My electric bill for June was only $19.75 even with the use of AC. My electric bill normally runs about $11-$12 so the AC added roughly $7 to my bill. I know this is pretty cheap but everywhere I’ve lived I have usually had low electric bills.
Some reasons my ac costs are so low. I have a small one bedroom apartment so there isn’t a lot of area to cool. I don’t have central air and use a small window unit. I only run the air conditioning when I’m home. There really isn’t much point in running it when I’m not there. I also turn off the ac when I go to bed. It stays cool long enough for me to fall asleep and I keep a fan on which keeps me feeling cool enough while sleeping. Also I turned off my natural gas for the summer. My kitchen is noticably cooler without the pilot lights burning. My lease expires in October so I don’t plan on turning my gas back on.
Some other ways I keep my electric costs down are: Turning off lights when I’m not using them. I have a CFL in the lamp I use the most and my bedside lamp is a fluorescent also. Since my bill is already so low I don’t think there would be much benefit to replacing the rest of my lights with CFLs. I also don’t turn on lights when natural light is sufficient for what I need to do. Since I don’t have cable and my favorite shows are in reruns I am watching very little TV right now. I keep my microwave unplugged when I’m not using it. I don’t keep the TV or stereo on just for noise. Since I don’t have internet at home I usually walk to the library and use the internet there which means I’m not using my electricity to use my laptop. Those are just a few ways I keep my electricity bill low. I can’t get it much lower because they have a basic customer charge you have to pay regardless of how much electricity you use.
Wow! That is truly world-class Tight-Fisted Miseritude! I thought I was good, but this is awe-inspiring.
But…uhm… What’s the outside temp where you are? In my part of the world, it’s been over 110 for day after day. Supposed to cool down to 104 later this week, but in exchange we get a jump in humidity; 104 with 20% humidity is pretty suffocating. The utility companies, even the relatively less rapacious one I subscribe to, have jacked up their rates and are asking the Corporation Commission to approve even higher rates. In the present laissez-faire environment where profit reigns and citizens’ interests get crushed in the mud, the commission of course approves every rate hike.
For a month in which temperatures topped 114, I think I’m doing pretty well to keep my bill down to $205 to run a 1680-square-foot shack with 1970s construction (built back in the day when power costs were negligible) and a pool. That’s with the AC turned off during the hours between dawn and around 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. (at a little after 9 it just hit 100 degrees in the shade of the back porch), set to 82 during the day, and ratcheted down to around 78 for sleeping, about 6 hours a night. No television; CFCs in every light that will take them; food cooked on a propane grill (stove is gas, anyway); lamps & gadgets of all sorts turned off when not in use. $19.75…wow!!!
Temperatures here have been in the high 80s to low 90s. That makes it much easier to keep the electric cost down than when temps are in the 100s. Although when I lived in Las Vegas my electric bills were only in the $30s a month during summer. That was in a tiny studio apartment about ten years ago and the electric company there did have very low rates.
Um…with no gas in your kitchen, how do you cook? What do you eat? Just wondering…