What Was Your Worst Electic Bill-Older Masonry Home (Phoenix, Tucson: 2015, assessors)

[borregokid]

I am not in Tucson that much in the Summer at this time so no need to replace the AC yet. I project though an electric bill of about $250-$300 per month for the four hottest months. The house is 1750 square feet with a three ton 1999 Goodman combo which is probably 10 seer. I like the temp set at 74. The house is 1970 with 6 inches of insulation in the ceiling and of course nothing in the walls.

Curious if anyone has changed out a 10 Seer for a 15 or 16 Seer and what the savings were. By the way 15 Seer starting in 2015 will be the new standard for replacement or new units.

[borregokid]

Tucson Electric Power has a nice website that allows you to make a comparison of your usage to your neighbors and neighbors being people with similar sized houses of the same age. They already have information from the assessors office on the size of house and age. Once you input different data on windows, ac, furnace, etc they come up with an average cost. For June, July, and August a power bill in the $250-$300 range would be normal for a house my size. For newer energy efficient houses, those built with 2x6 studs with stucco and 18 inches of insulation in the ceiling the cooling costs would be quite a bit less. I will eventually have an efficiency check run on the AC to see if it is operating at a 10 Seer level or less.

[Bummer]

Interesting, Borregokid . . . your situation is very similar to mine.

Up until May of this year, I was running a 15 year old, 5 Ton Amana Heat Pump rated at 11 SEER. With just a little research at Home Shows as well as on the internet, I learned that most A/C Units start losing about a SEER a year after the first few years. Even with the most positive calculations, I figure my old unit was chugging along at about 5 SEER, give or take a few.

I decided to upgrade with a 14.5 SEER unit and the drop in power consumption has been amazing. June was the first full month with the new unit and my total TEP bill dropped from $132 to $72. The July figures were about the same.

Roughly calculating my usual "non A/C" usage has remained about the same, the new Heat Pump is using about ONE THIRD of the energy compared to the older one.

Hopefully, this mega-savings will continue for at least a few years.

[Pink Jazz]

Note that a large portion of homes this age still have swamp coolers instead of air conditioners. In fact, from what I heard, even throughout the 1990s the majority of Tucson area homes still had swamp coolers, and it wasn't until 2004 when air conditioners overtook swamp coolers in the Tucson area in terms of number of homes installed.

Fact is, Tucson area homes hung onto swamp coolers for much longer than the Phoenix area did. And humidity isn't the only reason, since average humidity in the Phoenix area is lower than the Tucson area.

[tnc924]

I'm not sure if they are still running the program, but TEP partnered with an energy efficiency company a year or so ago to bring rebates to customers. I believe it cost $99 for an energy assessment. After testing the auditor would tell you what you could do in order to make your home more efficient and lower your energy bills. Russett is still doing this (from what I've seen on benches at bus stops).

[regulusgeek]

Originally Posted by Bummer

Hopefully, this mega-savings will continue for at least a few years.

So when will the cost savings exceed the price of the new unit?

[Bummer]

Originally Posted by regulusgeek

So when will the cost savings exceed the price of the new unit?

IF I'M LUCKY, Regulusgeek . . . probably about the time I need another Heat Pump.

! ! ! ! ! !

[borregokid]

Originally Posted by regulusgeek

So when will the cost savings exceed the price of the new unit?

If you are running an older 10 seer unit that is now running as an 8 seer unit your cooling costs will be cut in half with a 16 seer unit. A combo pack on the roof with increased gas efficiency will also help a little. Payback could be as long as 10 years but if the unit is less than 8 seer it could be sooner. One of the advantages of upgrading would be if your existing 3 ton unit is struggling to keep the house cool at say 110 degrees a 4 ton two stage unit might easily do the job while saving money. In this case you aren't as much concerned with the payback as staying comfortable.

The cost to bring an older stucco-masonry home up to current TEP energy standard could be as much as $100,000 with new walls and new roof. I saw a video of one done in Sam Hughes that was more than that. There isn't any payback.