I electric bill is half of what it was one year ago.

Having less people in the home sure helps too! Electric water is costly, if you change that out your bill will be .98 cents! ;)

Thanks for the hint. I plan on getting the most energy efficient water heater possible. I also am going to install a switch so that I can turn it on and off easily so that when I don't need hot water I'm not using tons of electricity. I do that with the water heater for the laundry area. I am facing over $400 for a propane delivery, and am measuring that against the cost and running of an electric water heater. I will say that once in a while it would be so nice to be able to flick the switch and have heat through the whole house rather than hope for the wood heat to make it through the house.

Wow, my old house was smaller and my electric bill was well over $200.00 in the winter, all I had was electric cooking, everything else was gas (except the lights) I wonder now if I should have used those bulbs. I don't think computers take much electricity. I was told a 100 watt bulb is a penny an hour though. May natural gas bill is the one that seems to be going up more. I have everthing gas though, hot water, cooking, heating.

I have propane heat, cooking and water heating. I can't afford to use them because of the cost of gas. Even though the gas prices have dropped, I wonder how long it will last. Some hints for the water heater that really helped me save on gas. I would turn the knob to pilot which keeps the water heater from running constantly. I would only turn it on when I was going to shower and do dishes, then it would get turned off again. During the summer the pilot light would heat the water hot enough to shower, do dishes etc. It saved me tons of money. For your heat, make sure that you have heavier drapes on the windows. In your kids rooms, to keep them warmer, use blankets behind or over the curtains. (It may be ugly but it keeps the heat in and saves money!) I am planning to convert to double pained windows in the next couple of years to keep the place cooler and warmer. I also save tons of money with using my wood burning stove rather than the heater. Not everyone has that option, so you need to adjust the heat so if everyone is going to be out, you have it at a lower temperature than when they're home. Invest about $20 in a programmable thermostat so that you can have the heater off during the hours you're in bed or out of the house and it would come on when you're due home or going to get up. You'll be amazed at how much you'll save. Oops, I'm on my soap box, sorry. Hopefully a few of these hints have helped.