Good Grief......

[tdkkart]

Some people have their heads firmly panted where they can't see the trees for the forest.

I love reading forums where people are whining about the cost of utilities for heating and cooling their convention center size homes.

Was just browsing a solar heating forum, a guy was trying to figure out how to reduce his heating bills on his home. He was hoping for a 30% reduction.

This "home" is FIFTY FIVE HUNDRED SQUARE FEET!!!!

5500sq/ft occupied by a maximum of FOUR people!!!

DUH!!! Get a clue man, the easiest way to reduce your utility bills is to lop about 4000sq/ft off one end of the house. Instant reduction of about 80% on your utility bills.

WTF does anyone need with a 5500 sq/ft house?? And then they have the gall to whine about utility bills??

My wife and I are in a 1500sq/ft house that we moved into last Oct. after moving from a 960sq/ft house. We have yet to figure out what we wanted with this big of a house. We have 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and 800sq/ft of basement that all basically go unused, but the last thing we're gonna do is complain about the utility bills because we bought too much house.
(actually our heating bills this winter averaged less than the old house)

I guess some people just have more money than common sense??

 

[skeletonizer]

WTF does anyone need with a 5500 sq/ft house??

I live in 1700 sq/ft. I can't talk $hit about a guy living in a big house when I drive a car with over 400 horse power. It is a free country.

And then they have the gall to whine about utility bills??

I agree, they should STFU or move. Are they surprised that a big house costs them more than a smaller one?

I guess some people just have more money than common sense??

Well there it is. You answered your own question. The real problem is these people drive, vote, and breed.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

The sad thing is?

It costs more to heat a 1970's era mobile home (like an 800 sf one) as it does a 3500 square foot new home.

It's very expensive to be poor.

Phil

 

[65Stang]

The sad thing is?

It costs more to heat a 1970's era mobile home (like an 800 sf one) as it does a 3500 square foot new home.

It's very expensive to be poor.

Phil

No kidding!! My 1400 sf house costs the same as my friend across the street with a 2,500 sf house and he has better heat throughout. I can't afford to upgrade.

I wouldn't mind a 5,500 sf house... along as half of it was a garage..

 

[rsanter]

easy solution
the house should be zoned so that you only heat/cool the areas you are using

my fathers house is build that way. 3 zones
one for the living areas
one for the bedrooms
one for the loft/game room/hobby room area

most of the time the loft/game room/hobby room area sits idle

bob

 

[walrus]

I've heard statistics quoted about living space americans had back in the 20-30s as compared to today. Its staggering.

I live in a small, well insulated house, there are 3 of us plus the dog. I use every bit of the footprint, walk out basement. Its plenty comfortable, why anyone with a family of 4 needs 5500 sq ft is beyond me. To each his own but don't be whining about what it costs

 

[rickairmedic]

I have to agree Currently we have a 1300 SF house with 5 kids from 14-21 plus SWMBO and myself and our 2 month old grandson ( the 24 YO daughter and 2 YO grandson just moved out ). I do have a full basement that I have finished with 3 bedrooms and a bath so technically I have 2600 SF buuuuuuuuut 1300 of that costs almost nothing to heat and nothing at all to cool. I have no understanding of why peaple want houses that big . I have a customer who is a Doctor as well as his wife ( I dont know what they do but they make money doing it ) Their maids quarters is actually larger than my main floor . The main house is almost 15,000 SF I have been lost in it on more than one occasion. There are 4 HVAC systems on the main house plus one for the maids quarters. My average gas & electric bill is $300.00 I would hate to even see theirs.

Rick

 

[PAToyota]

easy solution
the house should be zoned so that you only heat/cool the areas you are using

I was just looking at one of those systems at a trade show. Very interesting. Uses a standard furnace and computerized dampers - so you could even retrofit in an existing situation. It even had a purge cycle so that you could heat some areas and cool others.

As energy costs rise, I'm betting you will see a lot more of this sort of thing.

 

[walrus]

Heating zones have been in use in Maine for as long as I can remember. We don't need cooling zones

 

[Rolling_Thunder]

I have a 4000 sq. ft. home well insulated with all electric! Its me my wife my nephew and my mother has an in-laws apt in the basement. My bill has more than doubled in the last 2 years so yes I do have a reason to whine about my energy cost. Our wonderful Governor in his infinite wisdon thought that deregulation of the power companys would induce competition but hes such a BLITHERING F^&KING IDOT he didnt realize that each area only had "1" power company supplying it! so my $200-250 monthly bill is now between $450-550!!! Is my house too big? Sure it is but I can afford it and we love the room and the 5.6 acres it sits on. Oh yeah and the 2 garages I have to work in!

 

[04 Navi]

So someone like me is considered the anti-Christ I guess. 4500 sq feet, three hvacs including the garage, two water heaters, two washing machines and matching dryers, three dishwashers, yep three, two in the kitchen and one in the theater room, five bathrooms and three vehicles that get about 12.5 mpg around town.

My point. We spend about 20% more on gas than our last house that was in a warmer climate and was 1200 square smaller. The highest gas bill that I have seen is about $330.00 dollars, and considering I heat the garage to 64 in this house and no garage heat in our last one, I think that it is damn good.

As for the size of our house, well we built it ourselves so if you have ever built a house, you would know that to build a house that is 2500 sq feet does not cost a lot more to build than a 2000 sq house.

To each his own and like rickairmedic mentioned the bigger the house, the more money it costs and some of those costs are for care and upkeep. That Dr. mentioned employs a maid, I doubt that the person living in a 1200 sq foot house does. Think about it. The Doctor is spendig his money and it's going back into the community to be spent again. That's what is going to help get this economy back on track. Rant done.

 

[rickairmedic]

I dont have a problem with folks with larger houses . I figure if you can afford it and if you have it flaunt it . I agree with the OP though if you cant afford it or complain about what it costs to maintain it theres an easy answer ( downsize ) . I am happy with the current size of house I have and love my neighborhood . SWMBO and I have talked about adding onto the house which we may do in the future one to add a master suite and 2 I am deffinately adding onto the garage/workshop .

Rick

 

[nate379]

Yes and no. Sure the labor is free, but more materials are used still.

My house was built and I priced making my attached garage larger. From a 24x26 to a 24x40. It would have made the back of the house square instead of kick in for the garage.

It would have been an extra $20k added to the price of the house. $55 per sq foot.

For the house it was $110 per square foot.

As for the size of our house, well we built it ourselves so if you have ever built a house, you would know that to build a house that is 2500 sq feet does not cost a lot more to build than a 2000 sq house.

 

[Shocker]

4700 sqft here. All brick, heated with good ol' heating oil.

Runs about 300/month to heat overall.

We have 4 bedrooms and have 3 kids. 2 are out of the house now. I am building a new dedicated theater room, man cave and exercise room as well.

Full of common sense here. Kids can come home and have a place to stay when they visit as well as my parents or wife parents come to visit us as well.

4700 sqft and only 3 of us living here. I love it.

 

[tdkkart]

I heard the other day that local folks are really crying about replacement roofing costs.
We had a big building boom around here 15-18 years ago, and alot of the shingles that were being sold then were real ****.(Fiberglass shingles were big back then). What were supposed to be 30 year shingles are junk 15 years into the deal.

All the houses built with these shingles, and since for that matter, are great big
multi-levels with dormers, peaks and valleys running every which direction. They not only cover alot of area but are labor hounds as well.

People are getting replacement roofing estimates that are running $20K or more, which doesn't fit into their budget along side their Yukon's and Escalades.

 

[sirswank]

04 Navi - i don't think anti-christ is too accurate, but i haven't searched for any threads by you complaining about your expenses being too high. not that i will, either. you seem to be aware that good things come with high prices and thats ok with you. that's ok with the OP too, it seems.

check this build out. it's the other side of the big house coin...

http://benitoloyola.com/build1/house/Loyola_Lot_95_main.htm

it's a GC/homebuilder who documented his personal home build to showcase his company's ability, and probably for a nice healthy writeoff. if you can't view the link, the general point is that the house is 11,000 sq feet of "conditioned" area. using all the latest green, energy efficient methods for home building, the guy's electric bill is $205/month. no oil, gas only for hard-plumbed BBQ grills.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Hey...while were beating up the upper classes here...

The real energy hogs aren't the 5500 SF homes being lived in by 2 people. The real hogs are the 2800 SF homes being lived in by 0 people.

You would not believe the number of people that can't get by on only one house anymore. They have a house in the midwest, one in Florida and maybe a condo somewhere else...and I'm not talking about the super-rich. I'm talking about retired school teachers and such.

It's crazy wasteful. But...what are you going to do? That's our economic system. What was it they said? The only thing worse than capitalism is every other economic model in human history?

Phil

 

[ironman2424]

it's all about living within ones means. the economic downfall most of us are feeling is because most of us failed economics in school. Common sense says if you make $60k a year you can't afford that quarter million dollar home the bank just kicked you out of. but like my special ed school teaching wife says "THE GENERAL POPULATION OF THIS COUNTRY IS'NT GETTING ANY SMARTER". How do you like keeping up with the Jones's now. Is there tent bigger than yours. It's not the lenders fault these people are too stupid to read(the f i n e p r i n t) and lack common sense. But the rest of us will pay for it from now on.

 

[Coach James]

A former senator from North Carolina, who also ran for vice-President, recently finished building his 29,000 square foot house complete with indoor basketball court etc. Funny thing was that he often compaigned on a "use less natural resources" platform.

Coach

 

[ozzirt]

I live in a 1400 sq. ft. stone house, but can't see anything wrong with people saving extra money where they can, so they can spend it on their pastimes, golf, tools, hot women or whatever.

I don't think I could really manage any more woman than I've already got, and I can't see the sense in hitting a ball as far as you can, then walking after it just so you can whack it again, so I guess that leaves tools for me.

I just love my home brew waste oil heater.

 

[Shocker]

As far as a second home goes, my wife and I are considering buying a get-a-way home. Using it when we want and renting it out as a vacation rental the rest of the time.

Good income to be had if you buy it right and manage it properly.

 

[russlaferrera]

I will not complain. I just paid my electric bill $169.49. We have a geothermal heat pump system. for a 3400 sq ft home for 2 people

 

[krooser]

the guy with the 5500 sq ft house is probably wondering who needs a 15,000 sq ft house... the guy with the 15,000 q ft house is wondering why someone needs 25,000 sq ft.

I wonder why the hell anybody needs to drive a new Mercedes... and the Mercedes owner wonders why the hell I need a blown Hemi in my pickup...

free country... let's keep it that way.

 

[StumpFJ40]

They operative word, I think, is "b!tching". It all comes down to living within your means... someone already said that.
Too much stuff flooding into my head about this subject so I will quit here.

 

[yellowbox]

i live in a 1100 sf house and see no problem with people in a house any size they want , but why do these big houses have to have 5 or 6 bathrooms ? jesus i would think 2 would be plenty
the house i have now we dont really need size wise , only 2 of us

 

[nonhog]

More power to them. Just because they have a huge home dont mean they are rich ! My sis has a huge house its there dream location a big house just came as part of the deal. It works out great for parties and holidays.
the rest of the time they too look for ways to be frugal. They are like a lot of us. Middle class.

I admire anybody trying to conserve.

 

[jay50]

A former senator from North Carolina, who also ran for vice-President, recently finished building his 29,000 square foot house complete with indoor basketball court etc. Funny thing was that he often compaigned on a "use less natural resources" platform.

Coach

That wouldn't be John "who's the baby's daddy" Edwards, would it...

 

[cortez]

Think of installing a wood burning stove. Burning wood scraps in my basement saves me plenty.

All of my tools and hardware ect. soak up the heat and diffuse it evenly during the night. I have 6 rooms and have never paid more than around $95 to $110 even when it was 20 below zero!! ( as a general contractor I have loads of scrap to burn).

Contractors throw away so much scrap it is easily available to any one who is willing to approach the contractor and assure him that your wood scrounging will not lead to a dirty dumpster site.

Remember not to burn treated wood as it produces toxic gases!!!

 

[Jaguar Fan]

This "home" is FIFTY FIVE HUNDRED SQUARE FEET!!!!

5500sq/ft occupied by a maximum of FOUR people!!!
...

It is not what people *need*, it is what they *want*.

In Henderson, NV I sometimes drive by a house that is 33,000 square feet. That is not a typo -- THIRTY THREE THOUSAND SQUARE FEET. For two people plus their staff (house manager, maids, cook). 33,000 square feet, and this is a single story house that just goes on for a block. Inside, they get around on Segway scooters.

 

[MotorT]

WTF does anyone need with a 5500 sq/ft house??

I agree. Now 5500 sq/ft of shop space...that's a different story

 

[ddawg16]

They operative word, I think, is "b!tching". It all comes down to living within your means... someone already said that.

I think Stump pretty much put it in perspective......buy what you can afford....but I think most of us don't care to hear the complaints about what it costs.....it's about like the drug user complaining about how much his coke costs....

FWIW....I just paid my gas and electric....$21 & $27 respectively........that is with 2 adults, 3 kids and a cat......all in a 1026 sq' house........just ignore the fact that my garage is 1040 sq'.

 

[GN4WHLN]

I agree with the notion of buying what you can afford. If you enjoy a really big house and can afford it - enjoy! Our home is 1400 SF and fits us nicely. When house prices were skyrocketing it was tempting to sell and move up but we decided to stay where we are and pay it off. My sister has a 3800 SF home that is beautiful but the amount of cleaning, and utilities are pretty high, not to mention 12,000 a year in property taxes (including Mello-Roos, association fees, etc.) is somthing I don't want to be strapped to. I think where people get into trouble is when they buy a really big home and have no idea what it is going to cost them to live there in terms of property tax, utilities, and so on or how much work it is to keep it clean or keep the landscape up. Today, there are quite a few homes in my city that are empty because of people buying beyond their means and then crying about "predatory" lenders and such when they simply didn't exercise some common sense and realize someone working as a whatever, making 20/hr probably can't afford a million dollar home. If you can (really) affords it, and want to spend that kind of money, go for it. The thing is, I don't want somone wagging a finger at me over something important to me and saying why does anyone need all those tools, a garage like that, a 400 HP car, a gun like that, a ... (insert favorite here) because once that game starts, we all lose.

I used this quotation in my college senior project on gun control. I think it is applicable to what we are talking about here.


“When the animals gathered, the lion looked at the eagle and said gravely, ‘We must abolish talons.’ The tiger looked at the elephant and said, ‘We must abolish tusks.’ The elephant looked back at the tiger and said, ‘We must abolish jaws and claws.’ Thus each animal in turn proposed the abolition of the weapons he did not have, until the bear rose up and said in the tones of sweet reasonableness: ‘Comrades, let us abolish everything – everything but the great universal embrace.’”
-Winston Churchill

 

[Kevin54]

The wife and I live in a 2200 sq.ft. house not including the garage. Sometimes it's big enough and sometimes it's too big. Utilities have gone up in the last few years more than what people really realize I think. A few dollars this month, a few dollars the next month, then next thing you know is that you have doubled from what you were paying a few years ago. For us, we put all new windows in last fall, yet our utilities seemed higher. So we had the utility company come and do an energy audit for free (for anyone on a Co-Op...look into it) We passed with flying colors. The house is basically airtight, adequate attic insulation, adequate wall insulation, minimal heat loss all over. But the winter was colder that usual, less sun coming in, and age of both of us also factors in. The older you get the thinner the blood I think. And once we started looking around, we did finally realize that we do have quite a few electrical appliances that you don't think about. Candle lights in every window. hot tub, radios, computers, deep freezer, a couple of refrigerators, etc. We could knock down our bill if we really tried, but the conveniences are nice.
What I don't like about the size of our house is not so much the utilities, but taxes shot up over $700 more this year. This year (next month) I have to bite the bullet on a new roof due to wind damage, which the house is something like 45 square, then another 5 or so on the wifes greenhouse so the buildings match (my garage will have to wait) so that really adds to the yearly expenses. When it comes to shelling out money like that, I wish I had a smaller house.

 

[jolakki]

Hello from Finland,

270m2 (3000sq.ft) and 70m2 (750sq.ft) garage here and two of us will be living in it.
Dont really know how much the heating will cost since the house isnt finished yet.
I invested my money on geothermal heating http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heating.
It is pretty costly to set up, mostly due to hole you have to drill in the bedrock, but I dont belive electricity is going to get cheaper in the future.
I'm hoping to get 1/3 of the electrical bill I would get if it was heated with plain electric.
Heat is distriputed via waterpipes that run inside the floor.

Ventilation has heat recovery function, dont know how to explain it but this is the machine I have
http://www.vallox.com//tp_vallox_200_se__

Good insulation is a must in this climate.
House has walls 9½inches and roof 16 inches and for garage 6 inches walls and 12 inches roof.

 

[nate379]

Not too bad. That is about what I pay a month. 0.19 Kw Hr

I will not complain. I just paid my electric bill $169.49. We have a geothermal heat pump system. for a 3400 sq ft home for 2 people

 

[jolakki]

Not too bad. That is about what I pay a month. 0.19 Kw Hr

Wow and I thought we had it bad with 0,05€/kwh!

 

[buening]

Eh, power bills are all relative to the efficiency of the house. My combined electric and gas is typically $150/month for our 10yr old 3000sq ft house. My parents 1500sq ft home built in the 60's pay about $250/month for combined utilities. A friend of mine has a 3500sq ft home built in the early 1900's and his bills are upwards of $400-500/month.

I agree though, if you can afford a huge house then don't b(tch about having to pay to heat/cool it.

 

[PurdueSD]

I think Stump pretty much put it in perspective......buy what you can afford....but I think most of us don't care to hear the complaints about what it costs.....it's about like the drug user complaining about how much his coke costs....

FWIW....I just paid my gas and electric....$21 & $27 respectively........that is with 2 adults, 3 kids and a cat......all in a 1026 sq' house........just ignore the fact that my garage is 1040 sq'.

now how in the heck is that possible? Not calling you a liar or anything and please dont think i am calling you out...but was your HVAC off for the spring. I'm guessing you have a instant water heater... but 5 showers a day for 30 days =150 showers a month... seems like you would burn through at least $100 worth of gas or electric.

Good for you though