[pkaye]

Where do you live? Do you use electricity for heating? I'm in California and for a 1500 sf house, it costs us roughly $600 in electricity and $600 is gas per year. This actually an old house with some insulation. I think it would be more efficient for me to improve the insulation and water heater/furnace before even considering solar panels. I wish they would subsidize these other improvements as much as solar panels.

[djrogers]

I'm in an unfortunate area of California where my tier usage is tied to parts of the bay area, but the weather is closer to the central valley.

Our AC and pool pump are big parts of that $6k/year usage, and while AC is a luxury, when it's 105* for a week or two straight and you've got little kids around, it sure is nice.

There are also 2 other factors that feed in to our electrical costs - I work from home, and we have 2 little kids. That means our home doesn't get to shut down during the day. AC, fridge door opening, lights, etc., it all adds up when 4 people live in a house 24/7 instead of being gone during the hottest parts of the day.

[ensignavenger]

You mention the AC and pool pump- and then state that the AC is a luxury :)

[danans]

California does subsidize upgrades to gas and water heaters and insulation. Check out https://www.energyupgradeca.org/en/save-energy/home/take-con...

I'm in the bay area just replaced my furnace, water heater, and insulated ducts (an 11k job), and I'm expecting a $2800 rebate from the BayREN program (the local program that implements Energy Upgrade California).

https://www.bayareaenergyupgrade.org/program-overview

[Roboprog]

Like "djrogers", I also live under (let's name names) PG&E and their "infernal" tiered pricing. Try paying 30 to 40 cents a kW/h, and also working from home with kids running around during the summer. I live in the Sacramento area, but outside of "SMUD" coverage, so I have to have PG&E. When it is about 100 degrees +/- for 3 months solid, A/C is "life support", not a convenience.

$400/month electric bill, very typical for summer.

[maxerickson]

Have you investigated the insulation/sealing status of your house?

[fnordfnordfnord]

he said $.3 or $.4 per kW/h. It's not his insulation. That's super expensive.

[maxerickson]

A high price of power would magnify the effects of poor insulation.

Someone paying $5,000 a year for electric has strong incentives to make improvements, so I was wondering about the specifics, not trying to make a brilliant suggestion that all they need to do is put up some pink foam.

[Roboprog]

You're partially right: the house is a long "strip" shape that has the living room facing south. We moved in about a year and a half ago, and the back yard needs landscaping to put in some trees on the south side of the house. (shade in the summer, drop leaves in the winter) Now if I can only talk my wife into having something that blocks all the sun coming in that she loves so much...

[toomuchtodo]

I'm absolutely shocked at the PG&E pricing. I'm in Chicago buying power from a 3rd party provide delivered via ComEd, and I'm only paying 8-9 cents/KwH, and that's more than from ComEd directly so I can buy wind power exclusively.

[secabeen]

Yep. That's the standard power pricing throughout California. SCE and PG&E are trying to flatten the tiers somewhat, which will reduce costs for high-end users, but a $300/mo bill is not uncommon for a large house.

[monksy]

Is it integresys? If so I opted out of that and saved quite a bit of money. (It's the fee that gets you) Going direct with ComEd has it's advantages. Also Chicago has a lot cheaper power than other areas.

[toomuchtodo]

FirstEnergy. There was no additional fee in Schaumburg to use them, and I pay 6.65 cents/KwH for 100% wind power (until 2017, at which point I expect the price to plummet).

Northern Illinois has extremely cheap power due to Exelon's nuclear generation capacity (Ameren in downstate us primarily coal-fired). I expect the price in IL from ComEd direct to start going up, as they're going to use their smart meter rollout to start pushing time of day metering (as they should) vs flat rate per kwh pricing.

[Roboprog]

Well, PG&E pricing starts at around 10 or 11 cents KwH, but once you plug in a refrigerator (or so), that tier is pretty much used up, and you start sliding up the scale.

[dntrkv]

I grew up in Sacramento and that's completely absurd. Our electric bills topped out at around 200, with 7 people, living in a ~3,000 ft^2 house, and someone was always home running the A/C. $400/month is insane.

[Roboprog]

Another thing - in Sacramento county, you probably had SMUD, but Placer, Yolo and El Dorado have PG&E, like most of the rest of Northern California.

[seanflyon]

How long ago did you electric bills top out at $200?

[dntrkv]

Good point, that was a while ago. 2008 was the last year I lived in Sac, so around then.

[maratd]

I'm in NJ and my numbers are the same. I think it's because we use gas for heating/cooking/hot water. If everything was electric, I can imagine things costing almost twice as much, if not more.