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The Electric Bill

Well shame on me for indulging in and enjoying use of my central heater this past month when Florida had a freeze. It's my first winter in my new home so I had no idea how this would play out.

There was a 12 day in a row hard freeze here and the heater ran constantly since the kids were home on winter break and I was working here, too. So the electric bill came. It's almost double what it usually is. $365 for one month. I have a very tiny house... 1200 SF heated. Ridiculous.

I have a fairly old a/c and I'm sure it'd be more efficient if I had better insulation, but investing in all that isn't in my financial plans these lean days.

So, we will wear warmer clothes and keep the thermostat closer to not above 70 degrees. New house rules... and... wait (pausing... looking around) is that hall light on as I look out my room? Why yes it is! I see my talk with the children had little impact. Gotta go turn off lights and give a few reminders to my babies.

In closing, my question is this: What temp do you keep your place at, and is your bill high this month, too?

8 comments:

Brenda said...

i keep the heat at 62 during the day when no one is home. (remember i am in wisconsin) we have a programmable thermostat, so it goes up to 67 around the time we get home. it stays there till bed time where it then goes down to 64 for sleeping. on the weekend it keeps a constant 69 which i usually end up turning down, cause it feels too warm.
my heat and electric was $248 last month.

Jilly said...

my bill is crazy every month one would normally want heat or AC. we don't have forced air, thank god, we have an oil furnace and window AC, so that saves us some money. we set the T-stat at 55-60 and if you're cold, you wear layers and bgrab a blanket or find a pet to cuddle with. I can't imagine setting the heat at 70 or even above. Then again, we're used to very different temperatures from season to season, and you're probably not used to the cold.

i'm a tightwad, i really am. i can't help it, it's how i was raised. my parents kept the t-stat at 50 degrees in the winter and that was that. woebetide the person who touched the dial.

not too soon after we bought our house, the local utilities went though a price hike of anywhere from 60%-80%. many people were unable to pay their utilities or afford heat because of this hike. we have a lrge house and it can be anywhere from $400-$700 to heat, if one isn't careful to watch the dial on the t-stat.

right now i have on flannel PJ pants, a matching top, a fleece bed jacket, and two pairs of socks. Within arm's reach i have several trhow blankets, slippers in case i need to get up, hot tea to drink and two cats that are always open to a good cuddle in my lap. that's how i deal with the winter cold, and it usualyl works barring it gets too much below 0 out or we get a wind storm. If it's below 0 or there's a wind storm, i give in and the heat goes up and the oven goes on. Baking is a great way to heat your house.

If it's every REALY COLD, you should think of getting the plastic that you use the hair dryer on and put it over the windows, it's a great way to keep the cold out and it's rather affordable. the local utility company give it away for free here every fall.

jilly

mavis sidebottom said...

Im dreading my gas bill in march, I keep my heating on at about 15c ands its only on for two hours in the morning and four in the evening but I know its going to put up my monthly payments to about 150 a month :(

Julie said...

I'm cheap with the heat- 4 bedroom cape and only me and a 5 pound dog living here. I was so cheap this past year, I ended up overpaying $1,000 on the monthly budget plan so I am indulging a bit this winter. I normally keep the house at 68 to 70 degrees (when not being a cheap ass).

Rosary said...

Levelized billing is a wonderful thing.

We keep our house at 72 (which is too hot for me, but everyone else complains that 70 is too cold).

doreenmary said...

Thank you for these posts. The responses are truly enlightening! What a glutton we have been.... I put the thermostat at 72 at night. My ex used to keep it at 68 and I was always cold. I absolutely can't imagine the 55-62 range.

What about in the summer time? Here, I find the a/c comfortable at 78 degrees. 80 is far too hot. In office buildings, they set them around 72-74 degrees, which is too cold.

Jilly said...

we keep the window units on only when we're home and only in the rooms we're actually in. The window unit is set to maybe 75 ish but i like to sleep with a fan on, i can't sleep without white noise, and so if the fan is facing us in the summer, we don't need the window ac set that low or even on at all, depending on the heat outside. it doesn't get as hot here as it does where you live, but at times, we get 104 tems with humidity, and it's too horrible to do anything in. i grew up without ac of any kind, and so i really appreciate having it. unlike modern homes, our house has many windows on all sides to allow for cross ventilation, but it's not really safe to unlock them all and open them up. many people in our city have bars on their windows. we haven't gone that far, but i'm sure we'd get bars if someone did break in.

jilly

Anonymous said...

65 and our electric bill was about $100 this month.

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