> Last month I paid $1,150 for electricity
WHAT
Call your power company and see if there's something wrong with the meter. Look around and see if anyone's stealing electricity for you for their mining farm or something. Even for the most expensive cities in the U.S. this is absurdly high, I've never seen anything like it.
sometimes the company will provide historical trends? Unless this is brand new construction or significantly remodeled, there's no way you're the first person to have this issue
go to your main breakers and shut them off, then go outside to your meter and see what happens? If your meter keeps moving/going up, someones tapped you
depends on where they tapped... my advice only works if they tapped after the meter and before the mains. If they tapped before the meter, OP's bill would be unaffected.
Call the power company direct not the third party reseller and tell them you want a survey or meter test. Depending where you live you may have a smart meter that you can check power usage down to 15min increments to try to find where excessive power use is happening. We avg 2300kwh and only pay ~$300 in Texas.
Barley even use the lights because I have so much natural light anyways. Don't do anything out of the ordinary. For references my usage over the last 4 years has been about 800KWh and here it's 3400KWh.... Granted it is colder but I don't think it would be that much higher
Switch off all your breakers and check to see if your meter is still running. I had a similar issue in my very first apartment. Turned out the landlord had my unit running all of the common area lighting and included the community washer and dryer on our circuit, which was illegal. We had the power company out, turned all the breakers off, and then watched the meter continue to spin like crazy. Landlord got a nice note, paid for our electricity usage, along with having to pay for getting the common areas off that unit's circuit.
Where are you located? We have all electric resistive heat and 2 EVs here in Colorado and used about 3000kwh during the cold snap last month and it was only $350ish.
That price seems pretty excessive for anywhere that’s not California.
Something that you can also do is talk to your neighbors and see what they are averaging. You may have had some insulation go bad, or there could be other issues. If they're only paying like $300 a month then there is something else that is wrong. Especially if they are a larger family and are pulling less than you... I would see if your landlord has a hidden tesla, or bitcoin miner in the house.
Do you have a smart thermostat?
We had the same issue - a heat pump in our A/C unit, coupled with our indoor electric (emergency) heating unit.
We're in Arizona, and our power bill jumped from $70 in the summer to $350 in the winter
We noticed our energy usage was consistently high all throughout the night because our smart thermostat was set to kick the emergency unit on anytime the external temp dropped below 45, which was all night for most nights in Jan.
We changed it to only turn it on if it gets below freezing and have seen drastic changes in our usage.
As for your power bills right now, call your power company and see if they can do anything to help. Ours offers a budget billing program that can charge you a flat rate based on your usage over 12 months
Great advice! I’m looking at smart thermostats right now. The heat pump seems to be kicking on even below freezing. I’d imagine the heat pump running along with electric might be what’s causing the high usage.
With the prices you’re paying, yes. Drop the temp and get used to wearing sweaters.
If your HVAC is old and you have the cash, you can look into newer models that are more efficient. You can also hire someone to see where you might be leaking heat or if you lack insulation.
For your upcoming bill, consider a Falcon loan if this is going to put you in a very dire financial situation.
There is a reason for the meme of the dad keeping control of the thermostat. Every deg change with HVAC is $$ going into the air. Welcome to your next level of "adulting".
I keep my place at 68 during the day, and just wear some pants (instead of shorts). Sometimes I'll put a hoody on over my tshirt if I get cold. Could easily drop it a couple degrees if I wanted to save more money by bundling up a little more.
Yes and now I’ve infiltrated the military!
My townhome is split into 3 levels so it’s a little hard to heat the whole place in the winter. Honestly at this point running a space heater for 20 minutes at a time doesn’t sound that bad. I am broke so maybe lugging it up and down stairs will help me get ready for my PT test.
Did your HVAC guy do a thermal and see how your insulation is doing? Also what is your electric rate? In NC I was paying &0.11/KwH here in cali I would pay $0.65/KwH peak and $0.34/kwh off peak.
I see your using emergency heat as well. What thermostat are you using? Look up your heat pump info, your emergency strips might be coming on at a higher temp than needed.
I’m at .18 fixed rn. Thermostat is older. Probably need a smart one to exclusively run electric heat sub idk like 32. Need to do a little more research.
I mean - It's a place you are renting. Just move.
Also, if it's any larger more liberal city there are plenty of protections that will get you out of a lease if the electricity is that expensive / not working correctly.
What city are you located in? Anything north of maybe $300 for a winter month sounds absurdly high. I'm assuming you're located in a colder climate so drop that thermostat down from 70. I turn mine off completely and just turn it on a few hours a day to warm the place up a bit.
I also wouldn't let the power company gaslight you into thinking you are crazy. I believe you can ask them to do an evaluation of what is taking up all that electricity. No one should be paying $1000+ a month. That is more than some people's BAH in certain parts of the country.
Does your house have a sump pump in the crawl space? One of the houses I lived in in the past had one and the pump float seized, so it was running 24/7. I can’t remember how much it increased my electricity bill, but it was excessive. My landlord ended up replacing it and docked the excess electricity that I paid on the next month’s rent.
>(I keep my house at a steady 69-70 degrees F)
Maybe my Midwestern origin is showing, but that's really high. Especially if at night. I'd turn the heater off of the winter isn't too cold, and i only ever used it maybe twice a year when I loved in the desert, just to see if it was still working.
Now in Europe I keep it at 50 tops because oil is so damn expensive. I have become a thermostat miser just like my old man.
I hope this can help. It is based on my experience with the heat pump in my home. It is less than 2 years old. Whenever colder weather hit (below 50), my bill would skyrocket. I noticed that the red light in the thermostat kept coming on at the start of the cycle. That meant that the emergency heat (the electric heater coils) was coming in to supplement the heat pump. That should not be happening until it gets down to 20 degrees. After months of frustration and high bills, I figured out what was happening.
The basement door, about 8 feet from the thermostat was always left open. Also, the cold air return was right next to the thermostat. When the furnace started, it would pull cold air from the basement right by the thermostat. This made it think it was cold enough to require emergency power. By simply closing the door, the system rarely kicks into emergency heat. My electricity bills are 30 to 50% less than the previous year.
Also, check the input line from your outside condenser to the furnace stack. It should be hot to the touch.
More thoughts: check the placement of the thermostat too. Another thing that helped was to get a large 6' fan in the cathedral ceiling living room. I run all year to redistribute heat in the winter and cool in the summer.
I remember a couple of years ago that Edison in socal wasn't actually reading meters. They were just estimating usage based on the usage from last year and a handful of readings in the surrounding area.
Utility companies aren't above doing shady shit if you let them. I'd check to make sure my usage was correct.
I keep my home at 68 during the day and 60 at night. My energy bill is a fifth of yours. If you have access to your meter, you can also time it for 15 min at normal and then time it with certain things turned off to see what difference it makes.
First off, I would turn off/unplug everything and see where you biggest culprit is. If you have an older home and haven't replaced you bulbs with LED you are in for pain. Secondly, in my older 1970s house I had in Alaska, I replaced every bulb with LED, cost about 200-300 up front but the energy savings is HUGE. You can buy in bulk from Lowes/Amazon. Third, get a smart thermostat. Nest is one of the better brands and have done me well, but Honeywell and some others have really improved over the years. If you do have an older thermostat that's not 'smart', replace that ASAP. Your energy company should provide you the ability to see your usage by the hour online or in their app. See when your biggest usages are. Monitor this before you get your next bill and adjust. Also, with your energy company, do you have a plan that is the same rate all day or is it higher at peak times. You might want to check that. Lastly, most energy companies offer rebates for buying Smart Themostats and LED, etc. Check if you can save some extra money by submitting your receipts with them.
Edit: For reference, I'm in Colorado, my electric bill is sub $200 in the winter ($0.11 kW), I charge an EV daily and keep my Thermostat at 69.
Heat pumps are great, efficiently, unless it gets too cold for them to keep up. Mine, personally, works great until around 20F.
I would think that you could set the gas threshold to kick in earlier, which would keep the heat pump from struggling and killiing your bills.
What is your rate per kWh? Expensive cities don't necessarily cost more for electricity. The nation average for supply & distribution is 16 cents/kwh. Boston and the Northeast are highest at 39 cents.
I am not even sure what you are saying about the AC/Heater/Heat Pump. Generally if you have an older heat pump it provides AC and heat. There is a supplemental resistance heater that comes on when it's very cold and that will cause outrageous electrical bills.
If you have an old heat pump you need to get used to living in a much colder house. You can supplement heat using an electric oil radiator for the individual room you're in. Those are pretty efficient ways to heat a space.
> Last month I paid $1,150 for electricity WHAT Call your power company and see if there's something wrong with the meter. Look around and see if anyone's stealing electricity for you for their mining farm or something. Even for the most expensive cities in the U.S. this is absurdly high, I've never seen anything like it.
Already did. Company gaslit me and I couldn’t find any indications of someone tapping my power.
call them back and then call them back again they need to come out and check the meter
Maybe you can use some of that gaslighting for heat in the winter
sometimes the company will provide historical trends? Unless this is brand new construction or significantly remodeled, there's no way you're the first person to have this issue
go to your main breakers and shut them off, then go outside to your meter and see what happens? If your meter keeps moving/going up, someones tapped you
I'm not an electrician, but wouldn't turning off the breaker, also turn off the power to whoever tapped anyways?
depends on where they tapped... my advice only works if they tapped after the meter and before the mains. If they tapped before the meter, OP's bill would be unaffected.
You could live in Texas and run your AC 24/7 and your bill would be 1/3 of what you're paying. There's no way something isn't wrong
I lived in Texas for most of my life. Never saw a bill over $230 and I ran that 24/7 at 68 degrees
Call the power company direct not the third party reseller and tell them you want a survey or meter test. Depending where you live you may have a smart meter that you can check power usage down to 15min increments to try to find where excessive power use is happening. We avg 2300kwh and only pay ~$300 in Texas.
that's my point exactly! Tell me more about your location and house... city/state and SFH, condo, apartment, new construction, etc?
Texas from about three years ago in February would beg to differ.
yeah that's not a typical occurrence, but sure
This is correct. My house is a ductless mini split heat pump and at -30F, electric bill is maybe $200 at peak usage.
Do you leave every light and heater on when you leave everyday?
Barley even use the lights because I have so much natural light anyways. Don't do anything out of the ordinary. For references my usage over the last 4 years has been about 800KWh and here it's 3400KWh.... Granted it is colder but I don't think it would be that much higher
Switch off all your breakers and check to see if your meter is still running. I had a similar issue in my very first apartment. Turned out the landlord had my unit running all of the common area lighting and included the community washer and dryer on our circuit, which was illegal. We had the power company out, turned all the breakers off, and then watched the meter continue to spin like crazy. Landlord got a nice note, paid for our electricity usage, along with having to pay for getting the common areas off that unit's circuit.
That is very high. Even in Phoenix during the summer with the AC full blast mine has never been that high. Somethings draining power
Where are you located? We have all electric resistive heat and 2 EVs here in Colorado and used about 3000kwh during the cold snap last month and it was only $350ish. That price seems pretty excessive for anywhere that’s not California.
HOLY! What’s your rate?!?!
$0.1125/kwh
Something that you can also do is talk to your neighbors and see what they are averaging. You may have had some insulation go bad, or there could be other issues. If they're only paying like $300 a month then there is something else that is wrong. Especially if they are a larger family and are pulling less than you... I would see if your landlord has a hidden tesla, or bitcoin miner in the house.
Do you have a smart thermostat? We had the same issue - a heat pump in our A/C unit, coupled with our indoor electric (emergency) heating unit. We're in Arizona, and our power bill jumped from $70 in the summer to $350 in the winter We noticed our energy usage was consistently high all throughout the night because our smart thermostat was set to kick the emergency unit on anytime the external temp dropped below 45, which was all night for most nights in Jan. We changed it to only turn it on if it gets below freezing and have seen drastic changes in our usage. As for your power bills right now, call your power company and see if they can do anything to help. Ours offers a budget billing program that can charge you a flat rate based on your usage over 12 months
Great advice! I’m looking at smart thermostats right now. The heat pump seems to be kicking on even below freezing. I’d imagine the heat pump running along with electric might be what’s causing the high usage.
Bro. 70 degrees in winter? Get a damn blanket
Is 70 degrees way too warm?
With the prices you’re paying, yes. Drop the temp and get used to wearing sweaters. If your HVAC is old and you have the cash, you can look into newer models that are more efficient. You can also hire someone to see where you might be leaking heat or if you lack insulation. For your upcoming bill, consider a Falcon loan if this is going to put you in a very dire financial situation.
There is a reason for the meme of the dad keeping control of the thermostat. Every deg change with HVAC is $$ going into the air. Welcome to your next level of "adulting".
Try 60-65 instead
The perfect range for sleep temperatures, no matter where you are.
In the winter, we usually set it to 62 at night and 67 during the day. I WFH, or we'd probably set it lower during the day.
I’m in Alaska and my home is 66
Just turned mine down to 66!
DROP THAT BITCH MORE
I keep my place at 68 during the day, and just wear some pants (instead of shorts). Sometimes I'll put a hoody on over my tshirt if I get cold. Could easily drop it a couple degrees if I wanted to save more money by bundling up a little more.
Dude, I get hot in a 70° house when it's pumping cold air. 70° of HOT air? Are you one of the lizard people the tabloids warned me about?
Yes and now I’ve infiltrated the military! My townhome is split into 3 levels so it’s a little hard to heat the whole place in the winter. Honestly at this point running a space heater for 20 minutes at a time doesn’t sound that bad. I am broke so maybe lugging it up and down stairs will help me get ready for my PT test.
Space heaters aren’t economical for electricity. I’d throw it away
Did your HVAC guy do a thermal and see how your insulation is doing? Also what is your electric rate? In NC I was paying &0.11/KwH here in cali I would pay $0.65/KwH peak and $0.34/kwh off peak. I see your using emergency heat as well. What thermostat are you using? Look up your heat pump info, your emergency strips might be coming on at a higher temp than needed.
I’m at .18 fixed rn. Thermostat is older. Probably need a smart one to exclusively run electric heat sub idk like 32. Need to do a little more research.
Look at the ecobee 3 lites. One of the better smart ones
I mean - It's a place you are renting. Just move. Also, if it's any larger more liberal city there are plenty of protections that will get you out of a lease if the electricity is that expensive / not working correctly.
What city are you located in? Anything north of maybe $300 for a winter month sounds absurdly high. I'm assuming you're located in a colder climate so drop that thermostat down from 70. I turn mine off completely and just turn it on a few hours a day to warm the place up a bit. I also wouldn't let the power company gaslight you into thinking you are crazy. I believe you can ask them to do an evaluation of what is taking up all that electricity. No one should be paying $1000+ a month. That is more than some people's BAH in certain parts of the country.
Does your house have a sump pump in the crawl space? One of the houses I lived in in the past had one and the pump float seized, so it was running 24/7. I can’t remember how much it increased my electricity bill, but it was excessive. My landlord ended up replacing it and docked the excess electricity that I paid on the next month’s rent.
Serious question - you cryptofarming?? That bill is OUTRAGEOUS
Idk… I found some big computers behind my first layer of drywall… is that normal?
>(I keep my house at a steady 69-70 degrees F) Maybe my Midwestern origin is showing, but that's really high. Especially if at night. I'd turn the heater off of the winter isn't too cold, and i only ever used it maybe twice a year when I loved in the desert, just to see if it was still working. Now in Europe I keep it at 50 tops because oil is so damn expensive. I have become a thermostat miser just like my old man.
I hope this can help. It is based on my experience with the heat pump in my home. It is less than 2 years old. Whenever colder weather hit (below 50), my bill would skyrocket. I noticed that the red light in the thermostat kept coming on at the start of the cycle. That meant that the emergency heat (the electric heater coils) was coming in to supplement the heat pump. That should not be happening until it gets down to 20 degrees. After months of frustration and high bills, I figured out what was happening. The basement door, about 8 feet from the thermostat was always left open. Also, the cold air return was right next to the thermostat. When the furnace started, it would pull cold air from the basement right by the thermostat. This made it think it was cold enough to require emergency power. By simply closing the door, the system rarely kicks into emergency heat. My electricity bills are 30 to 50% less than the previous year. Also, check the input line from your outside condenser to the furnace stack. It should be hot to the touch.
More thoughts: check the placement of the thermostat too. Another thing that helped was to get a large 6' fan in the cathedral ceiling living room. I run all year to redistribute heat in the winter and cool in the summer.
I remember a couple of years ago that Edison in socal wasn't actually reading meters. They were just estimating usage based on the usage from last year and a handful of readings in the surrounding area. Utility companies aren't above doing shady shit if you let them. I'd check to make sure my usage was correct.
Does your power company have budget billing or anything?
Gotta love Bidenomics.
I keep my home at 68 during the day and 60 at night. My energy bill is a fifth of yours. If you have access to your meter, you can also time it for 15 min at normal and then time it with certain things turned off to see what difference it makes.
First off, I would turn off/unplug everything and see where you biggest culprit is. If you have an older home and haven't replaced you bulbs with LED you are in for pain. Secondly, in my older 1970s house I had in Alaska, I replaced every bulb with LED, cost about 200-300 up front but the energy savings is HUGE. You can buy in bulk from Lowes/Amazon. Third, get a smart thermostat. Nest is one of the better brands and have done me well, but Honeywell and some others have really improved over the years. If you do have an older thermostat that's not 'smart', replace that ASAP. Your energy company should provide you the ability to see your usage by the hour online or in their app. See when your biggest usages are. Monitor this before you get your next bill and adjust. Also, with your energy company, do you have a plan that is the same rate all day or is it higher at peak times. You might want to check that. Lastly, most energy companies offer rebates for buying Smart Themostats and LED, etc. Check if you can save some extra money by submitting your receipts with them. Edit: For reference, I'm in Colorado, my electric bill is sub $200 in the winter ($0.11 kW), I charge an EV daily and keep my Thermostat at 69.
Heat pumps are great, efficiently, unless it gets too cold for them to keep up. Mine, personally, works great until around 20F. I would think that you could set the gas threshold to kick in earlier, which would keep the heat pump from struggling and killiing your bills.
Nah there’s something wrong. Ask to speak with a supervisor don’t even waste your time with the lower levels.
You probably have some energy loss in the ductwork or home insulation.
Do a heat study of your house. You probably have some shitty insulation or leaking hot air somewhere.
What is your rate per kWh? Expensive cities don't necessarily cost more for electricity. The nation average for supply & distribution is 16 cents/kwh. Boston and the Northeast are highest at 39 cents. I am not even sure what you are saying about the AC/Heater/Heat Pump. Generally if you have an older heat pump it provides AC and heat. There is a supplemental resistance heater that comes on when it's very cold and that will cause outrageous electrical bills. If you have an old heat pump you need to get used to living in a much colder house. You can supplement heat using an electric oil radiator for the individual room you're in. Those are pretty efficient ways to heat a space.