Utility bills and realtors (the continuing saga)

[r2cagle]

I can give you my averages in Louisiana...we have a 1640 sq ft house, one story, central heat/air, gas water heater, and our electric bill runs about $60-$70 in the winter and $120 - $160 in the summer and our house was built in the 70's. Our very highest bill was $220. But the averages my utility company uses for estimating our usage is about double what we actually use, so I guess we're doing pretty well.

Yeah, you won't get specific dollar amounts from the utility companies and usage is always dependent on lifestyle usage, number and type of appliances/electronics. Expect your first year in the house to be higher bills than expected, once you've been there for a while, your usage pattern will naturally taper off.

Also, if you can manage it, don't go on any average monthly payment plan just before or during summer. If possible, wait until the winter months to go on it. The reason for that is, that will be when your 'anniversary' date is. If the utility company does a 'true-up' on your anniversary date during the summer months when you've got a large balance built up, it'll significantly increase your monthly payment for the next year. Best months for an anniversary date is Oct/Nov/Feb/Mar. That gives the averages time to get close to zeroing out before any yearly adjustments are done. But of course, not knowing how your bills will run, you may not have any control over when or if you need to take advantage of that program.

I would take the averages you were given on the house and multiply by 3, if you could still handle that amount if it was a very high summer bill, (not saying it would be) then that would be an indication to me that it's worth trying to buy the house. Sounds like it's really nice. Good luck.

[Primer]

As for the "budgeting," you can always do your own. My electric bills average about $200/month for 2400 sq ft, all electric, 3 people, 2 of whom are at home pretty much 24 hours a day. I send them $250-300/month when it's lower, so that I have a buffer built up for the summer when it's higher.

[tacohuman]

it will also depend on your provider. most providers who draw their power off the south texas nuclear project plant charge significantly lower rates than those who don't. for example, city of austin (a stnp client) only charges $0.0355 for the first 500kwh, and after that it's $0.0602 in the winter and $0.0782 in the summer. txu, the other main provider around here (not a stnp client) charges around $0.135/kwh.

[bookworm]

Another thing to look at is how old is the heat and air equipment. My husband is a HVAC tech, and the equipment is getting more and more energy efficient every year, so if it's fairly new equipment you could be looking at accurate electric numbers. Aside from age, there are different SEER ratings, the higher the SEER rating the more efficient the unit is and less expensive to run.

That being said, those numbers do seem a bit low to me, but I'm not in Texas either.

[MaggieTheCat]

Well, we actually found another house that we like a lot (I started another thread in the Off Topic forum about it) and the owners of that place kept a detailed list of what the electric and water bills were for the year of 2009, which they sent to us, along with a scan of both the water and electric bill for the month of January (2010.) The numbers are a little higher, averaging for the year around $130 for both and getting up to the $190-200 range in the summer, which is more like like what we expected but still very good. The AC in this house is also brand new, it was installed last year and the warranty will convey with the house to the new owners.