What's your electric bill look like in the summer and winter, everybody? I'm trying to get a better feel for what's "normal". (If you live off-the-grid in the woods, disclose that upfront, thanks.)
Totes normal! Unlike darkoshi we rent but the landlord pays our utility co-op for the streetlight, which... *reads her reply* does face our apartment, though at a 90 degree angle (and I'm not really sure why the landlord picks the cost up instead of us, but when I lived with an ex-SO of mine downstate from here who owned his own house, he was charged for his - which faced his house at about the same angle - maybe that cost is simply not passed on to renters).
I've never ever heard of something like this, and it's getting the same o.0 face I gave when I heard that some people pay for trash pickup instead of having it covered by the city.
My trash pickup fee is included in the yearly property tax bill and costs $249. Water and sewer are billed separately.
The city has to pay for the trash pickup one way or another, so including it in the property taxes makes sense to me. For people who rent, they may not see a bill for it, but it surely figures into the rent amount.
I glad you asked the question for this post; reading the replies is fascinating even though it makes me curious for a lot more details (how far north or south does everyone live; how do they heat and cool their house; do they have a gas bill separate from the charges they listed, or do they use a fireplace; how many kWh are used per month, etc).
I'm glad , too, as I learned our bills are also pretty high. I have the same questions you do about what contributes to other people's bills, including square footage, amount of people/high energy using pets in household, insulation levels, energy efficiency of appliances, presence or lack of HVAC or window a/c heating/cooling, structural integrity of household structures ie are windows/doors well-sealed, and so on. It might make excellent formal poll material, though the amount of questions one could cram is almost endless!
I'd have to check if we pay for trash pickup. We don't get bills mailed (we're on the Eco save paper thing where I just access them online) and because nothing is printed out I don't have a way to just grab the bill and remind myself what we're getting charged for. When I pay each month I just click the Pay Now button and ignore the breakdown of charges because the costs are so insane my stomach turns and I really don't want to know nor remind myself just how bad it is.
But I have a post planned for my DW where I do just that - open a bill in PDF and break it all down, both for other's edification and to remind myself what all we pay for to begin with - it's a lot.
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The city has to pay for the trash pickup one way or another, so including it in the property taxes makes sense to me. For people who rent, they may not see a bill for it, but it surely figures into the rent amount.
I glad you asked the question for this post; reading the replies is fascinating even though it makes me curious for a lot more details (how far north or south does everyone live; how do they heat and cool their house; do they have a gas bill separate from the charges they listed, or do they use a fireplace; how many kWh are used per month, etc).
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But I have a post planned for my DW where I do just that - open a bill in PDF and break it all down, both for other's edification and to remind myself what all we pay for to begin with - it's a lot.