[Ludi]

We are all electric. But we don't use AC except for work.

[Cloud9]

Had dinner with a local electrical supplier buddy. During the boom he had 7 people in his office and 20 crews pulling wires on new construction.

The twenty crews are gone and 5 of the 7 in the office are in the field. The business has shrunk back down to family members only.

Central Florida

[JJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JJ', '
')My electric bill was 409 dollars, doubling from two months ago, and our local power supplier said they will be raising rates again Oct.1

[tex123]

Everything's bigger in Texas including the electric bills. Our last bill for 1600 kw was around 240.00. We keep our air at 80 degrees during the day. Many people I know are paying $400-$600 a month to cool thier homes and TXU were so sorry to tell us they are going to have to raise our rates again.

[TT]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('tex123', 'E')verything's bigger in Texas including the electric bills. Our last bill for 1600 kw was around 240.00. We keep our air at 80 degrees during the day. Many people I know are paying $400-$600 a month to cool thier homes and TXU were so sorry to tell us they are going to have to raise our rates again.

[vilemerchant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('tex123', 'E')verything's bigger in Texas including the electric bills. Our last bill for 1600 kw was around 240.00. We keep our air at 80 degrees during the day. Many people I know are paying $400-$600 a month to cool thier homes and TXU were so sorry to tell us they are going to have to raise our rates again.

[vtsnowedin]

Oh quit your crying!! There isn't an electric bill anywhere in the USA that isn't a gold plated bargan. If you think not, Try to go off grid and compute the total cost ,Add fuel and the depreciation on the generator or solar panels and throw in the minimum wage for your time, as that is more than you are worth doing somthing so unproductive. See what your cost per KWH is adding it all up. It's OK to set in place a replacement for the grid incase it goes down sure. Use it before the grid goes down? Dumb.

[vilemerchant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', 'I')t's OK to set in place a replacement for the grid incase it goes down sure. Use it before the grid goes down? Dumb.

[TT]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', ':')evil: Oh quit your crying!!

[Farknight]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('patience', '
')My bill above covers the house AND the shop, with a HUMONGOUS welder (up to 440 amps AC), a bunch of lights in the shop, and AC going. I feel like that is cheap for what we get out of it. There is absolutely no reason for us to go for alternatives on the basis of present cost. But: 1) It ain't gonnas stay that cheap, and 2) The national grid in the US is pretty shaky from what I read. And I'm looking straight down the barrel of retirement age, so income is going down.

[Quinny]

I found the information useful and interesting but....
When the original author titled the thread SHTF I wonder whether he ever thought it would lead to discussion were SDHTP (Sh*! doesn't hit the pump!)
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Farknight', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('patience', '
')My bill above covers the house AND the shop, with a HUMONGOUS welder (up to 440 amps AC), a bunch of lights in the shop, and AC going. I feel like that is cheap for what we get out of it. There is absolutely no reason for us to go for alternatives on the basis of present cost. But: 1) It ain't gonnas stay that cheap, and 2) The national grid in the US is pretty shaky from what I read. And I'm looking straight down the barrel of retirement age, so income is going down.

[killJOY]

More news from the shithole where I live:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ut other dealers are struggling to get raw logs. Southern Maine Firewood, a large dealer in Gorham, had only 100 cords worth recently but orders for 1,000 cords of firewood. "It's just a nightmare right now," owner Jake Dyer said. "You'd think in a state like this that you could get wood."

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')It's just a nightmare right now," owner Jake Dyer said. "You'd think in a state like this that you could get wood."

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('tex123', 'E')verything's bigger in Texas including the electric bills. Our last bill for 1600 kw was around 240.00. We keep our air at 80 degrees during the day. Many people I know are paying $400-$600 a month to cool thier homes and TXU were so sorry to tell us they are going to have to raise our rates again.

[tex123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'Y')ikes! How do people afford this?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('tex123', 'P')ersonally I would rather walk everywhere and eat spam than to live without any air conditioning in the Texas summer.

[JJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('tex123', 'E')verything's bigger in Texas including the electric bills. Our last bill for 1600 kw was around 240.00. We keep our air at 80 degrees during the day. Many people I know are paying $400-$600 a month to cool thier homes and TXU were so sorry to tell us they are going to have to raise our rates again.

[tex123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nd yet people lived here without it. I mostly live without it. We only use AC in the workrooms of our home business.
What are your plans for living in TX in the low-energy future? Or do you plan to move?

[tex123]

I thought I'd try to bring this thread back to life since we have a crisis of another kind at the moment.

If I didn't follow the market news and this website I wouldn't know anything had transpired except that the price of gas has dropped dramatically. This seems to be the attitude of many of my coworkers. "Draw money out of the bank, pull my 401K out of the market, are you crazy?" Many people think that the reason the gas prices plummeted is that those darn speculators have been stopped from running the price up. Most see Wall Street as completely detached from the real world and not effecting thier lives in any dramatic way. People around here are still going to work, still buying houses, still doing thier Halloween shopping, having parties, etc.. Most wonder what the government fuss is all about when nothing has substantially changed in thier lives.

Sometimes I feel like a nut for paying attention to all this bad news when most others are just riding it out and not worrying about a thing.

[vtsnowedin]

Still pretty calm here in the hills. People are getting their 401K statements and watching their money melt away on the stock market. One friend dosn't give exact numbers but I got the impression he's down over 100k and he is just a retiree.
The management went shopping yesterday and stocked up on food. We are set for the winter or a whole year if need be. I dug the last row and a half of six rows of potatoes. I got over 500lbs from the row and a half. Some wet rot so I need to be careful putting them in storage so as to not put a rotting spud in with the rest and ruin a barrel full.
I went fishing off Cape Cod earlier in the week. Nice weather, no fish. Guys on the boat all say things are slow. Joke of the trip is "You better wake up on Christmas day with a woody or you wont have anything to play with."