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We spend over $2,000 per year and it's just me and my girlfriend. From the sounds of it you have either very good rates or perhaps a frugal lifestyle? Either wa

We spend over $2,000 per year and it's just me and my girlfriend. From the sounds of it you have either very good rates or perhaps a frugal lifestyle? Either way it's impressive.

pkaye 11y ago
I think it depends on local weather. We spend about $600 on electricity and $600 is gas per year for 4 people in the Bay Area. And this is with an older water heater and furnace in an old house with moderate insulation. We would replace the heater, furnace and improve the insulation before even considering solar ourselves.
- danans 11y ago
  +1 to first upgrading your home. I live in the Bay Area but in a tightly sealed late 90's 1600 sqft house. No A/C. Recently upgraded our furnace and water heater to high efficiency models, and now spend about $400/year electricity, $400/yr for gas. Even accounting for the warmer winter this year, the gas savings was about 14%. There are pretty good incentives in the Bay Area for home energy upgrades if you do multiple at once: https://www.bayareaenergyupgrade.org/program-overview https://www.bayareaenergyupgrade.org/program-overview
bzbarsky 11y ago
We spend less than that for a family of 5. But that's not impressive at all; all these numbers really depend on what that electricity is being used for. Our heat and hot water are not electric. AC doesn't get used much, since we're far enough north (Massachusetts) that it's not a big deal. So that leaves lights, electronics, and the stove/microwave/vacuum... My parents, on the other hand, are in the DC area, electric AC, heat, hot water. They're spending probably triple what you are on electricity. Anyway, point is counting just electricity spending is typically comparing apples and oranges. You want to include the natural gas or oil or whatever else people are using for heat if you want to get numbers that are even remotely comparable.
r00fus 11y ago
I think it depends on your house size and whether you have a pool, etc. When we lived in an apartment, we spent $40-50/mo on utilities total. I have a family of 5 in a small home and we spend $1200/yr in pricey CA (rates start at 16c/kWh going up to 35c). We don't run AC (whole house fans/attic fans), and use room heaters in winter.

We spend over $2,000 per year and it's just me and my girlfriend. From the sounds of it you have either very good rates or perhaps a frugal lifestyle? Either way it's impressive.

pkaye 11y ago

I think it depends on local weather. We spend about $600 on electricity and $600 is gas per year for 4 people in the Bay Area. And this is with an older water heater and furnace in an old house with moderate insulation. We would replace the heater, furnace and improve the insulation before even considering solar ourselves.

danans 11y ago
+1 to first upgrading your home. I live in the Bay Area but in a tightly sealed late 90's 1600 sqft house. No A/C. Recently upgraded our furnace and water heater to high efficiency models, and now spend about $400/year electricity, $400/yr for gas. Even accounting for the warmer winter this year, the gas savings was about 14%. There are pretty good incentives in the Bay Area for home energy upgrades if you do multiple at once: https://www.bayareaenergyupgrade.org/program-overview https://www.bayareaenergyupgrade.org/program-overview

bzbarsky 11y ago

We spend less than that for a family of 5. But that's not impressive at all; all these numbers really depend on what that electricity is being used for. Our heat and hot water are not electric. AC doesn't get used much, since we're far enough north (Massachusetts) that it's not a big deal. So that leaves lights, electronics, and the stove/microwave/vacuum... My parents, on the other hand, are in the DC area, electric AC, heat, hot water. They're spending probably triple what you are on electricity. Anyway, point is counting just electricity spending is typically comparing apples and oranges. You want to include the natural gas or oil or whatever else people are using for heat if you want to get numbers that are even remotely comparable.

r00fus 11y ago

I think it depends on your house size and whether you have a pool, etc. When we lived in an apartment, we spent $40-50/mo on utilities total. I have a family of 5 in a small home and we spend $1200/yr in pricey CA (rates start at 16c/kWh going up to 35c). We don't run AC (whole house fans/attic fans), and use room heaters in winter.