timmahh

So we had that nice heatwave.. which is starting again.. how much was your electric bill? I have PG&E so they bill 6/19 to 7/19..

Mine is an outrageous $622.. Fucking insane.

(Now accepting donations!)

jupitersolo

Send them an IOU, tell them you got it from them State to help pay.

Will Y.

You live in the [hot-as-heck] Delta region.
FWIW, our last electrical bill was less than $150-- for 2 months (LADWP)-- but I live just a couple of miles from the ocean. We haven't turned on our central A/C (that we really don't need) in the past three months.

invisiblewar

how big is your house!?

hdcolumbus

I'm in Ohio and if ours is less than $900 a month, I smile.

thunder04

iTrader: (1)

That's what I'm wondering. My parents have a 2000 sq ft. home built in 1996 in central California with the original HVAC system and their bill has never been more than $300 for a given month.

More details to your situation may help gauge why your bill is so high.

SwervinCL

Mine is usually running about 240.00... 2400 sq.ft.

timmahh

2276 sq feet.. 2 story w/ split zone [up/down] cooling.. the house 4 years old

Last month was 380 which is pretty normal, we have computers n such running all the time so that wasn't bad.. We actually unplugged the hottub as well to save since we aren't using it during the backyard work.. and it went up! I think my a/c isn't sized correctly for the heat our house absorbs from being in the sun all day w/o shade anywhere

Anhedonia

my parents house during the summer months is lucky if they drop below 800$ most of the time its close to 1k may through august.

timmahh

Thermostats are set to 80 from 6 AM until 4:30 PM when they change to 77; at night downstairs is off and upstairs gets dropped to 72 - 73; if it's cool enough at night they're both off and I put a fan in the window

Had the system checked - everything looks ok but it's just not able to cool down a house that size w/ the amount of sun exposure we get. One thing I will try is changing my filters - I use Filtrete 1800s and apparently most pro HVAC guys hate them because of their air flow resistance, creates pressure issues that can cause equipment failure and efficiency issues so i'll be going the recommended mid-grade filter route

Moog-Type-S

Dude turn off a light every now and then!!!!

invisiblewar

also, an ac turning on and off daily may be contributing. but if you think the ac unit may not be able to handle the house, invest in a new one..

timmahh

^^^ I think it's more of the builder said "this is good enough for the size" and used the same unit in every system, not performing the calculations that I think are required for Title 24 compliance.. !

stogie1020

I live in AZ and my HIGHEST bill in the summer for a 2000sq ft single story house is around $240...

Then again, I do live within 100 miles or so of the largest nuclear reactor in the US...

Gfaze

We freak out if the bill gets to $100!! This month's bill came out to $94. This is with 5 people, TV in all 3 bedrooms, one in the living room, two pc's and 2 laptops (not running all at once or all the time though, maybe 2 at a time), central A/C, 2 refrigerators. It's a 1200 sq foot, one story home though. Looks like yours is a 2 story house, now I remember why I didn't buy a 2 story house. Yikes!

thunder04

iTrader: (1)

In the evening, I open all of the doors and windows (except doors that don't have screens, of course) so the house can cool down. Before I go to bed, I close and lock the front door and front windows. In the morning, when the outside temperature is the same as the inside temperature (I have one of them cheapy 'Discovery Channel' weather station thingies), I close the house up. I managed to go through almost half the day before the A/C kicked in, and my thermostat is set to 78 degrees.

I'm hoping that my 1400 sq. ft. home's PG&E bill isn't more than $200-$250 during the hotter parts of the month. We shall see!

1StGenCL

Jesus, how do you afford that? My place is around 1000 sq ft and one story, air at 72 up to 75 during the day and my bill was.......$46 this month. Don't ask me how it is so low because it doesn't seem right but I don't care. It was $36 when the air was at 77 all day and I was trying to conserve but now I don't care. I swear I can freeze the place and leave the balcony door open for my dog and the bill barely budges.

I do live in a high rise condo so maybe I just pay for an air handler since i don't have a unit Old place was a 1250 sq ft loft and my bill was around 100

AznX TL

jebus, you guys are getting raped.....my parents are paying less than $200 a month for 3800sq ft central air and its on like 24/7.....

NetEditor

I have the balanced-payment plan, so I have no idea what my month-to-month usage is.

thunder04

iTrader: (1)

I've thought about trying that.

timmahh

Oh i'm on the BPP now because there's no way I can afford to shell out $600 for this shit!

My actual kw/H usage is 2,095.

That's what sucks about the way they do things; CPUC determines a baseline amount - "the avg. Californian will use this much this month", July was 500kwH. From there it goes up.. The last 500 of our kwH were billed at almost 50 cents each!

HONgDA

iTrader: (1)

Hang out at a mall or some place with air conditioning.

SuperTrooper169

iTrader: (2)

Please explain. Is it the one that's on the way to Cali?

gatrhumpy

iTrader: (1)

Holy crap.

pmptx

3800 sqft 3 zones and the past 3 weeks have been 100+ in Dallas.
My bill on a 3 yo house $345.

OP, spray a radiant barrier in your attic. I did it myself and it made a huge difference.

PM me if you want details.

GIBSON6594

I'm pissed if my bill is over $40. But I live in a little one bedroom apt and am not home too often. Possibly the only financial advantage to living in NY, no one can afford a place big enough to rack up a large electric bill

dallison

The bill i received at the end of june was around $140. But we keep the temp at 71 during the day and 69 at night. Since electricity is pretty cheap here, i would rather be comfortable.

I would suspect that our next bill will be $180 or so.

thunder04

iTrader: (1)

I guess they factor in dead Californians? When I lived in San Jose, with two of us living in a teeny duplex, we'd always go over the baseline and my PG&E bills were usually around $60-$70 a month. Other than having 1 computer running 24/7, I think we're pretty good at conserving energy so I don't think we used more than the "average" person, but yet we always had a little bit in the next tier.

csmeance

got a bill for around 200 this month, 4000 sqft house with 2 air handlers, a 3 ton and 3.5 ton unit on 77. I use CCFL's everywhere including the kitchen, have curtains on all the windows (low-E ones) and as well the radiant barrier; which made a huge difference! The only sucky thing with the radiant barrier I have is that it causes the phone signal strength to drop a lot, not even 1 bar inside the house, 5 as soon as I step out! Also 5 people live in the house with me, and we always have a TV or 2 PC's running...

timmahh

Our main areas have CFLs - Kitchen, bathrooms, but overall I dislike the light output/color and the warm up time so the hallways have regular bulbs, and the loft has the MR16 3" halogen recessed on a dimmer [theatre lighting ftw!].

We keep the blinds closed on the back of the house now which drives me nuts, it's so dark and depressing but I guess I don't have a choice. The windows are all Low-E air filled double pane vinyl; so there isn't a ton of heat coming through but if you stand infront of it you can feel it.

I ordered some radiant barrier stuff from atticfoil.com. Hopefully it's legit stuff and not a roll of foil from the store w/ stickers covering the brand name. This past weekend was once again extremely hot [I picked up a shovel that was in the sun and seriously have a good sized burn on my thumb]; we held out as long as we could w/ the a/c off until about 5PM when the house hit 83 degrees.

Unplugged the freezer in the garage, computers are off, and the server is off.

thunder04

iTrader: (1)

^ I do like the light of incandescent bulbs better than CCFLs, but I like a lower electricity bill more.

Soo, every light in my house (besides two fluorescent tube lights, one in the garage and one in the kitchen) has CCFL bulbs in them.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Looks like PG&E is going the way of the smart meters...maybe they're having you foot part of the bill?

Seriously though...$640 is too much for what you described and the generally good practices with ac setting.
Check:

Insulation enough...r-19 is good enough for most but check into r-30
AC temps coming out properly (cooling)
Make sure no heat strip is stuck on with the unit (no, you wouldn't notice until the bill gets there)
Check water meter with everything off in home and make sure not moving...good way to locate a under home hot water leak.

Does PG&E offer free home energy surveys or high bill investigations?

I'll let you guess what I do for FPL here in Florida.

J.

Good luck!

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Aside from lower usage...the CCFL's also produce about 100 degrees less heat than a standard bulb. Check home depot...they have 3 or 4 different CCFL color shades now.

J.

thunder04

iTrader: (1)

Hmm...I may have to look into radiant barrier foil for my attic. Though, my roof is supported by trusses, so it might be a PITA to install radiant barrier foil. Although, that plus a solar powered attic fan (my attic is probably less than 1200 sq. ft.) would be schweet.

csmeance

have yellow incadesent color in the kitchen flood-lights (flood light ones), white ones in my bedroom's and hallways and stuff... You can buy them in yellow, white, blue, UV and a few other colors

taitando

My house is 20 years old, original HVAC system, 1800 sqft, and my bill came out to $200 last month with the A/C on 24-7.

I live in Sacramento, so it's pretty damn hot, but depending on where in Sacramento, you can be charged by either PG&E or SMUD. I have SMUD currently providing electricity and am glad because I hate PG&E and the ass raping they give you. When I lived in a 1000 sqft town house, I had PG&E and it was always in the $150 range.

dallison

$150

timmahh

I live about 45 mins north of sac and we're generally a few degrees hotter, on PG&E.

Smart meters will roll out in my area in 2010, which will be nice because we'll be able to see our daily kw/h usage... i'm sure we're paying for those in one way or another.

RE: Insulation, there are some areas where i've been in the attic and the blown in insulation is compacted, those areas do feel a few degrees warmer so that's something i'll need to fix but the house is 4 years old so it should be pretty well insulated and in compliance with CA Title 24 2001 stds. (though.. that seems like a joke due to a question i asked them and the response they gave me).

A/C temp split is about 17 degrees (~17 degrees cooler at the vent than at the intake)

I don't think we have a 'heat on' .. though its possible.. but.. i dunno; our heat is gas so our bill would be abnormally high.. Same w/ water heater - gas - and cooking - our gas portion of the bill is $9 so nothing wrong there

I think PG&E might do a free home energy consultation

e30cabrio

iTrader: (6)

Wow you guys are getting raped. I am in Phoenix, three year old 2800sq/ft house two ACs during the day both are on at 80 about 10pm downstairs goes off.

There are five of us, no less than four and sometimes 8 computers one to four LCD tvs going etc.

All bulbs are CCFL we have a medium sized pool with it's system running 12 hours a day and I pay 305 per month all year.

timmahh

You suck!