Bob

Been pretty good and cheap lately, last bill about $150 in electric, $180 in oil, which is about half of what it was last year.

Mind you, we keep the temp to chip your nipples off cold in our apartment as we can't afford it any higher.

Giantaxe

On the contrary, there's a discount for folks like me who use less than a certain amount

I think this was an attempt to encourage conservation, btw. These baseline quantities at a lower price have certainly been around the whole time I've lived in CA.

Steerpike

Holy crap! Your gas usage is same as mine, but how do you manage $338 for electric?!? Assuming you have gas heating, and gas dryer, where is all that electricity going ... in December?! I thought mine was excessive! Swimming pool? Hot tub?

Havnfun

We have a swimming pool and hot tub. We don't heat the pool but do heat the hot tub at least once a week (that is gas though). We have only lived here for 4 months. Our first electric bill for September was $476.
Since then it has been $386, $330 and then $338 for December. The pool filter/cleaner was running for 6 hours a day so we turned that down to 3 hours. Our total consumption in December for electric was 1,469 kWh. In our area the baseline is 356 kWh so we are WAY over that!

scrubbedexpat091

1,469KH would only be $105 here according to the rate on my last bill.

Havnfun

What is crazy is that the cost of the actual electricity is only $110 the rest is transmission, distribution and public purpose programs!

scrubbedexpat091

Thats crazy.

We just have for fees/taxes

Innovative Clean Energy Fund Levy at 0.4%
GST @ 5%
Basic Charge (4 bucks for me)

About 10 bucks total.

Havnfun

If you are paying GST you must be in Canada. We just moved from Alberta to California.

scrubbedexpat091

I am in BC, moved here from California (San Diego) also spent a year in Edmonton in 2006.

cindyabs

Cell phone chargers are electric vampires.

dbark

Aha! Then no wonder hubby always charges his at work!

cindyabs

Yup, I use my car charger.

SpoogleDrummer

I don't think my wife has ever unplugged her's since we moved in a year ago. I just get told I'm a nag when I mention it, it's taken me this long to stop her leaving every single light on in the house all day every day

Steerpike

Same here in No.Cal... 356 kWh is baseline. Our electricity consumption was 664 kWh in Dec, and I feel like we are wasteful! I would take a quick look at your consumption; something could be malfunctioning. As a rule of thumb, anything with a motor in it (fridge, washing machine, etc) consumes significant amounts, as does anything that has a significant heating element (oven, elec. water heater, etc). Chargers, lights, etc are pretty minor by comparison. This site gives a very good guide to common household appliance consumption. Focus on the column kWh/mo (next to last).

This site has more details but not as easy to see the important stuff.

Note that PGE (SCE in Orange Co?) will give you a big rebate on new appliances if they are energy efficient.

PS - this device, for only ~$20, will tell you EXACTLY how much every item in your home consumes. You just plug the meter into the wall, then the item into the meter. Regarding cell phone chargers - the older ones that were heavy consume more; the newer ones that are super-lightweight consume very little. If they don't feel warm, then they are probably not consuming a lot.

Deedee13

blackpool illuminations! thats what i call it in this house!

Lights on for the sake of it! I never realised that tho about cell phone chargers. Ours hasnt been out of the wall since we got it. Same as the uverse box and the wii. Oh well. Electricity is ok its the GAS!!

Anyone had one of those heaters from the Armish? they were advertised in all the papers? $300 or so and only use the same amount of electric as a coffee machine?