Summer Electric Bills (Garland: house, neighborhood, living)

[hchandle]

We are enjoying our first hot Texas summer since moving from Michigan in November. We aren't, however, enjoying our electric bill! I knew it was going to be on the high side because of A/C, but we are going on our second month with a $500+ bill. We have a two-story 3700 sq ft house with high ceilings, (damn those ceilings), two newer A/C units, and the previous owners installed radiant heat barrier in the attic. We have lots of windows and get morning sun - luckily the west side of the house is nice and shady.

So my question is, is this pretty normal? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

[TXRunner]

Yes, that's pretty much normal. I've heard of bills of $800 for that size house when people first move here. You just have to learn to live with a wamer house or pay $500/month for several months out of the year.

[hchandle]

Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling it was pretty normal. I forgot to mention we keep the house at 79 degrees, too.

I suppose it's a trade-off for not having to pay $400 heating bills for three months in the winter.

[king's highway]

~


The last two electric bills [July & August] on my 2222 sq ft ranch
home in Garland were both around $210.

I keep my house cool [76 daytime - 72 nighttime.]

No, my electric bill is not averaged during the year.

But I live in an older neighborhood with lots of tall shade trees...
and more importantly... while my 40+ year old home is not very
energy efficient, it does have 8 ft ceilings... much lower than
newer homes. I don't understand why people like high ceilings.
It doesn't make sense to heat and cool wasted ceiling space.


~

[Affirmed09]

Mine was 300 last month. I almost passed out - i have to get used to this

[TX Original]

Our house is around 2500 sq ft, and the last electric bill was $290.00.

[pappy97]

Originally Posted by hchandle

We are enjoying our first hot Texas summer since moving from Michigan in November. We aren't, however, enjoying our electric bill! I knew it was going to be on the high side because of A/C, but we are going on our second month with a $500+ bill. We have a two-story 3700 sq ft house with high ceilings, (damn those ceilings), two newer A/C units, and the previous owners installed radiant heat barrier in the attic. We have lots of windows and get morning sun - luckily the west side of the house is nice and shady.

So my question is, is this pretty normal? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

That sounds normal. We too have a two story, 3700 sq ft. house with high enough ceilings and this is also our first hot Texas summer since moving from CA in November, also with two newer A/C units (and get morning sun).

The most our bill has hit this summer is $250, last bill was $180. Our worst bill thus far was actually that ridiculously cold January in which our bill was $299.00 (cost more to heat up house from outside temp in the teens to 60's than to cool from outside temp of 100's to 70 something).

The caveat to our A/C bill is that we don't use our upstairs much, so unless we go up to use our HT (mostly weekends, if that), we leave the upstairs thermostat at 85. Downstairs is set at 79 [we use a ceiling fan to help keep living room cool] except to sleep at 71 (I need it cool to sleep). The $250 bill was when one week we set the upstairs at 75 for guests. I suppose if it was a full month of keeping upstairs cool, we could be in the 400-500/mo range.

FYI, we currently pay a fixed rate of 10.8 cents/ kilowatt-hour through Reliant Energy.

[highcotton]

Be glad the cost of electricity is [now] only 9-11 cents per KWH. A couple of years ago it was pushing 20 cents per KWH.

[ChristieP]

Call your electric company and get on average billing! We do this and our bills are $130 a month all year long for a 2000 sq ft home.

[buzzpost]

Originally Posted by hchandle

We are enjoying our first hot Texas summer since moving from Michigan in November. We aren't, however, enjoying our electric bill! I knew it was going to be on the high side because of A/C, but we are going on our second month with a $500+ bill. We have a two-story 3700 sq ft house with high ceilings, (damn those ceilings), two newer A/C units, and the previous owners installed radiant heat barrier in the attic. We have lots of windows and get morning sun - luckily the west side of the house is nice and shady.

So my question is, is this pretty normal? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

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.