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Old 08-13-2010, 06:56 PM
 
Location: High Cotton
6,125 posts, read 7,449,664 times
Reputation: 3657

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Quote:
Originally Posted by buzzpost View Post
That's what you get for having a 3700 square foot house in Texas. You want extravagance, you have to pay for it.

Why someone would need a 3700 sq. ft house, unless they had a family of twenty is beyond me. People want bigger, and MORE, and MORE. Can't live with what our parents/grandparents lived with; it's gotta be BIGGER. If you can afford a 3700 square foot house, you shouldn't be complaining about electric bills.

Enjoy your bills. They'll get higher in the coming years.
3,700 SqFt is not extravagant by any means. It may be larger than the average, but the size is far from extravagant.
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Old 08-13-2010, 09:41 PM
 
17 posts, read 53,887 times
Reputation: 13
Thanks all for your input. And to those that think I'm complaining about my bills, I'm not. I'm just seeking honest advice from those who live here to make sure I'm a.) not getting screwed by my electric company or b.) don't potentially have something wrong with my A/C unit.
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Old 08-14-2010, 05:28 AM
 
Location: Texas
14,076 posts, read 20,462,653 times
Reputation: 7806
Quote:
Originally Posted by hchandle View Post
Thanks all for your input. And to those that think I'm complaining about my bills, I'm not. I'm just seeking honest advice from those who live here to make sure I'm a.) not getting screwed by my electric company or b.) don't potentially have something wrong with my A/C unit.

No, it's not the electric companies which are screwing you. You're just another of us on the receiving end of Gov. Bush's "deregulation" of the electric industry. In reality, all it did was hand TXU a virtual monopoly on power generation and allow them to charge whatever the hell they want.

The promise was the market place would keep costs down. The reality is quite different.
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Old 08-14-2010, 07:12 AM
 
79 posts, read 181,483 times
Reputation: 35
People like Buzzpost are all over forums, they do not offer advice but would rather attack and/or preach how your wrong. Ignore them

Think about maybe having someone inspect your home to give you honest advice on how to lower those costs. You may be able to lower your bills by turning up your ac and mixing up the air by running fans, either ceiling fan or whole home fan.
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Old 08-14-2010, 09:55 AM
 
Location: Lake Highlands (Dallas)
2,394 posts, read 8,571,292 times
Reputation: 1040
3700 sq ft is a big home. $500 summer bill is a big bill. I'd say that's pretty normal for that size home and in fact, may be considered pretty low compared to many other new 3700 sq ft homes.

We have a 2576 sq ft home, 1970's vintage, single story. We've insulated the attic heavily, installed a more efficient a/c unit (16-seer), 2/3 of our windows are new dual-pane low-e and our last two month's bills were $175 and $188 - even though we are signed up for 100% renewable power and paying 11.9 cents/kwh. We also have good shade trees on the South of our home - which helps a lot.

If your home is one of the newer 3700 sq ft places, they don't put good windows in them and cut corners wherever possible, meaning minimum efficiency AC units, minimum code insulation, etc. A well built, 3700 sq ft home running the AC at 79 degrees should be able to get away with $300 bills this last June/July.

Brian
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Old 08-14-2010, 10:21 AM
 
Location: Coppell
171 posts, read 543,998 times
Reputation: 84
We have a 1982 house about 1960 sq.ft....crappy windows we are in the process of replacing and I'm sure crappy insulation (we really need to have one of those energy audits so we know exactly what needs done) AND we have a pool.

I keep it at 78 in the day during the week--72 at night--weekends are 75/72.

I was really freaked out about the pool cost but the first month we were in (June) was only $300--and that included the day of move-in with doors open etc. I had Reliant but they refused to come down on price so I changed to Champion. July bill went down to $235. I imagine once we get the new windows in (they face west-yuck) it will come down more....hopefully

Has anyone ever had an "energy audit" done to their home? I'd like opinions on that.........thanks!
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Old 08-16-2010, 10:01 PM
 
Location: Dallas
200 posts, read 616,709 times
Reputation: 59
I think I would appreciate a $500 electric bill right now! We have a 3200 sq ft home, 2007 with radiant barrier..keep it 80 degrees during day and 77 at night (in Jax, FL). Last month $775..this month $559 and we weren't even here 10 days. Its hard to trade off comfort for costs!
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Old 08-17-2010, 06:43 AM
 
Location: Lake Highlands (Dallas)
2,394 posts, read 8,571,292 times
Reputation: 1040
3200 sq ft home, built in 2007 and $775 bill last month? There's something wrong with that - unless you have a pool with pumps running all day long. I'd have an HVAC person check your AC unit(s) - I'm wondering if your expansion valve is malfunctioning. As I stated above, we have 2576 sq ft w/ 1970's vintage home, no radiant barrier and only 2/3 of our windows are dual pane. Last 2 months bills were $177 and $185. I looked up my usage and it looks like due to the really hot current month, we're trending toward a $230-240 bill for August. We run our AC at 77 degrees (76 at night).
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Old 08-17-2010, 07:12 AM
 
473 posts, read 1,195,090 times
Reputation: 357
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyrece View Post
I think I would appreciate a $500 electric bill right now! We have a 3200 sq ft home, 2007 with radiant barrier..keep it 80 degrees during day and 77 at night (in Jax, FL). Last month $775..this month $559 and we weren't even here 10 days. Its hard to trade off comfort for costs!
Something is wrong. Ours is almost similar a 2003 built, 3300 Sq. ft and we have set the temp almost like yours. We have a radiant barrier and pretty good insulation and excellent inlet/ outlet vents. We are waiting for our Aug bill but our July bill was under $ 150.
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Old 08-17-2010, 08:01 AM
 
Location: High Cotton
6,125 posts, read 7,449,664 times
Reputation: 3657
No one is saying how many KWHs they are using, nor what they are paying per KWH. These two factors are extremely important.

Rates can vary greatly depending on your service provider and the plan you may have. Rates are from 8 cents [now] to over 20 cents [old plan] per KWH. That's a difference of 2 1/2 times and could be the difference between one person's $200 bill and another person's $500 bill that uses the same KWH. Also, for whatever it's worth, TXU has a history of gouging their customers that do not choose a plan. However, most all providers are lower than TXU - from month-to-month to 36 month fixed rate plans.
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