2 stories electric bill

[mortimer]

shadow91 overpowered us with:

> my electric bill was $549.00 with a two story, 2950 square feet ...

MotleyCrew mentioned:

> Our bill for a 2,069 sq.ft. single story, was $399 last month. ...

then sierraAZ warned:

> I'd say either the electric company in your city is ripping you
> off big time or your house is exceptionally badly insulated...

Roughly speaking, for a non Time-of-Use billing, using 2,000 kWh of
electricity should cost about $200. I've heard APS charges higher
than SRP, but I doubt it is by much.

Just comparing one summer bill without stating your kWh consumption
is useless.

The utility tells you what you must pay per kWh, but it doesn't tell
you how much electricity to use. If I had a bill over $300, I'd be
keeping big sheets of visqueen and polystyrene to cover my windows
around. It might be worth it to see if that makes much of a difference.
Re-doing the seals around the doors would also be on my list of things
to check.

A Jun-Jul-Aug SRP electric bill for us is $110-$170-$120.
Our high winter bill appears in Dec or Jan and is about $75.
Low bills are around $45 in March, so that is our 'base' usage.
Everything above $45 is either heating or cooling.
That $45 means that we used about 400 kWh of electricity.

If you have a base rate in March of $100 and you have two or three
kids, that would sound about right, but your maximum summer bill
should only be $150-200 more than that if you are not doing things
like putting your electric water heater on a timer and using CF bulbs
where you leave the light on a lot and using T-O-U billing. I've
also heard that APS does not offer that service which routinely
saves me over $50 per month.

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by sheena

Yeah that's been my experience. My best electric bills in the Summer was the last house I owned in Gilbert close to 300 a little over. I've had those 500+ bills for years. I even called and complained when I first moved there. I thought my meter was broke

Btw, I did have a problem this winter with TEP, for the first time in years. The bill for January was outrageous, but then again it was my first January in this place and the month was unusually cold, so I paid it... Next month, though, a similar bill shows up... when the weather was way milder, the pay period shorter, and didn't even need much heating half of the month. Sooo, I get on the phone with dear electric company. They wanted me to read the meter. Had no idea how to do it at first, but managed. Oh, and the second bill was "estimated"... They asked me if the meter was easily accessed. Heck, if I could read it, so could they. Apparently, after paying the first bill, our friendly electricity provider figured they found a sucker who'd continue paying ridiculous bills... Tough luck, not this babe. As a result, I had credit that took care of my electric needs for 2+ more months! Watch out!