When it comes to estimating your monthly electric bill, the square footage of your home is an excellent tool. While there are many factors that will affect your end cost, calculating your electric bill by square footage is a good place to start. In general, most homes in Texas of a similar size will use very close to the same amount of electricity.
Estimating your monthly electric bill by square footage is extremely important if you’re thinking about choosing a new electric plan or company. By knowing the size of your home, you can better estimate how much power you’ll use, which will help you sign up for the correct electricity plan. If you’re wondering just how to do that, you’ve come to the right place.
Most electric companies in Texas base their pricing structure on the amount of electricity you use. For example, let’s say you see an electricity plan advertised as costing 12 cents/kWh, which is right around the average rate in Texas. However, what you don’t see is that the 12-cent rate is based on using between 1,000 and 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Here’s how the plan is actually structured.
|
Rate per 500 kWh |
Rate per 1,000 kWh |
Rate per 2,000 kWh |
|
20 cents |
12 cents |
15 cents |
If you live in a small home with only one or two people, you likely won’t use more than 1,000 kilowatt-hours of power, which means your rate will be much higher. Instead, you’ll probably use close to 800 kWh of electricity, in which case your rate will be 20 cents/kWh. If you live in a 2,500+ square foot house with a family of five, you’ll probably use well over 2,000 kWh. If that happens, your rate will be 15 cents//kWh.
Because of the wide disparity in these tiered electricity rates, it’s important to know your square footage and utilize it as an estimator for how much electricity you’ll use.
Using your square footage alone won’t get you a 100% accurate estimation of your monthly electric bill. However, it’s a great starting point. Here is the current average electric bill for homes of different sizes.
|
Sq Footage |
Texas (overall) |
|
500 |
$36.59 |
|
1000 |
$73.17 |
|
1500 |
$109.76 |
|
1800 |
$131.71 |
|
2000 |
$146.35 |
|
2300 |
$168.30 |
|
2500 |
$182.93 |
|
3000 |
$219.52 |
|
3500 |
$256.11 |
|
4000 |
$292.69 |
Remember, these averages are based on square footage alone and don’t take things into consideration such as the size of your household or the time of year. It also depends on which city in Texas you live in because different cities have different rates.
Let’s look at a specific example of how to calculate your electric bill by square footage if your home isn’t one of the sizes listed above. For this example, we’ll use the fictional character of Mrs. Miller.
Now, let’s look at the formula you can use to estimate your electric bill.
(avg. consumption x avg. rate) / avg sq ft = price per square foot
(975 x .12) / 1850 = .063
Now, Mrs. Miller can use her calculated price per square foot to roughly estimate a monthly electric bill for her 2,200 sq ft home:
.063 x 2200 = $139.13
As we’ve been saying all along, square footage alone isn’t what’s going to determine your electric bill. Here are a few other things to keep in mind to get a more accurate estimation.
If you live in a rural part of Texas, there’s a good chance that you’ll pay more per kWh than in urban areas where the competition is stiffer. In general, the more electricity companies there are in an area, the less you’ll pay for power.
It might go without saying, but the more people you have in your home, the more electricity you’ll use. So, if you live alone or with one other person, you’ll likely use between 500 and 1,000 kWh. If you have a family of 3 to 4 people, 1,000 kWh is a good estimation. For families of five or more, you’ll use in excess of 1,500 or 2,000 kWh.
One of the biggest factors that will impact your electric bill is the time of year. Summer and winter months when the temperatures are at varying degrees of extremes usually result in increased energy usage to either stay warm or cool off. As a result, you should plan on spending more on your monthly bill during the hot summer months and cold winter months.
As with most things, the best electricity prices are typically offered by the best companies, which are REPs with your interests in mind rather than just their own. GoodCharlie Energy is one of those few companies. While we might be a new REP, we have years of experience in the world of Texas electricity. We also have the mission of looking out, not just for you but for every member of your household, including your dogs.
In fact, we offer our customers our pack benefits, a pet emergency fund, 24/7 vet video access, and a promise to support local shelters. Our goal is to provide you with the best electricity rates and service in Texas and make sure that dogs in Texas are safe and cared for. If you want the best electricity rates in Texas and care about dogs as much as we do, look no further than GoodCharlie Energy.