Our gas bill for this month was

This is our normal Summer bill, just for Hot Water, 2 adults. For 6 people your bill is unusually low. Maybe you just turned the temp down on the HW heater? In winter we have a bill of $20 to $25, which is also incredibly low, as we have a space heater and do not heat the whole house.

 

check your reading type on bill.

Most of gas companies do not bother to take readings during summer, as they are low they charge minimal and do adjustment when heating season starts

 

Similar to mine in the warm months. Gas is only used here for heating water and furnace in the winter. Typically around 4-6 therms from May to November and then with a max of 20-25 therms for the coldest winter month and the other months are in between. A year's worth of gas bills runs about $115-$135 for me for about 110-120 therms. Used double that before I got a high-efficiency gas furnace!

Now if we want to brag about low utility bills - my electric bill was about $100 for the last year (thanks to solar panels). Though it will be going up now that I have a Nissan LEAF to charge.

 

Sorry man; you doing great!

 

With a gas bill of $5 - you are doing well - but it would be more informative to know how many therms were actually used rather than the cost.

 

If you only knew what it costs in Europe, you'll almost be happy! Well.. "almost" being the key word here because it's ridiculously expensive everywhere. That's OPEC.
Citizens of the US have it good compared to Europeans.

 

Our water's so cold coming down out of the rockies that we use 9-11 therms/mo in the summer to heat it. We can use up to around 100 therms/mo in a cold winter month.

 

OPEC? isn't natural gas comes from Russia and Northern sea?

with respect to citizens of US having it good, it is not entirely the case. Yes we pay less then 50% for gasoline to what europians do, but we also stuck with gas guzzlers, no public transportation, extra urban infrastructure and long commutes. Yeah and if you think our salaries are great, think about having 2 weeks of leave time to cover your vacation and sick leaves.

 

... and if you lose your health insurance you're screwed. Our education system is poor, our citizen's report being less happy than their European counter parts... How exactly do we have it good compared to the Euros?

Things can be quite good in the States, don't get me wrong, but if you're unlucky in life, it can be a harsh place to live. "Me" is more important than "We" in the psyche here. That's a double edged sword and both edges can be quite sharp.

 

You are doing great BUT, are you prorating the total cost of the solar panels (paid for/ or not) over a certain time period to estimate your real costs?

 

:humble:

HAPPEN to be in Germany right now on vacation. Have been here many times and it is interesting each time to note the changes. Most things are more expensive, gas, oil, electricity; had to park the other day and found free parking impossible. For street parking you pay 2-4 Euros and you have a limit of 2 hours sometimes. When the Euro initiated, its value compared to the mark was halved, at the same time the prices were approximate doubled. I noticed the packaging of groceries even smaller than before! MVS (Mehvertstuer) or value added tax is 19 percent. The starting money taken out of paychecks is around 55 % that is,it was, I am not sure about now, it is probably more. The roads are great, very smooth. The hospitalisation Sems adequate, altho I saw no Doktors around ( my Brother in law is in a rehap clinic ) I think they just needed a Hospital bed in Frankfurt. And they all pay an enormous amount for Health insurance. Then they bailed out East Germany and now they are bailing out Greece, Spain etc. So the tax and living expenses are very high here. We definitely have it Better in the US! Oh, my favorite beer only cost .75 Euro for a half a Liter VS $3.25 for the Same German beer in the states. So, if you want to be a drunk come to Germany (just kidding!!!!) Please ignore all typos, my Ipad keeps reverting to German.

 

The Germans pay a little more than half what we do for healthcare (11% vs 17.5% GDP). Their economy is growing faster and they export more and work less than we do. I wonder what wage growth looks like there? Unless you're a CEO, there isn't really any wage growth here. It's been negative for most people lately (not including the unemployed here, just to be clear). It's always been more expensive there, to be sure, but people tend to consume less (they use half the electricity we do, for example), which changes the equation somewhat.

 

Simple payback calcs have me breaking even in 10 years. Funny thing is - is that the more electricity I use, the faster the system pays for itself thanks to the tiered rates we have here in CA. If I double my electricity usage - it will pay for itself in 5-6 years instead of ten.

So I guess you could say that I paid a large amount up front to reduce my electricity bills. I kind of look at it as insurance - seems that electricity rates are rising at rates faster than what you can get back with safe investments these days. Never mind the environmental benefits.

 

Debt is for certain, investments are speculative. You know you're going to have electricity costs and they are likely to inflate over time. Seems like a good investment to me. once you've paid off the debt you're free and clear and will have improved cash flow. That has a certain value in and of itself.

 

What debt? The PV system is paid for. The only debt I have is my house.

 

Even better....

 

Did you have the panels installed on the roof or ground?

 

I installed them on the roof. As a side effect it shades the roof which means it doesn't get as hot upstairs as it used to. Will probably add more panels down the road to maximize the effect, but PV panels are quite expensive for insulation.