Winter heating bill

What would be an average amount for winter heating bill (in Kansai) for a family living in an average sized house, with one person working at home? Just want to compare with what others think is reasonable and see if our bill is outrageously high.

Bill for what? Gas? Propane? Electricity? Kerosene? How are you heating your house?

Your bill is not outrageously high, you pay what you consume.

Don't be so shortsighted and dismissive.

The OP may be paying for what they consume, but they may be consuming more than necessary. Comparing to others can help them optimize their heating methods to reduce costs, for example switching from electric to gas heating, or changing to a natural gas system. In the extreme case, excessive consumption might be attributable to a gas leak.

Thank you yllwsmrf. (Out of all the posters who regularly contribute to this forum, I respect and appreciate you as being one of the most sensible and helpful people.)

As someone who is learning about how to live in cold weather for the first time, I don't know much about various heating methods. We installed these combination air conditioner - heaters in each of our main rooms, so 5 total (By the way, what are these called? I find it cumbersome to call it air-conditioner-heater everytime.) We also have one kotatsu and 2 floor heating mats, but I find these not really helpful because you are limited to being stuck there and it doesn't help make the air warm (so my fingers freeze).

Last month our electric bill was almost 40,000 yen. Is this a typical amount for a winter bill for families?

If you are running those wall units a good bit that wouldn't be unusual. When I lived with a housemate and we each had one in our rooms the heating and air conditioning bills would reach 30,000 a month during the heavy use periods when we were both on vacation and using them during the day as well as night. I think most Japanese people prefer more localized heating like just using the kotatsu to save money.

Wow, that is expensive, but the costs are around what you'd expect if you are using electricity to do all your heating. Electric heating is one of the most expensive ways to heat a house and air conditioners (just aircon will do, they virtually all do heating and cooling) are not the most efficient. You might consider using gas instead (natural gas if it's already installed is usually best, but kerosene fan heaters are also quite efficient albeit not as clean) to lower your costs. It might be cost effective to have a NG line installed to heat your main living space. Also consider using a fan to help circulate heated air around the room. The can help make it feel warmer.

menj,

You're asking a good question. By figuring out if your bills are average, and by figuring out what your problems are, you can tell your family to try to be like other average families while trying to adjust the way you use electricity.

For example, TEPCO (Tokyo Denryoku) has this thing called "Denki Kakeibo" where I can log in to their website and compare our bills with households of similar families in similar housings. KEPCO (of Kansai) might have something similar. You may want to ask them.

Electricity companies like KEPCO and TEPCO also have special deals that may help you save money. Again, all this depends on how big/small your house is, what times of the day you use/can use more electricity and other details.

Now that Japan is facing a new era where we can choose where to buy our electricity from, these traditional companies are working hard to provide better service.

These might also help you.
https://www.google.co.jp/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=how+to+save+...