We moved in 3 weeks ago, is in NC & is anxiously waiting for our 1st electric bill & water bill. We're a little over 2900 sq. ft., have 5 kids (2 were recently inherited), have to use the washer & dryer almost every other day, have 3 computers, but only 1 TV. No Icynene, just regular insulation. We moved from an 1100 sq. ft. apt. & our elec. bill was btwn. $125 - 170/ mo. - of course depending on the time of the year. 98% of the time, we keep both our A/C & heat set @ 78 - 79 degrees.

I'm very anxious to see what these bills will be like.......

A lot of it probably has to do with your heating system, too. I mean, I pay about $30/month in electric bills in an SIP home, but that has little bearing on what others should be paying. Besides climate and house size, what is/isn't electric, how many lights you use, cooking, etc. all play into this figure.

Have you asked Charlie @ OBCH if anyone has commented on their bills. I know when Dennis was consulting with us he was showing us his personal bills saying how low the bills were with foam only in the cieling and cellulose in the walls. Maybe gove them a call. I bet it's great to be in though!

I'm glad you asked this question because we got our first bill and were wondering if that was going to be the norm too. We have 4300 sq. ft in Portland. Had the AC on quite a bit that first month and our bill was $200. (1799 kWh) I looked up last year in our rental (3000 sq. ft) and it was about $150 at it's highest. So maybe that is about right?? I'll be wondering the same thing about the gas bill when the fireplaces start coming on. It's getting chilly here! Brrr!

We are in Southern Maine. The house is 3800 sf, but is the size of a 4200 sf house in terms of volume. Insulation is R21 walls, R38 ceilings with foam around windows and doors. If you divide the bill by the number of kilowatts used, it comes out to about $6.50 per kw. Maine is known for its high electric rates (because so much of the state is rural the delivery charges are high even if you live in a non-rural area).

Our electric bill runs from $70-165, depending on the time of year. Cheapest in the Spring anf then Fall, most expensive in Summer (AC).

We have a lot of fluorescent bulbs, but we have a well pump and a septic pump and run a dehumidifier in the summer (that adds about $10 to the bill by my calculation). The heat is hydro-air with oil, and the hot water is a super-stor (so, not electric). All our appliances are new and Energy Star where available. But our AC units are only 11 SEER (installed 2 years ago, that was the standard around here then, it changed a few months after we got ours).

I think using fluorescent lights makes a big difference. We've put CF bulbs in every fixture not on a dimmer and where they won't show (we have a lot of fixtures, few cans). I plan to get rid of a few dimmers to add more CFs.

We get killed on heat. I spent $2500 from August 06- August 07 and we keep the thermostat turned way down in winter.

This is what troubles me. The first month's bill showed 2200 kwh usage for $330 and the second month's shows 2000 kwh for $300. We have Icynene in the roof and walls and we even had the insulation contractor out to check for a problem. They agree our bill should be much lower. The only thing that really runs during the day is the computer and I can't imagine that it takes that much. The tv is hardly ever on and the ac is set to 85 (and it's still comfy inside with the Icynene. We were told by the foam contractor and the HVAC contractor to expect low bills in the summer. Our rent house with very little standard insulation had a high summer bill of $320. Of course it was half the size of this house.

rachel-yes we are glad to be in. Hope everything is progressing well for you.

Well as a comparison we are still in our old house. 2380 sq ft with 2x4 construction R13, and blown in rock wool in attic and a radiant barrier decking, low e-windows. Our AC varies through the day/night from 75-81. The last few weeks of our last bill I was home all day so it has been on 75 in the front of the house (have two units, one for living and one for bedrooms). The last bill was $135.83 for 1336 kwH. This is the highest for us this year.

We are in central TX.

If you are running AC in a new house the bills are going to be higher for at least a few months, and maybe until a heating season has passed.
All new building materials contain a lot of moisture.
When you finish drywall and then paint, the house gets another heavy moisture dose.
This raises the moisture level in just about everything.
It comes out slowly during cooling adding to the AC load.
The first heating season normally drives a lot of the residual moisture out of everything.

txgal106 said: "Our rent house with very little standard insulation had a high summer bill of $320. Of course it was half the size of this house." Emphasis added.

I'd say cutting your hydro bill in half is nothing to be displeased about!

Our most recent hydro bill for a 67 day period was 5,595Kwh. The first 1340kwh @5.3¢Kwh, the balance @ 6.2¢Kwh, plus a fixed delivery charge, regulatory fee and debt retirement charge of $267.87 for a grand total $652.67.

The home is 4,110 sf. above grade, R23 walls of XPS and fiberglass batts, R40 blown cellulose ceiling, Low E argon gas filled windows. Six people.

A/C is the killer. After summer, our hydro bill drops by 40%!

Next home, I will incorporate some kind of fresh air intake to the air-handling system. At night the outside air is often cool, but without A/C, the interior is not bearable.

I remember the days as I child in rural Ohio when we slept with our windows open and fans buzzing to keep cool. Now, it's windows locked and barred and the hair-trigger cellular monitored alarm set. :-(

Worthy said: "I remember the days as I child in rural Ohio when we slept with our windows open and fans buzzing to keep cool. Now, it's windows locked and barred and the hair-trigger cellular monitored alarm set."

Ah yes Worthy, those were the days. Except for me it was an old attic fan in the Louisiana summer and we could get no relief. It was still fun and what a memory! Thanks for that one.

Attic fan - grew up with one too. I would have loved to put one in my house but no one seemed to know what I was talking about.

We had an attic fan when I was a kid also. That sucker sure could roar. To this day I can't sleep without the sound of a fan.

They call them "whole house fans" now. We put one in our last home and *loved* it!

Forgot to say that we put in a whole house fan and love it (you can feel the air moving up the stairs) and ceiling fans in the 2 bedrooms (upstairs), den and DR (downstairs)and put j-boxes in the LR and kitchen so we can put ceiling fans in there if we decide we need them. I can't say enough about the Iceyene insulation, it's noticably cooler inside than outside and our house has a lot of windows on the western side (a energy efficiency no-no).

Good point about the CFL bulbs, we have to step up our efforts to use them. Thanks for the reminder.

sandyponder

Whole house fans are not the same as attic fans.

During the last of our regular power outages we bought a standing fan to provide some circulation. It worked surprisingly well. So maybe ceiling fans too are in order.

Could be we'll adopt the British colonial decor look. Forecasters here are calling for a 30˚C. (86˚F.) Thanksgiving Monday. "I say, old chap, that's bloody hot for the Dominion."

I didn't mean to imply that attic fans are the same as whole house fans. But what we called "attic fans" are now called "whole house fans." "Attic fans" now means those small fans meant to draw air out of an attic, I believe.

We've been in our home since Sept 05. Last year, our summer electric bill averaged around $120 per month for a 4,000 sf house -- zone thermostats set on 74 during the day and 73 at night. We use a ceiling fan all night in the master bedroom. We run a water feature (waterfall and stream) 365 days a year 24x7. We have a well and septic system and all of our appliances are energy efficient except the old w/d that will be replaced soon.

This summer, we're experiencing the worst drought and heat since 2002. It's October and we're still having daytime highs in the 80s and even 90s instead of 70s. We now have a salt water filter swimming pool, too.

Our last bill was $190 but we had 5 workers building a massive deck all day long for the entire month on weekdays. They tripped the breakers at least once a day, so they were drawing a lot of power. I don't have the bill to see the kw (my DH pays it online and then shreds the bill).

We have low E windows, a passive solar setting with an open meadow on south and east and woods on north and west. We use CFL bulbs in all the lamps that stay on in the evening when we are reading, watching TV, etc. We use a CFL in the stair landing safety light that stays on all night. We run two notebook computers a lot and now that DS1 is home for a year between degrees (just got back with a masters in archaeology from London), he's using a computer and lights upstairs. We replaced all his reading lamp bulbs with CFLs the day before he came home!

We're in North Carolina.

Cameron

Our worst month this summer in Michigan was $238. I'll have to get the kwh's to be a bit more relevant.

We have an electric stove and dryer, with a family of 5.
We have a cape cod, 2350 sq ft (main floor and 2nd story) along with another 1350 square ft of basement. Temps set during the day is 75 (when nobody is home), evening 72 and night is 70.

The month of this high bill was also the month we mudded, primed and painted the basement. The dehumidifier, as you might expect, ran quite a bit during this process.

The attic area is R40+ blown-in cellulose.
The entire 2nd story is icynene.
The basement is icynene.
The main floor is R-21 fiberglass.

Our HVAC is a single zone with a constantly turning ECM in the furnace. (The ECM has a low speed that turns just enough to mix the air in the house. That air movement keeps the upstairs temp real close to that of the main floor.)

txgal ~ have the electric company do a check to be sure there isn't a power leakage or hidden lines pulling extra power. Actually, you can do one check yourself. Turn off everything electrical, including the fridge. Check the meter.. which should stay at '0'. If the meter is running, then electricity is being used somewhere. When we first moved into our house [many years ago], a neighbor had connected to our meter and run an underground line to his garage workshop. It's not likely you have the same problem, nor is it impossible.

Our high bill this summer in NE Texas was $175. One story metal roof 2X 6 studs with blown in insulation and Geo-Thermal heat and air 2800 sq ft. Temp set at 78 when we're there and 82 when we're gone. All electrict except propane stove top.

wonbyherwits: And what sort of insulation do you have? Something appears to be working for you.

North Carolina Electricity Rates

Bills Rendered During July - October
9.678 per kWh

Bills Rendered During November - June
Kilowatt-Hour Charge
8.678¢ per kWh

PLUS
Basic Customer Charge: $6.75 monthly
4% state tax

So your last "high" bill works out to 1,817.52Kwh, more than 27% lower than my bill for a similar size home in a similar summer climate. Wow!

During construction, before our house was conditioned, we noticed that we could walk in on a hot summer day and the temperature was noticeably cooler.

Worthy -- Duke Energy is our electricity provider. You'd think with the deck building project, the swimming pool pump and the water feature pump that we'd be using a lot more electricity. I am home all the time since I'm retired so the thermostat is programmed the same way for all 7 days of the week. If anything, we get too cold on 74 degrees. This house just stays so cool in the summer and warm in the winter. We keep it on 68 all winter.

In the winter, we do have a dual-fuel heating system -- heat pack down to 38 degrees, then natural gas. Our summer gas bill for range (dual-fuel) and water heater is $30.

Pinktoes -- what's working? I really think it is a combination of passive solar, Low E windows, doors and appropriately placed windows/doors.

Our insulation is Guardian, Green Guard Certified, SuperCube II fiberglass.

All doors and windows are all WOOD framed Hurd, double pane Low E squared. We have rectangular wood grilles on the interior, not between the panes.

My husband (with a forestry degree) decided to site the house for passive solar. So, I worked on finding the house plan to fit his criteria.

Western sun/heat: The L-shape is formed by the garage wall extending out past the front porch to block the western sun. The laundry and mudroom are on the west side to protect the downstairs area. The laundry room window is placed very high on the wall so that the sun doesn't shine directly into the room. The kitchen window on the west side is a bump out with small windows. So, the western sun has to be low in the sky to shine below that bump out roofline. My husband was adamant about putting utility areas like the garage and laundry on the west side to buffer the living areas from the western sun.

Southern side: The front porch is 8 feet deep with stone floor and single french doors all along the front gallery. We put a 3 window dormer above the porch for the gallery on the second floor. In the winter, the sun shines at an angle onto the porch and into the dormer. You can sit on our front porch on a sunny winter day in your shorts and short sleeves even if the outside temp is in the 30s -- you'll bake. The heat is reflected back into the house through the gallery doors.

In the summer, the sun is straight overhead so that the porch and dormer angle completely shade the front gallery.

North side: is completely wooded and protected. We have windows with tall transoms and a fireplace on the family room wall. Upstairs there is walk-in attic space in a roof slope that protects two bedrooms from the north. There is a library above the family room. We have 11 ft ceilings in the family room on the 1st floor.

East side: garden room, master suite. The master bath has transoms above the sinks so that the sun lights the room (without needing to turn on the lights) in the morning, but is high enough that it doesn't heat the room.

Our roof pitch is steep to reflect the sun, reducing the exterior wall space that is exposed. Therefore, our attic spaces are high. There are slopes under the roofline on the interior where there are spaces you can crawl through (on your hands and knees) around some of our upstairs rooms like the bonus room.

At the time we built, our covenants prohibited solar roof panels. The NC Legislature just passed a law that says that all neighborhoods must allow all types of solar panels, no matter what they look like.

I'd be happy to post photos, but you can probably do a search and find some of my exterior photos.

Cameron

Cameron: thanks for the detailed list. Very glad to see the NC legislature is getting with our new reality, BTW.

Of course, I remember your house (and garden!) now. You have a bit of land there, I believe. We, like a lot of city folks, don't have much leeway for how to site our house. Knowing that, we did the best we could to find a lot that came with the solar orientation we wanted. Now we just have to compromise between wanting view windows and not wanting the wrong windows for the various solar directions.

Here, we find that in winter our south exposures lead to rooms too hot to live in on sunny days. We've made those windows smaller, put rooms that are not heavily used there, and will probably be using a tint as well as the glazing that reduces solar gain. Our rear-facing, family living areas are on the north exposure, as is the screened porch, and that works well here.

We're sure hoping that Icynene finishes out the rest of our energy-efficiency strategy. We're building a brick veneer house, framed at 24" o.c., and using Icynene in all walls and under the roof sheathing in an unvented cathedralized attic application. People are having excellent results here with that, even in a retrofit. So, we hope it pans out.

Anyone out there who has used Icynene in this way and can comment on the results (after the initial year or so of de-humidification of the new building's moisture)? I'd love to hear!

Now it makes sense. Duke Energy is cheaper than Carolina Power and Light Company, whose rates I was using. Based on your $190 monthly (30 day) cost, including taxes, your consumption was 2,396Kwh vs. our 2,505. We have four kids and lots of computers and TVs--and 35-40 loads of laundry a week that more than account for the difference.

Well I looked at our bill.

Our worst bill has 1843 kwh. That month is sandwiched between two months that were 1083 and 1193. I'm certain the buckets of mud, primer, paint and the constant running in and out of workers had a huge impact on that.

Just for giggles, I pulled out our bill for April-May.
That month was 907 kwh.

I just sent a link to this discussion to my DH. We're in Chapel Hill, NC in a 4200 SF house (1 year old-we purchased a spec home as we were in a rental coming from NY) and our provider is Duke Energy. Our most recent bill is 425.73-no water features, new energy efficient appliances, and temp is set at a constant 75. Cameron-WOW!! Our next home will be built very differently

I forgot-the bill says 4926 KWH. Is that even possible???!!

With 4926kWH, just be glad you don't live in DFW. With the awesome free market deregulation (thanks, TX legislature!), we are paying about 13-14c/kWh so your bill would be about $690 instead of the cheap $425.

One of our new neighbours was complaining about the hydro bills to the former owner, convinced there was something wrong with her 4,800 sf. house. Maybe electricity is "leaking" somewhere.

Her home has at least 110 1990 era pots--100 watt floods that are always on--which, of course, burdens the twin central a/c units. No window coverings. "I like a bright home!" Insulation is R-12 batts between 2x4s which probably means an effective wall rating of R8 as at least 20% of the walls are made of 2x4s' with no insulation.

No mysteries there.

Just got our new elec bill today. For the period 8.29.07 - 9.27.07 we used 9.7 kWh and paid $31.20 for "delivery services", $20.59 in "supply services" and .92 in "other charges/adjustments" for a total of $51.79. Provider is National Greed, err, Grid. If my math is right, that comes out to 18.7/kWh. We're in the North Country of NY.

sandyponder

So you used 9.7 kwh or 18.7Kwh (both figures are in your post). Even with no a/c or electric dryer, that's hard to fathom. No fridge, dinner by candlelight, washboard for clothes, no TV and a hand-crank radio, too I take it. "Sun's down, time for bed kids!"

Sorry, I meant 18.7 cents (don't have the cents symbol on my laptop) per kWh, if my math is correct. And WRT usage, well, we only light the rooms we're in, limit the computer to about an hour in the am and one in the pm, don't use the dryer or have A/C, our range and hot water are propane and we don't have outside lights on except occasionally. I commute 41 miles each way to work and we try to balance that with an otherwise energy frugal lifestyle. Yuppers, we're big time tree huggers.

We're all in awe! Especially considering what a beautiful home you built.

Something is off there. Our bill that has only a well, electric fence and 3 rarely used lights totals 55 kwh per month for 4-5 bucks for usage.

Now worthy, no need to get snarky. I'm just as much of an energy addict as anyone else, my drug of choice just happens to be gasoline, and to mitigate my $300/month gasoline bill, I cheap out on home energy usage.

As to the amount we use, I have to confess that I've never looked at kWh consumption before, just look at the table they provide that compares last year to this year (and, of course, the total cost). On the usage chart it says "9.7", which is why I wrote that. Closer inspection at the top of the bill, where I should have looked first, says our usage is 281 kWh for the month. Total cost is still $52.71 (at least I got that correct).

Sorry for the confusion.

sandyponder

Still amazing.

We have just had our first 'real' electric bill, as we moved back in to our rebuilt house only on September 5.

The billing period included intense activity and long hours working on the house, the A/C on continuously, 4 adult guests for 2 weeks (we just managed to get our CO a couple of days before they arrived for their long planned vacation so we moved in the day they arrived - you can perhaps imagine what that was like!!) and at least a week of the washer and dryer going almost non stop. Add to that our new pool, the fact that it is the hottest and most humid time of year here in Florida, and 4000 sq ft of new house to cool and dry. The house is very long with the longest wall fully exposed to the sun on the south side. Our neighbors to the south removed all the shade trees from their lot as they are about to build their new house. There will be a significant benefit to us in the shade from the scorching sun their house will provide us once the house is built.

So at $284 or 2418 KWH for what has to be our biggest bill of the year we were quite pleased! We have had bills as large as that when the house was only 2700 sq ft, no pool and no house guests!

The house now has a metal roof, blown in insulation in the attics and batts in all the framed walls, styrofoam insulation on the block walls, double pane low E windows, 18 SEER zoned A/C.
We use LP gas for stove top cooking, outdoor grilling (although incredibly the grill has been used only once so far since we moved in!!) and for hot water.
There is a huge variety of homes and lifestyles amongst GW members but I hope this info helps.

sis3: wow! I could go for that. My general impression reading the forum for a few months now, and I might be wrong, is that far more attention gets paid to the finishes, design, and aesthetics in general. And far less attention and $$ goes into the building science of creating a tight shell and insulating it well, plus building for your climate.

I figure you pay now or pay later. And I'm afraid utility bills are just going up. Things that were supposed to help consumers rarely pan out that way. I'll add our natural gas deregulation here in GA as an example. Also, despite the fact that we're choking on the emissions from all the power plants here, most of that power goes out of state. We still pay higher rates than most of the places it goes.

Needless to say, in designing our new house we've foregone a lot of pretty for a bit more applied science. If it doesn't work we've sure missed the boat.

I checked my KWH used for last month for you guys. 734. Coming off of August, that's the highest for the year.

Sandy, that is amazing. I figured you were looking at the average use per day, but knew you'd figure it out for us.

I think Txgal can at least be confident that she didn't make a mistake with her insulation choice, but might look at some usage habits.

Even in a month when neither AC nor Heat would be run much for us, we still tripled Sandy's daily average.

Like you, txgal, I've also been disappointed in electric usage, but am sure there's habits that my whole family have formed in our new found spacious living that's resulted in high bills, like having 7 100 watt flood lights on the porch each night. Every time someone enters the kitchen, too, 7 100 watt flood lights get turned on. add in a bunch of incandescent bulbs throughout, and there's one glaring change we can make. I'm going shopping for new bulbs tomorrow.

We had our home energy star rated last year.
We have a HERS score of 89.8 with the Efficient Home Comparison rated at 49% Better.
One of the contributing factors of the high score is the fact that the home is well insulated and sealed. Icynene contributed greatly to that.

According to the report, the single largest contributor to our cooling season load is "internal gains". Keeping the home 72 degrees when it's 97 out is one thing, doing it when there's a million incandescent bulbs and flood lights on, along with 4 grown people showering and cooking is another thing altogether. It seems there's almost always laundry going. I'd like to have a meter on that room all by itself.

This has been a good thread.
Thanks.

On the usage chart it says "9.7", which is why I wrote that. Closer inspection at the top of the bill, where I should have looked first, says our usage is 281 kWh for the month

Based on the numbers you gave, 9.7 is your "average kWh usage per day" over the time period.

Here's an interesting chart on energy usage: http://www.otpco.com/SaveEnergyMoney/applianceEnergyUsage.asp

While its very difficult to compare energy bills, we're very pleased with ours.

All the homes our GC builds are Energy Certified (or something... can't remember the term). The only difference between ours and other homes he builds is the insulation--- we have Iconyne with a closed roof system, (he usually does the highest efficiency bats with the fancy, shine-the-light caulking, weatherstripping etc.) He tried like everything to talk us out of the foam :-)

He's been keeping track of 2 other homes of the same square footage and building type (2 story, cape cod), built at about the same time. Our energy bill is *1/2* of the other homes-- consistently, winter and summer, every single month. I'd say that's pretty good :-). That's a savings of $3600 the first year, so we'll have the difference in price paid back very, very quickly.

free at last--we have the same closed attic system and I have CFL bulbs in all the can lights in the house. Would you mind commenting on the area of the country you live in and the size of your house? 1/2 of the electricity bills of other houses is what we expected but not what we are seeing.

Our house is 3,600 sq. ft. with the open two-story area in the family room. We kept our a/c at 74 and 75 degrees all summer. I looked at the last two bills. from mid July to mid August, our bill was $209 for 2,864 kilowatt hours and from mid August to mid September our bill was $190 for 2,465 kilowatt hours.

So we used more kilowatt hours than you but our bills were cheaper. Is it a case of your power company charging more per kw hour than some others?

We had the hottest August on record with temps hitting 100 five times and 17 days over 90 degrees. So it wasn't a cool, comfy month. We used a lot of electricity.

I forgot to say, I'm in Kentucky. And we have regular insulation, low-E windows, etc. but I use my washer a lot and, as I said, the A/C runs full blast all day long.

I think the reason for our lower costs really is simply the lower cost per kw/hr in our area. I did the math and I paid 7.3 cents per kw/hr for our July to August bill and 7.7 cents per kw/hr for our August to September bill. Not sure why it's different but I guess different months rate different kw/hr charges.

okay, three posts in a row for me.

I went to our energy company website. here are our local rates year-round:

Facility Charge (No Usage) $7.18 minimum
First 600 kWh per month $.06758 per kWh
Next 1400 kWh per month $.06583 per kWh
All Over 2000 kWh per month $.06451 per kWh

So we're really lucky. Our electric bills in our previous home in California (3,315 sq. ft.) were much higher in summer. There, at Southern California Edison, they had a complicated rate useage chart based on useage during peak hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and different rates for summer vs. fall and winter, etc. And the rates went up the more you used over what they estimated your baseline useage should be. The average rate was 14.9 cents per kw/h.

We used ICF construction, with a white metal roof, Icynene insulation, low-e and argon-filled windows. We're in Florida, and our most recent power bill was for only 20 days of us living here (we just moved in). We have a 2100 sq. foot house, and for the 20 days of living here, our bill was 567 kwh. Averaging this out over 20 days, my husband expects our next bill to be around 850 kwh. Of course, last month was still in the 90's for us, and we were running our air conditioner, so I am hopeful that the electricity usage will drop over the winter months.
Cheers!
Heather W

Our home is 4000 sq ft of air conditioned space. We live on the TX Gulf Coast so ac is our biggy rather than heating--

I'm trying to think if there could be other factors-- we chose a plan to take best advantage of our lot and all lower windows are either underneath a covered porch or on the north side of the house... don't know about the other homes-- just that they are the same size and configuration (cape cod style with an upper floor.)

Sorry to take so long to get back to this post-- guess I was just missing it :-(