Helpful tips for moving from CA to WI (Green Bay: apartments, renter)

[DucksFan4Life26]

Hello All,

I'm looking to move to WI within the next 1-1 1/2 years, preferably around the Green Bay area; so I started doing some research. I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of renting an apartment or a house-aside from the typical "houses will be in a generally better neighborhood" "apartments will generally be noisier" etc.
I'm hoping this forum could help me with some questions, such as:

Typically, what utilities is the renter responsible for when renting a house vs apartment?
~So far in my research, I've found that most are the same, except when renting an apartment you are responsible for the AC whereas renting a house makes you responsible for the water/sewage.

Also, if anyone would be willing to help with this aspect: About how much does the cost of your utilities breakdown to in WI? I've looked on the WI Public Service page, and they give out "hypotheticals" or "generalizations"; but I'm wondering for the cold months, how much does an electric bill realistically cost a person.
Speaking from a Californian, when its summer and blazing hot, it wasn't shocking to have my AC on 2-3 times a week, and it would jump to around $150-$200 (also, the people I was living with at the time didn't grasp the concept that the AC couldn't cool the entire living room, since the dining room and hallway was connected, so it ran consistently all day long).

If anyone can help with any questions, you have the many thanks and gratitude of an appreciative Californian

[brrabbit]

When someone rents my house, he is responsible for all utilities. That's simple. Water, electricity, gas, internet, whatever he wants.

When I rent an apartment, I usually hope to pay for as few utilities as possible and usually I can get into "Heat & Water" included. Electricity, Gas (for cooking, but hopefully not for heating water & furnace) and Internet are usually to be paid by me everywhere... My current apartments though charge me for water usage (although not for heat). So it happens too.

In general, if the building is for multiple units (apartments) and utility is not wired to each individual unit (shared among units), chances are high that it will be included into rent. With the house, nothing is shared for sure.

[AminWi]

As Brrabbit mentioned, heat and water are the most commonly included utilities. Your electric bill would not likely change much in the winter, since it is very rare for homes to be heated with electric here. Most homes are heated with natural gas (most common in cities) or propane (more common in rural areas).

If you do end up paying for heat, some utility companies will give you the option to average your usage out over the year, so you are paying the same amount for natural gas every month, instead of having very small bills in the summer and large bills in the winter. It can make budgeting a little bit easier.

How much your heating bill is going to cost depends on so many factors - square footage, insulation, how harsh the winter is, etc. You'd be better off asking your potential landlords for an estimate of how much heating costs in the winter month than asking us to give you an estimate of how much it costs us to heat houses that are potentially very different than what you will see. I will say that if you have an older house or apartment, putting plastic over your windows, using heavy curtains over windows and patio doors instead of blinds, putting door draft dodgers under your doors, etc. can make a difference in your heating bills.

[brrabbit]

It may or may not be needed. Personally, I never did it in Wisconsin (did in other states though) - because either I lived in a very nice house with modern windows, or rented apartments and my landlord paid for heat. Those are sound advices if your residence is too cold, or heating bill is too steep. I only wanted to say, that it's not something that everyone has to do in Wisconsin.