High summer temps = massive electric bills. How do you cope?

just live somewhere like I do that covers all your utilities that is what the rest of us do.

Somewhere in my mind I remember someone saying “they need to tax the companies more. That way they can give the money to us poor people.”

Corporations don’t pay taxes. Any taxes that are put on them, is transferred to the people that buys their products. People pay taxes.

Your condo or apartment doesn’t pay the utility bills. The money doesn’t come from the tooth fairy. The total bills for the complex is summed up and the cost is included into the cost of the rents for all the residents.

You are still paying the utilities, it is just smoothed out where everyone is paying a percentage of the total sum of all the bills.

The ones that are energy conscious, and use little energy and water, are getting screwed.
The ones that use the most, are leaching off everyone else.

We're in GA. We only ran the air if it was over 90, and then many days didn't.

Some of our strategies:

1. above ground pool. Go jump in it 10 times a day.

2. ceiling fans and attic fan

3. cook outside/eat outside on the back porch. I have a GE roaster- keep it out back. I can cook something good in the bottom and warm up 3 sides in the top. It's great. We grilled some too.

4. Less clothes. I have several sarongs and wear them. I figured out for me personally, that if I can keep my underarms free and out, I stay a LOT cooler. Sometimes I wear a super long skirt, like a dress! Just keep my arms and under arms FREE. lol

5. Movies and the library - We head to the movies on days that is totally hot. I always try to get the sales/deals/contests where I get free movie tickets. We could go anytime of day but we pick the hottest on the hottest days.

6. Keep the refrigerator full of cool drinks. Water, tea, lemonade. Make fruit icies. When it is really hot, I highly recommend a good mojito. Nothing is so cooling. Make em virgin for the kids.

7. Sandwiches and soup and salad.

8. Cold washclothes in the freezer, and small baggies of ice, wrapped in a towel, on top of my head, when it is so hot I can't sleep.

9. Long hair. Yes it is hot, but it can also be cooling. But it's awful cooling if you just keep it wet. You'll hardly catch me with dry hair in the heat. I always go to bed with my hair wet. My son's hair is very long too- he's figured all this out as well. My husband has a bald spot, lol, he keeps a baggie of ice on it wrapped in a cloth at night.

The United States has recently broken a number of records in terms of electricity consumption. The figures... are astoundingly high.

CONSUMERS SET ELECTRICITY USE RECORDS IN PJM REGION

(Valley Forge, Pa. – Aug. 11, 2010) – Consumers in the 13-state PJM Interconnection region have set new records for electricity consumption for June and July and have used 16 percent more electricity so far this summer than last summer.

So far this year, the peak demand for electricity in the PJM region was 136,680 megawatts (MW) on July 6. Peak demand is the greatest amount of electricity used during a single hour. (One megawatt is enough electricity to serve 800 to 1,000 homes.) This peak amount was 14 percent higher than last year’s peak demand. The all-time record peak demand was 144,644 MW set on August 2, 2006.

www.pjm.com...

Texas breaks electricity demand record again

The new peak demand exceeds last week's record of 63,830 MW (Aug. 10) by 975 MW, and last year's record by 1,405 MW. Prior to this year, the all-time peak demand record was 63,400 MW, recorded on July 13, 2009..

energyandenvironmentblog.dallasnews.com...

Paris, France has a peak demand of 3200 megawatts.

My entire country only uses less than 30,000 megawatts at any time.

1 megawatt = 1341 horsepower

Just remember how utterly dependent on electricity we are, how useful it is, and how it's easy to take it for granted.

Also, hot summer days will obviously cause electricity consumption to go up and peak, which means electricity production has to go up. It is expensive to build an efficient power plant, so the plants that provide peaking power on these days are generally not as efficient as they only need to operate for a few days or months a year. This makes them expensive to fuel, and operate (but cheap to build) which is why rates go up dramatically on hot days, ergo your power bill will go up even if you personally are not using more electricity.

[edit on 30/8/2010 by C0bzz]

Originally posted by virraszto
We've had more 90+ degree days with high humidity that would be absolutely unbearable without some form of air conditioning.

I am sure many have had to endure unusually hot and sticky days - those who are in Europe, remember the summer of 2003? - but as you can see from other people's replies, it absolutely IS bearable without AC.
What's more, I refuse to even ride in a car that has the AC on. (Those windows were supposed to be opened if needed, people. And there are ways of regulating the air currents in cars so they're just right. )
I am a very healthy person who hasn't been to a doc's office in more years than some ATS members have been alive, but AC will get to me in no time, provoking a sore throat and general malaise.

What I would recommend is what works for me:

- keep the outer surface of window panes protected from the sun from very early in the day;

- keep away from alcohol (the word "calories", of which alcohol contains A LOT, comes from the Latin calor, meaning 'heat', and for good reason);

- take very HOT showers, as hot as your skin (and heart) can tolerate. It is an old and very sensible piece of advice that works wonderfully;

- drink lots of water with a few drops of apple vinegar in it.
It's not only the most thirst-quenching drink, it'll also keep you healthy - and slim.

Also, try not to think of the heat as suffering and torment. If you simply accept it and even ty to relish it (you can make your mind do anything ), you'll probably find it much easier to tolerate.





[edit on 30-8-2010 by AdAstra]

reply to post by virraszto


I coped by having a "drowned" central HVAC system and flexiducts. Thanks to a deluge on May 1st. Couldn't use the AC, so my electricity bill wasn't as high as it would have been. Although, two large fans do use a lot of electricity, too.

Next summer, though, we will probably be "drowning" in outrageous electric bills. And if we can afford it, we will certainly prefer to keep the house cool using AC than spend another summer sweating profusely in the heat and humidity.

They system has finally been repaired. Just in time to not need it.

I have a simple solution, move to Ireland!

We basically have 2 days a year that reach in or around degrees 30 Celsius usually in july/early august and its nowhere near hot enough to need A/C...

the only drawback is in winter when central heating is a must or else death by freezing causes bills to peak.

Originally posted by helltick
reply to post by Lil Drummerboy

 

Works for the energy co?

not directly.
why would that matter?

reply to post by AlreadyGone


Oh yes, how I remember - you've given me home sickness and I've only been gone a year.

Originally posted by virraszto
This summer has been the hottest that I can remember for a long time. We've had more 90+ degree days with high humidity that would be absolutely unbearable without some form of air conditioning. With the economy the way it is, people can barely afford to feed their families and I wonder how everyone is coping with the summer heat and/or your air conditioning bill. It has hit us hard this year. I do not have central air, and rely on window a/c units and lots of fans. My electric bill for July was $300 and for Aug it was $500. With our paycheck severely cut, that takes a huge hunk out of our monthly income. How are you coping?

I consider us lucky in that my husband is working, but I really wonder about those who are unemployed and struggling. How have they managed to make it through this summer? We've tried to only use the air when it was unbearable, but still ended up with massive electric bills.

wow, didn't know US electric tariff is so expensive.

I am from Malaysia, I have three air con, my room's air-conditioner is on 24 hours a day, second air-con in the other room will be on at night daily, third air-con is at the living room, some times, all three are on.

on top of that, all family members bath with hot water from electric water heater that is rated at 3-4kW

guess what, my electric bill is always less than 200 USD.

you might want to look at new generation air conditioner with inverter, they save a lot.

I am glad i live in the Mojave desert of Calif.

Nice hot and dry and i do not have a AC.

I have a swamp cooler that is very cheap to run and i would never trade it for a AC unit.

I close all my windows tight and vent the air after it has went through the house from the swamp cooler up into the attic then out the attic vents.

I know one guy that has a cooling tower system to cool his home
The air from the cooling tower goes through a duct to the house and He also has in the duct a number if chilled water radiators that are cooled by water from the cooling tower.
The water then feeds back into the top of the tower.
The air from this system is cold.

reply to post by virraszto

We've tried to only use the air when it was unbearable, but still ended up with massive electric bills.

I think this is because if you turn the AC off and the place heats up again it uses much more energy to reach the desired temperature than if you kept it running. Unless you are leaving for more than a day you should probably keep them running.
Things I do around here, and when I had window units...
Keep the filters clean and the AC on a constant "low" setting so it doesn't freeze up.
Keep the drapes drawn, so you are not fighting heat from sunshine and seal any places that might leak your cool air outside, under doors and around windows, etc.
I never hold a door open for longer than a few seconds, since truckloads of hot air can come in and cool air out.
To do yard work I do it all in the early am or I put suntan lotion and my bathing suit on and weed the garden or mow the lawn while I am stepping in and out of the sprinkler, - saving money I might have spent at the tanning salon!

We turn the AC up to 80 during the day and 75 at night. Our electric bill is very small, but so is our house. Avg bill is maybe $75.

It's the winter time that kills my budget. With two small kids (3 and 1) I can't let it get too cold. My avg monthly bill in the winter is around $250.

We deal with higher than average electric bills in the summertime here in Texas. That's just the way it is. This year we had several weeks of 100+ temps, but we managed. My highest bill was only double its usual amount. I'm lucky because the colder half of the year we don't run the heater at all. If it gets too cold we light a fire or bundle up, so our electric bills are really low, which helps even out the cost over the rest of the year.

Thanks to those that offered some good suggestions to deal with the heat and the high cost of electricity bills.

reply to post by virraszto


Hi OP, good post. You still haven't stated what part of the country you are in so , considering you stated "We've had more 90+ degree days with high humidity" that you are probably here in the Northeast.

Because most southerners would laugh at those temps in the summer !



Alright, first of all since no one has mentioned this, in reading the responses.

Your Electricity during the day (aka PEAK) costs considerably more than at night. So begin by only cooling the areas absolutely necessary during the day if at all possible.

So if during the day, you can live with it, Stay downstairs and run only one A/C during PEAK. After PEAK hours, you can crank them all back up again.

Second, if you are using that many A/C units in a relatively small home, you are not well insulated and are fighting the heat going uphill so to speak. Or you are keeping it too cold inside.

Check your units, they might be old and inefficient or need to have their filters cleaned more often. Modern Energy Star A/C units are considerably more efficient than older ones too and pay for themselves as mine have in energy savings.

Also, make sure to clean your filter at least once a month.


I have a typical New England 2500 sq ft Cape which being built in the 60's when oil was cheap, was very poorly insulated by today's standards.

When fuel was that cheap, there really was no need to.

I have since insulated the Attic, Basement and replaced the windows with HIGH Efficiency windows. And installed an attic ridge vent to keep the attic cooler...even though there is much more to be done up there.

It is now like night and day inside !!!!!!!!

Now my electric bill and heating bill are considerably less.
My highest E Bill was $160. running 2 Energy Star efficient A/C day in and day out too.

Years ago, when I saw that George Bush was going to become president as well as his ties to the Texas Corporate Greedy Oil Profiteers, I knew that our heating/cooling costs were only going to be going up.

Back in 2000, I saved my money and Bought the best replacement windows available. Which are tripled paned, Argon Gas Insulated , insulated framed windows.

Which might sound all fancy but work like a champ. The house on a day in the 80's requires no A/C whatsoever staying around 75 all day. Till we begin to cook in the evening.

For example it's 91 in the shade right now here in New Hampshire and my inside temp with no A/C useage at all is 73.2 degrees.

After having taken advantage of last nights cool 63 degree temps. I got the house down to 69 degrees by opening up the house and letting it cool down.

Also, if it's too hot out, as in when we were in the 100's degree range this summer. I didnt use my desktop computer with the nice big LCD monitor that generates lots of heat.
I used my laptop during those days to save on electricity and heat.

So in answer to your question , that's how I cope with today's higher fuel costs, is by having the forsight to see those in office continue to get richer as they always have.

As well as having the foresight to prepare for it.

Peace

well i live in BALI- Indonesia, and we have our air conditioning on literally 24 hours a day throughout the year. Nevertheless my electricity bill amount to about US$ 30 per month only (with 2 computers for business, fridge, TV, etc etc)

sometimes it pays off to live in a developing country (with the right job / business)

EDIT: oh yeah i must admit though...i'm using an energy saving, low wattage, air con suitable for a 4 x 4 meters bedroom and in my living room a normal fan


[edit on 30-8-2010 by nagabonar]

Most days I'm out of the house before the sun comes up and don't return until after the sun sets in the evening and temps start to dwindle. During those hours I run a inward blowing high CFM box fan in the back window, (from the covered patio area) and I run another high CFM box fax in the front window to exhaust hot air. In essence I create a wind tunnel through the house for cooling.

Originally posted by babybunnies

If drinking water doesn't help, take a cold shower several times a day. If you're unemployed, it's not like you don't have the time.

A warm shower would be better. If the water temp is warmer than the air, which is going to feel cooler when you get out of the shower?

Originally posted by ghaleon12
reply to post by above

 

I think the question is addressed to those who don't want to move to Africa and live in huts.

Most of Africa is not as hot and humid simultaneously as the southern states of the USA.

Many athletes from Africa were astonished at the heat and humidity when they went to the Olympic Games in Atlanta, 1996.