Whenever they have a spike in demand, the de-regulated prices go up by several hundred percent. Example

  • SOMETHINGSWRONG@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    They just make a lot of money or lived outside their means. When people mention big AC bills, they’re cooling 2000sqft homes to under 70F 24/7. No idea why American culture does this insanity.

    I get by just fine with 78F during the day and a little lower at night, it even gets a bit cold when the compressor runs. Low low bills even when it’s 110 (not hyperbole, that’s the literal temp) outside.

    Additionally every degree higher it gets outside, the less efficient your AC/heat pump gets so you need more power to hit the same temp even after accounting for the higher heat differential.

    • doughless@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      My average bill is $350, with summer months reaching ~$650. But, I have 3100 sq feet with 7 people at home and 2 EVs. Including monthly service fees, my per kWh cost works out to 11.9 cents.

    • sunzu@kbin.run
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      4 months ago

      I had 300 dollar bills peak season in one bed apt before due to poor insulation. Being poor sucks. I thought it was a good deal until the bills came in lol

    • Today@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      2400 sq ft. Just two of us now, but I’m home in the day during the summer and we have frequent guests. In past years we had elderly mom and nursing care here so we had to keep it comfortable all day. We heat/cool upstairs only at night, downstairs only in the day and close vents in unused rooms. Our mid-90’s HVAC can’t get to 70°. We did get an electric pellet grill last year and we’ve been using it a lot to keep from heating the house. I wonder how much that adds.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        4 months ago

        We did get an electric pellet grill last year and we’ve been using it a lot to keep from heating the house. I wonder how much that adds.

        A rule of thumb I heard from datacenters is to count every watt of power consumption as 3 to account for the additional demand on the cooling systems and battery backup, so an electric grill probably saves a ton of energy over the oven given it isn’t heating up the house