It's time for Sunday Favorites hosted by Chari at Happy to Design. Be sure to visit her to find this weeks participants.
Now I know I said I was going to do all my blog parties on my new blog Starshine Chic, but since this is a personal story, and not a decorating story, I thought I would repost it here on the blog I originally wrote it on. Was that too long of a sentence? I originally posted this story on 7/9/08.
OUCH!!! Just received my electric bill from Southern California Edison. I almost fainted! It was $370.84. Keep in mind that this is for electricity only. Nothing else is included such as natural gas (a different company does our gas). Oh, and my bill includes a $50.00 discount because I signed up for their program where they can shut off my air conditioner at any time if there is a power emergency or shortage.
I know it's been hot here in southern California, but I only run my air conditioner on the weekends. I don't run it during the week. We don't even run our pool pump for as long as we are suppose to each day. I'd hate to see what my bill would be if I ran my air conditioning each day & if we ran the pool pump for 8 hours a day.
Maybe it's because we do run fans 24/7 in each room & most rooms have at least 2 fans going. But with the outside temps being between 95-108, we need some sort of relief. Plus we have a ton of electronic equipment that seem to be going all the time.
I know going "green" is the big “in” thing, but how do you get the family to comply? I keep telling them we need to cut back on our electrical & water usage. I'm thinking more about my pocket book than the environment when I say this, but whatever motivates us to change, is a good thing.
I wish I could afford solar panels or a wind turbine. I would love not to pay an electric bill & afford to run my air 24/7 during the summer. I'm so glad we at least have a pool. That is the only way I can afford to stay cool this summer. I get in the pool when I get home from work for about 1/2 hour, when I get out, I live in my swimming suit the rest of the evening so that I stay cooler.
I also wish I could afford gasoline so we could go somewhere for the weekend & let someone else pay for air conditioning, but alas, we are usually stuck at home because we can't afford the gas to go somewhere else.
Life is getting too expensive!! I hate to see what my electric bill will be like for August & September, as they are usually the hottest months here in southern California.
What is your electric bill like during the summer? What is your family doing to conserve energy?
Update 06/27/09: I haven't received my June bill for this year, but bill for May was $280.00 & I have not run the air conditioning at all. We've had a cool June this year, so hopefully my bill won't be as high as last year. But if I get another huge bill this summer, you can bet you will all hear about it. I get a $50.00 credit on my bill for the months of June, July & August for letting the electric company have acccess to turn off my air conditioner if the state issues a power alert (not enough power to go around). Last year was my first year & they never had to turn it off.
Kim
7 comments:
Did you look on your bill to make sure they ACTUALLY CAME OUT AND READ your meter? Once when we first moved in here, my bill was really high like that. I CALLED them and they said they had only taken a meter estimate. I said "Come Read It!!!" My bill has NEVER been that high again.
They may be basing your electricity on an estimate calculated by what those near you are using.
I never look at my electric bill, I make my husband do it. I'm afraid to look, quite honestly. I don't want to die young of a heart attack and I'm sure I would. I just read Keetha's comment and that is truly startling!
How does your bill balance out with the rest of the year? Being in California I presume you don't need to heat your home as much as the rest of us do in the winter months. Bit of a trade off.
Summer time in the Vancouver area isn't as brutally hot as you have but our furnaces are running from October until the end of May. Now that is expensive.
We're pretty conservative... we don't run the AC lower than 77 and we turn it to 79 during the day when we're not home... we don't run fans in rooms that we're not in... Ricky found an article that said fans don't do a thing unless people are in a room to receive the breeze (kinda like the tree falling in the woods). we added a hot tub in February, but we found one that only costs about $10 a month to run (and we've found it only costs about $5 a month). Our electric rarely goes above $200, even in the hottest south Texas months... I think, if I were you, I'd check to see if my utility company would do an assesment of your home and ways you can save energy. In Texas, they will do it for free... Good Luck!
I win!
$738!
We now have a swamp cooler and things are much better.
I would die if I didn't run my AC. It's been 95 and over for at least two weeks with really high humidity. There are probably some parts of the country where I could live without AC, but Alabama isn't one of them.
I paid the bills for our son while he was in school the last 2 years in So Cal. They were pretty reasonable, considering he ran his air all the time and kept it cool. He was in an apt. and you know they aren't that well- insulated. I didn't think they were exorbitant at all compared to moving to northern CA outside of Yosemite. I believe that different areas of the state have different rates. His bills were HORRIBLE there, and he hardly ever used the air. ( I yelled and pleaded w/him!) Last summer's bills were in the $500+ range for July and Aug.)- now that is bad. These bills were more than mine and I have a 4000 sf home and live in high humidity and heat. He has since moved back to OH where we have more reasonable utility rates! I applaud your efforts to conserve! Sue
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