the Cost of Gas and Electricity

My average monthly electric bill is $150.00 per month for a 1665 square foot one story home that is approximately 8 years old. I am not on budget billing, so this amount varies. My highest bill in 2007 was $270 and my lowest was $87. I have an all electric home with central heat and air, and have higher bills in the winter versus the summer. I have some outside low voltage landscape lighting that runs on a timer. My husband and I both work outside the home with the exception of the summer when I am home. I keep my house in the moderate temperature range. The kilowatt per hour cost on my most recent bill was .0907 cents per KWH. I live in a rural are and my electricity is through a member owned association.

The service I receive is exceptional as I rarely experience outages and response time is adequate. Almost all outages are weather related. I do wish my bill were lower overall, although it is considered normal. I do wish my electric company offered tiered pricing so that I could save money by washing clothes at night, etc, or purchased electricity produced by solar energy options. Since none of those are offered, below are listed some of the methods I have implemented to save money.

The following are some money saving tips that I have implemented for saving money on my monthly electric bill:

- Most recently we installed a hot water heater timer allowing us to control the operating times of our hot water heater. My husband and I both work outside the home, so we currently set it to turn off late at night and during the day when it is not in use. This is a new installation, so we have not had a chance to see the savings.

- We have a programable thermostat for our heating and air conditioner for the same reasons as the above.

- We have florescent light bulbs in several parts of the house. While this seems to have saved some on my electic bill, I have had several bulbs to blow within months to a year of purchasing them, which is not very cost effective since the bulbs are rather expensive.

- We keep our house in moderate temperature ranges. We dress for the weather, meaning we bundle up in the winter rather than trying to wear shorts inside when it is 30 degrees outside.

- When our dryer "died" we purchased a front loading washer and dryer combo.

- I currently hang some clothes (dresses and work clothes) in the bathroom to air dry, and would like to start doing towels, sheets and blankets outdoors.