Do you remember last month when I told you that I thought for sure that our next utility bill would be over $300.? Well I am sorry to say that I was correct. We received our electric and gas bill yesterday. For 34 days of service, the bill was $ 302.41.
This month we used 584 KWH’s of electricity and 156 ccf’s of natural gas. The average daily temperature during those 34 days was 32 degrees.
Last year for the same February billing, we used 563 KWH’s and 162 ccf’s of natural gas. So we used 21 KWH’s more of electricity and 6 ccf’s less in natural gas this year. Our bill last year was for 29 days and the average temperature was 23 degrees.
It is a good thing that temperatures were warmer this year. My bill last year was $ 257.83 for a much colder time period. This year’s bill was $44.58 more than last year. Can you just imagine what it would have been if we hadn’t had a warm spell?
To be perfectly honest, I am getting tired of these bill increases. We keep our heat at 68 during the day now and 62 at night. We are not heating 2 of the bedrooms and none of the basement. We have cloth snakes in front of the outside doors. I use small appliances to cook. Lights are off during the daytime and on at night only in the room or rooms that we are in. All lights are LED’s. We no longer use an electric blanket. I clean with cold water except for dishes. I have been doing my much needed spring cleaning this week and part of last and using a bucket of cold water to wash floors, etc. Computers and TV’s are turned off when we are not using them. I really don’t know what else to do to keep this bill down as low as possible. It’s getting very irritating.
Today, Hubby and I are going to run some errands. We have an ice storm coming in this afternoon and we could get up to 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice on trees and power lines. I am praying that we don’t lose power even though we pay an outrageous price for it. We don’t need to be without power for days.
We were supposed to have West for a few days this week because he is on winter break. However he is running a high fever so he is not coming. I am praying that he gets well soon.
Are you people frustrated with your power bills?