Average Utilities for Vancouver area (house, transfer, to buy)

[Knoepfel]

Hi, I am moving to the area and I am trying to get a good idea fo the average price for utilities that I will have to pay. Can anyone give me a general idea? It is just me, my husband and baby.

Water/sewer/electricity/ trash?? am I forgetting any.

Thanks!

[Suzer]

$100.00 (an offer that's good for a year) for extended cable, high speed cable internet, cable phone. $100.00 for electricity for my first month in Vancouver, keeping my house heated at 68 degrees 'round the clock.

I live in a one bedroom flat attached that is part of a single family home. My landlord pays for water/trash/sewer - not sure about those rates.

[Kayl]

I live in an older single family house. Roughly 1400 sq ft. No Air Conditioning (not unusual here).

Electric in warmer months (May-Oct) runs $35-$60. Electric in cold months (Nov-Mar) runs $130-$200, sometimes a little more. I keep my heat at about 68 most of the time.

Water/Sewer runs about $40-$50 every 2 months. That's with 1 shower daily, a load of dishes and a couple loads of clothes a week. A little more in summer if I water my lawn.

Trash... well, they will "nickel-n-dime" you to death. You MUST use their cans and bins. You are billed every 2 months.

IF you get the 32 gal can (holds 2 tall kitchen bags and a pizza box) AND you have them pick it up every week, that'll run you a little under $35 every two months. If you have an extra bag to put out, they'll charge you extra for that. If you want the yard debris pick-up, they provide a 64 gal (might be 96) for that. They only pick up yard debris every other week. That costs you $13 every 2 months. Recycling is part of the $35, they provide you 3 small bins. If you want a cart to put them on, you have to buy that yourself.

I don't have gas so I can't tell you anything about that one.

Hope that helps.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by Kayl

...""Trash... well, they will "nickel-n-dime" you to death. You MUST use their cans and bins. You are billed every 2 months.
...Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reminder, I so forgot about the shock we had with trash costs when we arrived in Vancouver

I am SO thankful for our local transfer station (Skamania County ~ 20 miles east of Vanc)
$2.50 once a month for 2 cans and all the recycle I can haul.

The only better deal I know of is in Roseburg, OR. FREE, and they help you unload!!! As I see the LONG lines...I will never understand why CRC (Vancouver transfer station) doesn't have 'weigh-in-motion' with electronic value card mounted on Windshield to subtract value, or add it to your utility bill. They had that technology many years ago when we lived in Singapore, quite simple and fast... now it includes parking lots, toll roads... Just 'top-off' your card every so often and you're fine (but broke)