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Ours is averaging at $110 - Progress Energy - 3 year old 1800 sq ft - Stay at home mom. We have plasma TV ( which cost more that other TV's to run)...
We set our all electric A/C to 78 in summer 72 in winter..never touch thermo..over last few days we even turned it off and open windows at night ...great weather a the moment
Let's say you have 10 lamps in your house, and each one has a 100 Watt lightbulb in it. If you turn on all ten of those lamps (100W x 10 = 1000W = 1 KW), and let them stay on for 1 hour, you've used 1 KWH of electricity. The electric company will then bill you (using MI-Roger's number) 9.678 cents for using that 1 KWH of electricity.
Asking someone what their electric bill is is meaningless. Are there people home all day or is everyone at school/work? Do you leave every light in the house on, or do you turn them off as you leave the room? Do you have an electric water heater, furnace, stove, oven etc, or are they gas? Do you set your A/C to 68 in the summer and furnace to 75 in winter, or vice versa? The list goes on . . . . .
I like the (10) 100 W lamps for an hour. Helps the intuitive grasp.
Another way to think of a KWh is 3,600,000 J (Joules) of energy. The W (Watt) is a unit of power, the rate at which energy is being consumed.
One watt is a joule per second. So a 1000 watt load is a kilowatt (not a kilowatt-hour) or a Kilojoule/second. In a 3600 second-long hour theload consumes (3600sec)(1000joules/sec) = 3 600 000 J (also known as a "KWh")
And it takes about 4200 J for every celcius degree you raise a liter of water. Five-ninths that for fahrenheit. So you can calculate the minimum energy to warm up a hot tub or the hot water tank, cost of a bath, warm water clothes wash and on and on. Remember that the 4200 J/L/degC doesn't include wasted energy that is escaping the whole time you are trying to warm the water. This is why it is much more efficient to put a timer or control switch on your hot water heater or switch to "on-demand" hot water heating. Also, hot tubs should be converted to 240V operation for fast warm up just prior to use rather than continuous heating.
Google's calculator is a painless way to make conversions.
For example, put the following in the search box (google):
57 gallons = ? liters
and press enter. A calculator icon will appear beside the text:
2300 sq ft (new) home with energy efficient windows
all electric appliances
central air set at 78 degrees for energy efficiency
windows open at night when possible
Another way to think of a KWh is 3,600,000 J (Joules) of energy. The W (Watt) is a unit of power, the rate at which energy is being consumed.
One watt is a joule per second. So a 1000 watt load is a kilowatt (not a kilowatt-hour) or a Kilojoule/second. In a 3600 second-long hour theload consumes (3600sec)(1000joules/sec) = 3 600 000 J (also known as a "KWh")
WOW!!! Some people are getting all technical on the KWH....geez....I was just curious to know what people pay for their electric bills, as we are moving to the area. We have a HUGE electric bill in Alabama....$250-$300 a month...........So....the reason for my original question was to see if I was going to be paying more or less. Thanks for "schooling" me up though!!!
How is it so much less expensive in NC? We have Progress Energy in FL and pay about $250 a month in a 1600 sq ft home. (4 years old) Our thermastat is set at 78 and I know it's hotter there in the summer than here. FYI, we pay electric charge $5.46/ first 1000KWH then $6.46/therafter and fuel charge $4.27/ first 1000 KWH then $5.27/thereafter. More reason to move there.
WOW!!! Some people are getting all technical on the KWH....geez....I was just curious to know what people pay for their electric bills, as we are moving to the area. We have a HUGE electric bill in Alabama....$250-$300 a month...........So....the reason for my original question was to see if I was going to be paying more or less. Thanks for "schooling" me up though!!!
We just moved in and seem to be averaging $250/month to Progress for a 3700 sq ft house. We moved from NY and were paying almost twice that for electricity (in the summer) in a similar sized house. Our house here is propane though for heat, stove, and hot water.... while the house in NY had an electric stove and hot water, but gas furnace. I do work from home and have a lot of computer equipment running 24x7 so that may account for our bill being a little higher than average.
Ok, now I KNOW something is wrong. We live in ~2600 sq ft in Cary. We have gas hot water and heat, but everything else is electric. I do like it cool, so the thermostat is low 70s - we have a three-zone system with programmable thermostats in each zone, so they go up and down depending on the time of day, etc. Range 72-78. Our last power bill was $330.
Someone earlier asked about ways to check on why their bill is so high... I found this for Progress Energy customers:
Yeah. . . .me too I have an MS in electrical engineering and all that even made my head swim at 7:20am
Jeez, c'mon. If you want to get a handle on a technical subject, you gotta get technical.
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Another definition of KWh
OK ...er thanks...I think 
Math-haters
