IV, how do you spend 180 more amonth on utility bills? I got lost there.
I was wondering the same thing. Hopefully he meant "annual" and not month in his time frame...
Nope, per month. But it isn't "HA", it's "technology".
I pay around $320/month now, probably $280 of which is electric. By comparison, when we first bought the house 6yrs ago and had almost no electronic equipment to speak of, our bills were <$150. Basic stuff like lights, refrigerators, dryer, 1 alarm clock, microwave, 1 27" TV that we rarely watched, and 1 cordless phone were all that we had.
Now we've got 1 plasma, 2 TVs, dishwasher (that works), 6 computers, 3 stereos, maglocks, switches (55W, damnit), MediaMVP, etc. Hence, the introduction of advanced technology has directly increased our electric bill. I can't isolate just HA/WHA/WHV/HTA (whole house audio/video, home theater automation) because it is now integrated into our lives, and I wouldn't know how to allocate electricity usage from shared equipment to "HA" or not. It's all based on your def'n on HA...