You're heating, cooling, cooking and lighting for $50 a month?

What are you living in?

A two bedroom apartment. ~1000 sqft.

That comparison website does it by country too: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living...United+Kingdom

Seems to agree on the basic utilities. I agree on the restaurants too thinking about it, last time I was in the UK I went out a few times to eat and it was way more than I would pay here. In fact it was £52, I remember one of the bills, for two people, and that website says $81 in the UK, so yeah.

I average 30 a month with BC hydro for a 2 bedroom apartment, everything is electric. Cooking, hot water, heating, lights, and air conditioning.

This includes the min. daily charge, 5% GST, and 5% rate rider, and actual electric use.

Its not hard in an apartment or condo to have very low electric bills.

I remember a couple of years ago someone in a condo posted that theirs was $100 month. Until now I've not seen anyone suggesting less.

Just before we moved here we were at the in laws apartment (6 unit building Montreal South Shore)) and we didn't even have the heating on over the winter, so I know it needn't be expensive but, flippin' eck, $30 or $50 is like giving it away.

Happy to take a picture of my latest bill if you like

Lots of stuff is expensive in Canada but the actual hydro itself is, as you suggest, nearly given away. My wife and I run our computers, TV, general appliances, fans/single AC unit and heating (sensibly...not 24/7 in winter) without it costing a fortune. Of course I'm careful to turn everything off if we're going out. We don't leave lights on. We don't have kids running up a fortune etc.

We have pretty low rates in BC, and the min. daily charge is reasonable as well, and as far as I know there is no connection or distribution fees added, as my bill does not reflect those types of fees like some have mentioned having, so I assume BC Hydro builds the cost into the rates.

I also believe BC Hydro has a pretty decent electrical export business going on and exporting power to the US, so I am sure that income helps keeps the rates low at home.

Yes, I'm sure the rate is cheaper but the quantity needed makes a difference.

We're a detached house. No idea of the square footage. We have a heat pump/air con and cook with electrickery. Equalised payments are $260 a month.

When we first moved, it seemed a lot until others posted of higher costs, when all was taken into account, no matter what the heating method.

1000 sq ft bungalow in Ontario Hydro is around $240 a month. We don't heat or cook with electricity.

power tools seem cheaper. I got some free cheeses from the Qualicum Cheeseworks - so life is complete!

A new electric bill has arrived. It's for the past month so not a wintry time.

The price per kilojiggy varies by time of day but the total for 370+56+65 kWh is $26.66. The bill is for $200.56 less the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit (whatever that is) of $20.06 for a total of $180.49. So, 491 kWh costs $180.49. I make that a real world price of $2.71 per unit. It'd be cheaper to light the house with marijuana candles.

Based on the fees and taxes on my hydro bill, your usage in BC would be 46.56 or so.

0.16640 per day basic charge.

$0.07520 per kW.h (this is the rate for the first 1,300 Kw.h it goes up after that to 11 cents something.)

5% rate rider

5% GST

That is all listed on my bill for fees, charges and taxes.

It's insane how high your bill is in Ontario, that is highway robbery if you ask me.

I suppose I should try and dig it out, but I know when I first moved here I was worried about the gas bill and back then the price of natural gas was subsidized, so it was a pretty cold month and I was expecting a big bill and it was only $50.

Actually for some strange reason I've got the bill from that long ago and yep, it was $77 and with the rebate it worked out to $55.49. Not that that tells you much at this late date.

What about the price of guns?

I've always paid far more to eat out in Canada than in the UK, so the opposite experience! But I wouldn't normally spend £52 on a meal for the two of us, so that's probably why. Even when we went to a Michelin starred restaurant and had a 7 course menu for our 10th wedding anniversary, with bubbly to start with and wine, the bill was only £65! So £52 must have been somewhere a lot smarter than where I'd normally eat.

We can eat three courses at most of our local gastropubs for much less than that, or if we're on a tighter budget then we'll do one of the chain restaurants such as Bella Italia or Cafe Rouge, where you can always find a voucher on the internet for a 2 for 1 or similar. Those are the type of restaurants we tend to go to with the children, and the four of us will usually eat 3 courses and drinks for approx £40.

HTH. Can't help you on the natural gas I'm afraid, as we're not on mains gas (or mains water or mains sewage, sigh!), so don't have any figures for that.