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Old 10-26-2010, 08:51 AM
 
Location: Orlando, Fl
492 posts, read 1,392,749 times
Reputation: 453

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Check out the FPL rates here:
http://www.fpl.com/news/news_and_not...ograms0809.pdf

We (old retiree) have the best rates going!
Larry - Hobe Sound, Fl

Last edited by lcole07; 10-26-2010 at 08:52 AM.. Reason: Spelling
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Old 10-26-2010, 09:31 AM
 
1,468 posts, read 4,727,307 times
Reputation: 1087
Quote:
Originally Posted by gypsychic View Post
Our bill is usually pretty low as well. I love cold showers, but I often start with "tepid" water. I use cold water to wash clothes. We do use AC, but only when absolutely necessary (house gets to 85 degrees). When we don't use the AC, our bills are only about $60 per month. During summer when we use it 24/7 it is still only about $125.00. We have FPL, and their rates are lower than previous electric companies we have had (TECO and Lakeland Electric)
The cold shower thing is funny. People swim in pools that are not heated even the ocean can be a little cold for a few seconds when you first get in. You get used to it in just a few seconds. Then they rave about how great it feels. Mean these same people can't stick their big toe in a cool shower. I use the word cool because the water comes out at a pretty reasonable temp and is not really cold at all. Hot water almost make me feel sick standing under it. Anything above your body temp actually feels bad. There is nothing like a nice cool shower.
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Old 10-26-2010, 12:03 PM
 
Location: Myrtle Beach
3,381 posts, read 9,081,688 times
Reputation: 2943
Quote:
Originally Posted by mango23 View Post
I want to point out I am not a hypocrite. My electric bill came yesterday and it was $55.00.etime.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gypsychic View Post
Our bill is usually pretty low as well. We do use AC, but only when absolutely necessary (house gets to 85 degrees). When we don't use the AC, our bills are only about $60 per month. During summer when we use it 24/7 it is still only about $125.00. We have FPL, and their rates are lower than previous electric companies we have had (TECO and Lakeland Electric)

Both of you disgust me Cheapest bill I have had yet is $255 The A/C is set at 81. I have installed Florescent bulbs and chase after the kids to turn off the lights. We use fans as much as possible and often turn the A/C off unless it get up to 83 in the house.

Granted someone is home 24 hours a day since DW is stay at home mom, and she does laundry for a family of 5. Also electric oven and stove which gets used daily along with a pool pump.

Tried to keep the A/C off today, had fans and windows open, but the house creeped up to 85 right at noon. Too dang hot for me today, had to close up the windows and turn on the AC.

Oh not to mention, I am confident this house is very poorly insulated in the attic and the windows are lame! Cannot wait to buy our own house.
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Old 10-26-2010, 12:48 PM
 
1,468 posts, read 4,727,307 times
Reputation: 1087
Quote:
Originally Posted by FloridaKash View Post
Both of you disgust me Cheapest bill I have had yet is $255 The A/C is set at 81. I have installed Florescent bulbs and chase after the kids to turn off the lights. We use fans as much as possible and often turn the A/C off unless it get up to 83 in the house.

Granted someone is home 24 hours a day since DW is stay at home mom, and she does laundry for a family of 5. Also electric oven and stove which gets used daily along with a pool pump.

Tried to keep the A/C off today, had fans and windows open, but the house creeped up to 85 right at noon. Too dang hot for me today, had to close up the windows and turn on the AC.

Oh not to mention, I am confident this house is very poorly insulated in the attic and the windows are lame! Cannot wait to buy our own house.
Gee, I hope you don't mean disgusting in a derogatory way. My house is unique in it's design. I have overhanging porches and tinted windows. Almost no windows actually are hit by direct sunlight. The two that do I have roll down reed shades on the outside that shades the windows from the sun. I also have a walk in attic and pull down stairs so there is a bigg buffer between the ceilings and the roof. It has a 4 foot whole house ventilator fan and never lets the attic build up heat. Most homes no matter what it is outside the attic will be hot and that heat will migrate into the house. My house when the sun goes down will have crept up only a few degrees over what ever it was the previous night temp was. It can be 90 outside and without any air my house may be no more the 82 inside.

We also have thick plaster walls, not just drywall, that always feel cool to the touch. No carpet at all. Carpet makes a house hot and if you are running air will just suck it up and return nothing unlike like tile that will become cool and help to maintain a cool house. If you run a hassic fan sitting on a tile floor the air coming out feels like air conditioning it will be so cool. I centered my comments on keeping the house cool because many people when they learn my wife and I don't use air wonder how we can do it. It is the house that lets us do it. If we did want to run air what it would take to "Really" cool this house would be a fraction of what it takes in most of the cookie cutter houses you find. In your case, things like pool pumps and that many people in the house using hot water cooking and so on it would be imposable to have as low a bill as I do but you just have to do the best you can.

My house by the way was built in the 1920's and is about 2800 sq feet. The ideas used in my house were before there even was home air conditioning. Strange they don't use some of these proven ideas in today's homes.
I am in my home office right now and I just looked at the thermometer in the room. It says 79.4 and I just checked the outside one and it says 85.
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Old 10-26-2010, 01:00 PM
 
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
1,881 posts, read 3,589,729 times
Reputation: 16546
Quote:
Originally Posted by FloridaKash View Post
Both of you disgust me Cheapest bill I have had yet is $255 The A/C is set at 81. I have installed Florescent bulbs and chase after the kids to turn off the lights. We use fans as much as possible and often turn the A/C off unless it get up to 83 in the house.
It might have to do with the area, since we are in the same general vicinity... our electric bill was just under $200 last month, but the two prior months it was around $250. We also set our a/c high... 82*, wash clothes with cold, take lukewarm baths/showers. Different rates in different areas, maybe?

I still don't think it's too bad though. About now we'd have had the heat on off and on up north, in addition to our electric bill. Our gas bill in the winter was around $300 sometimes, and we only set the heat at 68* (brrrrr!!!). So having only electric to pay makes it significantly less, if I averaged it throughout the year.
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Old 10-26-2010, 01:11 PM
 
17,454 posts, read 38,838,370 times
Reputation: 24072
Quote:
Originally Posted by mango23 View Post
Gee, I hope you don't mean disgusting in a derogatory way. My house is unique in it's design. I have overhanging porches and tinted windows. Almost no windows actually are hit by direct sunlight. The two that do I have roll down reed shades on the outside that shades the windows from the sun. I also have a walk in attic and pull down stairs so there is a bigg buffer between the ceilings and the roof. It has a 4 foot whole house ventilator fan and never lets the attic build up heat. Most homes no matter what it is outside the attic will be hot and that heat will migrate into the house. My house when the sun goes down will have crept up only a few degrees over what ever it was the previous night temp was. It can be 90 outside and without any air my house may be no more the 82 inside.

We also have thick plaster walls, not just drywall, that always feel cool to the touch. No carpet at all. Carpet makes a house hot and if you are running air will just suck it up and return nothing unlike like tile that will become cool and help to maintain a cool house. If you run a hassic fan sitting on a tile floor the air coming out feels like air conditioning it will be so cool. I centered my comments on keeping the house cool because many people when they learn my wife and I don't use air wonder how we can do it. It is the house that lets us do it. If we did want to run air what it would take to "Really" cool this house would be a fraction of what it takes in most of the cookie cutter houses you find. In your case, things like pool pumps and that many people in the house using hot water cooking and so on it would be imposable to have as low a bill as I do but you just have to do the best you can.

My house by the way was built in the 1920's and is about 2800 sq feet. The ideas used in my house were before there even was home air conditioning. Strange they don't use some of these proven ideas in today's homes.
I am in my home office right now and I just looked at the thermometer in the room. It says 79.4 and I just checked the outside one and it says 85.
Mango, our house is an overbuilt little 1950's Florida ranch - poured concrete walls covered with stucco, and thick interior plaster. We have cool terrazzo floors throughout. Very few of our windows directly hit the sun. We do have a huge interior "great room" with big vaulted ceilings and exposed roof beams, and the lack of attic makes this room a little warmer, but it does get great ventilation during open window season.

I agree that carpets, poor insulation, lack of cross ventilation, shade or no shade all contribute to whether or not a house stays cool.
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Old 10-27-2010, 01:49 PM
 
Location: Myrtle Beach
3,381 posts, read 9,081,688 times
Reputation: 2943
Mango, that's great. Jealous of your house!

Maggi, I hear ya. Gas and Electric gets very expensive. We're definitely saving money per month here!

Come to think of it, the main reasin this home may cost more in electricity than others is it has a Florida Room that was added on... and the Garage was converted to a bedroom. The converted garage looks good and seems like they did a good job unitl you take a closer look. The used Paneling directly over the studs and I have no idea if there is insulation those wall, or how much. Thankfully it sits on the west side of the house and gets less sun than our east side.

On the east side is a florida room, full of windows facing south, east and north. The only shades are el cheapo bamboo shades that you can see right through (they came with the house, I am renting, I am not paying to put shades on 7 floor to ceiling windows). It was poorly built as well as this room is always much much hotter than the others. Of course its open to the rest of the house as well so some of the heat from the Florida room goes into the rest of the home.

Man, now I sound like I am complaining a lot!! Geeze, don't get me wrong! I am thankful for the florida room, we love it. And the converted bedroom is large, has two closets and works great for my family.
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