Jerseygirl

We have to put a 60 cent sticker on every bin bag. It's supposed to be 1 sticker per 15lbs...so if we you put furniture, carpet, electrical items etc out to be collected...we put a few more stickers on.

Yorkieabroad

Sounds like our HOA might actually be good value for money....$1000 a year for managing the estate, landscaping, swimming pools, lakes, fish stocks, fence staining etc, and also includes as much trash/recycling as we need twice a week, including oversize items.

Bob

Our old town was similar, had to use town bags but it worked out at $1.50 a bag but you could put whatever fitted into it.

Another town we looked at, you could use your own bags, but they had to be up to x gallon size, 20 gallons max I think? Anyway, the stickers were $1 each in that town.

Nearby town down here, getting a town sticker to use the town dump is $400 a year.

Our town changed things up a little a year or so ago, so a town sticker to use the dump is $10 and then $1 for every bag of rubbish you dump and recycling stuff is free.

I dump a lot of grocery bag sized bit of rubbish from the car at McD's or where ever these days...don't know how we do it, but there's always a grocery sized bag of rubbish worth of stuff in the car after a week. Kids, meh

GeoffM

Around here they charge about $20/month for waste. You get one 95gal regular wheelie bin and one 60gal wheelie bin for recycling. The trucks even have automated arms to pick up the bins so there's only the driver who only gets out if there is a problem! Only 2 pickups per year for up to 5 bulky items at a time though. But there's plenty of desert to dump stuff it would appear.

Bink

We pay circa $800/yr HOA fees which includes the common areas, pool and trash collection. No recyling for us at the moment which kinda sucks to be honest.

Right now we're paying circa $100/month for water, most of which is made up of standing charges, it's quite expensive for some reason where we're at. We do use water (sprinklers and then general useage) but we don't use that much.

If you're looking at costs, don't forget the cable bill. By no means an essential but it is really quite expensive over here. We pay $185/month but we have 3 boxes and pay extra for some sports channels (fox soccer plus - although after the weekends results, I may just stop watching football alltogether )

penguinbar

Are you with Con Ed? Is it an old house or a newer one? I'm in NYC but I have a one bedroom. I use energy efficient bulbs and run my AC quite alot in the summer. I am on a level billing plan and I pay $73 a month. On average that is less than what I use so I wind up with practically no bill the last month. My husband and I are on opposite schedules so quite a bit of electricity is used. I do not have to pay for heat , gas or hot water . Is this being billed directly from your landlord? If you are being charged for heat that can add up quite quickly.

Yorkieabroad

Its got to that time of year again when I could pretty much turn the gas water heater off because, courtesy of our black shingled roof, the water is now getting hotter through "solar heating" than I have the thermostat set! I do actually leave it on, because the recovery rate is better, especially when we have guests, but during the summer is the only time I have to add cold water to the hot when washing up!

Bink

Wow. I need to turn ours down anyway as our water gets scolding hot as it is. I am amazed that there aren't more solar roof panels here to heat water etc. In the UK my Mum has one and in summer her boiler stays off.

My electric bill is now starting to creep up for summer. $150 this month.

Yorkieabroad

I've looked at installing solar a couple of times, but it just doesn't make sense for us financially given the cost of installation vs our low electric bills - last time I looked it was over a 20 year payback (if we wanted to go "whole house"), even with the tax incentives. The hailstorms earlier in the year bring in a dynamic I hadn';t considered before! Its a shame, cos I'd love to go that way.
I am thinking of putting in a DIY solar pool heater for the winter months, but thats about as far as I'll go until the thin film technology brings the price of solar panels down.

Jerseygirl

I've always wondered the same. Even in the NE we get hours and hours of sunshine during the winter months...as well as the summer.

Someone posted about a DIY solar pool heater they'd installed a couple of years ago. Can't remember if it was in the US or Canada forums.

Yorkieabroad

Yeah, there are quite a few designs online in some of the pool forums - most of them basically consist of just tapping into your pool return lines, running a black hose over a black painted sheet of plywood and then back into the pool line. We've got acres of black shingles, so all I need is a bit of o's (no, garden 'ose) and bobs yer uncle!

Bink

True, and I wouldn't want the cost of putting one in myself either, but in the UK it's the builders that are putting them in. Surprised a few more don't do it here.

I need a pool before I can put a solar pool heater in though. Something to consider with the design...

Yorkieabroad

I tried to raise it with the builder when we built our new house 7 years ago - didn't compute!

When we built the pool 3 years ago, I didn't find a single pool company that had any expertise with them. The closest we got was "well if you buy the equipment, we'll try to install it for you" (note the "try") Most of them worked on the basis that you can swim without a heater pretty much May - September (add a month either end if you're under 12 !) and outside those months all people want to do is run the spa, or maybe heat it for a few days over christmas when the solar won't be very effective. Considering all the other "extras" they push, I was amazed nobody was tryling to upsell on these. Maybe a business opportunity there....

What I'd really like to get is a windmill - we have great wind here from ground to 30' range and they're a lot cheaper to install so the payback is so much quicker. Only problem is HOA approval. I met a guy at a home show 2-3 years ago who reckoned he had a horizontally mounted cylindrical blade (think like one of those paint mixing attachments you can put on your drill) that could be mounted on a Chimney or under a breezeway. Claimed he had approval in principal from Cinco HOA. Not as much power production, but a lot cheaper and payback was down below 3 years. Unfortunately (especially for him!) he was killed in a car crash a couple of weeks later and as he was a "one man band", had no-one to carry on the business.

ChocolateBabz

4300 sq ft, Houston, 3 of us, 2 A/C Units, no pool, BBQ hooked into main gas, new build supposed to be all energy efficient, me home all day We keep it at 74 at night during the summer and I just turn the A/C on when I feel hot during the day.

2009 average
Electric $143.27
Gas $50.55

2010 average
Electric $137.92
Gas $61.09

2011 average
Electric $139.09
Gas $44.92

gemmabl

2200 sq ft home in Wichita, KS, no pool, with A/C, gas heat, and gas water heater. The house is almost 100 years old, and built like a rock - much thicker and more energy efficient building materials than they use these days. We also have a newish energy efficient roof and all energy efficient windows. We know we pay quite a bit less than other people in our city who have newer homes.

The temperature fluctuates like mad here, with summers usually in the 98-115 range, and winters well below zero usually. Spring and Autumn only last about a month or two.

Winter months (approx.)
Electric: $50
Gas: $125 (mostly gas heating)
Water: $25

Summer months (approx.)
Electric: $175 (mostly A/C)
Gas: $30
Water: $35

Trash is $65 per quarter for a wheely trash can plus up to ten extra bags per week. The local county has also been having deals recently for free dump coupons a couple of times per year. Otherwise, the dump costs about $30 per load.