposed to be fashionable(according to those decorators on TV)but they really work well here especially with the swamp cooler to circulate the air. (Cuts down on chapstick and lotion too! LOL)

[mikemcdowell]

Im from New York and im trying to compare my utility expense to that of the colorado springs area (which is where im contemplating moving to) What exactly are the utilities you use. I have oil heat (avg. 300 month) Electric (250 month) water (60 qtr) and my house is a 1100 sq ft cape. Now yes i do have central A/C and a pool in the summer and my electric is on a budget but generally averages out to 250 in electric.

[Mike from back east]

You'll save a fortune if you come here and buy a decent home. I pay WAY LESS than you for a house 3 times the size. See:
- http://www.city-data.com/forum/color...ight=utilities

[Amery523]

I live on the North side of C. Springs and I would say our bill runs anywhere from $130/month to $270/month. Our house is 2200 sq ft (with a basement) and we have both front and back yards. The lower bills are probably spring (when it's just starting to warm up but we're not yet feverishly watering the lawn) and the highest bills are in the winter (when we have the thermostat up to keep us warm). Even with running AC and watering both yards I don't think our bill went higher than $180. BTW - the cool thing with CS Utilities is that it's ONE bill and covers everything - electric, gas, water, wastewater. Many other places you have separate bills for each utility. We do not have central air. In the summer we open all the windows/sliding patio doors and use fans. When it gets really warm (>95 or so) we have a window AC unit in the bedroom that goes on about 2pm and stays on until roughly bedtime.

And yeah, it's dry here. Drink water. Use the blue tub of Lip Medex for your lips. Lotion is a must in the winter, esp. on the hands. At least we don't have to worry about mold here. ha ha.