Outrageous electric bill - anyone with a big house to compare (+3000sq feet) ? (2014, condo)

[crazydive]

Just curious if anybody else's bill seems to have gone sky-high in 2014?
We kept our thermostat set between 79-82 and yet our bill just continued to climb. I just got our bill for nearly $700! Last year about this same time, I was paying more like $400 and not doing anything differently. Our house is pretty big, around 3100 sf. We have an additional freezer and refrigerator in the garage, pool pumps take energy too, and we don't have gas in the kitchen, all is electric but this is crazy. Our 1 and 2 tier is 370kWh and 110kWh. It is an amount we use in about a week. Prices for 3-4 tier are about 40cents per kWh !! Our average monthly usage is about 1500 kWh. How can we stay in tier 1 or 2 ?

SDG&E changed their tiers and raised rates. I do know that when the economy is this bad and so many people are hurting as it is, that it seems like the stupidest thing they could do is make your utilities less affordable :-(

Pete

[1AngryTaxPayer]

You really need to look into solar to help keep you out of those advanced tiers.

[Cardiff Kook]

No joke, our electric bill was ~$9.00 this month. Granted, we received some sort of credit and its normally around $40 per month. It pays to not have AC sometimes!

[mateo45]

He needs to have a heckuva lot of solar in$talled to offset an extra $300-400 a month. And let's not forget the sustained operating costs of every item involved in some sort of 'heat exchange' (whether creating it, like electric water heaters, or losing it, like refrigeration and a/c's… especially in a large house). And BTW, a 5 ton a/c to cool 3,000 sq ft may only use 600 watts for the fan, but the condenser will consume 4500 watts, depending on the temperature.

[ShelbyGirl1]

Solar here! $-5.42! AC running and pool are our biggest electricity suckers. We went from $380 ish bill to this.

[elchevere]

my understanding is Sempra (SDG&E) was approved a rate hike to cover their costs for shutting down San Onofre...rather than their absorbing the costs themselves, they were allowed to pass along these costs to consumers.

I live in a 1200 sq foot condo downtown and my previous all time high electric bill (might have been 2010 when we hit that hot spell when temperatures exceeded 100 degrees for a few days) was around $200....my bill last month was just under $300 and I keep my thermostat programmed between 72-74.

[wymore]

Pete, completely agree. It's insanity. Having been stationed in Kansas and Texas for over a decade now, electricity was always less than 15c a kw, often times closer to 11c. This is just highway robbery. I live in a condo with 1800sqft, and my bill was $300 last month, and I'm on the side of the building that is in the shade in the afternoon. I have no idea how much the poor bastards on the other side of the building must be paying.

[mateo45]

BTW, solar's fine but it's expensive and you need plenty of it to make a significant difference. So even just 5 kilowatts worth of solar is around 10 grand to purchase and install, and a 3,000+ sq ft house is obviously gonna need way more than that!

How Much Solar Power Do I Need For A $300 Electric Bill

[Encinitan]

Originally Posted by GMUAlum08

No joke, our electric bill was ~$9.00 this month. Granted, we received some sort of credit and its normally around $40 per month. It pays to not have AC sometimes!

Us too. We got the bill the other day and I think it was $40, usually more like 100. Sweating it out during the heatwave with just fans really pays off.

[NYSD1995]

$575 for a 1,000sf house. SD has some of the highest electric utility rates in the country, by a factor of 10x!