Air conditioning.. electric bill..?

Question

okay, so it is now july and my house is like an oven.. i want to turn on my central ac but i am scared to see my next months electric bill.. does anyone have a guess as to how much money it will add to my current electric bill of $50.00? If i would turn it on, I would only keep it at maybe 72 degrees- if that helps any! Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Not enough info to tell. How many square feet  will you cool, how well insulated is you place, how efficient is your unit. It is only a wild guess. Why not try taking your meter reading off the electric meter, then try the Air for about 7 days, then take the meter reading again and subtract the first from the last . That will be about 1/4 the total monthly bill so multiply that by 4. Then check to see how many KW's you used on average each month over the last 3 or four months. You will then have a pretty good idea how much more it is going to cost.

Answer 2

last year mine went up over $150 more than normal. so this year we invested in a couple of window units to keep it cool while we sleep and just suffer the rest and its only went up about  $75 or so.

BUt alot depends on the efficiency of your AC unit and how well your house is insulated.

Answer 3

my electric bill without a/c is $30, with central a/c it goes up to about $120 and that's at 78-80 degrees.  A couple of things to consider-the avg temp outside here is 95 degrees and my house is about 1500 sq ft to cool. So it really depends on the size of your house, the weather outside, how insulated your house is, and the energy rating of your central a/c unit.  I would suggest not setting it all the way down to 72 though.

I would also suggest using ceiling fans and oscillating fans in the rooms you are in.

Answer 4

Memories we live in Georgia, my central ac was adding about $200.00 each month to our total bill during summer months.  I was keeping temperature set at 75.  I installed to window units, one is 18000 BTU required 220 volts, and a 12000 BTU requiring 110 volts. This has cut my cooling bill to about 1/3.  My center AC ducts are running in the attic where temperature. I would guess to be about 140 degrees and lots of cooling is being lost. If you can afford I would recommend to get high efficient EER.  window unit.  Homedepot has LG brand with 5 year warranty.

Good Luck

Answer 5

It depends on the area you are cooling as well as the temperature outside and a few other factors. My November-April electric bills are between $50 and $75 a month. I have and electric dryer and oven, but have a gas water heater and furnace.

Living in Texas, the electric bill for my 1750 sq. ft. home is close to $500 a month when I set the t-stat on 72. I bumped it up to 76 this year and have not yet reached a $200 bill and we've been very comfortable. This months bill may be higher, but I don't expect it to go over $300.

Hope this helps you decide what to do, but I would advise you to set the t-stat as high as you can and still be comfortable. A few degrees does make a difference.