The last couple months have been really hot and humid here in our new home of Baltimore. As you recall, we spent a bunch of cash on a new A/C system and insulation a couple months ago. It’s paying off in spades, especially in quality of life. The system works wonderfully, and the house has been cool and comfortable – and dry. We set the system to 74 degrees and we feel really good all the time, even for sleeping.
What I’ve discovered, also, is that our energy bills are surprisingly low. In our first month here in February, our combined gas/electricity bill was over $400 – about 1/2 and 1/2 gas versus electric. Since we got our A/C and insulation, of course we haven’t needed the heating, but we’ve increased our electrical systems pretty significantly with the A/C system itself.
However, our energy bills for the last couple months have been about $120–150, $110–120 of it electricity. The A/C has been running almost continuously for those two months, but the price is actually 40% lower! Awesome. The combination of a high-efficiency system and lots of new insulation has definitely paid off. I’m actually wondering whether the strip heater in the system may be cheaper to run than our gas steam boiler during the winter! Wild.
