Community Chat

[Mindy D]

It's just past midnight here in S Florida and the humidity is 85% and the temp is 85. The heat index says it feels like 97. That's from Weather Underground. My Apple weather has slight.y different figures. Because it depends on where their monitoring stations are. 

[gardenman]

I don't know if this is happening all through NJ or just in my area, but the electric company went through and rehung all of the electric wires at 40' from the road surface. They cut off the taller poles and replaced any that were too short. It was a multi-month process involving lots of trucks and workers. All of the cross members were replaced. It seemed like a waste of a lot of money for no real benefit. I asked a worker why they were doing it and he shrugged and said he didn't know. They were just told to do it. They've also been replacing all of the old meters with new ones that can be read remotely. A lot of money's been spent doing those projects.

[Snoopp]

It's high but there was another rate increase.  I am using less electric but it doesn't seem to matter, bills are still high.

[ValuSkr]

Remember to shop your electricity and gas supplies, if you can.  We can in PA, and I suppose other states have that option.

[wagirl]

It's only about $120  a month,   when I use the portable a/c. It's electric too. I split it with my DD--we live in a small apartment now. 

[Rockycoast]

Not bad at all considering the heat and humidity we have been having the last few weeks. Unbearable here in Maine. Usually $100-$125, with the hot weather $225 for a 3100 sq. ft home. Worth every penny to keep us cool.

[GoneButNotForgotten]

since we installed solar panels on our roof, our electric bills are less than 50% of what they were previously.

[just bee]

Albuquerque.

Gas bill is $31.32.  Electric bill is over nine times higher.

[Zoe]

1500 sq ft house in the south.

• Electric was $85 last month
• Gas (dryer) was $15 last month -- mostly fees, not usage. We air-dry whatever we possibly can.

Lowest peak summer electricity bill since we've lived here. BUT...we invested in lowering our utility bills:

• new cellular shades throughout
• increased the insulation in our attic -- new insulation standards are almost double what the standards were when our house was built
• installed a solar attic fan with inverter
• invested in new trees for our front yard where most of our sun comes in
• and sadly (for me)...invested in new ceiling fan for the main room (lost that battle after thinking I had won it -- generally don't care for ceiling fans)

This winter, we are replacing our windows with triple-pane (partially due to noise but also for the ~20% bump over double-pane in energy efficiency). We made these choices, because we didn't see a scenario where our utility bills were going to be going down. We intend to stay here for many years to come, so the investment was worth it for us. (ymmv)

[FiddleDeeDee]

@Mindy D Just under $600 for July.

We lost our AC Friday afternoon 8/4. On Sunday evening, it was 91 degrees F in our house. We had 6 ceiling fans going, 2 industrial strength fans going and 2 unit AC's we purchased at Best Buy on Saturday morning and it was still 91 degrees at 11PM Sunday night. Our AC guy texted me at 1 AM to say he could be here around noon Monday. Happy dance!!  We slept in the cars with AC running and would use them to cool down during the day. We just sat, drank cold water, sprayed each other with mist and waited when not at the grocery store, Walmart, or anywhere else that was cold.

As per the AC guy, they were (and have been) working 7 days a week, 24 hours a day due to demand of AC's not working. He was telling me how a 2 story house a few blocks over had hit 100 degrees in the upstairs section. They use wet rags over their mouths so they can breathe when the units are located there and work in shifts so no one passes out/gets sick. Luckily he was able to repair ours with parts they keep on the truck. Took 24 hours for the house to cool back down to 75. Supposed to be even hotter today.

I'd rather freeze to death than roast; I know this now.