MANY years ago I read the refrigerator was good for ~ $30 / month.

I have a friend in Vermont, just the other day we were talking on the phone about my electric bill taking a fairly large jump, and he mentioned his bill was $87 last month.

This is with 3 freezers and a refrigerator, electric water heater, burns wood for heat, grows a few beef cows and a garden (hence the need for freezers), lives alone on 100 acre farm his grandfather originally bought around 1927 or so.