How are most of you folks faring with the cost of utility bills this winter?

With the extreme cold we have had, the utility budget is taking a hit.

Our electricy averages $80.00/month. We have gas for hot water and cooking $40.00/month, then we have oil for heat. Our house is a not large, and no one is home all day, so we can turn the heat down for most of the day.

I just called for a fill of the oil tank today and the price is $1.78/gallon. I don't think that's the highest we've ever paid, but it's up there.

We just filled up a month ago, and we usually get 6 or more weeks per tank of oil at this time of year, but this winter has changed all that.

I think our cost of utilities for a five month period will average $270.00/month, quite a bit more than the norm.

That $$ could be a lot of gas for the "S"

 

The winter here has been fairly mild to average. This is our first winter in this house but it doesn't seem unreasonable. The house is 2880 sq.ft. and I'm home much of the day on most days, so I keep the office cooled and heated. We have gas for heat, water heater, fireplace starter, and cooking and electric for everything else. The last couple of months the electricity bill has been about $150.00, as has the gas bill. In a month in which we're not running A/C much, our electric bill has been about $120 (we have a pool pump that runs 8 hours a day and a Polaris that runs about 3 a day, even through the winter) and our gas bill about $36 - so it pretty much doubles from its nadir to peak usage (in the summer during peak A/C usage the electric bill hit $260 and the gas stayed around $36).

 

My utilitiy bills are actually down this year, but I'm sure that has something to do with the large sum of money I plopped down in the spring and all those countless hours I spent rolling around in the attic/crawspace putting down 12 to 18" of insulation...

My home is only about 1,400 sq. ft. but it is plenty big enough for me and my Maine Coon. The biggest bill I have gotten to date for this winter was $150 for gas and electric.

 

Our electric runs about $80/month on the average (we have several electric hepa filters throughout the house that run 24/7 to clean the air) and hasn't been much out of that range (house is about 2500 sf). Our hot water and furnace are gas and the gas bill has been running about the same as last year (maybe even a tad less at about $130/month). I'm expecting and planning for the gas bill to hit $175 next month with the cold temps, but the house is insulated well and I'm not complaining. Our next door neighbor's gas bill was $400 last month. They just crank that thermostat up too high. I leave mine on just under 70 and dare anyone to touch it. I do use the wood burning fireplace in the rec room a lot and just ordered my second load of firewood (pickup load) at $70.00. I'm sure that'll be my last order this year. We haven't had much really bad weather this year, so I guess we've been lucky.

 

Oil's a killer. I had a contract last year for 1.17/g, this year the bozos didn't arrange anything with me and the price floated to 2.29/g a couple of months ago. I dumped them and got a new supplier, but the price is still in the 1.80+ territory, Lainey. We use about 300 gallons a month thru the cold stuff!

 

Chaz, I think I've seen pictures of your house, and it's way bigger than ours. So should we blame you for high consumption affecting the supply and demand thing which pushes the price up?

We've been in our home for 20 years. We have a fairly new heating system, new windows, and as far as I know good insulation. It's just been a BAD winter here in the north east. I'm sure our oil bill is the highest we've ever seen it, but at least we can afford to pay it.

I don't know how the older folks with limited income manage this winter.

 

People blame me for everything, Lainey, so I can take the blame for this.

I agree about the fixed-income folks.

 

i think to get a better comparison of how you are to others you should include :
size,age, style,method of heating,(forced air,hotwater,electric)location,consumption,rate, and are there any upgrades done.
mine is a 1350sq.ft bungalow, 31 yrs,with forced air using natural gas as the utility for heat. consumed 23gigajoules @$7.05 for the month of dec. i have done upgrades to the insulation in the attic @ R 45. walls are @R7 and basement @R12. i pay from $35.00 TO $200.00 per month depending on time of year. temp swings from plus 25 - minus 30 on average throughout the year. sorry for maybe going overboard here but i budget on ave.3.7 million just on this for my job. things i can do to reduce this are sure welcomed. i am waiting to hear what you guys think of the gigajoules lol

 

Never heard of that/those?

We used forced hot air/oil heat, small house approx 1200 sq foot. I know we can't really compare "apples with apples" as we all have different size homes, different needs and live in different areas. Just curious as to how other folks are faring this winter.

Our electricity rates in this area are quite high, even compared to neighboring towns/cities, then you have Chazmo using ALL the oil to heat that mansion of his, driving up the price of oil in the northeast...............

J/K Chaz!

See you Saturday. Any suggestions for the Yankee Gift swap? What do car nuts usually bring to this sort of thing?

 

We insulated and sealed our basement last summer. With that we are using less gas, but our bills are about 20 to 40% higher. We are using slightly less electricity than we did last winter, but here too our bills are about 20 to 40% higher.

Last year the combined average for out gas (heat and hot water) and electricity for the winter months was about $350.00 per month, this year we are averaging about $475.00.

We think its a disgrace too.