Electric bill under budget… whew!
The past two weeks have been seriously sweltering hot and our house has very little natural shade. When it is less than 82 degrees out and not unbearable humidity we try to keep the windows open and use that and our fans to keep things cool. But for the past 2 weeks it has been so hot (topping 90 degrees almost every day) and just stagnant, non-moving humid air outside that we’ve had the air conditioner on almost nonstop. We keep the air conditioner set on 79 degrees (yuck) but still for the past few weeks it seems it has been running almost continuously.
I have had serious doubts that we would be staying within our electric budget when it came time to pay bills this month. However, it turns out we happened upon a bit of fortuitous luck this billing cycle. The electric company usually reads our meter on the 5th of each month. I have been checking our meter every day and watching it creep ever so quickly upwards. By the 5th I estimated our bill would be somewhere in the $130s and since the 5th was a Sunday, I figured the meter would actually be read on the 6th, by which we had jumped into the $140 range. I only budget $150 for electric and natural gas combined (natural gas was about $20 last month and probably will be similar this month) so I was becoming a little depressed about going over budget.
I got the bill yesterday, and they read the meter on the 3rd (Friday)! And the bill was only ~$107! Two things played into this — one, reading it on the 3rd, and early morning on the 3rd by the number on my bill, gave them a lower usage # than I was expecting and two, I overestimated the cost per KWH a little bit in estimating our bill.
As long as the natural gas bill holds no surprises (and since I read that meter and our usage has been basically negligible I think it is safe to assume it won’t be very high) we should be under budget again this month for our electric and natural gas utilities. Yippee!
I hope I can say the same for September’s bills. Heat wave…. please break and give us some cooler weather and maybe a breeze. Is a breeze so much to ask for?
~J
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September 6th, 2007 at 12:54 am
Wow….how do you get a $107 bill for 1400 kwh? My 1550 bill (for a 1650 s/f house in SE Louisiana) ran almost $200. What part of the country are you in?
Just a little tip: I lived for years in New Orleans with no (yeah, NO!) a/c, and managed to survive. We used to use “New Orleans air-conditioning,” a bowl of ice with a fan blowing across it. Only works if you’re sitting still, but surprisingly, it can make you feel pretty good. Also, if you have your windows open, try positive pressure: one fan in a window at one end of the house blowing in; the other fan at the opposite end of the house blowing out. It creats a nice draft. I do admit to sleeping on the floor a few times back then, though, and I lived in a raised-up cottage. Surprisingly, though, with those little tricks, only August was truly unbearable, and then I spent a lot of time sitting on the river with my books. Always a good breeze there.
Good luck with the electric bill; August has been a killer here, and I’m dreading the next bill in a couple of weeks. Last month’s was “only” $178, because we had a few cool rainy days, but the month before was over $200, in an all electric house.
But fall is coming! Good luck!
September 6th, 2007 at 7:53 am
I live in the midwest, land of the cheap. lol
Thanks for the tips! I’d never of thought of the positive pressure one at all. Good luck with your electric bill!