Electric Heat

Call Con Ed, tell them you are considering purchase of an apartment. Give them the address, apartment number, and they can tell you what the electric bills have been for that apartment during the winter. It can be mind boggling. Close to 500 bucks for a two bedroom? Good luck.

Hate electric forced air heat. Dries out your skin. Causes headaches. Horrible.

I lived in an apartment with those hideous wall through AC/Heating units.
It was in an 1100 sq. ft two bedroom. The cost was north of $300 per month, sometimes close to 400.
Air conditioning season was a relief. Only about 125 per month.

The Pros:
You get some heat.

The cons:
Con Edison - pun intended.

What's hilarious is that they're talking about making incandescent light bulbs illegal, but then they let real estate developers get away with installing hair dryers for heating.

Hey, Al Gore!
What about the urban real estate developers?

We have them in our 980sq foot Condo. 3 units and in summer the electric bill can be about 400 dollars...ridiculous

I have an 800 s.f. one bed + den, northern exposure, wall of windows, bad insulation, 15' ceilings in the living room where the thermostat is. My worst winter electric bill was $275, but we keep the heat set at 65 when we're home and 58 when we're at work (12 hrs a day). Summer bills have been around $200 with a/c set on 74 when we're at home and 80 when we're at work. I have a heat pump and central air, not a through-the-wall unit.

I wouldn't say it's all that bad for us, but the ground-floor units in our building have had had winter electric bills of $700-800 in the bad months.

it depends entirely on the insulation. I paid total con-ed $400-500 per month in the winter in an old apt with oil heating, and now its never over $200 with a brand new apt with electric.

As for "headaches" - sounds like utter BS. Never heard of such a thing. And drying air? Gas and oil heating do that too. Get a humidifier.

lad, at 65, do you wear a fur coat in the house? that's just freezing. anything below 72 is like living in the slums.

Electric heat, if you are the one who pays, is going to hurt your pocket bad.
I heat a 1000sq/ft with electric and $500/mo is a good month.
Do you think the cost of energy is going to go down?
Think hard on this one because this is a wicked hidden long term cost.

Wow. My bill for 700 sq ft with electric heat has never been over $100. But I'm on a high floor facing south so the sun warms the place. But air conditioning hasn't been bad either-- around $90.-- I have no idea why my experience is so different than other (yes, it's a smaller place, but differences in cost seem extreme). Maybe newer system or better insulation in the building. I would check w/con ed if you can--or just ask broker to get copy of bills.

Thanks everybody. I'll do the research. I'll also look for a 'wow' factor-that thing about the apartment that will keep my heart warm when every other part of my body is chilled from not turning the electric heat up high enough. Then I'll consider everything carefully.