Cost for electric usage?

[The_Auto_Tech]

Just curious to see what you guys pay. For the first 1,000 kWh here it's .087 per. For anything above that it's .052. From what I can tell that's very cheap electricity. I'm debating just leaving the heater on 24/7 and keeping the garage at 40 degrees when I'm not in there and raising it to 50-55 when I'm working. Thoughts?

 

[Showkey]

Don’t forget to add in the meter fee and distribution fee. Some locations have line fee as well.

Varies with location but the meter fee is often a set fee like $18.00per month no matter how much power in consumed.
Distribution fees often are based on power used and can be equal to the power KW fee like .05 KW and distribution.05.

Many locations power and distribution are two separate companies sometimes on paper sometimes total seperate entities but either way are paid on the same bill.

Mine is

$20.02 Meter fee or fixed charge
.09972 Kw

With some minor “fuel adjustment fees” 856 kw ends up at $102.03 so real cost is very very close to .12 kw.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Why not just read your power meter every day and write down your reading and figure your usage?

After a few days you can decide if it's worth it or not.

Phil

 

[johnboy13]

I have a 20X20 shop with 8ft insulated ceilings. I keep my 5000W heater at 40 all day and night unless I'm out there. Then I turn it up to 65 degrees. It cost me an extra $40 this month.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

Don’t forget to add in the meter fee and distribution fee. Some locations have line fee as well.

Varies with location but the meter fee is often a set fee like $18.00per month no matter how much power in consumed.
Distribution fees often are based on power used and can be equal to the power KW fee like .05 KW and distribution.05.

Many locations power and distribution are two separate companies sometimes on paper sometimes total seperate entities but either way are paid on the same bill.

Mine is

$20.02 Meter fee or fixed charge
.009972 Kw

With some minor “fuel adjustment fees” 856 kw ends up at $102.03 so real cost is very very close to .12 kw.

I don't consider meter fees because this is tied into the house. I'm already paying meter fee for the house. The garage doesn't cost me a separate meter fee. For 1340 kWh my bill is 126.51 with all fees and taxes.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

I have a 20X20 shop with 8ft insulated ceilings. I keep my 5000W heater at 40 all day and night unless I'm out there. Then I turn it up to 65 degrees. It cost me an extra $40 this month.

I'm cool with that considering my side work well covers it. Gotta spend money to make money though!

 

[Falcon67]

Depends on who your provider is here. On the co-op, we're paying between .12 and .17 per kWh - the less we use the more we pay. Once we get service from AEP we can pick from dozens, all with off the wall weird plans, minimums, X for this, y over that, etc.

FWIW it's been "cold" here - got into the 30s Tuedsay and Wednesday night and stayed overcast and cloudy, 30s yesterday with strong north wind. The race trailer is insulated and was 25F this morning inside. The shop has a concrete floor, R13 insulation and was 51F. No heat running.

 

[Bretny]

By the time they tack on all the fees im at at 14-16c a kw.

 

[Git]

Southern California Edison has several different ways to part your from your money. Electricity is expensive here. They have developed Time of Use rates

So the rate varies depending on the time of day or even if it is a week day or the weekend. So from 2pm to 8 pm during the week, I am paying $.32 per kWh. Here is a
LINKY for more info.

I can also keep track of my daily usage very easily on their website - down to the hour. This if from yesterday - the colored bars that extend downward from 8 am to 3 pm is excess energy from our solar panels going back onto the grid for credit

 

[sleek98]

I am in the same boat, I am trying to decide if its worth spending the cash and applying for permits to have someone come in and run a natural gas line out to the shop or just put in a heater. I have 200 amp service now.

Got my bill from the last month, my marginal rate would have been .05494 per KW after all per KW fees. Figure a 5,000 watt heater running 4 hours a day would cost me about a buck a day. So far I have been keeping track of the temp in the morning when I go out there. With out a fully insulated ceiling its normally 10-15* above outside temp. This morning was the lowest. 31* in the shop while 17* outside. Not sure how accurate the 4 hours a day would be. I am guessing it would be more like 2 hours most days and up to 4 hours on really cold nights to keep the shop at 40.

Total cost should be less than 50 a month, I am trying to keep track this winter how much I would have actually used it, while I get the last of the insulation up.

 

[Bolson32]

I am in the same boat, I am trying to decide if its worth spending the cash and applying for permits to have someone come in and run a natural gas line out to the shop or just put in a heater. I have 200 amp service now.

Got my bill from the last month, my marginal rate would have been .05494 per KW after all per KW fees. Figure a 5,000 watt heater running 4 hours a day would cost me about a buck a day.

I would imagine you're looking at $2-3000 for a NG install, that's a lot of electricity at that rate. $30 a month translates to about $120 a year. Your break even would probably be in the 20 year mark. Plus gas isn't free.

My last bill averaged out to .116396/kWh. St Paul Metro. I have a 22x15 1.5 car garage that's insulated and heated. I went with a 5,000w heater. Rewired the whole garage and still came in under $700.

 

[sleek98]

I would imagine you're looking at $2-3000 for a NG install, that's a lot of electricity at that rate. $30 a month translates to about $120 a year. Your break even would probably be in the 20 year mark. Plus gas isn't free.

My last bill averaged out to .116396/kWh. St Paul Metro. I have a 22x15 1.5 car garage that's insulated and heated. I went with a 5,000w heater. Rewired the whole garage and still came in under $700.

That is what keeps me from going to natural gas route so far. I agree that the break even will be 15-20 years out. If I was keeping the shop at 60-65 I could see spending the coin up front.

 

[yeldogt]

We are at almost .20 ... no off peak/ peak rates .. all the same.

At 6-7 cents per HW ... you would need a large shop to make installing NG worthwhile.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

That's pretty much where I fell with the whole thing. For how cheap electricity is here it was hard to consider trenching and running NG to the garage. The electric heater was 150 for a ~30,000 BTU and the gas heater was ~500 dollars. In that case alone I was already 350 ahead. Figure at least another 1000 to trench and run NG. Even assuming gas was free my break even point was at least 10 years, more like 15. That's assuming the gas heater didn't take a **** and need rebuild. The electric one has far fewer pieces to go bad. Also, the electric one is about 1/3 the size of the gas one and can easily be removed and transported if I want to change heaters down the road.

 

[2level]

We are paying ~.07/kWh plus taxes and surcharges = ~ 9 cents / kWh. No off peak / peak rates.

 

[finn]

$.23 /kWh.

I’d be stupid to consider electric for anything but lights and pumps.

 

[mrramsey]

We are a flat rate of about .13 per kwH. Fairly cheap. NG is also cheap. If I had the same situation I'd still go gas because I like the comfort of gas heat over electric. I find electric heat to be 'cold' because it tends to dry the air too much for my taste. In my case comfort wins out (ill pay extra). 10 - 15 years ago I'd probably say I was okay with electric.

 

[Randy in Maine]

i think we are just about 16 cents a KW delivered. I am usually around $60 a month.

 

[yeldogt]

We are a flat rate of about .13 per kwH. Fairly cheap. NG is also cheap. If I had the same situation I'd still go gas because I like the comfort of gas heat over electric. I find electric heat to be 'cold' because it tends to dry the air too much for my taste. In my case comfort wins out (ill pay extra). 10 - 15 years ago I'd probably say I was okay with electric.

How it dry the air ?

 

[mrramsey]

How it dry the air ?

Heat ultimately chases off the moisture, combustion adds some back but that could be rectified in many ways such as opening window or even adding a humidifier but a lot will depend on the environment it is going into. Lived in a few places that only had electric heat. Hated it, always felt cold.

Low humidity is drier thus feels cooler. Electric heat has a cooler air stream than gas. Thus my opinion is that gas feels more comfortable to me than electric.

I will also add that gas is more efficient than electric in areas where you have larger temperature differences such as 70 degrees inside and 20 degrees outside.

 

[Bolson32]

I will also add that gas is more efficient than electric in areas where you have larger temperature differences such as 70 degrees inside and 20 degrees outside.

This last part feels anecdotal. I believe BTUs are BTUs, can someone confirm that? i.e. a 35,000 BTU unit will heat the same sized space just as efficiently regardless of whether it's combustion or resistance.

 

[Bretny]

Heat ultimately chases off the moisture, combustion adds some back but that could be rectified in many ways such as opening window or even adding a humidifier but a lot will depend on the environment it is going into. Lived in a few places that only had electric heat. Hated it, always felt cold.

Low humidity is drier thus feels cooler. Electric heat has a cooler air stream than gas. Thus my opinion is that gas feels more comfortable to me than electric.

I will also add that gas is more efficient than electric in areas where you have larger temperature differences such as 70 degrees inside and 20 degrees outside.

How so when you have gas heaters ranging from 80-95* efficiency and electric nearly 100*?

 

[mrramsey]

How so when you have gas heaters ranging from 80-95* efficiency and electric nearly 100*?

There are several articles on the net such as this one - https://www.aireserv.com/about/blog/2016/february/gas-vs-electric-heat/

this lists some of the pros and cons.

 

[6768rogues]

In our part of western NY, it costs about 4 times as much for the equivalent heat from electric as it does for natural gas.
Our electric company offered time of use metering to us years ago. It had peak, shoulder peak, and off peak and they varied through the year. I studied it and found that I would only save money by changing our lifestyle and biasing our usage to night time. I didn't bother.
My farm has peak/off peak. That is one rate for day and another for night, changing at 7 AM and 7 PM. That actually saves money and they don't offer that type of meter any more. They say they will let me keep it as long as it is there.