Insane electric bill...

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
There's probably something wrong with the heating system and either the fans aren't blowing or they aren't blowing hard enough to warm the house efficiently or something. Go crawl around and check around for efficiency issues. I just checked my grandmother's house and they have an "up-duct" at the end of the hall in a closet (which has slatted doors so air can go through) that's for an evaporative cooler to let the excess air go into the attic. They don't have the cooler anymore and only air conditioning, and had no idea that they had that vent. They had no idea that they have been air conditioning their attic for the 43 years they have owned their home, which its 115 outside in the summer!


Radiant heat requires no blowers.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Falken
My brother in law lives in Kirkland in a fairly large house, but it is built in the early '90's I believe.

It is fully electric, baseboards and hot water tank etc.

We have Hydro Quebec, not exactly cheap, but historically supposed to be cheap dam generated electricity.

Well, he has been getting billed 750$ CDN a month for the cold months.

This has been a very cold Winter, so I think your bills are "normal".

I have an old condo where the neighbors heat a lot as they are older people, so I left the heating off expecting high bills.

I turned the baseboards down to 15C, so they never came on even once.

My bedroom was always above 20C, I think it fell to 19C two or three times, but I wear polar fleece, very heavy jogging pants etc.

I only paid 21$ a month as the minimum charge to hold a Hydro Quebec account, so it is very doable.

I work all day, so I really enjoy a nice warm work day, and when I go home I let the computer heat up my office with the door shut.

So, there are ways to cut back on expenses, such as living in apartments etc.

I could never afford a wallowing shack, it isn't me, it is just the power companies have been allowed to gouge in North America, it is a new reality.

Maybe he should live in a small, brand new Condo at his age? What are his needs?
Power companies have been allowed? They have been strangled by EPA regulations in the US.

 

[Falken]

Hydro Quebec, a Government utility, made over 3.3 BILLION dollars profit, but wants to increase rates:

http://www.cjad.com/cjad-news/2015/03/07/hydro-quebec-rates-set-to-rise

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/hydro-quebec-asks-for-permission-to-increase-prices-1.1946750

So it is an insane joke if you ask me...

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: Bandito440
That's a huge amount of electricity, but not out of the realm of a poorly insulated house using very expensive electric heat during a cold month. Find out what his bill was in July to narrow it down.


+1. My inlaws have all electric heat and they basically keep it to 1 notch above a meat locker and they are $300.+ a month.
I would look at insulation, windows, doors and even a new means of heating.

 

[Vikas]

Quote:
they basically keep it to 1 notch above a meat locker
How close is that to the 72F as listed in the original post?

 

[turtlevette]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
why are you making me do the calculations in my head? could you not have just stated that a typical 40-50 years old 3000 sq feet house needing some remodeling costs somewhere between $1.5M and $2.4M? Is it because, I would have then claimed you are once again bragging?


Don't worry about anyone bragging. It gives us all more info rather than less. Would you not like to know real costs of living, what people paid for their cars etc. How would withholding this info help us.

 

[HTSS_TR]

The main reason we have low utility bills is we set thermostat at 58F during the day when nobody around and at night when we sleep. It is at 64F early morning we we get up and 62F in the evening. Yes, we have sweater on all the time in winter and sometimes I put on light jacket on top of sweater even when I was inside.

The winter outdoor temperature on average is about 55-60F so that the furnace is rarely run, about 10-20 minutes a day at most.

In summer we set thermostat at 82F and the A/C is rarely on, we turned the fans on when temperature inside was above 75-76F.

Summary, more comfortable you like when the weather was extreme cold or hot, more money out of your pocket will be the result.

We choose to live in So Cal mainly because of nice weather year-round, and we pay dearly for high cost of living here. You can buy a decent 3-bedroom house for around $250-300k in many states, but for that amount you can only buy a condo in fair neighborhood or a run down 2-bedroom house in lousy area.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Falken
Hydro Quebec, a Government utility, made over 3.3 BILLION dollars profit, but wants to increase rates:

http://www.cjad.com/cjad-news/2015/03/07/hydro-quebec-rates-set-to-rise

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/hydro-quebec-asks-for-permission-to-increase-prices-1.1946750

So it is an insane joke if you ask me...
Do they do any GOOD with that profit or is it just going to "income redistribution? I would expect a state owned utility to do no more than break even unless there was "social engineering" going on. Pitchforks and torches may be required.

 

[Falken]

Herr, Quebec suffered from decades of corruption that the PQ finally started to end by putting everyone on trial.

They had some good effect... Now we actually SEE roadwork being done, and not just pilon storage around holes in the ground that never get fixed.

They separate Hydro Quebec enough legally from the government, I feel, that most of it just vanishes and we don't see any real social benefit compared to other North American cities that don't have such a cash cow.

But I don't really know...

 

[Falken]

Just to add, if anyone patiently spends the time adding shrink film (bulk rolls is cheap), and reinforcing the double sided tape with duct tape so it doesn't peel off near Spring, and you use a heat gun to "drum shrink" it, and a second time with the heat gun when the film expands, it is worth 100$ a month to most people in small bungalows in North America.

Most people don't have the patience to do it, but if you do it end of October and leave it on until late Spring, it actually really helps.

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Quote:
they basically keep it to 1 notch above a meat locker
How close is that to the 72F as listed in the original post?


Not very.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: Throt
Built in 1956 ALL electric (heat, water heater, literally everything in the house)


Ok so what is the question? Unfortunately the amount of $$ paid over that period could have bought an ocean front home in Florida.

 

[Bluestream]

Originally Posted By: Falken
Herr, Quebec suffered from decades of corruption that the PQ finally started to end by putting everyone on trial.

They had some good effect... Now we actually SEE roadwork being done, and not just pilon storage around holes in the ground that never get fixed.

They separate Hydro Quebec enough legally from the government, I feel, that most of it just vanishes and we don't see any real social benefit compared to other North American cities that don't have such a cash cow.

But I don't really know...


The Quebec government and politics have been corrupt for years, no reason to expect that to change..