what on earth does electricity cost near you?

[DKCDKC]

I pay 10 to 11 cents per kwh to an electric cooperative. I have a geothermal heat pump, good insulation (tho way too many windows) and a woodstove with direct outside air intake. I keep the house coolish except for the room with the stove. I have a forest outside and people - normally - who cut firewood on shares. I do have to split it. When things go right, it's a great system that costs me little - particularly compared to some on this posting line. Besides all that, I just love a nice wood stove to cozy up to.

Our utility gets a significant percentage from nuclear power. It's a solid, reliable and inexpensive source. I like solar for remote stuff, but the high cost - tho is is declining now a bit - spread over the lifetime of the system is not free. I've had friends with solar whose efficiency really begins to drop after 10 years, and 20 seems max life for most systems.

But choosing an energy source is like choosing a tractor, needs, tastes and financial situations vary, so there's no one right answer.

 

[7879fordman]

Last months bill here doubled and tripled for some people mine was double . They raised there prices here a bunch .

Sent from my iPhone 5 using TractorByNet

 

[KTurner]

0,07/kwh in USD But then I have to pay rent of the power line, it costs 227usd a month

Whoa. Is that a flat fee for renting the line or does it change based on usage? Have you looked into microchp systems? I'm not real familiar with them past the concept, but it seems like having one of those and generating your own electricity could possibly be cheaper than paying that rent. Plus it provides heat. Of course, this assumes you can get natural gas without having to pay hundreds per month for renting the nat gas lines

Keith

 

[Tor Arne]

Whoa. Is that a flat fee for renting the line or does it change based on usage? Have you looked into microchp systems? I'm not real familiar with them past the concept, but it seems like having one of those and generating your own electricity could possibly be cheaper than paying that rent. Plus it provides heat. Of course, this assumes you can get natural gas without having to pay hundreds per month for renting the nat gas lines

Keith

It is flat fee. Natural gas is not an option. Please tell me more about microchp i never heard about that.
In Norway you have to apply oil and energy department to build windmills small power plants and other solutions that is large enough to power a whole house and the state will automatically acquire the rights to the powerplant after a certain number of years. :thumbdown:

Sometimes I wonder if I really live in a communist state:confused3:

 

[3930dave]

OP - something else to consider re. wood: Aside from the Extra Profit Always (and other govt meddleOcrats) nonsense that has started up, many insurance companies will give you a hard time re. wood heat.

Some people don't know how to properly burn wood - you grew up with wood, so you know what I'm talking about. But, that's not what the insurance companies are after.

What they are demanding is a stove with all the recent safety approvals (UL, CSA....). Many people have had to yank out an older and still-working-fine wood stove, and replace it with a new approved one. If you don't, then they will threaten to drop your insurance policy - which is usually a condition of mortgage.

I actually like wood as a heat source, even with the complications. Just wanted to point out that aside from using outdoor air for combustion, the age of the wood-burner has to be considered.

Natgas is a good option; that's what I'm on now at home.

For a remote property, in this climate, I may seriously look at an outdoor wood boiler.

Of the ones I've seen, these are the ones I like the best so far:

Portage and Main Outdoor Wood Boilers

(Tor - they do have some chip boilers, with an auto-feed system. Basically King Kong's version of a pellet stove :thumbsup.

Rgds, D.

 

[KTurner]

It is flat fee. Natural gas is not an option. Please tell me more about microchp i never heard about that.
In Norway you have to apply oil and energy department to build windmills small power plants and other solutions that is large enough to power a whole house and the state will automatically acquire the rights to the powerplant after a certain number of years. :thumbdown:

Sometimes I wonder if I really live in a communist state:confused3:

Some Micro CHP information.

 

[Tor Arne]

.
(Tor - they do have some chip boilers, with an auto-feed system. Basically King Kong's version of a pellet stove :thumbsup.

Rgds, D.

Chip boilers I have some experience as there was a large plant at the mill, I and my father worked, there was also a smaller system at the truck yard that I worked on later. I have plans for a multi-fuel boiler when I set up a new workshop on the farm so I can heat both houses and the workshop there will be a total of 6,000 square feet to heat. boiler is built for the big round bales of straw, but one can also fire with wood and chips

 

[dmccarty]

Our power used to cost 10 cents a KWH but it has gone up to 11 and 12 cents recently. That include all fees, taxes and other charges to get my money but not call it a rate increase. NC allowed Duke power to buy up Progress which used to be CPL years back. The merger was a real cluster with quite a bit of lying by Duke. At one point, Duke wanted the rate payers to accept a higher rate to fund the hundreds of millions of dollars they were going to spend to fire employees who were no longer needed after the merger. I really don't see the point of that merger. A small increase in profitability for the company, but less people working, and at best, the rates would stay the same. Of course rates of increased...

What some of you are paying in power costs scares the hoo hoo out of me.

Our yearly average bill used to be $110-120 a month but over the last few years it has moved up to $137-143. What is interesting is that our average yearly power usages is 1164-1336 KWH with an average use per month of 38-44 KWH. The power usage is VERY consistent. There have been some years where the KWH used is equal to other years. :shocked: But taxes and rates have gone up. When we moved into the house, power was costing 8 cents a KWH and now it is 11-12 cents. That is a pretty big increase in nine years but it sure is cheaper than what other's on TBN are paying.

Our highest power bills are in the summer because of cooling costs. We heat with woods thank goodness which saves us quite a bit of money. We have plenty of wood to burn, mother nature is always killing trees, , so I always have work to do cleaning up the mess. Turning the dead trees into firewood is a bit of work, but not much, and I am splitting by hand for the exercise. If one had to pay for firewood, not sure it really make money sense to heat with wood. You sure do not want to heat with a fireplace. BTDT. One needs an insert or wood stove preferably with a source of outside combustion air.

Ironically, I pulled a back muscle the other day so I can't split wood this weekend like I wanted. I think I pulled the muscle sleeping.

Later,
Dan

 

[JimRB]

When I moved from a 1,000 foot apartment on a horse barn to my 2.5 times bigger house, my power bill stayed the same. The most inefficient thing about the apartment was the 500 sf foot heat sink called the front porch. It was the same slab as the conditioned space. It also did not have central heat and air. My house has a slinky ground loop 3 ton geothermal with no booster heat. My basement is conditioned with half the walls 6" studs insulated and the other walls uninsulated concrete. It is cold down there in the winter. I need to insulate those concrete walls. The basement is 1080 sf, first floor 1080 and the second is about 600sf. I guess that totals about 2800 sf conditioned. I average 12-14,000 kwh per year. More than I want. I really need to insulate those basement concrete walls and hang sheetrock everywhere. My performance has not been as well as I would like.

There is a hot water heater loop as part of the geothermal. My hot water AC heater is turned off about 9 months of the year.

Our EMC winter rate is 1,000 kwh at .0735 and 300 kwh at .055 with a base charge of 1305x0.009327. Translated $123 for a cold month. All electric house including well. Heat set at 74F and cool at 78F. Very passive solar heat in the winter as our 10 foot deep porch lets warming sunlight in the 2 sets of 6 foot wide windows. Well actually the shade is drawn on the one set so that set does not really help warm up the house.

I live in Georgia east of Atlanta where is can get cold in the winter, but usually not that cold, hot in the summer. About two months of no conditioning.

 

[3930dave]

Chip boilers I have some experience as there was a large plant at the mill, I and my father worked, there was also a smaller system at the truck yard that I worked on later. I have plans for a multi-fuel boiler when I set up a new workshop on the farm so I can heat both houses and the workshop there will be a total of 6,000 square feet to heat. boiler is built for the big round bales of straw, but one can also fire with wood and chips

Big fire box ! Makes sense for your latitude though....

Do you have any pics of that straw bale boiler, or are you building it custom ?

If you are making it, post ads for it on here. Guys would buy it, just so they could load a boiler with their tractor !

The escalating total cost of electricity should be causing more people to look at alternate power sources. IMO, the utilities are far from done with prices hikes, and fairy-tale fees.

Rgds, D.