posted on July 22, 2006 02:54:39 PM new
are killing what the heat wave does not. I am going into cardiac arrest as I type. Just got my electric bill today was $314.00. Anyone else get theirs and care to share their cost. I am in Texas and they went up last fall and this is ridiculously high for my circumstances involving electric use and etc. I don't even have a swimming pool anymore. Geezzzzzzzz. OH OH OH OH This does NOT even cover the super hot period, next month I may croak for sure.
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If we are what we eat,
then I'm easy, fast,
and cheap!
[ edited by irked on Jul 22, 2006 02:55 PM ]
posted on July 22, 2006 04:04:23 PM new
I am in Texas too,my last month bill was $85 ,I expect this month to be slightly higher.
I have ceiling fans and I set my theromotstat to 78 degree and where I sit now,I have a 9.99 Walgreen small desktop fan keeping me cool.
I dont have a swimming pool!
posted on July 22, 2006 09:43:29 PM new
I have ceiling fans too and keep mine set on about 78 there abouts all the time. Sometimes I even turn it up higher. SO how do you get such a cheap bill? Did you remember to turn the air conditioner to the on position? I didn't even have that cheap of electric in the winter and I have gas in the central unit not all electric.
You must have a very special air conditioner. Mine is about 5 years old and enrgy effecient but still sucks to be me.
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posted on July 23, 2006 07:16:44 AM new
My apology,my last month electric bill is 121 dollars.
I do have the air /fan/off turned to air ,my house is 4 years old.
My gas bill this month is 14 dollars and I have a gas stove and a gas dryer.
(The problem with turning the thermostat higher than 78 degrees is too much moisture.)
[ edited by hwahwa on Jul 23, 2006 07:19 AM ]
posted on July 24, 2006 03:23:00 PM new
Just got my electric bill from 6/13 to 7/13/2006.
978 kwh used for 30 days,$144.21
I just switched to a new company called Direct Energy .
(3 bedrooms,2 bath,2 car attached garage ,1600 sq ft one storey house),thermostat set at 78 degree.
posted on July 24, 2006 04:49:35 PM new
I just looked closer at my bill I used 2043 KW and is $313.13. Darn don't know where all that kilowatts are going. guess I better go around looking. Of course I have 2 refrigerators running, a huge freezer, central air and at least one TV on most of time. 2 PCs are usually on most of time. I have a feeling that one refrigerator that is outdoors on my Patio is one causing the severe hike. May have to stop that one it just holds drinks.
We use TU Electric here in Texas I have thought of changing to Reliant but have been with TU for over 40 years. OH well guess I should just let it be with them. But after that rate hike last Oct or Novmber nothing has been the same with the bills.
Another bill I am going to hate to see is the water bill mrs irked is watering so much I may have to hock the family jewels to pay them. LOL
t could be worse is Queens still out of electric and in the blackout of over 80,000 people? I feel for them.
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posted on July 24, 2006 06:20:03 PM new
look at your electric appliances,if they are plugged in,they are drawing electricity.
Reliant is not that cheap.
posted on July 24, 2006 07:23:50 PM new
sure would be a pain if I unplugged every thing electric except things can't do realistically. I know VCR. DVD, and anything with remote or a tiny light in it takes up lots more than we think.
I am betting it is the outside refrigerator that is doing a lot of it it is working overtime out there. I put it out there about well month to 5 weeks ago when we got a new side-by-side for kitchen. I would move it indoors if I had a place to put it. LOL maybe by my side of bed. hehehe. Or better still right beside my PC desk, then I would not have to get up to get a drink.
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posted on July 25, 2006 12:22:11 AM new
I too have a 1600 sq ft house....with what's called a CHP [centeral heat pump]...it's electric and runs all the time... in winter and summer. My bill is running right around $150.00 a month during the summer. BUT I keep my thermostat on 68. I'm warm blooded and like it cooler. Sometimes I put it down to 65 then I'm REAL comfortable. lol And I have ceiling fans on in all rooms of the house.
Speaking about all rooms....IF there are a couple of rooms you rarely go into during the day....then close the vents in those rooms. They won't close so tightly that NO air gets in there...but it will direct the available cooled air more into the rooms you are in. Thus cooling them quicker.
So when outside temps have been around 100-114 for most of the past month....that's well worth the cost to me.
Yes, that ouside fridge would be drawing a ton of electricity. Can't you put it in the garage IF you must keep it? And if your freezer is more than five years old...it too would most likely be drawing lots of power.
Also...if anyone in your house is going in and out often - or leaving the door open while visiting with someone....that's letting a lot of the cool air out.
If you have a fireplace....besure the damper is CLOSED. Just like in winter when it lets the heat out...in the summer it does the same to the cool air.
In the morning, when the sun is coming in all windows on the front of my house....I close the wooden blinds. Then in the afternoon....usually about 1:30 - 2:00 PM....I open those and shut the ones on the whole back of the house. I KNOW that keeps the house much cooler...that hot sun beating in will heat things up REAL quick.
Something else I'd recommend to anyone trying to save energy...is to contact your electric company and ask them to send you a list of which household appliance use how much energy. They usually will....and then you'll see how MUCH some appliances use...and what a tiny, tiny bit others do. We were surprised when we first took a look at that list...years ago.
Another trick to saving energy is to bathe together. Besides saving on heating the water....it distracts you from realizing just how hot it is. lol lol
posted on July 25, 2006 12:38:57 PM new
Irked - I was just talking to my mom down in Texas and her power bills are the same as yours. They found the design flaw in the ouse... 30ft vaulted ceiling in the great room and kitchen. They have ceiling fans in there but you can drop them down so far before they swing.
About the only thing she can do to keep their bills down to a reasonable level was to tell the step there will be no firing of the kiln until October.
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People put their hand on the bible, and swear to uphold the constitution. They do not put their hand on the constitution, and swear to uphold the bible.
posted on July 25, 2006 12:42:44 PM new
Those 30 ft. ceilings will have an added bonus this winter fenix, all the warm air will go up there.
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Now We Know... Uninformed People Elect Uninformed Presidents
posted on July 25, 2006 12:57:16 PM new
Guess I oughta chip in here too. We have two electric meters. One for the house and one for the rest of the place as it makes it easier to keep the ranch books straight. We use about 75 dollars a month in electric and about 30 I guess for propane in the house. Hard to judge the propane because our tank only gets filled twice a year. Hot water and heat is propane as well as the kitchen range. It stays like that pretty much year round. We have good whole house gas heat but don't use it much. There are 4 fireplaces in the house and a woodstove, so we do a lot of heating with wood. Doesn't get real cold anyhow. We also keep rooms shut off when not in use summer and winter. The cooling is evaporative, but it only runs a few hours a day. Even if it's 112 outside like today, the interior of the house won't get over 80 or so, even without the cooler.
My office is another matter. I put air conditioning in there as it's in a framed addition to the barn and it gets pretty miserable in there. That thing eats electricity like crazy but I can deduct it, along with the cost of the walk-in freezer and cooler.
____________________________________________
Now We Know... Uninformed People Elect Uninformed Presidents
posted on July 25, 2006 03:20:16 PM new
I am not sure it is the refrigerator all on its own but my house is very well insulated so know I am not loosing there. I may need to get the central unit serviced to make sure it is running like it should it is not old and is supposed to be energy effecient. My Mother-in-law has a heat pump out in Carlsbad NM just as hot there like here but her bill never gets above 120$ or there abouts and most times it is in the 70-80$ range. I think heat pumps are the way to go but I don't have one so guess I will go block off air vent again and another thing I need to do is get a new thermostat I know mine has never worked completely right. Guess I will have to sell mor on feebay to make up for the increase. LOL Advertise it is heatwave auction. Help me stay in business Please! LOL
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posted on July 25, 2006 06:48:38 PM new
If you are in your office sitting in one place long enough,get a fan to blow right at you,my 9.99 Walgreen special does the job well!
Also in Texas,after it rains,the temperature just drops and it has been raining a lot lately.
posted on July 25, 2006 09:49:23 PM new
My last months Electric bill was $49.00 It has not been real hot only a few days here in Kentucky. I use all florescent bulbs and keep my thermostat at 78.
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Two men sit behind bars,one sees mud the other sees stars.
posted on July 26, 2006 04:48:58 PM new
Ten of us share the same extension cord, but yes we do have electric in Kentucky.
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Two men sit behind bars,one sees mud the other sees stars.
posted on July 26, 2006 06:22:42 PM new
mah.....ROFLMAO! And here I was going to make a crack about the electricity being a by-product of the corn squeezins'.
We have tried not to use the A/C unless we are darn near miserable. Our bill was around $50. However, maybe our big usage will be on the next bill.....
posted on July 27, 2006 10:55:27 AM new
LMAO Kentucky electric, I may wish I was on your extension cord next month. I heard on news this AM that Texas has highest electric rates of the whole US figures. But thank goodness hopefully we won't be like out in California with outages all over due to heatwave. Seems Texas has their own grid or what ever they call it and does not hopefully need to get from out of state. OH another thing they said when they said our rates were highest in nation is that thankfully there are more than one electric service in Texas making it a choice on service so making it more competitive-ha ha. More competitive for who, they all charge about same thing from what I have seen. Jerks. LOL
hwahwa, we haven't seen any rain since the first week in June. Do ya think you can change the wind direction and get the rain to come up here neat the Oklahoma border right in mid area of Texas? I see today it is out east near the Arkansas border but no cigar here. Darn!
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Well, aren't we a ray of sunshine.
[ edited by irked on Jul 27, 2006 11:00 AM ]
posted on July 28, 2006 06:00:13 PM new
I will talk to Moses tonight and see what he can do for you.
I dont think we have the highest rate!I think the east coast does.
posted on July 28, 2006 09:39:28 PM new
Solar!! If you can swing the initial investment and plan to be in the house at least 15 more years.
We lived in Vegas for 20 years and hated the noise of air conditioners everywhere in the neighborhood, day and night. When we moved to Northern Utah, we decided not to put air conditioning in the house, which was brick. There were perhaps 2 weeks each summer when we were uncomfortable but used fans in the rooms we were in a lot.
Now in the So. Calif. mountains, we've had hot muggy weather (well, 90s and very humid) for 3 weeks. We've used fans in some rooms, and we turn on the furnace fan to keep air circulating in the house. In Utah and now here, we've learned the lessons of opening west-facing windows and doors in the morning, with the east windows closed with wooden shutters, and then reversing in the evening. Takes a little vigilance, but you can trap a lot of cooler air in your house that way.
HOWEVER, if we still lived in Vegas (yikes), we'd have air conditioning, you can bet.
Growing up in Phoenix, we had only swamp coolers which were not so great. EAch summer day my brother and I would walk one direction to the nearest public swimming pool, the other direction the next day to the big air-conditioned Phoenix Public Library. In each of those places, we'd spend most of the day.
And just WHAT did the pioneers in the Arizona desert do, the women with all those long layers of dresses!! And the men in vests!
posted on July 29, 2006 02:21:50 PM new
And choked on the thorns. I believe it is a matter of what your are use to. they never nad airconditioning so their bodies were climatated or use to it. But if they had kept records better back then I bet we would have seen many heat related deaths in the books. No wonder they didn't live all that long back then. When I was a kid I never noticed the heat and stayed outdoors all the time. Now I work a lot in the heat but sure am glad to come home to the nice cool home. Mrs. Irked can't stand too much heat anymore but does like the outdoors in summer. She likes to water the yard by hand and is always spraying herself off with the hose. She is the local drowned rat in the neighborhood. Lolbut a cute one.
posted on July 29, 2006 02:54:45 PM new
It was common up until the 1940's in southern Arizona for men who could afford it to send their women and babies to the northern part of the state for the summer, men and boys staying home to run the ranch or mind the store or whatever. My mother and her sisters used to drive 3 days to get to Payson, camping along the way as most of the roads were dirt. They stayed July and August at a ranch belonging to friends. Two of my older uncles would go with them, taking turns riding and dragging two horses, which they would then ride back south after depositing the wimmin folks in cooler climes. Payson is now about a 5 hour drive from here. My grandmother never would leave the ranch. There are a number of communities in the northern half of the state that began as summer camps for suffering Phoenecians and Tucsonians. At home, homes had sleeping porches. Enclosed by screens to keep the bugs out, people rigged up ways to hang wet sheets inside the screens to act as a primitive evaporative cooling system. Our bunkhouse still has the sleeping porch on it, and when we have lots of people here it still gets used.
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Grow your own Dope. Plant a Republican.
posted on July 29, 2006 02:57:19 PM new
Oh, and by the way, in a drought and heatwave, there are no "succulent cactus leaves". The cacti lose moisture just like everything else. Might be enough to keep you alive if you were lost, but they're so bitter you wouldn't want to suck on one unless your life was in jeopardy. That's a myth that refuses to die.
____________________________________________
Grow your own Dope. Plant a Republican.
posted on July 29, 2006 08:19:16 PM new
Prof, I'm guessing you're in or near Tucson? When my dad retired in Phoenix, they moved to Pine (near Payson), where they spent their last days. Very pretty country, the Mogollon Rim.
In Northern Utah, we lived in Ogden from 1981 - 2001, and Ogden Canyon, just a couple of miles out of town, was the oasis women and children moved to in the hot summers, mostly with tents! A river runs through it, and because of the breezes that blow through, from higher elevations, it was/is cooler in the summers. We ourselves had a little cabin on the river, and I can attest to the cooler temps.
Geezzzzzzzz. OH OH OH OH This does NOT even cover the super hot period, next month I may croak for sure.
If we are what we eat,
[/IMG] 
Besides saving on heating the water....it distracts you from realizing just how hot it is. lol lol 
but a cute one.