  Here’s a neat look at our electric bills for the past few years. In preparation for a new heating and cooling system for the house I’ve been reviewing our billing history and weighing system alternatives. Fortunately it wasn’t difficult to gather data, especially with Intuit’s Quicken software. The Quicken report is nice, but I prefer to have it in an excel format, so I formatted the columns and totaled them by month. I then used the Average formula for a quick estimate of the monthly bill over time.Â
I think I’ll keep using the spreadsheet, and see how the total changes as electricity rates and heating/cooling equipment use change as well. It also gives me some idea of how were doing for a given month. If the bill is excessively high or low, we can look for actions we have taken in using the system, as well as the weather. Maybe it has been a particularly warm or cold month? In any event, the utility record was useful for helping to make a decision about replacement of the air conditioner and furnace.Â
Our system is over 22 years old, and not very efficient. But our electric bills are actually pretty reasonable because we use the a/c and electric heat sparingly! This summer it was way too warm inside the house… we only really used the a/c in late afternoons and through the evening, as well as for sleeping until about 2:00 am. I’m hoping a new system will be more efficient, and help maintain a consistent level of cooling and heating over time. It’s one of those decisions involving opportunity cost… :) What do you think, are these monthly bills very high compared to your home or region? The home is about 2800 square feet, ranch-style with two separate heating/cooling systems for each end of the home, one propane/electric furnace and a/c, and the other all-electric.
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