Heating and cooling cost (Cary, Apex: houses, utilities, live in)

[Joe S]

We are planning to relocate to the Cary / Apex as soon as we can sell our house in Orlando. Can any one tell me what the monthly heating and air-conditioning cost might be during the peak winter and summer months on a 2000 sq foot unattached house. We will probably keep temperature around 77 degrees all year round. The electric and gas company can only give me an average for the year and not the actual monthly cost. I would like to know for budgeting purposes what I could pay during the peak heating and cooling months for a normal winter and summer. When I called electric and Gas companies the houses with electric heat seem to have a cheaper monthly average than the houses with gas heat. Is this true or does the yearly average just make electric appear cheaper than gas. I would appreciate any feed back anyone can give me pertaining to heating and cooling cost.

Thank you

[NCHomeFinder]

As a Florida transplant myself, with a 3 year old 2100 sq ft house, I'll give you the gist of what we've seen for the last 3 years. Our air conditioning is electric, our heat and hot water is gas, so which one is higher depends upon the time of year.
Summer:
Temp in the house around 78
electric bills can run around the 140s, highest ever 175.
Gas bill during these months around 20, as low as 15.

Winter: Temp in the house around 74 (It's not as bad, because the humidity is lower, so you won't feel as cold. Cold, but not AS cold.)
Gas bill hovers around 150, although one bad February, we hit 200. yikes!
Electric bill still hangs out around 50.
But, being from FL, I don't do cold very well.

We tend to budget for an average between the two of about $200 a month. We've just installed programmable thermostats, so hopefully this will help, too. If you need any other advice as a FL transplant, just pm me!

[leighbhe]

We bought a 2100 square foot house, (new) and we had electric air and gas heat. In the summer, we kept the air at 75, and we were paying about 125 - 155 for the hottest summer months *july and august*, other months it was lower, and during that time our gas bill was around 30 a month. During the winter, we kept the temp at 72 (which was hot for my spouse, but I was home all day....), and our gas was about 150 a month, with the electric being around 50 a month.

Now, we had dual zone, and programmable thermostats, which I highly recommend. We would set the downstairs (no bedrooms) for hotter or colder (depending on time of year) from 9 pm until 6 am, and would adjust our upstairs a few degrees at night. I think it really helps.

Leigh

[billb]

I just had to chime in here, even though I currently live in northern NJ. (I was interested in this thread also so I can budget for a potential move to NC.)

From the "why are people moving out of NJ and down to NC" thought process: I currently live in a 100+ year old Victorian house in NJ (not sure of the square feet), and I currently pay $550-600 per month for gas+electric (gas heat and hot water) on a GOOD month, rising to $900-1100/mo during the winter. Someone PLEASE remind me again why we didn't look into moving sooner? (Actually, we did start looking several years ago; it just took us a while to get to this point. And we're really moving for the change of lifestyle -- saving $4000 -$7000/yr on utilities is just a bonus.)

- Bill

[shaylahc]

We keep our temp at 74 year round, and our average electric in the summer(a/c) is $300 per month, winter gas heat runs about $300 a month as well. If we kept it warmer in the summer & cooler in the winter it would be less. I think the "budget" for each would be roughly $180 per month. Ours is a 2000 sq ft house.

[bjc1981]

1800sq ft - electric only
67 degrees in winter ~ $220/month ~ $300 is the most I ever recall
72 degrees in summer ~ $150/month

These are estimates, my wife actually pays the bills.