I live in a much hotter and much more humid area than the author does, and my bills are not even remotely close to these. I do run my AC through the summer, probably more than most
~$135 1190kWh (charged at ~$0.114 / kWh)
~$10.50 tax
~15.50 other fees/riders which can not be recouped with panels
OP is somehow paying ~25c/kWh, though I have to believe they are counting the connections fees etc in their estimate, based on natl averages they would be an outlier for most states. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/
I don't have A/C, do have net metering and do have solar panels, so I intentionally picked the plan with the highest costs during the day in the summers and I pay 24c/kWh only in peak hours during the summer.
Author may be a high energy user and on a tiered monthly-usage plan rather than a TOU plan; if that is the case than the solar panels may be saving energy billed at the highest marginal rate which might be 25c/kWh. My previous house had in-ceiling electrical resistive heating only and I accidentally got a 4-figure electric bill the first January I lived there because one thermostat was broken. IIRC everything after the first NkWh (where N was a crazy high number) was billed at around 25c.
California rates (not sure the OP is in California, but still) are just high. Lowest Off-Peak rate is $0.22/kWh in my area, and On-Peak (4-9pm) can be as high as $0.62/kWh.
That's wild. I live in an extremely hot and humid part of the country, in the Gulf Coast; probably the area with the highest AC demand in the summer. I routinely exceed $300 a month in the hotter months.
Do you have a particularly small or recently-built, well-insulated house?
New England is generally not that hot and humid especially outside cities--except for fairly brief spells. That said, some people do regularly run the AC to keep houses cooler in the summer. His savings are probably more than I pay in electricity in a given year (with oil heat and a small window unit AC in my office if I bother to put it in.)
