Fairbanks Borough utilities cost twice the national average (Wasilla: renting, house)

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Frostnip

Yeah, that's kind of my point: 1700 feet is a ridiculous amount for an average-sized household in this region.

1,700 square get of living space is a small house in you have 2 adults with some kids. For example, a split-level house of this size can have two large bedrooms plus a small playroom, or three very small bedrooms plus a small playroom. The kitchen and living room are part of the living space. But if you are single or live with someone and don't have kids, then you could very well live in a small apartment or even a dry cabin (cheaper)

If you move into a 2-bedroom apartment that's not a dump, you would be paying around $1,300 or more per month. The cost for utilities (fuel, and maybe electricity) are already included in the rent. If you rent a 2-bedroom home, you are still paying around $1,300 per month plus heating fuel and electricity.

That said, most home owners aren't the average single male or female, but parents with children. It means that they need more room than a person who does not have a family.

[RayinAK]

As I mentioned before, the most expensive portion of the cost of living in the interior of Alaska (Fairbanks, Delta Junction, Tok, Valdez, Chitina, Glannallen, and everything in between are heating fuel and gasoline. Since heating fuel is so expensive and it's used to produce electricity and heat our homes, those two add quite a lot to the total cost of living. The next one is gasoline, since one has to drive back and forth for just about every reason one can think of. We just don't have Greyhound buses, subways, nor trains to get from place to place.

Here is the electric bill breakdown for one of my houses (the one I mentioned somewhere above) for June 2012, but keep in mind that I have upgrade this house with insulation to LED lighting all around, plus HE appliances:

KWH used: 617
Total: $149.00
Customer charge: $17.50
Utility charge KWH @ 0.9004: $55.55
Regulatory cost charge 617 KWH @ 0.00049: $0.30
Fuel & purchase power 617 KWH @ 0.12379: $76.38

So, according to the electric company most of the charge ( $76.38 out of $149.00) is passed down to the customer for fuel cost and usage to produce 617 KWH of electricity.
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I also mentioned that some of us don't have much trouble paying for the high cost of living (I make plenty of $), but a lot of people on fixed incomes, or those who work for low wages (or part-time and such) are having quite a hard time to survive. A lot of people, even some in this forum, usually try to find a way to debunk what I am trying to say, but I can back everything I say about the cost of living with factual data. The Fairbanks North Star Borough has all the data at their website, too.

Finally, the only reason why I start threads such as this is to respond to the questions asked by people who are contemplating moving to the interior. I provide the numbers, they decide.

[jdhpa]

Are houses in Anchorage typically able to keep the temperature in winter above 70 degrees, or is it so cold outside that it isn't possible / practical to keep a house that warm? Eg, suppose a limit of $500 / month for heating in a 2000 square foot house.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by jdhpa

Are houses in Anchorage typically able to keep the temperature in winter above 70 degrees, or is it so cold outside that it isn't possible / practical to keep a house that warm? Eg, suppose a limit of $500 / month for heating in a 2000 square foot house.

Very old houses were built with 2" x 4" studs and not very well insulated. But that's not longer the case, specially since the construction codes relating to Northern regions (US and Canada) are being used. Also, natural gas is used in Anchorage, and this product is a lot cheaper than heating fuel. For example, I asked a friend of mine who lives in Anchorage how much he was paying a month for natural gas, and he said that he was paying around $275.00. Back then I was paying around $600.00 a month for heating fuel.

I imagine that natural gas in Anchorage is a little more expensive than four years ago, but I am certain that it is still pretty cheap compared to heating fuel. Natural gas is also used near Anchorage for running power plants, so electricity is cheaper than it's in Fairbanks.

We have an oil refinery in North Pole (a few miles from Fairbanks), and heating fuel as well as diesel fuel (both the same depending on the grade) is a lot more expensive to refine in North Pole because the refineries run on diesel fuel instead of natural gas. Therefore, these products are cheaper in Anchorage than they are in Fairbanks.

[Type O Negative]

Originally Posted by RayinAK

?..That's if they can keep the home's interior around 64 degrees when in bed, and around 67 degrees when awake. Some others pay a lot more that that if they like it warmer inside during the winter.

Yikes....I live in TX and I had to get a blanket tonight while watching the olympic opening because I was cold with the thermostat set to 79.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Type O Negtive

Yikes....I live in TX and I had to get a blanket tonight while watching the olympic opening because I was cold with the thermostat set to 79.

Well, some of us also have wood stoves for winter use in addition to the boiler. Some people burn wood all winter long, and the temperature inside the house can be quite high.

But in reality, in the middle of the winter when you are in bed covered with some blankets plus a down comforter, the house's temperature can be kept around 64 degrees at night since you are quite warm in bed. That's when programmable thermostats are useful since you can set them to regulate the temperature night and day during the week, and then during the weekend.

[AlaskaNana]

Electric and gas here in NCa run $350-400 easily during the winter if I don't control the thermostate carefully. Summer it still runs a couple of hundred. PG&E has outragous rates! My bills in Alaska were never this high.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by AlaskaNana

Electric and gas here in NCa run $350-400 easily during the winter if I don't control the thermostate carefully. Summer it still runs a couple of hundred. PG&E has outragous rates! My bills in Alaska were never this high.

GVEA is doing the same for us in Fairbanks and vicinity. Some of my neighbors are paying up their noses for fuel and electricity. Try replacing all the lighting with LED ones, which are more efficient than CFLs. What I do is to wait until they go on sale, but most times buy them at Lowe's. A LED lightbulb equal to a 40 Watt incandescent bulb in brightness, uses around 8 watts of power. The chandelier over the dining table uses 5 lightbulbs with a dimmer, so I replaced the incandescent lights with LED that can be dimmed and paid $9.00 for each lightbulb. I a computer room/office, I have a ceiling light assembly that uses six 45-Watt halogen mini lights with a dimmer. That's a lot of power being used, so I replaced them with LED lights that use around 13 watts each. You can do the same with the floodlights on the driveway and back porch.

But there is not much you can do about the thermostat if you are cold, other than keeping it low and wearing warm clothing when moving about the home. A wood stove can be quite handy, but pellet stoves do not require walking to the yard to get firewood

[AlaskaNana]

Thnx for the suggestions Ray but already replaced all the bulbs that did bring the bill down a little. Also replaced the old fridge with a new energy efficient one, same on the TVs. I try to control the heat, I like the cold thus the reason I prefer Alaska temps, but Mom complains she's cold so I have to compromise some. When the old girl is turning blue I have to turn the heat up some. Just no getting around the gouging PG&E gets away with. She wants a pellet stove but I figure anything I put into the house like that needs to be able to come north with me in a short while and I am not so sure I want to lug pellets around. My place down on the Kenai Penn is a little remote, well basically there are roads on the map but they don't actually exist, so I will have to tow supplies in. Since it is heavly wooded I plan on using some of those trees for heat. Also surrounded on two sides by forrests and I have heard you can get permits to take wood. Besides I can stand to lose a few pounds hauling that wood in ; ) So for now I just have to bite the bullet and silently curse them every time I pay the bill

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by AlaskaNana

Thnx for the suggestions Ray but already replaced all the bulbs that did bring the bill down a little. Also replaced the old fridge with a new energy efficient one, same on the TVs. I try to control the heat, I like the cold thus the reason I prefer Alaska temps, but Mom complains she's cold so I have to compromise some. When the old girl is turning blue I have to turn the heat up some. Just no getting around the gouging PG&E gets away with. She wants a pellet stove but I figure anything I put into the house like that needs to be able to come north with me in a short while and I am not so sure I want to lug pellets around. My place down on the Kenai Penn is a little remote, well basically there are roads on the map but they don't actually exist, so I will have to tow supplies in. Since it is heavly wooded I plan on using some of those trees for heat. Also surrounded on two sides by forrests and I have heard you can get permits to take wood. Besides I can stand to lose a few pounds hauling that wood in ; ) So for now I just have to bite the bullet and silently curse them every time I pay the bill

In that case a wood stove would be perfect.