What would my monthly utilities be?

[Zero102]

My wife and I are looking at buying a brand new home in Calgary, the house we are thinking the most about is approx. 1750 square feet and has 2 floors above ground. Low water usage fixtures throughout the house as well as a high efficiency gas water heater and a 92% efficient furnace. The outside walls are 2x6 and it has an attached garage. Hopefully that is enough for somebody to identify themselves as being in about the same situation.

I was wondering if anybody can give us an idea of what our monthly bills would be like? I am talking about the following: Gas, Electricity, Water/sewer/garbage/recycling. I know electricity will vary from person to person.



Since somebody will probably ask why I don't know how much they will be...

In our house in Vernon we had only electric heat (BC Hydro) and no gas in the house and the bills were very manageable ($70/month electric, $35/month water/garbage/sewer/recycling). I know they will be a lot more here, but as the place we are renting here right now has utilities included I don't really know exactly how much more.

[CapnCrunch]

I'd budget between 4-500 in winter. Maybe 250-350 in summer.

[codetrap]

That pretty much matches our configuration. My monthly average throughout the year is approx $250, with some spikes to $300 if gas goes up. I've got it locked in for power prices with enmax, and floating gas.

CFL's everywhere, and I plastic a couple of the windows each winter to keep the heating down. Also I turn off the NG fireplace all year, and only fire it up when we need it. No point in running the pilot all the time. And, I wrapped the hot water tank, which we did notice on our gas bill this summer.

Oh, and I really recommend you get a water softener. It makes a huge difference here in calgary. Since we put ours in, I haven't had any calcium buildup, soap usage has gone way down, and showers are way more comfy.

['93 SR-V]

I have a very similar house and so far my enmax bills have been runing round $150 a month over the summer. I just got the house in feb., so I don't have a great idea on winter bills but I think they topped out around $250 so far.

[Kloubek]

I'm with you '93SR-V. My house is 1850 sq feet, attached garage, energy-efficient bulbs everywhere. We run plasma TVs and I leave my computer on all the time. We pay about $150/month via Enmax for virtually everything except entertainment. (Phone, cable, internet). In the winter, it goes up to around $250.

[codetrap]

Hey Kloubek,

How much Gas/Elec are you using? Does your billing include the water & garbage as well?

I'm using around 750 KwH/month on average.

[Kloubek]

I don't get a different water bill, so that is included. Is garbage not included in city taxes?

I honestly don't know what my usage is - and I shredded my last bill. I try to make sure we don't needlessly leave lights on though - which has gotta help.

[codetrap]

No, it shows up on the enmax bill now.

Our Bill this month..

Electricity:
Admin Charge : $7.36
Energy Charge 752kWh @ .07 : $52.64
Distribution Charge: $15.52
Balancing Pool Allocation: $1.55CR
Trans Access Defer Acct Rider: $2.36
Transmission Charge: $10.06
Local Access Fee: $10.13
------- $96.52


Natural Gas:
Energy Charge $8.04
Energy Charge $1.51
Admin Charge $6.53
Transaction Fee $1.38
Pension & Benchmark Rider $3.24
Atco Fixed Chage $20.70
Atco Variable Charge: $2.89
Municipal Franchise Fee: $3.93
ATCO Storage Rider: $0.75
Transmission Service Chg Rider: $0.12
------$ 49.09 for $9.55 of NG

Water:
Water Charge: $19.60
Water Basic Service Charge: $12.38
----- $31.98

Wastewater & Drainage:
Sewer Charge: $9.86
Sewer Basic Service Charge: $10.87
Drainage Service Charge: $7.84
----- $28.57

Waste & Recycling:
Blue Cart Recycling Charge: $9.11
Waste Management Charge: $4.56
----- $13.67

Easymax Rewards $8.96CR

Grand Total $218.15

Roughly $110 for actual Utilities, the rest is admin fee's.

Makes me fucking sick... :barf:

[Zero102]

^^^^
Thanks for posting the whole breakdown, that really does help. What the hell is wrong with our utility companies when they can fuck around with the bills that much?!

In Vernon the electricity admin/delivery fees were around $4/month, and I'd use ~$30 worth of electricity in the summer and ~$110 in the winter, pretty good ratio there.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Sugarphreak]

...

[codetrap]

Sugarphreak.. your electricity usage doesn't make sense. You got billed for 323 kWh.

[NoMoreG35]

Mine runs about 120 in summer and 200 in winter. In a townhouse 1700 sq. ft. Might be more if you were getting a single house cuz there is basement

[codetrap]

I'm breaking out my killawatt. Time to track down the power usage.

[sputnik]

I would budget $150-200 when there isn't snow on the ground and $250-300 in the winter.

It really comes down to how warm you keep your house and how much you keep your lights on.

My wife and I were paying about that for a 2200 sq ft house, but we turned off all of the lights when we were at work and kept the temp around 16C when were were at work or asleep. We would really only have the heat around 20C on the weekends and between 4-7pm and for an hour in the mornings on weekdays (since the house would stay warm until we went to bed/work)

Since there was also 2 of us at the time we kept the hot water heater at a lower temp as well.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[codetrap]

I'm thinking the fridge is going to be next for me. I've got the CFL's all over the place. Did the microwave, and I hid the electric heater my wife was using.

All signs point to the fridge, the entertainment center, and the computers. Though I'm thinking I may check for other vampire loads by tripping those breakers, and then see if I still have usage. It's like I'm always nailing the same power usage each month.

[rob the knob]

obtain a device such as

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/3/HouseHome/2/Electrical/ElectricalTesters/PRD~0528851P/Blue%252BPlanet%252BElectronic%252BEnergy%252BMeter.jsp?locale=en

[Sugarphreak]

...

[codetrap]

Dlp and LCD. I'm going to hunt it down eventually. I'm going to get methodical and log each outlet. Them i may make intercepts on the lighting circuits to make sure I'm not bleeding power somewhere.

Rob, google killa-watt. Pretty similar.

[Zero102]

So we finally made a move on a house. Not quite the one we described above, but rather similar.

Looking to figure out who to use for energy providers now, and the utilities consumer advocate site, as well as the direct energy site really aren't telling me what I am looking to find out. They just want to divide their site into 1000 sections and discuss a single charge or fee in each one, with no indication of what a new customer should expect. To me it looks like a way to confuse people into just paying whatever comes up on their bill without questioning it.


Anyways, taking my rant aside, I have a highly subjective question: It seems from the posts made here a lot of people seem to like EasyMax by Enmax, is that the best (read: cheapest) solution for my utilities, and if so, are they the best for both electricity and gas?

It seems like the regulated rate is actually much lower than the posted rates by either enmax or atco (direct energy) so I am having a bit of a hard time figuring out what they really charge you for usage, and from the way they describe the plans on the enmax site, it also sounds like they reduce your admin fees if you go with the easymax plan instead of the regulated rate option?

[codetrap]

:dunno:

I went with the electric price fixed, and the gas floating. When I was looking at it, gas fixed was at $12 something a GJ, and the floating price was $3. Electricity seems to me to be getting more expensive each year, so I decided to lock in the price for 5 years.

[redline]

^^^ power price in the last year has droped a lot. But the trend was increasing.

OP: i find enmax the best deal when i have been shopping

[codetrap]

Killawatt Power Usage

Monthly Charges @ 7c/KwH

Laptop/Dual Screens $7.20
Desktop/Duals $9.30
Laser Printer $2.74
Battery Charger $0.24
LCD TV/Satellite/Surr $3.30
Fridge $6.79
Glade Plugin $0.24
DLP/PC/Reciever $1.80

[R-Audi]

I would definitely go with EnMax... and decide from there whether to lock in or keep floating. As others have mentioned a locked electrical and floating gas rate seem to be your best bet.

[CUG]

Originally posted by Zero102
Low water usage fixtures throughout the house as well as a high efficiency gas water heater and a 92% efficient furnace. The outside walls are 2x6 and it has an attached garage. Hopefully that is enough for somebody to identify themselves as being in about the same situation.
The "low water usage" fixtures are a giant misleading farce, especially when it comes to bringing the hot water to your top floor through the pipes first thing in the morning. I've noticed that I probably use the same amount of water as when I had the old "earth killer" faucets. In fact, I use more, because I remember relying on some of the pressure to wash pots and bigger dishes.

Also, if you take larger than normal dumps, you're flushing 2 or 3 times just to make sure it goes down the tubes. Thankfully I found a "high volume, high efficiency" toilet that has the horsepower to meet the level of action I provide. It still uses more water.

The change in water consumption at my place once the reno's were finished was not even noticeable.

[codetrap]

Originally posted by CUG
The "low water usage" fixtures are a giant misleading farce, especially when it comes to bringing the hot water to your top floor through the pipes first thing in the morning. I've noticed that I probably use the same amount of water as when I had the old "earth killer" faucets. In fact, I use more, because I remember relying on some of the pressure to wash pots and bigger dishes.

Also, if you take larger than normal dumps, you're flushing 2 or 3 times just to make sure it goes down the tubes. Thankfully I found a "high volume, high efficiency" toilet that has the horsepower to meet the level of action I provide. It still uses more water.

The change in water consumption at my place once the reno's were finished was not even noticeable.

I replaced all our toilets with HE ones, and I definitely noticed a decrease in our water usage. We cut our overall water usage by about a 3rd. Haven't had any issues with keeping them clean either since we installed a water softener.

http://www.toiletabcs.com/toilet-water-conservation.html

[CUG]

Originally posted by codetrap


I replaced all our toilets with HE ones, and I definitely noticed a decrease in our water usage. We cut our overall water usage by about a 3rd. Haven't had any issues with keeping them clean either since we installed a water softener.

http://www.toiletabcs.com/toilet-water-conservation.html Hrrrmmmm. Again, the horsepower requirements I have are a bit odd. Sorry to bring it up again.

[codetrap]

Originally posted by CUG
Hrrrmmmm. Again, the horsepower requirements I have are a bit odd. Sorry to bring it up again.

Ultra high fibre diet? Or are you trying to say that they call you "hoss" not because of the usual reasons, but because you drop cow patties?

I've never had to double flush on one of our toilets, and there have been times when I drove the family out of the house.