In your home...what is the biggest expense?

I've worked in this industry for a while now...and I am wondering...
Where is the major cost to your household?

Living in the mid-Atlantic region means I have roughly 5 months or so of heating bills, 4 months or so of a/c bills, and maybe 2-3 months of needing neither.

I have natural gas heat, but I also have a pellet stove to help, and the a/c is electric.

So much depends on the price of the energy used.

I'd guess my heating bills are higher than my cooling bills.

June, July, August, and much of September can be downright hot, and the humidity can be the real killer.
December, January, February, and March are certainly cold enough (usually) to require heat.

The make or break for picking which one costs more is what I need to use in April, May, October, and early November.

I'd guess heating costs a bit more, but not substantially more. Probably very close to an even split.

Just so it's thrown out there.... My thermostat for heat is set to 65 degrees for warmest, and for a/c it's set to 76 degrees for coolest.

I live near Motokid (mid-Atlantic) and we can have some weather extremes. This year hasn't been too cold, but last year we saw 0 degrees in the winter and 100+ in the summer. I have a heat pump which is worthless below like 35 degrees unless you like high electric bills, so I also have a pellet stove that I burn 24/7 in the cold months and it heats the house enough that the heat pump usually stays off unless it gets down in the single digits like last year. This year it was so warm that from October til now I only burnt 2 1/2 tons of pellets. My AC was installed in '08 and it's a top of the line high efficiency unit so my electric bills in the summer aren't too bad. Of course the T-stat stays on 75 for cooling and 67 for heating. I voted for the heating being more expensive because I have to buy pellets, but that's cheaper than using just the heat pump. Of course my wife is always cold

Biggest expense? My adult children

100% wood heat in the winter. I have a wood stove in the basement that heats the whole house real nice. I ran out of fuel oil in Nov. so the wood was all I heated with. I have used wood the last 6 years but would use some fuel oil in the spring and fall when I was to lazy to start a fire. I have all of next winters wood cut and stacked and about 1/2 of the 2014 winter done. I live in a ranch style house and put a fan in the attic to pull the hot air out in the summer during the day. We open the window at night to let the cool air in. Last summer I ran the AC about 10 days all summer. The summer before not at all. I would rather spend $ on toys then paying the utility companys.

I'm a cheap SOB. My place is regularly in the mid 80's indoors right about now. I turn the AC on for one run before bed to bring the temp down and then open the windows. For now it's cool enough at night that I'm fine.

Come winter I'll likely keep it at 68 degrees and wear a sweatshirt if need be.

First electric bill here in Tucson was $30 (April).

pbnut wrote:

My place is regularly in the mid 80's indoors right about now.

But it's a dry heat right?

It is. My hygrometer regularly reads 15%.

pbnut wrote:

It is. My hygrometer regularly reads 15%.

Not that I doubt your readings...but a reliable hygrometer can be tough to come by..without shopping for good tools.
I'm sure it's dry, but 15% is crazy dry.
I feel sorry for anyone with an acoustic instrument in your neck of the woods.

It was a cheapy I picked up at Walmart a couple years ago.

My biggest expense of all is TAXES. Just do a little quick math and you'll find its your's also. If you rent, figure 25% is property taxes are part of your rent. But since you want to know heating or cooling, they are actually about even. My AC bills in the summer are about as big as my heating bills in the winter. About 150 dollars a month is the max, so its not bad as utility costs are low in west Texas. Actually, my water sewer bill is by biggest utility expense. We have to pay a lot for water because of the cost to pump it and the water rights. Some of our water comes for over 100 miles away.

Heating. I use 27 Tkw/h of energy in my house every year.

We have an old house with poor insulation and a heat pump. Not a great combo. But really i pay less now for electric than I did when we had an oil furnace. Usually our heat is worse, this year it has been really hot early so even with the AC set at 77 it has been running a lot. My wife has really bad allergies and asthma so just opening doors and windows is not really an option.