Waemea area utility questions (Hilo, Waimea: rent, insurance, appliances)

[Sierraautosports]

25% chance of moving because of wifes job. We have looked into all the insurance costs (auto, home, hurricane), general idea of housing costs, will rent until narrowing down green or dry area, etc. One thing we aren't sure of are utility costs based on 2 people, small house (around 1000 sf), and what we should expect. We aren't dreamers, we know the cost of living is high, but we don't need much, so a small house is all we need, but a garage would be nice. What are your experiences and where can you save on utilities? I know solar and wind can help but payback can be years. Just trying to learn from the locals and your wisdom.

P.S. tried to edit my misspelling it title with no luck. I do know how to spell Waimea, just too quick with the keyboard.

[terracore]

A small house with two people your electricity cost should be around $100 if you line dry your clothes most of the time, don't run the A/C, use LED lighting, solar hot water (or propane), and have modern appliances. If you don't do those things plan on it being closer to $250.

Basic DSL is about $20/month, you'll have to check for availability in Waemea (sorry, couldn't resist, it's actually spelled Kamuela). If you want TV there is probably an internet/cable bundle for around $40/month, if not, satellite TV is also popular and available here. I live in Puna and we have 13 free over-the-air TV channels and we also have amazon prime and netflix streaming, and have no need for a paid TV service.

We are on catchment but I understand much of Waimea has county water service. It's not expensive.

[Sierraautosports]

Thanks for the reply, excellent information! Oh and thanks for correct spelling, I wasn't sure since both names are used. I'll have many other questions as this moves forward. I've been to 4 of the Islands many times, but never thought any opportunity would ever allow us to move to one of them.

[hotzcatz]

Payback on our $20K solar system is 8.3 years if we don't calculate any of the tax rebates. We get about 40% back from that from state and federal tax credits, so the actual payback time is around 3.3 years. Which isn't bad for a 20K expenditure.

We're in Honokaa, just down the coast from Waimea. Water runs about $60 every other month so that's an average of $30 per month. But we water gardens and such so that may be higher than yours. Electric was running about $200 - $225 per month but at the time it was running a big electric water heater and we didn't have the solar water heating panels up on the roof yet, either. With the solar electric and solar hot water the electric bill should stay around $20 a month for the connect-to-Helco charge which is less expensive than keeping a battery bank. Hmm, $20 per month x 7 years is $1,680 so maybe it's not less expensive than buying a bank of batteries to run the house on, but it's a lot less hassle so I'm not even gonna suggest an entirely off grid house to my DH.

If it were me, I'd not bother much with wind. Too many moving parts, not reliable enough as well as makes noise.

No trash fees since you take your own rubbish to the transfer station. No sewer fees since there isn't one. Electric, water, propane if you have it and what's left? Not much for house utilities. Propane can either be filled up by the Gas company truck (the easier but more expensive option) or folks take smaller propane tanks to the propane place to get filled up. There's one in Waimea (or Kamuela, depending on how you're feeling that day, I suppose, although most folks I know call it Waimea on a day to day basis) anyway, next to The Fish & The Hog restaurant is a propane fill up place. So far the least expensive one that I know of is at the Pauuilo feed store - Alfalfa, Hay & Cubes. If you're filling up a big tank or several tanks, it might be worth the twenty minute drive to Pauuilo to fill them.

[smarino]

You might want to spend some time perusing this thread below on the internet subject. It's regarding Puna, but I'm it's probably relevant to Waimea too. It also gives you a hint of how "different", ahem, your dealings w/ people and corporations will be once you move in :] As always, be wary of introductory rates and contracts.

This link is from last year, but things don't change very quickly on the B.I. What I found interesting is that you might hear that internet is available, but then find out that it's not. We didn't have these problems in downtown Hilo, but we were honored w/ some interesting customer service, both for internet and phones. We finally went to voip (this was in the early days of voip 12 years ago), and were happy w/ the price and performance. Of course, you need high speed for voip.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/big-i...how-hands.html