Electricity Bills Jump Despite Energy-Saving Appliances

Sure, you've got your Prius parked in the three-car garage of your 3,500-square-foot McMansion, you've got energy-saving appliances and those nifty new LED bulbs in all the sockets.

So why is your electricity bill going through the roof?

If you're like many Americans, the answer is that your house is bigger than the one you grew up in, you have whole-house air-conditioning and loads of electronic devices, many of which contain to drain electricity even when you're not using them.

Don't feel bad, though. You're far from alone.  Household electricity bills are up nationwide. USA Today reports that households paid a record $1,419 on average for electricity in 2010, the fifth consecutive yearly increase above the inflation rate.

$300 per year

Average electricity bills have been going up at the rate of about $300 the last severeal years, the greatest sustained increase since a run-up in electricity prices during the 1970s.

Electricity is now consuming a greater share of Americans' after-tax income than at any time since 1996 -- about $1.50 of every $100 in income.

Greater electricity use at home and higher prices per kilowatt hour are both driving the higher costs, in roughly equal measure, experts say. But increased consumption is not the only culprit.  Prices per kilowatt hour have also been going up, hitting a record 11.8 cents so far this year, reports the Energy Information Administration.  

The increase reflects higher fuel prices and the expense of replacing old power plants, including heavily polluting -- but cheap to operate -- coal plants that don't meet federal clean air requirements.

Future energy costs, by the way, are likely to go only one way: up, as utilities replace more and more highly-polluting plants with cleaner but more expensive ones.