What Drives the July Power Bill in a Las Vegas House, and What to Look for When You Tour

Two houses on the same street, same size, same price. One costs a lot more to cool every summer. Buyers cannot see the difference on a Sunday afternoon tour in March, and it is the single biggest surprise on the monthly budget after HOA dues.

You can see it if you know where to look. Here is what actually drives the summer bill, and the questions I ask on every tour between May and September.

Which way the glass faces. A big window facing west takes the full afternoon sun in July. A room full of west-facing glass can be the warmest room in the house from 3pm on, and the AC runs to fight it. North-facing windows are the easy ones. This is the first thing I look at when I pull up.

The age and size of the air conditioner. An AC that is near the end of its life still cools, it just runs longer to do it. Newer systems are far more efficient than the ones installed twenty years ago. Ask how old it is. The date is usually on a sticker on the unit.

The attic. Heat comes through the roof. Insulation depth in the attic, whether the ducts run through the attic, and whether there is any ventilation up there make a real difference. Most buyers never look. The inspector will.

Windows. Single-pane windows in an older house are a summer bill all by themselves. Dual-pane is standard on anything built in the last couple of decades, but seals fail and the windows fog. Look for that.

Ceiling height and square footage. Big open rooms with high ceilings are beautiful and expensive to cool. A two-story house often has an upstairs that is warmer than the downstairs, sometimes with a second system to run.

Shade. A house with mature trees on the west side, or a covered patio that shades the sliding door, stays cooler. A brand new house with a bare yard has none of that yet.

The pool pump, if there is one. It runs for hours a day in summer. It is on the same bill.

Walk in and notice the temperature room by room. Stand in the rooms with the most glass at whatever time you are there and picture it at 4pm in July.

Open the door to the AC closet or look at the outdoor unit. Note the age. Ask when it was last serviced.

Look at the ceilings and windows for the signs of a house that has been fighting heat: fogged panes, sun-faded floors near the sliders, window film, blackout curtains on the west side.

Ask the seller for twelve months of power bills. This is a normal request. A seller who has nothing to hide will hand them over, and the July and August bills tell you more than anything I can say. If they will not, the utility’s usage history for the address can often be requested.

Some of this is fixable after you buy. Attic insulation, a smarter thermostat, sun screens on the west windows, a new AC when the old one goes, a shade tree that will pay off in five years. Budget for it and it is fine.

Some of it you cannot fix. Which way the house faces. How big the rooms are. How much glass the architect put on the west wall. If the house has those problems, the summer bill has them forever.

The payment you are comfortable with is not the mortgage. It is the mortgage plus taxes, insurance, HOA dues, and what the power bill does in July and August. I wrote about the range in the cost of living article, and it is real money. A house that looks affordable on the mortgage alone can be tight every summer.

So the summer bill is part of how I compare two houses for a buyer. It is not the deciding factor. It is a factor most people leave out.

Call 702-881-6562 or email JArendt658@gmail.com. Tell me the houses you are looking at. I will walk them with you with the July bill in mind, tell you which ones are going to be expensive to cool and which are not, and what it would take to fix the ones that are. Then we compare the real monthly number, not the mortgage.

John Arendt has sold homes across the Las Vegas valley for 20 years, in Henderson, Summerlin, Southern Highlands, Anthem, Boulder City and North Las Vegas.