We're in Scottsdale AZ. In the desert. My house is set at 84 degrees most of the day and we drop it to 78 at night. That's as high as we can take it. Our last month electric bill was 585. We're going to see 650 this next month and probably for the first part of September, too.

Our utility rates go UP IN THE SUMMER because the AC demand goes up so much. Our utility company here is BRUTAL. The SALT RIVER PROJECT is a non-profit answerable only to themselves and they are bastards! I hate them with a passion!

BTW: we have a Summer Rate that has three components. May we switch onto summer rates but it's higher but not as high as it gets in July and August (our hot months) and then the rates go up again for July and August to almost 19.5c per KW/H. When you're running two (a four and a five ton) AC units that 20cents per Kw/h adds up fast. That means that my big AC unit is costing about $1.40 per hour to run. The smaller unit is costing me a little less (about $1.10 per hour. They both run more than 1/2 the day and a good portion of the evening, too. There is NOTHING we can do to lower it. If the power goes out here people can literally die - and our power company will cut it off without giving a shit if the bill is not paid! Bastards in a big way.