The Most and Least Expensive States for Energy Bills
The Most and Least Expensive States for Energy Bills
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Monthly energy bills can be just about as welcome as late-season “Game of Thrones” spoilers or weird midnight tweets from presidential candidates—and sometimes just as surprising. Wait, could our costs really be this high? It can all lead to some serious soul-searching. Do we actually need to leave the full-house AC blasting all day for Humbert the Himalayan sheepdog even when all the humans are ensconced at work or camp? And who the heck is leaving the lights on and playing the damn Xbox all night? Every night?
A recent WalletHub study found that utility bills can take a 5% to 22% bite out of the paychecks of homeowners and renters—money that will never be spent on the kids’ college tuition fund, a trip around the world, or that mint-condition “Amazing Spider-Man #1” comic book for your collection.
But when it comes to just how much people pay for at-home energy, as well as at the gas station, where they live may be just as important as how they live.
WalletHub ranked the states were residents pay the highest—and lowest—energy bills, and it looks like bad news for New Englanders.
To come up with its list, the personal finance website looked at the 50 states and Washington, DC, and measured the following:
- Average monthly electricity, home heating oil, and natural gas usage
- Average price of electricity, home heating oil, and natural gas
- Average price of gas used for cars and other vehicles
- Average miles traveled, gas consumption, and number of drivers
Residents of cold Northeastern states shelled out the most each month. And for the second year in a row, those living in Connecticut suffered the most: They paid an average of $404 a month. Yikes—watch your blood pressure, friends in the Constitution State!
“The state of the rates and the economy have put a lot more customers at risk of not being able to pay their bills,” says Richard Sobolewski, technical analysis supervisor at the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel, which is basically a public advocate for the state.
The bills are so big because the money is partly being used to replace older power plants and transmission lines, he says. There are also lots of extra fees and taxes tacked onto the bills to fund conservation and renewable energy initiatives to help more customers go green and install solar panels and other environmentally friendly features.
But he points out that customers can apply to various government and utility programs to help them afford traditional energy-saving improvements such as new windows and furnaces.
How the States Rank for Energy Costs
(Click on a state to see its ranking from 1 to 51, with 1 being the most expensive)
After Connecticut, the next state on the list where residents were walloped by their monthly energy bills was Massachusetts, at an average $346 a month. It was followed by Rhode Island, at $338, and Vermont, at $332.
Georgia and North Dakota residents each forked over about $328 a month. And it wasn’t much better in Maine, at $327; New Hampshire and Indiana, at $325; and Mississippi, at $323.
The most common problems leading to big bills that homeowners face often involve poor insulation and cracks in the attics and basements, where hot or cool air seeps out, says Ron Samuelson, owner of Home Energy Consultants, a Pleasant Valley, NY–based consulting company.
“A house breathes by inhaling through the basement and exhaling out through the roof,” he says. “Find all the holes and gaps in the house, and do something about them, which could be as simple as caulking.”
A quick fix is to change all of the lightbulbs to compact fluorescents, which use about three-quarters less power than a standard bulb.
Another option: Those fed up with those dreaded utility bills could pull up roots and move to Washington state, which had the cheapest energy bills in the nation.
Sure, home prices in the state’s largest city, Seattle, are reaching mind-boggling heights. But homeowners will pay just $218 a month on power and fuel—freeing them up to pay a little more on a mortgage.
Washington, DC, where energy bills and gas prices were the tiniest last year, wasn’t far behind Seattle. Residents of our nation’s capital pay only about $219 a month, and DC had the lowest utility bills and prices at the gas pumps. Sweet!
Rounding out the top 10 states for the lowest energy costs are Colorado, at an average $235 a month; Oregon, at $238; Arizona, at $247; New Mexico, at $249; California, at $251; Idaho, at $262; Montana, at $265; and Iowa, at $270.
Regardless of where someone lives, those who are budget-minded (and who isn’t these days?) should be careful not to waste power.
“During the summer, consumers should definitely think about cutting back on their electricity usage,” says WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez. “How much they use [will] be the driver of higher energy bills.”
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