Boat verse House electrical costs

[sailorboy1]

In my years of boating and cruising I only stayed in a marina long term with metered electrical once. I did stay in a marina 1 summer that had a $150/mo “live aboard fee” (the total monthly charge was still only $492/mo) and the last 5 years I stayed in the summer in a marina that had a fixed $25/mo electrical (a GREAT deal). Now that I am in a house I thought I would compare the electrical.

The last 3 months of running the electric including the summer air conditioning in my 2br 1300sf house in Jacksonville Fl has been $431.24.

6 years ago 3 months of electrical for our 41’ sailboat that mostly was for the air conditioning in a slip in Brunswick GA was $432.57.

So, 6 years ago it cost as much for the boat as it is today for our house

[fxykty]

6 years ago there wasn’t as much solar and boat equipment is getting more efficient. Electrical is only one component of life in a house and there is no way it’s anywhere close in terms of money spent on external utilities such as electrical and plumbing. Your costs have got to be outliers.

[Fore and Aft]

SailorBoy1 we're a family of four, no air conditioning or heating, gas hot water, heater and oven. Here in Queensland we average $80 a month for power, a $1 a day of that is connection fee. Then $30 a month for gas. Our bill has a graph of household usage in our neighbourhood and we're always in the bottom percentage.
Our government recently gave us a cost of living $300 power credit, so for the last four months we've not had a bill.
Cheers

[GordMay]

Generally, the cost of electricity depends upon:
Consumption: How much electricity, in kilowatt-hours, you use overall, in a month.
When you use electricity [time of use - off-peak etc].
Rates, in ¢ per kWh consumed.
And, some administrative & regulatory fees.

So, a more relevant comparison would include the rates [inflation adjusted?] you were charged, and your total [monthly] consumption.

[gonesail]

there are markups on electrical usage at a marina .. especially in places like Brunswick that can meter it. when I was there 5 years ago .. I heard of the big cats paying over 300 a month. your homeowner electric bills are similar to mine since neither of us have big houses.

[NorthernMac]

S FL, where AC runs nearly year round for ether temp or humidity, little under $100mo on a <40’ boat

[sailorboy1]

I posted my recorded facts. Spin anyway that supports your desire

[NorthernMac]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I posted my recorded facts. Spin anyway that supports your desire

I would “record” more of my facts if I wasn’t as busy with work

[dlj]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

In my years of boating and cruising I only stayed in a marina long term with metered electrical once. I did stay in a marina 1 summer that had a $150/mo “live aboard fee” (the total monthly charge was still only $492/mo) and the last 5 years I stayed in the summer in a marina that had a fixed $25/mo electrical (a GREAT deal). Now that I am in a house I thought I would compare the electrical.

The last 3 months of running the electric including the summer air conditioning in my 2br 1300sf house in Jacksonville Fl has been $431.24.

6 years ago 3 months of electrical for our 41’ sailboat that mostly was for the air conditioning in a slip in Brunswick GA was $432.57.

So, 6 years ago it cost as much for the boat as it is today for our house

Great data point! Thanks for posting!

dj

[SailingHarmonie]

Sailboats (actually pretty much all boats) are notoriously inefficient to heat and cool. They are poorly insulated and, in most cases, poorly sealed to air ingress. All you have to do is look at the size of the air conditioning plants that some of the catamarans use that are more than needed for a REALLY LARGE house. Those green house windows are very efficient solar heat collectors.

Just imagine what AC would cost if your house had no attic and a completely uninsulated flat roof.

We find that the single most important thing we can do for either keeping the boat cool at anchor--or reducing AC costs at a marina--is put up the shade cloth. Keeping the sun off the deck during the height of the day reduces the run time of the AC units by about 50%.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

In my years of boating and cruising I only stayed in a marina long term with metered electrical once. I did stay in a marina 1 summer that had a $150/mo “live aboard fee” (the total monthly charge was still only $492/mo) and the last 5 years I stayed in the summer in a marina that had a fixed $25/mo electrical (a GREAT deal). Now that I am in a house I thought I would compare the electrical.

The last 3 months of running the electric including the summer air conditioning in my 2br 1300sf house in Jacksonville Fl has been $431.24.

6 years ago 3 months of electrical for our 41’ sailboat that mostly was for the air conditioning in a slip in Brunswick GA was $432.57.

So, 6 years ago it cost as much for the boat as it is today for our house

A quick Google search describes $/kwh has increased about 25% since 2018 (HERE). This implies your overall consumption in the house must be roughly 25% less than on the sailboat. Thoughts on what explains this? Household ACs are more efficient? Boat is a giant heat-sink and is difficult to climate control (as SailingHarmonie describes)? Something different in lifestyle?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

A quick Google search describes $/kwh has increased about 25% since 2018 (HERE). This implies your overall consumption in the house must be roughly 25% less than on the sailboat. Thoughts on what explains this? Household ACs are more efficient? Boat is a giant heat-sink and is difficult to climate control (as SailingHarmonie describes)? Something different in lifestyle?

Well the boat was out in full sun with pretty much no insulation. Meanwhile my house is exterior brick, rock board and plaster walls, and insulated attic. Next week the 85 year windows will get replaced so that will improve (will take 20+ years for energy to pay for those windows). There were days on the boat that the AC couldn't keep up and I would start shutting up unused cabins and hosing down the deck to cool it off.

Once while on the boat getting the flat $25/mo I calculated the cost and figured it was $100+. Guess it worked for the marina because everyone paid it even the ones boats with no people. At same time the times I paid $150/mo liveaboard fee for the extra power we used it was a rip off as the boat no one were ever on still ran the air conditioning all the time.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

In my years of boating and cruising I only stayed in a marina long term with metered electrical once. I did stay in a marina 1 summer that had a $150/mo “live aboard fee” (the total monthly charge was still only $492/mo) and the last 5 years I stayed in the summer in a marina that had a fixed $25/mo electrical (a GREAT deal). Now that I am in a house I thought I would compare the electrical.

The last 3 months of running the electric including the summer air conditioning in my 2br 1300sf house in Jacksonville Fl has been $431.24.

6 years ago 3 months of electrical for our 41’ sailboat that mostly was for the air conditioning in a slip in Brunswick GA was $432.57.

So, 6 years ago it cost as much for the boat as it is today for our house

My boat now I don't use much electic 6 years ago I was paying .0955 per kwh
Now I am paying .1385 per kwh
Same power usage at the dock in winter. Approx 20kwh per month .
In my house it was 280 a month up untill 3 years ago now its 380 a month on budget billing.
Costs are all relative .

[mvweebles]

Slightly off-topic but I thought since topic of dirt dwelling and electricity came up, and solar is such a popular topic, I'd share our current experience with solar in our condo in Riviera Maya, MX.

7-years ago, we installed 4.5kw solar panels grid-tied to the Mexican utility (CFE) at a cost of around $8k. We have not had a power bill in 87 months. While CFE does not pay for unused power, they do 'bank' it for 12-months. We've been at the condo for about 6-weeks with high summer temperatures and humidity - almost identical to our Florida location.

I closely monitored usage and production over the last month of our stay and have been pleasantly surprised that we are net-zero even without the benefit of being vacant. Production slightly exceeds consumption (about 10%).

Attached is average from last month of usage/production. I now return this channel to regular programming.......

[NorthCoastJoe]

Wow, try our prices in the North San Francisco Bay area 0.44 to 0.52 cents per KW.
I think it is the most expensive electric rate in the country.