Taxes (homeowners insurance, coop, home)

[ajzjmsmom]

Originally Posted by lisdol

I pay 13.2 cents per kwh in NM. Curious what TX is if NM is so much better. I know GA Power charged a lot less. And that is directed at Tim Rankin, not you, sorry I quoted your post for that.

I would have to ask my Dad what they pay per kilowatt hour in S Texas. I am sure since they have more than one power company in Texas that each one is different. I know my parents changed companies last year because of better rates. For me though I just don't see much difference in what we paid in Tx with refrigerated air and what we paid here for evaporative cooling. I was excited to think we would save alot but to bad for me I was wrong. Throw our high water bills on top of the electricity and it is pretty nasty utility wise. In Texas the most I ever paid for water was maybe $35 a month. Here in Alamo my last bill was $85 We have grass in our backyard that gets watered on the sprinkler system so it is very controlled.

[Poncho_NM]

Interesting: Electricity Rate Comparison by State


Rich

[mortimer]

lisdol posted:

> I pay 13.2 cents per kwh in NM.

But Poncho_NM posted:

> Electricity Rate Comparison by State
#> 17 New Mexico .......... 7.61
#> .... National Average ... 9.64
#> 36 Texas ................. 10.80

That's what my PNM bill says - give or take.

There is actually, a first tier of billing where my use under 200 kWh is
at a lower rate than higher levels. There is a third tier which I never
reach because I use a swamp cooler and not refrigerated air.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by ajzjmsmom

I would have to ask my Dad what they pay per kilowatt hour in S Texas. I am sure since they have more than one power company in Texas that each one is different. I know my parents changed companies last year because of better rates. For me though I just don't see much difference in what we paid in Tx with refrigerated air and what we paid here for evaporative cooling. I was excited to think we would save alot but to bad for me I was wrong. Throw our high water bills on top of the electricity and it is pretty nasty utility wise. In Texas the most I ever paid for water was maybe $35 a month. Here in Alamo my last bill was $85 We have grass in our backyard that gets watered on the sprinkler system so it is very controlled.

Whoa. You must water a LOT!! My water bill here has never reached $50, and I water enough (2x week, sometimes only once) to keep the grass green from May-November; it goes dormant for the winter after that, with watering about once a month. But I have only a back area, 24 x 60, and some of that it taken up with extra sidewalks.

But if you have a family with kids, $85 isn't bad!!

It's hard to compare other utility bills. When I left Midland, even with a new heatpump/refrigerated air system, my bills were running $200-250/month, but total electric.

But the house here, being new (rather than 28 years old, as it was in Midland) has good insulation, and that makes a big difference. My combined electric-gas bill last month was $61....but it's going to start climbing, since I just had to turn on the refrigerated air.

[mortimer]

Cathy4017 related:

> But the house here, being new .... has good insulation,
> and that makes a big difference. My combined electric-gas bill
> last month was $61 .... but it's going to start climbing, since
> I just had to turn on the refrigerated air.

Insulation makes a big difference. Our place in Chandler cost us, usually, less than $150/month in July, the peak a/c month and only in one year did it get up to $170. It was built in 2000. Our kWh use in July was around 2,000. Our house was about 2,650 sf. At least half the days in a typical July were over 107 degrees for a high and didn't get below 100 degrees till around midnight. August "felt" worse, but July has a lot more solar radiation cooking the roof.

You read in the AZ forums where people in 1,400 sf houses sometimes use over 3,000 kWh in a July billing period. Time for some new windows - but they don't understand what they are doing.

>> " In Texas the most I ever paid for water was maybe $35 a month.
>> Here in Alamo my last bill was $85 We have grass in our backyard
>> that gets watered on the sprinkler system so it is very controlled."

Yeah, but who knows? "controlled?" How many gallons did you consume?
Nobody knows. Dollars are only half the story.

There is an article in the Albuquerque journal saying that there is work afoot by the city-county water authority to make large consumers of water pay a lot more for their use. Having grass in the backyard makes a consumer a large consumer,
so such a user would pay a lot more, while xeriscapers would get the benefit of their lower consumption.

For instance, the first 1,000 gallons might cost $10, but the next 1,000 gallons might cost $20 and the next 1,000 $40 and so on. A backyard with grass using 10,000 gallons might end up being a $200/month lawn. It's coming. I'd be surprised if the average Tanoan resident used less than 50,000 gallons of water/month.

This is probably going to happen for consumers of electricity and natural gas someday. People with leak-like-a-sieve windows are not going to have a choice, but to get more efficient.

It's interesting that when people throw around their water and electricity and gas use, they never seem to know how many gallons/kWh/CCF's that they use. It's the only reasonable basis for comparison since metered rates and fixed fees vary so much.

[Cathy4017]

It's interesting that when people throw around their water and electricity and gas use, they never seem to know how many gallons/kWh/CCF's that they use. It's the only reasonable basis for comparison since metered rates and fixed fees vary so much.

They really do, and all the information is found on every bill you get each month.

[mortimer]

Also, when you are comparing your year-to-year use, as the rates and fees rise, you don't know how you are doing unless you know your use.

From year-to-year, there is little difference in consumption for any given month - unless you have company over.

That is, your consumption of utilities in May over time is constant each year, for example.

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by mortimer

That is, your consumption of utilities in May over time is constant each year, for example.

In theory that is sometimes true, but every place I have lived they either estimate a meter reading, read it at a different time so in some cases you have 5 weeks of usage compared to 4 weeks in another year, or they just read it wrong which happens to me about 3 times a year.

Also, my gas usage varies a lot based on the weather each year.

So, if you want accuracy read the meters yourself. My Gas and electric are convenient to read.


Rich

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by mortimer

Insulation makes a big difference. Our place in Chandler cost us, usually, less than $150/month in July, the peak a/c month and only in one year did it get up to $170. It was built in 2000. Our kWh use in July was around 2,000. Our house was about 2,650 sf. At least half the days in a typical July were over 107 degrees for a high and didn't get below 100 degrees till around midnight. August "felt" worse, but July has a lot more solar radiation cooking the roof.

::

This is probably going to happen for consumers of electricity and natural gas someday. People with leak-like-a-sieve windows are not going to have a choice, but to get more efficient.

I know when we installed turbines on the roof several years ago, our Kwh usage declined 10-15%, particularly during the summer months. This year, we bit the bullet and replaced ALL of our 25 year old windows - we're hoping for Kwh savings, although it hasn't been consistently warm enough yet for us to notice KwH reductions yet.

[mortimer]

Poncho_NM advised:

> ... every place I have lived they either estimate a meter reading,
> read it at a different time ... 5 weeks ... 4 weeks in another year, ...

SRP in Chandler was accurate and regular, but then we had electronic
Time-of-Use meters that were not manually read.

My neighbors and I would compare usage to see if we were on track
with our conservation, er, cheapness efforts. For seven years of
readings, we were pretty much +/- 5%.