Recently a dancers that I know well and lives fairly close to me, showed me her electric bill on her cell phone. I was for $271 for her 2 bedroom apartment. I would guess 1000-1200 sq ft. On the other hand my home is 1500 sq ft and my bill was only $76. I was discussing the huge difference with a buddy of mine and he suggested that she was growing cannabis in the guest bed room. Anybody got a better explanation?
I’ve seen the same thing. One of my last favorites would send me photos of her past due/shut-off notices and I was shocked at the size of her bills. She too lived in a small apartment
Many dancers simply do not have a fundamental understanding of personal finance. Often they can make more in one night than a working class PL makes in an entire week Easy money coming in so they don’t pay attention to money going out
She would often tell me her kids would have the A/C turned down to 68 but be wrapped up in blankets.
Another thing I’ve seen is perhaps she’s worked out a prior payment plan for getting behind before so extra money is added in each month to pay for older bills.
I've actually become a millionaire selling a phone app to strippers. It generates fake huge electric bills they can ask Captain Save-a-hoes to pay for them.
If you've been evicted, you are going to have to live in not-so-nice places, that could have little or no insulation. Or maybe somebody in her household runs the AC with windows open/broken?
Those strippers sure now how to live in the moment and not worry about what’s to come, as long as they’re as comfortable as possible right now. That’s probably one sessions with the Cat, is what she is thinking.
^^ duh, no shit Captain Onbious! I bet you think your adding value to this thread with your comments, probably trying to set yourself up as better than any other poster with your wise self aggrandizing responses.
One other possible thing might depend on the building itself. Some of them are cheaply constructed. The dishwashers in a lot of units SUCK and you might as well just hand wash. Also ever live in an apartment complex that gives you notice to have your faucet drip so you don’t bust the pipes?
In college I lived in a 3 bedroom that was advertised “all bills paid”, roommates and I *always* hit over the the monthly cap and had to pay something in utilities anyways. Even during months that didn’t require much heat or AC. Even with getting on to each other with lights. Nope. We tried and gave up.
Oh and while thinking about that, that was the worst fridge ever. Food would rot super quick in there, and the maintenance people would gaslight and say “oh well there’s nothing wrong here”
It was a place that was making $475 for each of our rooms or $1425 total. In some areas I get it that’s not much but in the specific place we were at seven years ago it was a lot. Yeah “cheap” apartments suck.
The one time I lived in apartments, for about five years near the turn of the millenium, I paid a couple hundred bucks extra to make sure I lived in one of the newer, safer communities. No problems with the utilities or appliances. Given, they weren't bosch super-premium stainless, but they were decent.
As a bonus, they were across the street from the county admin offices, so we always got our power restored first after Hurricanes. Even people in the back half of the same complex had to wait days longer.
^ 20 years ago doesn't equate to today. There may not be anything else available with the housing shortage, or instead of an extra $200 it is more likely another $400 to $500.
Your 1500 sf house has a $76 electric bill?!? How in the hell? Is the house kept at 90 degrees? No AC? Gas for water heater, stove, etc.?
My small house in Phoenix is about 1500sf, and I run the pool pumps 8 hours/day. I'm on a time-of-use plan where the price gets jacked up 3-6pm, but cheaper the other 21 hours. So I cool the house down prior to that three hour period to minimize its AC use. I just paid my $325 electric bill, which would have been $400 w/out the time plan. So $271 and they're growing weed? Ha...no. That sounds pretty reasonable for an apartment...in the summer...in a hot city.
I pay a lot. Its old wiring...electricity escaping. Insulation deteriorating over time. With humidity I leave windows open a little if I use ac. For like 2200 square feet I pay around $200 a month in summer. Around $80 the rest of the year.
In Vegas I've had a place where I paid $500 a month in summer for like 900 square feet. The building was shit.zero insulation and an ancient ac system. Got out fast
@ Elduderino I live in a suburb of Atlanta. Summer high temps range 88-92 degrees. Not triple digits like the SW. I have double pane windows, lots of shade trees, a new AC unit 2 years ago, I am the sole occupant. I only use gas for water heating. My June bill was $43, Jul $66 and Aug $76. The cost of living is a lot cheaper here.
My dad had electric heat in his house. Typical bill was $400/month... for as long as I can remember. When I started to sell the place, I realized that one of the base board heat elements was permanently stuck in the "on" position, even in the summer. Flipped a switch to cut off that heating element... bill dropped to $100/month. (and called a licensed electrician to fix it correctly) I'm no electrician, but sounds like poor electrical maintenance to me with some vampire circuit draining current. She needs to find a good electrician.
I can't believe that not a single one of you could think of the most obvious answer, lol, which is of course window AC units. We've had a very hot summer even by Southern standards. Some of you silver spoon disconnected types obviously don't realize this, but most cheaper apartments do not have the luxury of hookups to energy sipping (relatively) central air units. They either run on window ACs or old clunky wall units, both of which gulp electricity with great abandon, particularly since they are often not designed to handle the amount of space that they are being used to cool.
Definitely did not think of wall-units. In Phoenix, it's central air. And I don't think I've ever turned on the heater except for when my dad was visiting. I try to get the house as cool as possible in our "winter". December-February, the electric bill is probably about $75/month, with no AC and no heat. I suppose a good portion of the KWH would come from the pool pumps.
My two high summer months are &300, then the next 2 high months are $200. All the other months average about $50. My total electric bill equals about $125/month on the evenly throughout the year approach. I have 2000 sq foot home with a family of 4. Still a very affordable utility bill with all the comforts of running the appliances efficiently during the right time of day.
$271 for a 2-bedroom in Atlanta sounds pretty-high.
Either she has a very-old inefficient poorly maintained unit (perhaps she hasn’t even ever changed the filter?) - or she makes stripper-style decisions w.r.t. cooling her apt like putting the thermostat very-low – I’ve heard that if one puts the thermostat 20-degrees lower than the outside temp, the unit will hardly if ever shut-off as it will be hard to cool the place to that temp – could also be she has it running constantly vs on “auto” and it never shuts off – I’m thinking she’s not exercising common-sense w.r.t. how she uses her A/C vs it being a structural-issue but who knows for sure.
I rarely see wall units these days except in some very very old houses in very-poor hoods and even then it's very rare - same as w/ apt buildings; I don't recall the last-time I saw one with window-units (at least in the place I've lived which are Dallas and Miami)
I'll add a little more to her side of the story. The apartments are new. Her rent is $1900/mo. She claims the bill is high because she smokes inside and leaves windows open for the smoke/smell to get out.
Well - one would assume she's a fairly heavy/frequent smoker for her to not step outside to smoke - that means that perhaps those windows are open a lot
Traditionally the window ac units were exempt from the efficiency standards that are required from the central ac units. So window units are usually very inefficient. New regulations are starting require greater efficiency from the window ac units.
"... As Mr. Electricity states, a window unit uses anywhere from 500 to 1440 watts to run, while a 2.5 ton central unit (about the size for a typical 1,500- to 2,000-square-foot home) uses about 3,500 watts ..."
Which makes sense since wall-units are often much smaller than central-units
In Atlanta as a student we had the cheapest, oldest apartment we could find. This was 35 years ago and I would guess the unit was built in the 60's. Even back then it had central A/C. Not very much in Atlanta does not. Growing up in the North in a working class neighborhood, no one had central A/C. Your status was how many window units you had. We had 3, which was more than most families. When I put central A/C in for my parents, their summer electric bill dropped in half.
The age and efficiency of the A/C system can make a huge difference in what it consumes. I have 4500 sq ft and keep the house fairly cool. My high this year was $160. I have brand new units that are a few steps above builder grade.
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Many dancers simply do not have a fundamental understanding of personal finance. Often they can make more in one night than a working class PL makes in an entire week Easy money coming in so they don’t pay attention to money going out
She would often tell me her kids would have the A/C turned down to 68 but be wrapped up in blankets.
Another thing I’ve seen is perhaps she’s worked out a prior payment plan for getting behind before so extra money is added in each month to pay for older bills.
If you've been evicted, you are going to have to live in not-so-nice places, that could have little or no insulation. Or maybe somebody in her household runs the AC with windows open/broken?
Not exactly the best for energy efficiency.
Oh and while thinking about that, that was the worst fridge ever. Food would rot super quick in there, and the maintenance people would gaslight and say “oh well there’s nothing wrong here”
It was a place that was making $475 for each of our rooms or $1425 total. In some areas I get it that’s not much but in the specific place we were at seven years ago it was a lot. Yeah “cheap” apartments suck.
As a bonus, they were across the street from the county admin offices, so we always got our power restored first after Hurricanes. Even people in the back half of the same complex had to wait days longer.
Dam this thread smells like boomers
My small house in Phoenix is about 1500sf, and I run the pool pumps 8 hours/day. I'm on a time-of-use plan where the price gets jacked up 3-6pm, but cheaper the other 21 hours. So I cool the house down prior to that three hour period to minimize its AC use. I just paid my $325 electric bill, which would have been $400 w/out the time plan. So $271 and they're growing weed? Ha...no. That sounds pretty reasonable for an apartment...in the summer...in a hot city.
Either she has a very-old inefficient poorly maintained unit (perhaps she hasn’t even ever changed the filter?) - or she makes stripper-style decisions w.r.t. cooling her apt like putting the thermostat very-low – I’ve heard that if one puts the thermostat 20-degrees lower than the outside temp, the unit will hardly if ever shut-off as it will be hard to cool the place to that temp – could also be she has it running constantly vs on “auto” and it never shuts off – I’m thinking she’s not exercising common-sense w.r.t. how she uses her A/C vs it being a structural-issue but who knows for sure.
"... As Mr. Electricity states, a window unit uses anywhere from 500 to 1440 watts to run, while a 2.5 ton central unit (about the size for a typical 1,500- to 2,000-square-foot home) uses about 3,500 watts ..."
Which makes sense since wall-units are often much smaller than central-units
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/running-ce…
The age and efficiency of the A/C system can make a huge difference in what it consumes. I have 4500 sq ft and keep the house fairly cool. My high this year was $160. I have brand new units that are a few steps above builder grade.