Last two months have been hot in Texas no doubt. Since the rain stopped in June, our electric bill went from $150ish to $340! That bill is setting the a/c on 80degrees during the day and 76 at night. House is 2600sqft and was built in 1996. Has proper insulation and attic ventilation.

After the first $300+ bill I started trying to figure out why I'm paying this much and never have the a/c comfortable unless I have every fan in the house on high blowing right on me. I got to looking at my bill and it's cost me $.045 kW/hr or about $10.50 a day to run my house.

What are y'all paying for electric?

I'm at about 13 to 14 cents per kw.  I really pay  companies because we belong to a Co-Op (monopoly for our area).  We don't have the power to choose in this area.  Forced to use Nueces Electric.

I think I'm paying 9.5 cents/kWh.

About 11 cents per (including tax and everything).

We have ENTERGY and are paying .11¢ /KWH. That is including the FUEL SURCHARGE. Not an expert, but .45¢ sounds pretty high to me.

Wood County electric monopoly. I have no choice right now but I'm starting to look into solar panels because of the cost.

 


1500 SQ FOOT...1968.  Not REAL good attic insulation, which I am going to address this winter.........no radiant barrier etc.




But my outside AC unit is only 5 years old.  If your compressor is from 1996, or more than 10 years old, get an ammeter and check the amperage you are using when the AC unit kicks on.  If its super high, it may be time to replace it.  The lower amperage used by a newer one may save you a lot every month.




I keep house at 77 at night, and 79 night, with a 1.5'f swing in thermostat.

My previous home was 1700sqft built in the 70s and the insulation and construction of the house was so bad, you could feel a draft from the back bedroom all the way to the front door. It was nice in the winter because I love it cold but in the summer it was terribly hot. My bill in that house even in the dead of summer and dead of winter was never over $200.

I just moved into this home in April and had the a/c unit checked and verified it was running properly and it was.

How old are your windows?

I have a house built late 80's and just installed new energy efficient windows which helped.

 

OEM



I know the insulation is lacking big time.  It barely covers the 2x4s in the ceiling.  Gonna start there.  Windows is a 6000$ job with these old houses because everything is a custom size.

Your bill is around $100 more than what mine have been and my house is 2400 sq ft built in 2001, no insulation added over what the builder put in.  My wife would also never allow 80 degree temps...  its set on 72 all the time...

I live in an 850 sq ft all electric 20 year old apartment.Current bill is $91.94 for 773 kWh, 11i89 per kWh with all the fees.

After pricing around Texas, I'm starting to see my electric company is royally raping me on the cost of kw/hr. I'm 3x as high as some places if not more!

Yeah, you are about 3x what I'm paying per kw/hr for Reliant.  Places like where you are and the city of Austin where there are granted monopolies and you can't pick your power company tend to be major league rip-offs.  It is one of the reasons I bought where I did in Travis County outside of Austin's ETJ...  so that I wouldn't have to pay Austin's higher tax rates or their white elephant power company prices.

Me too

7.7 c/kwh, Amigo.  2100 sq ft built in mid 2000s.

My bills have been ~$120-145 the last 3 months, last month was the highest.  I have several large trees that shade my house some extent.  House is kept at 74 day and night.

This is fucking bullshit. I'm paying upwards of 4-5 times what some of you guys are paying meanwhile I'm sitting in my nice house sweating my balls off because Ill end up with a $700 electric bill.

Posting in this thread jinxed me - I think my A/C finally gave out yesterday.  Looks like my 12 year old 11 sear unit needs upgrading this year afterall.

I have no affiliation with this company and get no gain....

I just started using Energy Ogre after being with Amigo for about 2 yrs.  They are a company who you pay a $10/mnth fee and they move you around, pay your bill through your credit card, and do all the leg work for you month to month.  I have some friends that use they and have great experiences and I have been using them for a few months.  They have some off the books deals with some "providers" that you dont find on the advertised sites.  My bills have been cut in half because they are able to keep my rate low.  I used to be up near $200/mnth in the summer and have been below $100 for the last 2 months with the same usage.  The $10/mnth for them to do the leg work is more than worth it.

TXU?


 




I have Reliant. $0.074 /kWh




 






If you can switch to Reliant, I can get you $50 bill credit for signing up.




 

I am around .11 per kw.  My house was built in 2012.  Very energy efficient 3028 sq/ft.  I have my AC's set at 74 all day until 9:30pm, when they go down to 69.  My bill last month was $147.

We averaged $0.123/kWh last month. (Entrust Energy)
Looking at last months bill, we actually pay $.079/kWh, but after all the misc. fees and add-ons it averages to $.123

If you are paying $.045/kW/hr and your bill is $340.00/mo that means your energy use is like 7,555 kWh/month
That seems like a HUGE amount of energy
(unless you are growing weed in your closets or something)

or are you saying you are paying 45 cents ($0.45)/kWh?

9.3 cents/kwh through Reliant.

I think I'm paying something under 5.4 cents for the first 1000 KWH, and 9.2 per KWH after than

right now our electric bill in a 1500 sqft apartment is about $90 (just looked and it was $110 this month ) a month with the ac on 75 in day and 70 at night.

When we move into the new house we are building, we are looking at around .05 cents a kw/h for the next 25 years. We will be installing a 10w solar system though.

I called this morning and did some "inquiring" on my bill. Because I'm in a co-op, they charge $. 045 for delivery plus all their fees and bullshit. Comes out to be $0.21 or "something like that." she said I can come to a board meeting and express my concerns over the cost if I so please. I'm sure that will go over like a lead balloon.

I did put in a work order for the guy they use to come to your house and figure out what is up with my high usage. I used 2870kw/hrs last month.

Eta, OK well I could be a dumbass the but whatever. Bill/kwhr comes out to be 12cents per kwhr. I'm not sure where the lady come up with 21cents so I'm lost on how they figure this shit.

Now I guess I need to figure out what t is running that is costing me so much. A/c is going to be my first thing to look at like someone else said.

I'm thinking about a doing a system myself. I like backups for backups.

every solar company I spoke too advised against doing battery back up. Take that for what its worth!

I remember reading about solar options awhile back.  Isn't the best thing to do is rent the panels?

Gentleman I spoke to a little while ago said there was two options. Buy batteries(most expensive/ off grid option) or no batteries (cheap and fast payoff/no off grid). It all depends on what the individual wants to do.

$25k is what I got as a rough estimate to do 101% power supplied by solar. Payoff at my current price is 7-10 years.

Eta

He also said that solar is not the starting point. A home energy efficiency test is recommended first and starting with evaluation of hot water heater, a/c, attic insulation, attic ventilation, ect...
Then go with solar to get most efficient bang for buck.

My Entrust energy bill is pretty well laid out.  

Shows usage x cost (that is where the 7.9 cents came from)
plus lists the other fees and at the bottom gives an average/kWh cost with everything.

The biggies in an all electric home are a/c (summer) & furnace (winter) and water heater - all year round.

Short answer. No!

Is it a scam?

Has anyone used any kind of window film in the house to help keep some of the heat out?

Dryer is also a biggy

While I am an electrician I have all gas that I can.  dryer, wh, heat , cooking

The dryer is,
but a lot of people (my wife included) like to hang clothes outside on the line,
dryer is not used all the time at our house.

Gas is nice, but there are no lines out where our house is located.
House was built in the 1970's, when the push was on to go "all electric".

I remember growing up in Corpus Christi (also in the 70's), our house had a nice "all electric home" medal on the door bell button - like it was special.

we are still debating going gas heat. It will be kind of pointless since we are going solar, but gas heat is much more efficient.

I recently stayed at an apartment in Greece and the owner was showing me how the hot water is heated in tanks on the roof by solar.  Pretty cool setup and the shower was hot but this was in August.  Do you have this kind of setup also?

I have 3 stories, 3 central heat and air units, 8 kids and 113 interior light bulbs and no telling how many outside. My electric bill can pay some people's house payment. Lol

My a/c guy has a solar heated hot water tank of the roof. Says he likes it but didn't see a decrease in utility bills.

My mothers house in Colorado was built in 1962. They re-insulated the entire house, added the maximum amount of solar panels, solar hot water and geothermal. They are really tight in electric use. And they still can't completely offset the night time use enough to breakeven or get a check back from the utility company. I think the best you can do is somewhat offset your bill with solar. Unless you have the space to have a bunch of panels that will track the sun. I don't know the rules in Texas. In Colorado they will only allow you to have enough panels to equal 120% of your average electric use.

Deregulated electricity typically means new customers get the good deals and existing customers get something else.  

Not everyone has the option to pick a new retail electric provider.  Especially true when the utility is municipally owned (Garland, Austin, San Antonio) or part of a Co-Op.  But you can find out from Power To Choose.  Every time my electric service contract is up, I give my current provider the opportunity to continue the introductory rate - they never do.  So I pick a new provider from the reference website and make the change.  You need to be careful to have the change occur on the billing cycle start/end day.  It's pretty painless.  And it's amusing to ding the old company when they call up to whine about me leaving.  

I do not recommend using the cheapest provider.  And keep an eye out of the dreaded "you're not using enough electricity so here's a surcharge for being energy efficient".  About half the year, I get pinged for using less than 1000kWh in a month.  It's $7.50 a month.  Annoying, but I'll deal with it because I knew about it ahead of time.  There can be a lot of fine print, so do it in the morning when you're fresh - not after the 3rd happy hour beer.  


On renewable energy...

first, a standard disclaimer - I design solar electric systems for a living and sometimes teach solar classes at the local community college.  These opinions (though informed) are mine.  

Solar PV isn't for everyone.  Only about one in four homes is really a good candidate for solar electric.  Reasons include too much shade, crappy roof layout/supporting structure or horrendously bad energy efficiency in the home.  Like I tell my students, it's easier to not use electricity than generate electricity.  Do everything you can to reduce usage before trying to make your own.  With only a few exceptions, energy efficiency improvements have a much faster pay back than installing a solar PV system.  I've spent a lot of money on energy efficiency since about 2008.  My summer electric bills are less than half what they used to be.  My last bill was $221.  Paid about 10.2 cents/kWh.  2600 sq ft, single story house.

As for sizing a PV system in Texas, I never recommend trying to install a system large enough to completely off-set all consumption.  Because of our deregulated market, excess generation is almost never returned to the consumer at the same rate (if even at all).  So it stretches out the payback.   As system components have gotten more flexible and micro-inverters more reliable, it's fairly reasonable to add on to a PV system at a later date.  Overproducing is usually just giving money away.  

With regards to leasing solar PV, I'm not a fan.  But that has more to do with how it's being marketed and actually sold, and the companies who do most of the leasing.  If the 30% tax credit expires next year, I may change my tune.   Another reason I dislike leasing is that solar modules will produce power pretty much forever from a human point of view and have warranties to back that up.  Inverters can fail, but it's lot less common than most realize.  Most fail early during the warranty - which has been typically hassle free for the owner.  Like anything of value, you want to be sure your insurance covers storm damage.  The odds are that if you lose the roof, your array is done.  But I've also seen composite roofs ruined or even torn off, while the PV array was just fine.  My RV roof took a beating in Abilene during some huge hail, but the module was just fine and still produces great 8 years later.  If cars lasted as long as PV modules, I think the car leasing business would be in the toilet.  

Battery backup on solar PV (or even as a stand-alone UPS) is a tough call.  I think a lot of companies don't want the hassle and really don't know how to do them right.  Batteries ain't cheap and become the weak link in the system.  There are a lot more components involved and the system efficiency takes a big hit.  More maintenance.  Which in turns pushes out pay-back even further.  And you now have to run an electrical system that has a section totally isolated from the grid (the critical load panel).  So there can be some significant wiring changes/additions in a residence.  Unless someone is fighting through frequent power outages of significant duration, battery backup is probably not the right solution.  I'd probably recommend a CNG or LP generator.   If the grid truly sucks or is nonexistent, then battery systems make more sense than generators.  It's definitely not a one size fits all scenario.  And don't even get me started on the Tesla Powerwall.  

Solar thermal (water heating) can also have good value, but again it's location/owner dependent.  At my house, it's just the two of us and we have a gas water heater.  Solar thermal doesn't make much sense.  For a guy with a 15 yr old electric water heater and 3 teen-age daughters, things could be quite the opposite.  The quality of the equipment used in solar thermal is typically very good (stainless steel thanks, evacuated thermal collectors and stainless heat exchangers).  But that stuff costs money.  And even then, nothing is waterproof.  Leaks can happen.   Compound that with locations that have a lot of sub-freezing temps and you can run into problems with systems that aren't well designed.  There aren't a ton of people who do solar thermal right.  I don't personally know any in North Texas.  

Window film on west facing windows can help.  East facing to a lesser extent.  South facing is not as big a deal as most homes have enough eave overhang to do some passive solar cooling.  But getting a good installer who can keep the bubbles from appearing in film is tough.  Seems like most of the people I know with window film complain about bubbles.   The glass guy who replaced some of the panes for us after they fogged is not a fan of window film - he didn't elaborate.  I think whole window solar screens might work better and allow you to remove them for solar gain in the winter.  The down side is they're harder to look through.   Your eye tends to focus on the screen instead of what's outside.  And you have to store them if you take them off.  Also a PITA on a 2-story house.   My father's solar screens have been incredibly durable.  More so than my standard window screens.  I have no affiliation with any window treatment people.  


Sorry for the sermon.  I didn't want to quote a bunch of different emails and dump 4 or 5 posts on the thread.

Cheers,
B

Just about .12c/kwhr with TXU.



Is Reliant worth switching to?

My bill for August was $169, was $165 for July.  Two story, 4 bedrooms saved by the grace of trees!  At night we put the Ac at 69, in the morning shut it off until around noon and put it at 72, today turned it on at 4:30 when came in the door, but its only 76 out now...  My previous home our bill was consistently over $300 in the summer months, trees and shade make a huge difference.  Can't go solar or get Sat TV, so there are drawbacks.  Gas water heater bill in summer is around $20, with heat needed in winter IIRC our gas bill has never been over $100 but do run the fireplace occasionally.

My folks had Solar Screens put outside several west facing windows and those REALLY worked, I was surprised at the afternoon difference in those rooms.

Hking

Solar costs too much, still.

Blowing 25K to save 200-300$ a month is dumb, when it takes 15 years to pay for the panels.


Invest that money in an IRA or something and you'll have more money at the end of the 25 years, even paying your electric bill.

I need to investigate this. I'm with Reliant at .118.

Are you all taking into consideration the delivery charges? On a $305.5 Reliant bill, less $14.3 discount, Centerpoint charges $102.13 delivery fees.
BTW, the wife keeps it at 74*, up and down.

I hear ya, wood county electric as well, 3500sqft house kept at 70 bills are $400-$800 in winter. I am looking into solar as well.

Howdy neighbor! Quitman?

Might that offer apply retroactively?

Just switched to them last month and am happy so far. Already saving money compared to previous provider (Gexa).

Sorry Dan I didn't see the offer! Much appreciated but unfortunately um stuck! Thanks though!