It’s been 2 years now since we stayed in our house.. So I would like to give a detailed brief on the Monthly Payment that I had talked about in the earlier post…
The monthly expenses that we knew about going into the house were the following.. We had a blind estimate of about 500$ a month.. It was more or less close
- Electricity
- Gas
- Water
- Security
- HOA
- Termite Control
- Pest Control
- Lawn Fertilizer Service
- HVAC Service
Electricity
Here I realized that it’s the big ticket items that add up.. For example having an efficient fridge, washer, dryer, HVAC goes a long way.. Similarly if the windows / doors of the house are properly sealed, then there would be no air escape and the A/C or heater would not have to run always to keep the temperature the same.. Please note this also depends on the living area of the house.. The more area the more work needs to be done to maintain the temperature..
By replacing 13W CFL lights to 9W LED lights you most probably will not save much.. but by replacing all 40W incandescent or higher to the equivalent LEDs, you would save more.. For example dining room or the common living area where we spend more time needs to have LED lights.. as we often spend more time in those areas.. LED lights are always on sale, at about 3 for $9 or 6 for $12..
For example, during Christmas season I put up lights all over the outside of the house.. Some LED and some non-LED.. The calculation was as follows : I was using about 7 amps of current at 110v.. so 770watts. 0.7 kwh.. The rate is 11 cents per kwh. So 5 hours a day for 30 days. Total electric bill due to Christmas lights for 1 month 11.55$
So what does the above say.. it’s basically that if you have a big ticket item rated at 15 Amps, and if you use it for more time, it would cost you more money..
Regarding changing temperatures when not in the house as to when in the house.. There may be 2 sides to this.. I am not sure how much difference it makes in the utility bill.. since at the end of the day if the temperature has to increase from 65 to 70 the heater needs to run for a longer time.. it would kind of equate to the same amount of time that the heater would have run across the same period of time to keep the temperature at a constant 70.. Here also its more about properly air sealing the house rather than trying to change temperature settings in your thermostats.. I am still trying out some configurations but not a major difference looks like.. I would have to crunch the numbers here though..
Change your HVAC filter every 3 to 4 months depending on the dirt accumulation on it.. The more dirt accumulated on it, the more hard the HVAC has to work to circulate air in the house.. the more time the unit runs..
In the summer season you would see a rise in the electric bill due to the A/C and in the Winter there would be decline as the heater takes over..
Gas
Nothing much to say here.. Gas cooking ranges does not add much to the bill.. If the heating system for the house is gas or water heater is gas, then you would see a rise in the bill in the Winter season and a steep decline during the summer season.. But this kind of works in cycles with electric.. Either you would be paying for gas or electric all year round..
Water
Summer seasons it would increase if you happen to have a lawn, sprinkler system or water the lawn on a weekly basis.. Winter the bill decreases.. as most lawns would be dormant during this time
Below is a 21 month comparison on how the charges go up and down.. As you can see I have also optimized over the course of the second year based on improvements done
| Month | Gas | Electric | Water |
| Jun-15 | 22.26 | 48 | 71.28 |
| Jul-15 | 24.05 | 22 | 70.78 |
| Aug-15 | 23.14 | 153 | 108.79 |
| Sep-15 | 23.14 | 174 | 99.93 |
| Oct-15 | 38.8 | 125 | 17.57 |
| Nov-15 | 94.22 | 69 | 42.91 |
| Dec-15 | 92.64 | 42 | 53.04 |
| Jan-16 | 139.46 | 66 | 53.04 |
| Feb-16 | 111.22 | 72 | 42.91 |
| Mar-16 | 35.04 | 80 | 50.51 |
| Apr-16 | 32.65 | 73 | 63.18 |
| May-16 | 23.85 | 71 | 73.32 |
| Jun-16 | 23.15 | 80 | 69.52 |
| Jul-16 | 24.01 | 140 | 91.05 |
| Aug-16 | 23.15 | 123 | 70.78 |
| Sep-16 | 24.05 | 94 | 78.38 |
| Oct-16 | 30.61 | 54 | 51.78 |
| Nov-16 | 124.38 | 56 | 46.71 |
| Dec-16 | 147.17 | 90 | 52.15 |
| Jan-17 | 92.12 | 73 | 55.07 |
| Feb-17 | 73.22 | 66 | 48.62 |
| Avg Across 21 months | 58.2062 | 84.3333 | 62.4438 |
Security
You can have the basic security service installed for 23.99 with a mobile connection rather than a landline.. But not sure if the system is effective to stop a burglary.. The burglar would just ignore the alarm as they are going to be in an out in a few minutes as that’s what many researches shows.. The cops always take about 5 to 10 minutes to show up.. It’s more of an insurance item here.. You get a discount on your home insurance if you have an alarm system.. So it kind of cancels outs.. Instead of giving the extra premium to the insurance company you give it to the security company.. Similarly the insurance company may give you less hassle when you file a claim, as they would know that the alarm was set and it did go off.. and that the door or windows was not left open by mistake inviting a burglar in..
HOA
This is an expense like home insurance.. it was about 350-450$ for a year.. No surprises there..
Termite Control
Here we made a mistake.. Even though we had done a termite inspection of the house, the previous owner had cancelled their termite policy a year back.. So when we came in, we only saw the BAIT systems on the ground and kind of assumed that they still had the termite protection.. Couple of months later when I inquired, I was made aware of the same.. I ended up renewing it with the same company as they gave me a discount for having the systems already in the ground.. If I were to change to a new company, I would have had to pay about 800$ or so.. But I ended up paying 300$ + the yearly amount of 235$ for a total of 535$ or so.. In normal scenarios if the previous owners had a policy, you could just transfer the policy in your name.. and you could just keep paying the 235$ a year… If you pay it at once, you get a 5-7% discount..
Pest Control
Here I performed the same for the first year by spraying Ortho around the perimeter of the house once in a while.. Spreading granules around the house to take care of ants etc.. I was not too disciplined with this though.. There were still spiders around the house.. still I ended up giving it to the same company as the termite control, to handle the same.. Once they took over, no pests till now.. It costs about 270$ a year.. and the same applied here also.. If you pay it at once, you get a 5-7% discount.. Also if combined with termite control, you get a discount on one..
Lawn fertilizer
Here also I experimented for the first 2 years.. It was about 200-250$ in fertilizer for a 6000sq ft lawn for about 4 applications… I had huge success the second year and revived the lawn to a lush green.. but I missed to apply pre-emergent during the winter this year, so ended up with all kind of weeds, which were tough to kill.. I ended up giving the same to a lawn company for 450$ for the full year with 8 applications and let them take care of the same.. I guess I would have ended up spending the same for 8 applications.. Not sure my lawn was sabotaged also by some company!!! Since the previous year I had no weeds and suddenly other than me, no one else in the vicinity has weeds.. but then I also never applied pre-emergent in the fall.. I may go back to taking care of the lawn the next year and be more disciplined about it...
HVAC service
I ignored this the first year as it was a new house.. I just kept changing the air filters every 3-4 months.. The second year, I took the maintenance service just to keep a check on how the HVAC was performing.. It was about 270$ for 2 services with unlimited calls and labor free of charge for any repairs if needed.. One for the heater and one for the A/C unit.. May skip this the next year and take it every other year instead.. This is actually needed if you want to claim warranty for the HVAC unit.. There is a clause in the warranty to see if the unit was maintained well.. unless you are a HVAC professional and keep tabs on the same.. this is the safer route to take…
At the end of the day, most of the items are insurance tickets.. You never know when you need to use it.. its just like Car insurance.. you need it only when an accident occurs!!!
If I average all the above bills to a monthly value.. it comes to about 375$ a month.. I took an average of 60$ for gas, 85$ for electricity and 70$ for water.. which was 215$ a month.. The remaining 160$ are the other items added up together..
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