Latest power bill!
- Thread starter dphins
- Start date
Shooter7
New member
My God! What are you guys running? I just got my bill the other day and it was $260 for gas and electric combined. That's in a two story house with a basement and 4 people living in it. I have my 120g, 10g, and QT all running. Do you have all electric appliances? I have gas stove, furnace, dryer, and water heater.
DrBDC
Active member
I'm not really sure how much better it is on cost. When one is down, the other is up. It used to be that gas was much cheaper and the promise of the future was cheap electric from nuclear reactors etc. That made a lot of people in the 60's and 70's go all electric. We are a "bronze" mediallion house and the all electric were the "gold" medallion houses. I had a condo that was 3 floors of 650 sq ft each but that would be counting the stairwell which was probably 6X6 or so. But that electric bill was always in the 300's no matter how frugal I was and it wasn't an end unit even. Just be glad that even with big electric bills we're the cheapest in the nation on the MO side and I'll bet it's still ranked well on the IL side.
Find 10 bulbs that are used a lot to change out for those 14w=60w bulbs and you've saved 460 watts. Find 20 and your tank will be covered. I've changed almost every bulb I have out for those so I'm probably close to even. Then you don't need to ride the kids as heavy abouit turning off light too! You still need to ask them if they live in a barn though. :lol:
Find 10 bulbs that are used a lot to change out for those 14w=60w bulbs and you've saved 460 watts. Find 20 and your tank will be covered. I've changed almost every bulb I have out for those so I'm probably close to even. Then you don't need to ride the kids as heavy abouit turning off light too! You still need to ask them if they live in a barn though. :lol:
I changed out my bulbs to the better one's months ago with the rate increase in mind. I installed a digital thermostat in months ago with the rate increase in mind. Ameren raised there electric rates up to 300%. They didn't raise there gas rates. Changing out light bulbs isn't going to fix the problem.
Shooter7
New member
No, I'm sure the biggest hit was the extremely cold temps and electric heat. I don't remember what it cost him, but back around 1990 my dad made the decision that since they were laying gas lines in his all electric neighborhood that he was going to switch everything out. I know it wasn't cheap to get it done and all new appliances, but he planned on them being in that house for awhile and I know the man was excellent with a budget, so I'm sure he had it all figured out and decided it was worth it. If we have a hot summer and the rates don't change, I'm sure I'll be hurting more too. hmmm...maybe we'll spend more time in the basement this summer.
DrBDC
Active member
More basement time helps. Grill every night. We never use the oven on days over 90 and in the winter after using it I'm so stingy I make everyone leave the oven door open for free heat. We have the gas furnace/water heater and I probably should have run a line over for the dryer since I just bought a new one. We're doing a new cooktop upstairs and I was going to go with gas but they are all in the 19" depth on the cutouts and I was working with 21" and it would have meant a new counter which I don't feel like messing with right now. Our electric is bad in the summer because the air conditioner runs 24/7 with no off cycling and the upstairs is sometimes 85 degrees still.
Ocicat
Premium Member
reefs4ever2
New member
bill
bill
ill trade all of you mine went up almost 200 bucks it went from an average of 230 a month to 445 this month now thats redickerous:mad2:
bill
ill trade all of you mine went up almost 200 bucks it went from an average of 230 a month to 445 this month now thats redickerous:mad2:
I can't stand them. When I broke my back, and wrist, and ribs, and.... I didn't get out of the hospital in time to pay the electric bill. They turned me off WWWAAAAYYYY too soon against MO regulations.
I knew they hated me but I didn't know they hated me THAT MUCH!!! 3 buddies and myself were the people who started http://www.heatupstlouis.org/index.html (Cooldownstlouis.org in the summer). I've spoken before the Public Service Commission many times and every single time I did, the rate hikes for either Laclede Gas or Ameren were blocked.
I called them and threatened them. I said, while I no longer run Heat Up, I still know all of the political figures, PSC commissioners, and media people that I did back then. How would you like me to proceed? I had power in 20 minutes.
BTW....just a reminder for people doing their taxes. If you donate to dollar help, that's an itemized deduction. I'm not involved in the charity anymore but I'm going for some free advertising. 100% of any donation to heatup or cooldown goes to people in need. The charity is 100% volunteer and all administrative costs are covered by the corporate sponsors.
I knew they hated me but I didn't know they hated me THAT MUCH!!! 3 buddies and myself were the people who started http://www.heatupstlouis.org/index.html (Cooldownstlouis.org in the summer). I've spoken before the Public Service Commission many times and every single time I did, the rate hikes for either Laclede Gas or Ameren were blocked.
I called them and threatened them. I said, while I no longer run Heat Up, I still know all of the political figures, PSC commissioners, and media people that I did back then. How would you like me to proceed? I had power in 20 minutes.
BTW....just a reminder for people doing their taxes. If you donate to dollar help, that's an itemized deduction. I'm not involved in the charity anymore but I'm going for some free advertising. 100% of any donation to heatup or cooldown goes to people in need. The charity is 100% volunteer and all administrative costs are covered by the corporate sponsors.
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
Wow....
My heart goes out to you guys over in ILL, getting hit hard by Ameren's latest debacle....
Dont know how long this story will be up on stltoay.com, but....
Ameren offers partial refunds to Illinoisans reeling from a spike in electric rates
IMO, the fact that their offering this indiactes they are seriously scared of being spanked by Illinois legislators....and if this is their first offer...more should be coming. There have been a few articles on stltoday describing where Ameren has shown a profit of 3x higher than their normal profit...and IIRC that was after expenses were paid....
I'm sorry guys, hope this works out well for you...
Nick
My heart goes out to you guys over in ILL, getting hit hard by Ameren's latest debacle....
Dont know how long this story will be up on stltoay.com, but....
Ameren offers partial refunds to Illinoisans reeling from a spike in electric rates
IMO, the fact that their offering this indiactes they are seriously scared of being spanked by Illinois legislators....and if this is their first offer...more should be coming. There have been a few articles on stltoday describing where Ameren has shown a profit of 3x higher than their normal profit...and IIRC that was after expenses were paid....
I'm sorry guys, hope this works out well for you...
Nick
I just got my new bill today. $65 bucks. I do have gas heat though so that bill is higher. I have a 760 watt light fixture on the way now, with that, a/c, and the pool my bill should be pretty nice this summer.
I did like some of you and switched most bulbs in the house took out about 675 watts.
I did like some of you and switched most bulbs in the house took out about 675 watts.
