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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Need help estimating utilities
Can you share your utility bills with me? We are looking at two properties and one is bigger than I'm used to and here in the valley (with our heat) so I don't know how to estimate what the bills will be, summer or winter. It has everything I want in a yard and key inside points, just bigger than most.
One house is over 4800 sq feet and 3 levels (medium 'basement room', 5 bedroom upstairs) with a stucco outside. 1/2 or more of the downstairs is tile, the balance is carpet. If you house is 3200 or more can you tell me what your bills are like? DH is a little concerned over the summer bill here.
Thanks for your help! I'm working on DH on this one, I love it!
Re: Need help estimating utilities
Well my house is 1500 sq feet so I thought I would tell you anyways so you can get a wide range idea of what bills would be like in general (it also depends on how much electricty you personally use). We have APS for our electricity and we are on the equalizer plan with the off peak time schedule of 12pm - 7pm (this means we should use the least amount of electricity from 12 -7 since this is our "on peak" time. With all that said we pay $122 a month year round.
When we first moved into the house we did not have the equalizer payment option so in the winter our lowest bill I believe was $60 and the highest in the summer was $189. I would imagine a 4800 sq foot house, depending how energy efficient it is or how much energy you use, could cost a great amount more then my house does...
Our current house (we have an above ground pool) is 3100 sq ft and our bill has been $60 in the winter months (we have a gas fire place as well as a gas water heater and gas dryer too which we run instead of the electric heat and appliances) and in the summer up towards 300ish a month. We keep our ac set at 81 during the day in the summer and at night we will go down to 79.
Our plan is from 9pm-9am as well... that plan is not offered anymore with APS though... So I am sure that it will be different with other houses...
The house we just purchased had an average monthly electric bill of 235$. That is 100% electric everything with an inground pool...
Thanks for the input! This is about what I was guesstimating for the different sq footages.......
Yay for HOA paying the utilities!! Although when I lived in Denver they did BUT the complex didn't allow the heat to go high enough in the winter so I lived in front of the space heater!
my home is 3400 sq ft and we have a gas water heater and fire pit in the back yard. they don't use energy so we pay southwest gas seperatly but we also have a "spool" (small pool) which runs about 3 hours a day at night (off peak)
we use the time of day energy saver plan. so depending on the winter or summer hours the peak time costs are higher. we keep our house at 70 degrees in the winter and 80 when we arn't home during the summer when we are home we turn it down to 78 once we go "off peak" again. automatic thermostats are great to adjust the temp you want during whatever hours you have it set to so you know if your home or going to be away. they have saved us money. we have a 2 story home with travertine on the bottom floor and carpet upstairs. (basement homes will stay cooler) that second floor can get hot.
we pay around $270 at its highest and $130 during the winter. my husband is uber cheap when it comes to energy and works at SRP (we get NO discount) so its like a game to him with how much we use per month
Thanks, JJ that helps a lot too. Yes I figured we'd be a bit warm upstairs but DH likes fans on him anyway (I don't but I live with it.) And I'm not one to want to sweat in my own home although I'll troll around the house in a tank and shorts every day, just don't make me sweat, you know.
I don't recall, does the energy saver represent your actual costs,like do you have a balloon payment or refund or do they just guess and if its lower you lose, if it turned out higher they lose?
lol, my DH loves fans on him too so in the summer he has one directly facing him while he sleeps.
the energy saver averages out your payment so you pay one price all year long. it gets prorated and if you over use they adjust it the following year same if you use less energy then they averaged. you can't use this option until you've paid a full year of utility bills. thats why the "time of use" plan works wonderful. you can save using that while they use that as a base for if you decide to average out your payment the following year.
my parents use this option on their home which is 5400 sq ft with an enormous pool and back yard. they average $500 a month which since my grandpa is in hospice care and no longer controls their AC just went down to $430
What is it with men and fans? I don't like a fan beside the bed or on strong above me because it makes my hair play all over my face when I'm trying to sleep. You know, 'flick flick flick......flick flick flick"
I would do the 7-12 (I like it better than the 9-9 I used to have and they no longer offer unless you already had it ona previous home) and if we make the basement my office/studio/playroom for DD then we will be able to keep it warmer upstairs where we aren't.
It's not just men, I have to sleep with a fan on. It's the noise that I have to have in order to sleep. I even had it on last week when it was freezing cold.
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