Electricity bills--commiserate?

Just wondering how many of you have received your electric bill this month and are still trying to scrape your jaw off the floor.

Mine went from $178 last month to

. . .drumroll, please . . .

$388 this month!!!

And we're cold! It's still COLD in this house. $388 to stay cold?

I just can't wait to get next month's bill.

Does TVA provide your electricity? I just read that finally they are going to introduce a rate decrase, and that the average customer can expect to see an approximate decrease of $4 to $8 on their bills.

THXALOT!

Meanwhile, the CEO of TVA gets a million dollar raise?

From TVA's website, I found this press release:

“We are glad for the relief this decrease will bring to rate payers across the Valley,” said TVA Chief Financial Officer Kim Greene. “Recent reductions in purchased power and natural gas prices have helped reduce our actual costs and forecast for the second quarter of 2009. Unfortunately, coal prices remain significantly higher than they were a year ago, and sustained drought conditions across the Tennessee Valley have cut TVA’s hydro generation by more than 50 percent, preventing TVA’s fuel costs from dropping further.”

You have got to be kidding me! They're glad for the RELIEF that $4 to $8 will give customers? That'll just buy two gallons of kerosene for my kerosene heater that literally keeps us from freezing.

Clair Dickson said:

I hear ya-- don't know what this month's damage is, but we usually pay over a hundred in gas to be cold all winter. We have an electric blanket for when we watch TV, a space heater in the bedroom, and I have my computers keeping my little office warm. Sort of.

Part of the problem here is the stupid vaulted ceilings. I hate vaulted ceilings-- I'm not fourteen feet tall and hate paying money to heat space I'm not using. (Good thing we're renting... and hopefully moving soon.)

Click to expand...

Sounds like my house. We spent most of this year insulating the house better--it's 108 years old and drafty. We thought it would make a difference. NOPE! It's not even the coldest part of the season yet.

We don't use gas. We had a terrible experience with gas several years ago, and we just won't use it. That winter, our heating bills went from around $200 one month to over $700 the next!!! We had a gas boiler with steam baseboard heat. It was warm, I'll give you that.

alleycat said:

Yes, the electricity in Nashville is generated by the TVA.

Click to expand...

I'm assuming that your house isn't drafty like mine, then. I would love to see an $80 electric bill.

Darzian said:

O-m-g.

Seriously, O-m-g.

This IS an average household, I presume?

O-m-g.

Click to expand...

This is an average household. Just my husband and me, and a 2,000 sq. ft. old, drafty house. We don't heat the kitchen, spare bedroom, the foyer or the upstairs bathroom. Literally, when you walk out of the bedroom in the morning, it's like being outside until you make it down the stairs and into the living room. We joke about how we can see our breath on the stairway I even hung sheets (very classy) in the open doorways between the living room and kitchen and between the living room and laundry hoping to hold a little heat into the living room!

alleycat said:

Do you have a heat pump, or something else?

Click to expand...

We have stinking electric baseboard heat. I know--horrible efficiency. But it's what we've got. The house came with a broken-down old gas furnace that we don't use.

To keep from really freezing, we use a kerosene heater in the living room only while we're watching TV, a small portable radiator in my office and another radiator in the lower bathroom.

Clair Dickson said:

Old draft house, eh? The way to go is radiant infloor heating. (It can be costly, but if you do it yourself it's cheaper-- and it saves on heating bills) My parent's house is about 175 years old this spring. Thing leaks heat like a pasta strainer. Wind blows right through it, even though they've added insulation just about in every wall. But this year, they got my oldest Bother to lay radiant infloor tubing. And it's actually WARM. It was the strangest thing going in that house and finding it warm. They still have issues with drafty windows, but it's a huge improvement.

My Oldest Bother did his house two years ago with radiant infloor and his bill is sickening low. Plus, when there's a gathering at his house, he has to turn the heat off or it gets too hot. I think you can get electric boilers for radiant in floor.

In the meantime... if you haven't already, make sure you put plastic over the windows. Unless they're super-high-energy efficiency and not leaking air at all, put up plastic wrap and you will be MUCH warmer. My new-ish condo has new windows, but they're cheap with low R-value. I put up plastic and it makes it much warmer. I like warmer. (Of course, it's still expensive and cold because of the vaulted ceilings, extra-long hallways, and other poor designs.)

Click to expand...

We would love to get radiant floor heat. We talk about it all the time. So far, we just don't have the money. I lost my job at the end of September, and my little unemployment checks only give me a little over $200 a week. Thank GOD Mr. Vagabond still has a decent job.

ChaosTitan said:

I'll commiserate with you, Carole. Last winter I was in an 800-square foot apartment that stayed toasty warm, because it had few windows, one level, and a gas stove.

Now I'm in a two-story, turn of the century house, in another state. Lots of windows, lots of drafts, electric stove and everything else. The downstairs stays pretty chilly, because we've never run the heat above 72 degrees (this month it's stayed between 68-70). Our bill for October was $260. More than TWICE what it was in September.

Even though we've kept it cooler in November, and I bought a little space heater for my downstairs bedroom, I shudder to see the new bill.

Click to expand...

We were in a little apartment before we bought this house. It had gigantic windows, but this place was solid as a rock. Back in the Manhattan Project days, it was a military housing building. The walls were about 2 feet thick and everything was really well-insulated. We stayed cozy, and I don't remember ever seeing a bill over $150.

alleycat said:

Ah, that's a big part of why your bill is so high, and why it still feels cold.

If you already have the duct work (for the old gas furnace) and plan on staying in the house, you might think about switching to a head pump. My house is on the small size, and it's just me and a cat, but my highest bill ever was about $120. In the summer, ever when it's in the 90's, the bill is about half that.

Click to expand...

We do have the ductwork already in place. Whoever owned this house before us (it was a foreclosure, so we don't know) had new ductwork installed. There is literally no insulation under the house, and there is no way to install any. The crawlspace was made for a cat. The only thing we have been able to do there is to lay rigid insulation over some of the existing floors, install new plywood over that and then move on with new flooring. I figured that would be a major no-no, but I'm learning that it's actually not a bad way to insulate and it's better than nothing, I guess.

This month's plan is to see about getting a HELOC or equity loan, and using it to pay off the truck and get a new central heat system. Hopefully it'll work out. Since the house was a foreclosure and we got it for cheap, it's increased in value quite a bit over the past year. I think the last tax appraisal showed about a $30,000 increase.

Rolling Thunder said:

Insulation doesn't always stop drafts depending on where it was placed. Caulking and foam sealant will do the trick though. There's a good product out by 'Great Stuff' foam. It comes in a blue can and doesn't expand like the original yellow formula. When it cures it has the soft consistency of cotton so it's great around windows. If you can remove your window and door casings you'll find these to be main draft culprits. This is where you use the blue can foam. If you can't remove the casings you can drill 1/2" holes every 10 inches or so apart in the middle, stick the straw in and spray the foam. Start at the lowest hole, this allows you to fill the void evenly from top to bottom. If any foam escapes out the hole you can clean it up with a damp cloth before it cures or just scrape it off after it cures. Then buy some 1/2" dowel rod at Home Depot, cut it to length (up to an inch long should do) coat it with glue and stuff it in the hole. Paint.

Click to expand...

Great Stuff and I are old friends. I've used it lots on this house, but I'm not familiar with the blue can. Maybe a trip to Lowe's is in order.

We have worked on the windows a lot, but they are still drafty, at least the ones without plastic on them. They're 7' tall!

regdog said:

Electric heat is terribly expensive. The only room in our house that is heated with electric heat is my room, the rest of the house is heated with oil. One month last winter I turned the heat on in my room to 64 the electric bill jumped to $185. And I only turned the heat on occasionally.
I had to shut the heat off in my room and move downstairs, where I am camped again this winter.

Sorry you've been slapped with a huge bill.

Click to expand...

We have honestly talked about closing off the entire upstairs for the winter. I looked into oil heat, and I really like the things I read about it. The two biggest reasons we haven't decided for sure on it is the cost of a new container and having it put into the ground, and being dependent on buying the oil as we go and not knowing what the prices will change to. Then again, apparently electricity isn't our friend!

Rolling Thunder said:

I'll assume you have high ceilings, too? If so, ceiling fans set on the lowest setting in reverse will bring a lot of heat down where it belongs.

Click to expand...

We do. We've got 10' ceilings, and no ceiling fans.

regdog said:

Nothing says a good night sleep, like a reclining chair in the living room.

Oil prices were awful last winter almost $4 a gallon. We turned the heat on only when we needed to, but this year we were able to lock in our price for 2.69 a gallon.

I don't know if they put oil tanks in the ground, I think they will only put them in basements now. But then I live in MA it might be different where you are.

Click to expand...

From what I'm seeing, most people have their tanks put into the ground around here.

Mr. Vagabond just woke up and I gave him the fabulous news. Needless to say, he's thrilled! He asked, "Why on earth is it $388? Last year, we were warmer than this (We weren't) and the highest bill didn't get that high!" I reminded him that last year, we didn't heat any room in the house except our bedroom during the day (for our dog) on weekdays because I was at work. Now, I'm home all day every day.