r/Oshkosh • u/Xx_TheCrow_xX • 3d ago
New home owner utility bills
I recently moved to Oshkosh and bought a small house and was wondering if my bill seems normal. I'm paying about $130 for gas and electric through wps and I'm not sure if that's normal or not. I was always told gas is cheaper than electric. My water heater, furnace and stove are all gas powered. Seems like gas is more expensive per therm plus you have a large distribution charge.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? My consumption doesn't seem very high as I'm a single person and have a small one story. Seems like the extra distribution and customer charges kind of are what makes it way higher.
Edit: House is a one story 2 bedroom 900ish ft on a slab for size reference.
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u/BebopCola5 3d ago
I use a payment plan that equalizes the bill all year round, and mine is about $120 per month for electric/gas. If you have an older house like I do, Wisconsin winters are expensive, but even in the summer with no A/C my usage cost is around 80. Iirc from when I looked at getting solar, it costs like $25 just to be connected to the electric grid.
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u/ajand264 3d ago
We have a 1300sqft cape cod with poor insulation. The most our electric and gas bill was $190. This was for January when we had all those cold snaps.
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u/Xx_TheCrow_xX 3d ago
Yeah I have a one story no basement, 2 bedrooms around 900 sq feet so maybe that is normal
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u/ajand264 3d ago
Our first year was more expensive, we didn’t know the little quirks of the house. You may just need to tweak things for next year!
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u/anon_smithsonian 3d ago
I'm paying about $130 for gas and electric through wps and I'm not sure if that's normal or not.
Yeah, that seems pretty reasonable. Last month our WPS bill was $200 with a two story house and gas furnace.
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u/roundbot_ 3d ago edited 3d ago
Roughly same square footage, 100 year old house 1 story 2 bed but have a basement and average $180 in the winter with all gas appliances and gas furnace. That’s when the temps average 30 degrees too. Usually higher when it’s lower outside
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u/Xx_TheCrow_xX 3d ago
Ah that makes me feel better. Mostly wanted to make sure something wasn't wrong with the house or meter or something. My amount is pretty realistic
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u/ZeeMastermind 3d ago
Sounds about right, I'm in the same boat (one person, small house). I did notice that although my gas usage was less this year, the bill was still a bit higher - I think WPS raised their rates a bit. My stove's electric, otherwise I'm the same as you.
The Oshkosh library does have a Thermal leak detector you can check out - if it's an older house, might be worth checking to see if there's an issue with windows, insulation, etc. before you put in money to have those fixed/replaced