Considering job offer-need some specifics

Gas or rather propane stoves are pretty prevalent. A 100 lb tank lasts me almost a year. It depends on how much one cooks. The average I've seen is between 6-9 months for a tank. It's good to have a backup tank as Murphy's law dictates your tank will run out on a long holiday weekend or in the middle of cooking dinner for your many guests on thanksgiving, etc.

Some properties have electric stoves but given the amount of outages we have on a regular basis, and that one can be without power after a big rain or storm event from days to weeks to months, it's best to have a propane stove.

Both of your responses are very helpful, thank you! Wow! That is a very high electric bill! I don't have kids, so hope to keep mine around the $150 range. I'll know with the first bill I guess. I'll look for housing that has the propane tanks and not electric. Thanks again for explaining!

Is your job offer for the St. Thomas/ St. John district? Mine too 🙂 What kind of therapist?

My internet bills are double what they were in FL. It is often more cost more cost effective just to have a really good smartphone.

Jesswafer, I'm a PT considering a position that would include STT and STJ but according to the current therapist, she hasn't had a kiddo on STJ for the past year. How about you?

STT and STJ also. I am a school psychologist

On St. John.... the 100lb gas tank is $120 delivered (and I usually throw the guys a little tip for hauling it and hooking it up in the awkward place I have it). I always keep at least one smaller back up tank too. I have a family of 4, cook and bake quite a bit, and have a tiny little stove/oven, and go through my 100lb tank every 4 months or so.

On St. John.... the 100lb gas tank is $120 delivered (and I usually throw the guys a little tip for hauling it and hooking it up in the awkward place I have it). I always keep at least one smaller back up tank too. I have a family of 4, cook and bake quite a bit, and have a tiny little stove/oven, and go through my 100lb tank every 4 months or so.

Julie, that's a LOT of gas but I think I may know why as I had the same problem a few years ago in a rental where there was a small stove/oven. Couldn't figure out how I could go through so much gas until a rare epiphany struck! It was the cheap stove.

The oven was badly insulated and the pilots stayed on all the time. When I had my commercial restaurant range I quickly learned to keep the pilots off as six big burners used up a lot - but on this stove you HAD to have the pilots lit for some reason and couldn't just turn the knobs manually and use a match as shutting them off also shut off the gas flow.

I now have a regular sized solid stove with electric ignition and a tank lasts me a year. I do quite a lot of cooking - way more than I did on the small stove. When the power goes out I can still light the top burners manually but can't light the oven.

That MIGHT be your problem so thought I'd throw it out there!

With all of the previous propane stoves I've had, I've disconnected the pilot light from the stove top. This didn't affect the oven pilot which I left on but still had at least 9 months of usage and I cooked a lot. My reason for disconnecting the stove top pilot was the fact that the stove was in front of a window and sometimes the wind would blow out the pilot light and I'd come home to a home full of propane fumes. Not good.

I now have one with an electronic ignition as well but have it plugged into a extension plug outlet than I can switch off so that I can turn it on when needed as opposed to wasting electricity by keeping the electronic ignition on 24/7. I keep my microwave on such an outlet system as well. These items are small energy vampires consuming electricity while not in actual use.

I've also learned to keep my toaster, toaster oven, coffee maker and all other electrical equipment unplugged unless in use. I don't leave my phone charger plugged in unless the phone is being charged.
Wish I could do so with the DISH box and the EVO box but the cable/dish boxes have to reboot every time you turn them off. There are lots of energy vampires around the house that one doesn't think of. I try to unplug everthing not in use. Can't do it for every single thing but on things you can, it does help cut down on electrical usage.

These items are small energy vampires consuming electricity while not in actual use.

This recent article is pretty interesting as it shows that things have changed much over the years and the savings from unplugging devices isn't anywhere near as great as it used to be:

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/vampire.html

With the amount of outages we experience, it probably saves some equipment from surges. Got into doing this a long time ago and it's become habit. Why pay anything at all for something not in use?

With the amount of outages we experience, it probably saves some equipment from surges.

Amen. All it takes is ONE fried expensive appliance to pass on that lesson.

Unless you have everything in your home plugged into surge protectors (and they are all relatively new and thus likely to be working) -- this can happen at any time, in any home, especially with WAPA and funky island wiring.

Been there, done that!

Here's an article I came across:

Vampire Power Costs Americans $19 Billion in Electricity Every Year

TreeHugger
May 15, 2015

http://www.care2.com/causes/vampire-power-costs-americans-19-billion-in-electricity-every-year.html?onswipe_redirect=no&oswrr=4#comments

The only way to determine exactly what your particular household is using in "vampire time" (and as the numerous articles on the subject all point out) is to test the idle time. If all you're going to save is $20/year it's hardly worth the effort to have to keep resetting everything.

Maybe my experience is completely unusual but I've experienced some really wild brownouts over the years and - touch wood - have never lost even one appliance or gizmo. I'm pretty careful about using surge protectors but confess that I've not always been as diligent about that as I maybe should have been.

Common sense prevails above all.

OT, you are absolutely right, old crappy, poorly insulated, stove. I do go through a lot more now than I used to. I've spent the last year trying to catch up on 'Betty Crocker' time that I never had while I owned the store. I've almost done enough of it to warrant a stove upgrade. 😀 When I was too busy with work I would go through 100lb tank every 8-9 months (but again, on the same crappy stove).