Water and electricity average monthly bill (how much, contractor, live)

[tamcim72]

A lot has to do with the age of the home and appliances for efficiency, We have FPL in a new 2400/under air home in St Johns County, we are averaging $200 summer and $120 winter with water only 35/month (sprinklers are off lake). The FPL survey is informative. We had 8 ceiling fans run all the time at $5/each thats $40 just in fans. Now we turn on only while in use. The fridge in garage, which I have to have, runs atleast $20 extra. We have a lot of high hat lights (mounted in the ceiling) and they are very hot, we put dimmers to help. Flourescent lights have come a long way, I use them in garage, utility, outside, etc. still not good for bathroom vanity though. When we first moved in we had problems with afternoon heat on the west side of house. I installed dark wood blinds, awnings, and screen enclosure and it has helped a lot. Now if those trees would just grow so we could get some shade.

[FLPL75]

your welcome titaniummd
as a matter of fact I just got the new ele bill
The total was $165.38 the break down is
$128.56 ele (1358) kwh last month we used 1793
$19.18 sewer
17.64 water
we were away for 2 weeks so thats why the ele was less.
I swear the water never changes makes me wonder if they have a min.
yeah the ele companies love doing the energy audits so call and see whats available

tamcim72 we also have those high ceiling lights thanks for the tip on the dimmer do I need 7 lights burning bright in the kitchen !!! lol maybe hubby would miss the "food mistakes" if it wasn't so bright in there

Hopefully it will cool down in the next couple weeks and the A/C won't be running all day
I am looking forward tot he nice breeze blowing in the windows
lol one can hope

[mlm22]

Mariela and violafarfalla, my husband and I are also moving to JAX from Puerto Rico! We are in Aguadilla and will be moving in June. We are moving to the San Marco area.

Violafarfalla--I have visited Jacksonville twice and it is large and very spread out. It all depends on where you or your husband will be working and what type of neighborhood you are looking for. Many people I know move to the Oakleaf subdivision area, as they have kids and like the schools out there. We do not have kids and wanted to be closer to downtown. Good luck with your move.

[jambo101]

As the topic is 5+ years old it might be interesting to compare how prices have changed over the last 5 years.I think the last 2 posters hit the wrong topic title..

[fatmama69]

Don't waste your time with he's. Sending an auditor out is a joke and a waste of our tax dollars. He's has basic standard rate depending on size..across the board..then they tack on actual usage. You have really no control of your bill. They divide the entire monthly usage and distribute among jax. They bill according to average usage. Clay counting..enjoy your 5 buck refund.. taken off next bill.

[LilMikey]

We just got a $600 water bill. Apparently we somehow used 93000 gallons of reclaimed water last month running our sprinklers 30 minutes twice a week. Obviously there's something wrong. We found a cracked sprinkler head but nothing that would cause that. They're coming out Friday to inspect. Apparently once fixed we can submit a repair report and potentially get some sort of refund however I'm not holding my breath.

[mawipafl]

Originally Posted by LilMikey

We just got a $600 water bill. Apparently we somehow used 93000 gallons of reclaimed water last month running our sprinklers 30 minutes twice a week. Obviously there's something wrong. We found a cracked sprinkler head but nothing that would cause that. They're coming out Friday to inspect. Apparently once fixed we can submit a repair report and potentially get some sort of refund however I'm not holding my breath.

Ouch LilMikey!!!

You may not have to hold your breath. I do know someone who had a leaking irrigation pipe and got a giant water bill, had it repaired, made a request to Clay County Utility Authority, and did get a decent refund. From what I understand CCUA looked at the historical use and based the refund on that.

It was hard to find the leak because it was underground in a pipe near one of the sprinkler heads. It was only by chance that they noticed that a 3'x3' area of grass seemed to be taller and greener all the time compared to the rest of the lawn. Dug down and found the PVC pipe was split (how it split they could not figure out at all).

[lspinkrose]

We are a family of four. We just moved from South Florida to St. Johns. We used to pay no more than $65 monthly for water. Our first full water bill here was for $169!!!!! Is this normal in St. Johns? I'm shocked... and annoyed.

[SaintCabbage]

Obviously depends on your usage, but what does that include, irrigation as well? How many gallons did you use?

[mawipafl]

I agree with SaintCabbage ... to compare apples to apples look at the monthly gallonage in your south FL home and the gallonage used in St. Johns and see if they're nearly the same (household and irrigation). If they're the same, then look at the rate and see if St. John's is vastly higher. Plus if it was your first bill, are there connection fees or one-time new customer fees (such as a deposit)? As well, since it's your first bill, it may include more days than normal if your turn-on occurred during the last billing cycle and it was combined into the current billing cycle, so check the number of days. It's hard to compare bottom lines when there are so many variables. Try to calculate the daily usage in both south FL and St. Johns, and if you've been billed as using an abnormal amount of gallons, maybe there's a leak.