Utility costs

They are going way, way up due to the cost of raw materials - oil, gas, even garbage is getting expensive.

I may need a government bailout to pay my A/C bill for the next two months.

I'm expecting mine to at least double and possibly triple for the month of July due to the unusual 24/7 running of the air conditioner needed to help my breathing while the Sacramento Valley is full of smoke from all the fires surrounding us.

I normally run the air conditioner for a maximum of an hour a day just to cool the house off late at night only on days when there is no breeze. It's now set at 83 degrees and runs 24/7 practically in this 100+ degree heat wave because I can't have the windows open at night to cool off if I want to be able to breathe without wheezing the next morning.

After this month of heavy, dense smoke-filled heat, I will never ever take for granted cool, clean, fresh air again. But damn, it's expensive to create it artifically with an air conditioner!

I run mine in the hot part of the day. Sleep with just a fan. So far, we are ok like that.

I already do that.

windows open if not too muggy

AC off from about 8 to 10 at night until almost 5 pm . Sometimes it is on a bit earlier simply because we can hit 95 in here fast on really hot days.
But for the most part that thing is off the majority of the day.


i see almost a 50 dollar jump in my bill.
THAT... is odd

Yack, butrflynet, I sympathize. We had some whammo fires near us in LA when I was a teen, what horrifying times. It wasn't sooo terrible when I was older as I didn't live as close to them - bad as it was for the people in the fires' paths - although it wasn't completely soot free. In northern CA, there was one dreadful week or two, ash all over the place, sky like lead, breathing horrible (I get asthma). No a/c in any place I lived then.

Here I put the swamp cooler on an hour to three hours on the very hottest days, but that isn't as expensive as regular central air.

Anyway, breathing = important!

Your deadbeat neighbor probably tapped your feed.

Shewolf--

Fifty dollar jump?

I'd call the utility company and have them come and check. Fifty dollars is a lot of money.

My bill doubled from the previous month, but this is expected come June/July.

About October it'll start dropping back down again....

Wait until our enlightened legislature mandates that utilities produce (say) 20% of their power through wind and solar sources. Since they are required to bill us all a rate corresponding to their average cost of production, and given that wind and solar are more than twice as expensive than the coal, gas and nuclear plants that do the rest, your bill will increase by yet another 25% or so.