New Austin homeowner - $250 utility bill normal for 1780sqft? (wood floors, house)

[senormatt]

Home is 2 stories built in 2008. Thermostat kept at 78 during the day and 76 at night.

Electric: 1079 KWH = $110

Water: (sprinkers) = $71

Wastewater service = $37

Solid Waste service = $20

Drainage service = $12

Total = $250


I suppose not really that bad for one hot summer month?

[centralaustinite]

If that was your August bill, I'd say you are doing very well. It will be your highest bill of the year.

ca

[calel]

$110 for electricity in August sounds great to me.

[Jennibc]

Your electricity is less than a third of what ours was last month. While our house is bigger, it's not twice the size and we keep ours at 78 all of the time (don't take it down at night). Maybe we need to figure out if there's a problem with our duct work or AC.

[tibbar]

We have a single story 2130sf kept at 81 degrees and last electric portion of our bill was $151.25 for 1439KWH. Our AC is around 10 years old.

[centralaustinite]

I have to say that this is where green building really pays off. We have a 2400 sq foot house (two stories) that has a three star rating from the City of Austin, we keep the house at 74-75 degrees all summer. And our August bill was $238!

Only $115 of that was electricity.

We don't have any radical green features in the house, just a radiant barrier, well-sealed ducts, low-E windows, and insulated walls and attic. Our ac is 8 years old and is just SEER 14.

We considered moving last year but we were so fearful of the high energy bills in an older house. I'm glad we stayed put.

[senormatt]

I guess mine's about average then so that is a little relieving..

they sure do slap on some misc fees in there though jeez..

[BentBow]

Your way ahead of me. I think my electricity last month was over $200 alone, not including water and trash.

[10scoachrick]

78-80 degrees is the threshold for our system...if we plan to be gone, setting the A/C to 80 during the day really cuts down on the amount the system runs...easy to cool down when we return. Even the upstairs is easy to cool if kept to 80 during the day. We have plenty of empty air with two-story foyer, stairway and great room(not my design) but cooling it is not a problem so far. Now, trying to keep it at 76 during our 105 degree days is another story...good thing DW is cold-natured...no kids to re-set the 'stat, either, thank goodness.

The WATER bill, on the other hand...don't get me started!

I think a few folks have posted about their 'fees' being higher than the actual energy consumed...everybody wants their cut!

[BentBow]

The thing about turning your A/C up so it doesn't run as much, when on vacation for an extended period of time is, if you have wood floors, the A/C doesn't run efficiently enough to pull the building humidity out and running the humid air across the evaporator coil.

As humidity builds up, your wood floors will gain moisture content. A gain of moisture content, swells/expands the wood flooring. You can have compression cupping, or worse, a heaved and buckled floor.