So, um....

[conuly]

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.)

Comments

[jesuswasbatman]

You get charged for having a street light outside your house? Is that normal in the USA?

[darkoshi]

Only because it is pointed in towards the yard instead of out to the street, even though a lot of the light illuminates the street too.

Whoever lived here before me must have had them put up the light pole like that. I tried asking if the electric company would reposition the light at the top of the pole towards the street so that I wouldn't have to pay the extra money, but it sounded like they would only turn it off, not reposition it. Then the street by my house would be completely dark and more dangerous. So I decided to just leave it and keep paying the fee.

There are other normal streetlights around (I take it that's what the "subdivision lighting fee" is for), but it can get pretty dark in some areas which aren't right next to one.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

There is no normal in the USA as street lights are Very Local-the normal in one part of a town can be very different than others.

My grandma had to pay to have a light put on the power pole, possibly as the only way to either keep people from siphoning power in her backyard, or keep them from breaking her plants while they siphoned power.

[marahmarie]

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).

[conuly]

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.

[darkoshi]

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).

[marahmarie]

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!

[marahmarie]

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.