electric bill (condo, appliances, loan)

[JHjr]

I'm thinking of retiring to TN from CT. I was told I would save alot on my electric bill, this months was $300.00. If I do save alot in TN why?

[shadowwalker]

That would depend entirely on your lifestyle. And, we don't know what you pay for the amount you use, where you live. So It is hard to give you a answer on this.

[JHjr]

I'm in fairfield county, had central air running most of the month. I heard that you had hydro-electric, could you explain what that is?

[shadowwalker]

I live in a 1650 sq. ft. house single story. We have two window mount AC's. At least one is going most of the time. House stays cool, mid sixties. Our electric bill was $151.00 last month. Largest since we moved here. All appliaces, water heater are electric.
Hydro electric here is where electric turbines are run by water going through the tubes built into the man made dams. As the water goes through, turbines turn and turn electric generators making electricity. That is the bare bones version, anyway.

[Beretta]

Originally Posted by JHjr

I'm in fairfield county, had central air running most of the month. I heard that you had hydro-electric, could you explain what that is?

Here is an explanation on the TVA website:

TVA: Hydroelectric Power

[TnHilltopper]

Originally Posted by JHjr

I'm in fairfield county, had central air running most of the month. I heard that you had hydro-electric, could you explain what that is?

JH, the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) created a number of dams throughout the years and during the depression. Tennessee also has a fair number of nuclear plants as well. As I understand it though, these sites place the power they produce on to the nation power grid where it is purchased by various places around the USA at different times of day. Just because someone may live next to the Watts Bar dam doesn't mean they are getting power from the facility.

I am not entirely sure why our kilowatthours are so inexpensive here but I know I am not complaining.

[knoxgarden]

TVA only sells excess power. They don't have much of that this summer. The drought has meant less water over the dams and less power generated. Saw on the news they're having to buy some rather than sell it and it will raise electric rates for the summer.
Tennessee rates are generally 7 cents a Killowatt Hour, one of the lowest rates in the country.
TVA has an interesting story. It was part of Roosevelt's New Deal and had two purposes: provide power for rural areas and control floods on the Tennessee River. There are still hard feelings in some areas about TVA and how they took the land that got flooded.

[TNkudzu]

The cost of Electricity per kWh is low in TN. In TN we pay 6.4 cent/kWh in Connecticut you pay 13 cents/kWh.

We do have hot and longer summers but my electric bill is half what I paid in NJ for a same size home.

[alleycat]

I keep it 72 at my house most of the time, and have all-electric. It's just me and a cat and I don't cook too much, but I do use the washer and dryer a lot. Last month I paid a little over 6-cents per square foot for electricity. This billing period didn't include most of the extremely hot days we're had lately, but it was still in the 80's and 90's during that time. My bill was about $80.

Of course, as others have pointed out, energy usage will vary a lot due to the family (for example: got kids that like to take three showers a day and a wife who likes to bake cakes?) and the house itself.

[knoxgarden]

I just got my bill -- $75 for electric use. The meter was read on August 20. I keep it comfortably cool. I'm in a 1200 sq. ft. all brick condo.
That's with a new high-efficiency heat pump and energy star appliances installed two years ago.
If you are in TVA's service area and you have an older HVAC unit, you can get a low cost, 10-year loan to have it replaced with a high-efficiency heat pump. The loan payment is billed on your electric bill. I did that, and it cut back my electric costs so much that it is really paying for itself. My electric cost plus the loan payment is $10-$30 a month less than my electric bill alone was with the 25-year-old system I had before.
energy right: Easy and Affordable Financing
I liked the program. You have to use a TVA approved contractor and TVA pays them directly after TVA comes out and thoroughly inspects the installation.