Cooling Costs in CV? (Indio, Palm Desert: condo, house, buying)

[90077]

Hello All,

Considering buying somewhere in the Coachella Valley, probably in PS, CC or RM. Have visited but never lived there; though well aware that your summer temps get a bit toasty.

Interested to know from those of you who live there what your cooling costs are. Home square footage and whether you live in a freestanding SFR, attached condo or doublewide - and in which city. TIA.

[Curious.In.California]

I lived in a single family home in the Indian Springs Country Club in Indio (located on the north La Quinta/Indio borderline off of Jefferson and Miles). We had a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 1898 sq. ft. home with vaulted ceilings. Our summer bills would be about $200-$300 ... depending on how cool we kept it.

[90077]

Originally Posted by Curious.In.California

I lived in a single family home in the Indian Springs Country Club in Indio (located on the north La Quinta/Indio borderline off of Jefferson and Miles). We had a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 1898 sq. ft. home with vaulted ceilings. Our summer bills would be about $200-$300 ... depending on how cool we kept it.

Thanks for your input. That seems fairly reasonable for recent service - guessing your supplier was IID and not SCE.

[Curious.In.California]

Originally Posted by 90077

Thanks for your input. That seems fairly reasonable for recent service - guessing your supplier was IID and not SCE.

Yeah, we had IID.

Before moving to that home though, we lived in a 2 bed, 2 bath, 1410 sq. ft. condo in Palm Desert. It was smaller than our 3 bedroom home in west Indio but our a/c bills were a lot more. Granted, the PD condo was SCE but I really don't fully blame SCE for the higher expenses, I think it was a combination of a few things:

1) The PD condo was older, the a/c unit was older and just could not keep up with the heat.
2) We got the afternoon sun. We had huge windows and a sliding back door that just got slammed with that afternoon sun. We never opened the blinds during the summer months...our place was like a dark cave during the summer because we did everything we could to block out the sun to keep it cool. We were pretty miserable in that condo.

Once we moved to the newer home in west Indio, we were much more comfortable, bills were lower (even with our home being bigger) and we were in a nicer country club...it was like night and day.

[Ride4Fun]

I'm in a 1,700 sq ft house in Palm Desert. It's older, built in the 80s. I had to change the AC unit in 2016 so I went with a 14 SEER unit.

SCE has the service. My summer bills (June-Sept) run just under $200/ month and my winter bills run under $40/month.

[90077]

Originally Posted by Ride4Fun

I'm in a 1,700 sq ft house in Palm Desert. It's older, built in the 80s. I had to change the AC unit in 2016 so I went with a 14 SEER unit.

SCE has the service. My summer bills (June-Sept) run just under $200/ month and my winter bills run under $40/month.

Surprising low summer electric bills. Thermostat set high? Do you also use a swamp cooler?