Electric bills

Difficult to do because it depends on how you live. A/C will cost a fortune, electric water heaters are expensive so I have an on/off switch on mine & clothes dryers (if you have one) also runs up the bill. Try looking at your current bill & use the kwh X the VI rate. You learn to become energy efficient really fast.

For the 2 of us on STT in a 3 BDRM house we pay WAPA about 125.00, like Trade said it depends on how you live. We are on the Northside so we dont need AC, our ceiling fans are running 24/7, we line dry our clothes due to the fact that the dryer is horrible, and we have an electric stove.
I am going to be interested, probably horrified, when our next WAPA bill comes out however since I have started running the AC in our bedroom for a few hrs daily to help combat mold.

Pamieann:

As Trade says...it depends on how you live and use electricity.

We own a condo on STT (East End)....total 850 Sq. Ft. (inside)......our condo is in a hotel rental program......the August 2009 electric bill was a little over $360. August 2008 was over $700.

Obviously the guests ran the A/C day & night......along with hot water, cooking, and other electric consuming devices (TV, fans, lights, microwave, refrigerator, etc)........

When we stayed at our unit for Jan/Feb/Mar 2009 the cost was below $100./month. Of course the A/C was not used.

Hope this helps.

F.I.

Yes, it really varies. My place now has solar hot water and a gas stove, no clothes dryer or dishwasher, and I never use AC. Any one of those variables being different would totally change the electric bill.

"You learn to become energy efficient really fast."

LOL...true, true, tue! Before moving here, I used to cool a 3 story house with 2 large window units all summer long and my bill ran between $45 and $55. When I moved here, I kicked up the AC and said, "Ah, the good life!" My bill for each of the 1st 2 months ran $300 to $350 for a one-bedroom house! Yup, you learn quickly.

No A/C, Stove and Dryer are on propane, all bulbs are LED or CF, Water heater on timer six hours a day on weekdays, lots of electronic toys. ~$85/month

2 people small home. energy star everything is @ $50/month with a high of $70 last summer. obviously no AC, just trades and occaisional ceiling fans.

2 people, 1 apt w/ 1 person, no a/c, hot water on timer, no drier propane cooking, goofy light bulbs, lots of electronics, fans everywhere $120-$160/mo.

everything else I can see - but no AC in 85-90 during the day (and hot humd night) - no way. I don't care if it's $500 a month, I need 75 degrees and reasonable humidity in the house.

btw - is it common to have water heaters on timer? I have not seen that yet in homes. If I wanted to get one of those - do I need an electrician to install one?

br1k: Most people who choose to live in the tropics are comfortable at 85 deg. 75 is really cold, IMHO. 😉 A fan to circulate the air is usually sufficient, most of the time. If you don't like warm weather and humidity, you may not be happy here.

I beg to differ 🙂 I spent a few years in places with climate much hotter than that in Virgin Islands. I did quite well there too.

Liking something outside does not mean it should also be inside my home. I love sand on a beach but I would hate to have sand on my house floor 🙂 Meeting an occasional iguana in the yard is fun - meeting one on a kitchen table sucks big time 🙂 I am sure you can come up with a few examples too.

House has to be comfortable, including temperature. If it is the same as outside - why live in a house at all? It is basically living on a street (or, perhaps, in a tent 🙂 ) except for more money.

The fact is that the majority of homes in the USVI do not have central air and many ( mine included) don't have any a/c at all. If you try to keep your home at 75 with low humidity, $500 a month is a conservative estimate of your electrical bill.

And you are correct, it is much like living outside. We rarely shut our windows.

Even for those that have trouble adjusting to the heat are usually fine in front of a fan in the shade and just using a/c at night to sleep. They are right about $500 being conservative if you use it day and night. I had one set of renters that ran up a $985 electric bill running three of theirs non stop.

With window AC's and poor insulation it's really easy to use a whole lot of energy while cooling down the air outside. Widow units have particularly low efficiency, among other issues.

For example - $985 electric bill is approximately 2500amp/hours at what I understand the rate to be (40c/amp hour or so). That's a bit more than double the highest amount of amp hours in my home during a 95F degree month (any summer month 🙂 ). The electric bill is a function of what is being done with energy, perhaps more so than whether AC is being used.

Consider that a ceiling fan draws about an amp (may be a bit less), so 4 fans going on 24/7 will use about 2880 amp hours in a month. That's more than your tenants were able to waste 🙂 You don't need AC to pay a lot for electricity.

"cut & pasted " from Danny S. Parker, Michael P. Callahan, Jeffrey K. Sonne , Guan H. Su
Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) and AeroVironment, Inc.

The measured electrical demand of ceiling fans varies between 5 and 115 Watts depending on model and speed selection. A power demand of 40 W at medium speed is probably typical (Chandra, 1985). Thus, a fan used for six months of the year would use 175 kWh. With 4.3 ceiling fans in an average Florida home, this amounts to about 800 kWh of fan energy consumption-- about 5% of total electricity use.

<end of "cut `n paste!

Not trying to be nit picky, but I am a professional electrician, who has vast knowledge in D.C. & A.C. systems.

The above 40 watt fan usage would then be 40 wattsX4=160 Watts or 720 KWH(kilowatt hours) or 24/7@ 30 days=720 hrs.X160 watts=115.200 KWH.
At your rate of .40/KWH, that would equal $46.08/mo. for the 4 fans described above.
That would be closer to what it really would cost (ask ANYONE here with ceiling fans).
I suspect even this figure to be quite high as our power rates are somewhat lower.

In your example, the cost would be 2880X.40=$1152(I would say not a sole would agree that is possible)!
Most of the faults of your equation is due to you using ampere hours(which are really used to calculate D.C. power consumption), such as would be used in a boat, or a home using D.C. power via an inverter as an auxiliary power source.

Though, to use your .40 rate, Comparing our electricity costs to rates in the contiguous 48 states, prices range from less than eight cents/KWH in Idaho to a high of 19 cents/KWH in Connecticut.

Of course, if your the Hospital, the government, or PUEBLO, your payed rate here would be .00/KWH

br1k,

Believe us, or don't believe us. But if you run central air 24/7 at 75 degrees, be prepared to pay in serious excess of $500/month for your electricity.

In our home we presently have 4 adults and 3 ceiling fans that run 24/7 and 2 floor fans that are used at night. We don't have a w/d - just stove, fridge, microwave, 2 computers and the fancy lightbulbs. Our WAPA bill last month was $107.

everything else I can see - but no AC in 85-90 during the day (and hot humd night) - no way. I don't care if it's $500 a month, I need 75 degrees and reasonable humidity in the house.

I need a ROFL smiley!! If you "need" these things, the USVI might not be the best fit for you.

Hey if he can afford $500 in electric it might be a good fit for him. If you have money to throw away this is a good place to live.

2 people in 2 bdrm condo. Run A/C at night to sleep - $200/month (also have dryer, electric stove,computer, one tv). When I don't run A/C at night bill is around $100/month. Just put hot water heater on timer. We will see if that helps.

On the East End of StX and we don't even own an AC. Dips in the pool and ceiling fans are all we need.

3bdrm/2bath with 2 people, no A/C, electric dryer, electric oven (gas stove top), 2 ceiling fans on 24/7 & 2 floor fans at night & usually 1 floor fan during the day, computers & other electronics, also security lights at night = $130/mo.
2 bdrm/1 bath apt (unoccupied) but with cistern pump and electric water heater on same circut = $35/mo
When we really try to be frugal we get the upstairs bill down to $90/mo and the downstairs to about $25/mo.
We have not installed A/C simply because of the electric costs. The only times we really wish we had it are when the tradewinds stop in Sept/Oct otherwise it's pleasant with the fans.

br1k~ depends on where you chose to live if you are going to "need" AC. We are almost at the top of Crown Mtn and some nights it is down right chilly. In July and August I have had a to wear sweatshirt and wrap in a fleece to sit outside! I came here from SW Florida (Naples) and it was WAY hotter and more humid there than here.
You really wont "need" constant AC.

Liking something outside does not mean it should also be inside my home. ...House has to be comfortable, including temperature. If it is the same as outside - why live in a house at all?

Well, br1k...When the weather outside is just about perfect year-round, many people WOULD want to live outside. Maybe a little roof to keep out the rain, an overhang to keep out the bright sun, some screens to keep out the worst of the bugs, but basically outside... Man-made environments are for environments that are less than ideal. I can basically have breakfast outside every day of the year. Why would I want to sit in conditioned air?:P

For a 3 bedroom apt, we average about $150 month, a bit more in the summer. We run the air conditioning in the bedroom at night during the summer's hottest evenings. I am guessing that's about 2-3 weeks per year. Also, we have energy star appliances and turn the water heater off in the summer. I wash all clothes in cold water. We do run the fans constantly during the day in multiple rooms and just in the bedroom at night. Like other posters, we live in a fairly breezy place, so that helps to cut down on the air conditioning. We also have those funny bulbs in all the lamps--they cut down on the heat generated and use less electricity.

I know it's hard to believe, but you do adjust to the weather. Our first year we thought we would die and the second year we swore it was much cooler. It actually wasn't, our bodies had adjusted. KJ