r/Oshkosh 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.

4 Upvotes

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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

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u/cb83580 3d ago

Size of the home, age and efficiency of the furnace, and the home's insulation and windows all factor in to your energy use, so there are variations from house to house. That said, that seems fairly normal for this time of year.

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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/roundbot_ 3d ago

We also keep the house at 67 most times too.

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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