Average Cost of Utilities per month

[Girl_Next_Door]

A few things I do, includes:
- Hang my clothes to dry instead of spinning it to dry with a dryer (This consume a lot of energy as well);
- Using only 1 air-con (instead of turning on both the living room and bedroom air con) when I am sleeping;
- Turn off the power points of electrical applicances that I am not using during the day (because I am at work). You will be surprised how much energy you conserve because the electrical applicances are no longer on "standby mode" and are totally switched off. Of course, I still leave my laptop running 24 by 7;
- Stop using the electrical mosquito repellant (those that runs 24 by 7 types) and burn scented incense sticks.

I was told that changing the air-con temperature (i.e. instead of setting it as 24 degree, if you set it as 26 degree), you are conserving energy as well. I am not sure of that, but am testing this theory now.

[Zeenit]

Our bills are about $250 for a new 3 bedroom condo when we have visitors. $150 per month on average for just 2 of us but we also only use the bedroom air con when we go to sleep and not all day. I have found using fans is better and keeps the bills down. I have my patio doors open all day. I find an aired room feels better and the fan helps the air flow.
Our air cons are set to 25C and it does save money and not such a shock to the system when you walk outside your door.
The first few months will be a learning curve.

[beppi]

what about TV (we've got plasma tv)? and PC? do they chew up the electricity bill too?

By far the most power-hungry devices are heat-generating ones, like air-con, fridge or water heater.
You can check that by reading the power rating on the equipment label (usually somewhere on the back). If no Watt indication is given, multiply the voltage (V) with current (A) to get the power rating (1V * 1A = 1W).
A small room aircon typically has 800W, my laptop 65W. This means the laptop running 12 hours consumes as much energy as the aircon in one hour.

Disclaimer: Since the power rating is the maximum power consumed, the actual consumption is normally lower and depends on e.g. temperature setting of the aircon or power save functions of the laptop. The above therefore only gives a rough indication, which is good enough in most cases.

[cbavasi]

It's also the dryer... will you be air drying all of your things? Sheets and towels for you/wife and 2 kids? The tumble dryer can up your utilities a lot. If you put the children in the same room to sleep you'll cut back on air con consumption as well.

[Warrior_Angel]

my 5room flat w 6 people and a dog cost about $120 per mth

[BigSis]

Ours are about $250-300 usually for a 3 bed apartment (high floor), 4 people, two of whom are in all day.

Everyone's bills vary, it all depends what you do and what your habits are, whether you like a/c at night or can get away with just fans, whether you tumble dry clothes, enjoy hot showers, leave the TV on standby all the time, cook at home often, like lots of soft lighting at night, have 2 fridges etc.

If you're in a house I would have thought that you might use more a/c than someone who lives in a breezy apartment, but you might be able to get away with decent ceiling fans in most rooms.

Our children use a/c at night and recently we noticed a drop in the utility bill because they'd both decided to sleep in the same room and did so for about 3 weeks - it made quite a big difference. Perhaps if you can get your children to share a room you'd save money that way.

[aster]

what about TV (we've got plasma tv)? and PC? do they chew up the electricity bill too?

Plasma tv's apparently eat up a lot more power than lcd panels. But as others have mentioned, it's the aircon you need to worry about most.