uggh.. we just got a $500 electric bill for august. our house is too small to be paying that much. we turn the air conditiong off when were not home, and barely use it when we're here. weve had the ac serviced so its not that. its a 13 seer, oldie but goodie. just 2.5 tons plus a kitchen 12000 btu. whenever possible we just use the kitchen. now i know a summer bill can be high, but it has always perplexed me why our 1200 sq ft house (plus basement of equal size) will have a bill of 200-250 in the spring and fall when we dont use ac or heat at all. ive been kind of an energy freak for a few years, so im not overusing here. can anyone shed light on what their electric bill is for a similiar size house? is what im paying average, or a little too high. from what friends and neighbors tell me, its high

My highest bill has been $139.00, in the last three years.

Vampires...

Any electronic device that can be turned on with a remote is constantly sucking up small amounts of power.

Using the stove/oven will cause the AC to work harder.

How's your insulation?

uggh.. we just got a $500 electric bill for august. our house is too small to be paying that much. we turn the air conditiong off when were not home, and barely use it when we're here. weve had the ac serviced so its not that. its a 13 seer, oldie but goodie. just 2.5 tons plus a kitchen 12000 btu. whenever possible we just use the kitchen. now i know a summer bill can be high, but it has always perplexed me why our 1200 sq ft house (plus basement of equal size) will have a bill of 200-250 in the spring and fall when we dont use ac or heat at all. ive been kind of an energy freak for a few years, so im not overusing here. can anyone shed light on what their electric bill is for a similiar size house? is what im paying average, or a little too high. from what friends and neighbors tell me, its high



Check your electric water heater, an element could be bad, which will send you electric bill though the roof!!!...... just sayin'

Turning the AC off when not home, does not help, it takes twice as long to cool off again. Mine stays around 200.00 for 1800 sq ft home. Just 2 of us, I can't complain after hearing what others are paying.

uggh.. we just got a $500 electric bill for august. our house is too small to be paying that much. we turn the air conditiong off when were not home, and barely use it when we're here. weve had the ac serviced so its not that. its a 13 seer, oldie but goodie. just 2.5 tons plus a kitchen 12000 btu. whenever possible we just use the kitchen. now i know a summer bill can be high, but it has always perplexed me why our 1200 sq ft house (plus basement of equal size) will have a bill of 200-250 in the spring and fall when we dont use ac or heat at all. ive been kind of an energy freak for a few years, so im not overusing here. can anyone shed light on what their electric bill is for a similiar size house? is what im paying average, or a little too high. from what friends and neighbors tell me, its highYou have something else pulling power. The vampires aps mentioned contribute but won't be that much. The water heater is a good place to start. Something is definately wrong.

Our apt is less than 1000 sq. ft. and our last bill was $227. We have two brand new ac window units.

Oh wow...check your windows and doors, maybe your air's getting out :shrug:

do you have well/septic or public water?

Our apt is less than 1000 sq. ft. and our last bill was $227. We have two brand new ac window units.
My 900 sq ft apartment that I rented for 3 months was always higher than my house electric bill. Never could quite understand that.

My 900 sq ft apartment that I rented for 3 months was always higher than my house electric bill. Never could quite understand that.

Disco ball, indoor hot tub, 99 inch plasma with 100 surround sound speakers and a climate controlled Coach purse vault will do that.

That does seem high considering I have a 5,200 sq. foot farmhouse and a barn with electric, use the AC and heat pump all the time ( doesn't run all the time, they're on Auto) and our bill was less than $425 in August. The farmhouse is heavily insulated and I have no trees by it because I've seen what trees do in storms. I would say something is wrong at your house!

do you have well/septic or public water?

Public water/sewer.

Oh wow...check your windows and doors, maybe your air's getting out :shrug:

I wouldn't doubt it. I have these foam strips I use in all the windows. The builder did a very crappy job and I wouldn't be surprised if there's less insulation in the walls as there should be.

My bill has never been higher than 180 (usually sits around 110) ...and our heat pump is 10 years old..and the windows are 20 years old :shrug: in my 1,000sf apt our bill was never above 60 bucks... we are super vigilent about electric use. Sounds like you have something wrong..doesn't smeco do free energy audits? maybe having someone come out and look would be worth it.

My bill has never been higher than 180 (usually sits around 110) ...and our heat pump is 10 years old..and the windows are 20 years old :shrug: in my 1,000sf apt our bill was never above 60 bucks... we are super vigilent about electric use. Sounds like you have something wrong..doesn't smeco do free energy audits? maybe having someone come out and look would be worth it.

I thought about doing that. Of course we are in the process of buying a house so probably will end up not doing it.

thanks so much for all the advice. the one that sticks out to me is the bad water heater element. does a bad element still pull power, but not put out heat? if so, i can see that driving it sky high. how do i check that?

i have an ezwatt power meter but thats for a 110 setup with a plug. how would i test the water heater. im thinking turn one element off, and watch the power drain for a week. switch elements, and watch it for another week and look for a drastic difference. i dont know how to set that up on a water heater tho.

our attic insulation is 11 inches of cellulose, so r40ish. it was pretty bad 3 years ago but we added 8-9 inches. it had been matted down. noticed huge difference in winter comfort(heat with wood burning fireplace in living room). i dont know about the walls, but the thing that has me worried is the bills in the spring and fall. my wife just double checked me and the bills in off season are closer to 300. thats why the water heater made sense. ive been thinking about using a heat pump water heater for a while. maybe its time.

thanks so much for all the advice. the one that sticks out to me is the bad water heater element. does a bad element still pull power, but not put out heat? if so, i can see that driving it sky high. how do i check that?

i have an ezwatt power meter but thats for a 110 setup with a plug. how would i test the water heater. im thinking turn one element off, and watch the power drain for a week. switch elements, and watch it for another week and look for a drastic difference. i dont know how to set that up on a water heater tho.

our attic insulation is 11 inches of cellulose, so r40ish. it was pretty bad 3 years ago but we added 8-9 inches. it had been matted down. noticed huge difference in winter comfort(heat with wood burning fireplace in living room). i dont know about the walls, but the thing that has me worried is the bills in the spring and fall. my wife just double checked me and the bills in off season are closer to 300. thats why the water heater made sense. ive been thinking about using a heat pump water heater for a while. maybe its time.

That seem's pretty high. We've got close to 3000 sq/ft house with the thermostat set at 72 24/7 and our bill for August was $375. Big screen TV draws a lot of power. Also, if you have a sump pump that is constantly running for no reason, that would do that too. The 12,000 BTU stove if use regularly would contribute to the bill.

CLOTHES DRYER.....!!!!! My wife thinks everything has to tumble on "broil" for 2 hours before it's dry. And, If you keep it running nothing will wrinkle before your soap opera is over.

CLOTHES DRYER.....!!!!! My wife thinks everything has to tumble on "broil" for 2 hours before it's dry. And, If you keep it running nothing will wrinkle before your soap opera is over.
Couldn't you simply open the dryer door and remove, fold, hang, and put away the clothes...:shrug:

Couldn't you simply open the dryer door and remove, fold, hang, and put away the clothes...:shrug:Because that's HER job!! DUH! :duh:

Couldn't you simply open the dryer door and remove, fold, hang, and put away the clothes...:shrug:

Yeh, but you can't watch tv while your doing it..

You could try getting one or two of these and see what is sucking up so much power.

Cyberguys.com - kill a watt has returned the following search results (http://www.cyberguys.com/product-search/?keyword=kill+a+watt)

There are 240v versions out there, but they are not cheap.

thanks so much for all the advice. the one that sticks out to me is the bad water heater element. does a bad element still pull power, but not put out heat? if so, i can see that driving it sky high. how do i check that?

i have an ezwatt power meter but thats for a 110 setup with a plug. how would i test the water heater. im thinking turn one element off, and watch the power drain for a week. switch elements, and watch it for another week and look for a drastic difference. i dont know how to set that up on a water heater tho.

our attic insulation is 11 inches of cellulose, so r40ish. it was pretty bad 3 years ago but we added 8-9 inches. it had been matted down. noticed huge difference in winter comfort(heat with wood burning fireplace in living room). i dont know about the walls, but the thing that has me worried is the bills in the spring and fall. my wife just double checked me and the bills in off season are closer to 300. thats why the water heater made sense. ive been thinking about using a heat pump water heater for a while. maybe its time.

A bad water heater element will not draw power, they usually burn out to an open circuit. However my 20 year old water heater that I replaced last year had an outrageous amount of lime scale deposits at the bottom. This can insulate the element causing them to run much longer to heat the water. This change seemed to save roughly $10-20 a month.
My worst bill ever was last Feb. $400. New heat pump and all new windows in April has seemed to cut my KW usage almost in half for heating and cooling. House is about the same size as yours built in 1989. We only use our dryer from Oct. to March unless it's raining. August bill was $139.

You could try getting one or two of these and see what is sucking up so much power.

Cyberguys.com - kill a watt has returned the following search results (http://www.cyberguys.com/product-search/?keyword=kill+a+watt)

There are 240v versions out there, but they are not cheap.


I think SMECO will come out and help you check too...

uggh.. we just got a $500 electric bill for august. our house is too small to be paying that much. we turn the air conditiong off when were not home, and barely use it when we're here. weve had the ac serviced so its not that. its a 13 seer, oldie but goodie. just 2.5 tons plus a kitchen 12000 btu. whenever possible we just use the kitchen. now i know a summer bill can be high, but it has always perplexed me why our 1200 sq ft house (plus basement of equal size) will have a bill of 200-250 in the spring and fall when we dont use ac or heat at all. ive been kind of an energy freak for a few years, so im not overusing here. can anyone shed light on what their electric bill is for a similar size house? is what im paying average, or a little too high. from what friends and neighbors tell me, its high

I have a newly constructed, 2,200 square foot, three-level townhouse on January 2010. And, with an air conditioning setting of 71 degrees, my electric bill is $400.00.

1) What was your cooling temperature setting on your thermostat?

2) Have you had your condenser coil (that's either atop or below your furnace) checked for freon leaks? Because, if your air conditioning system has a slow freon leak, in time, your compressor will be working harder and increase your electric power consumption.

About one week after the 103 degree daytime temperature during July, my
A/C quit! :shocking: My condenser coil was found (by a McCrea HVAC technician) to have several, small pinholes, which slowly leaded out the freon! The low-pressure freon condition ultimately caused my A/C compressor to quit! During this period, my electric bill soared to $500.00!

It cost me around $1750 parts (new condenser coil and replacement free) and labor to repair my A/C. And the best was when I reported my A/C issue to the builder, my builder (K. Hovnanian) gave me a full reimbursement for my A/C repair expenses! :cheers:

:blahblah:

Dude, buy an ad. Spamming the place up is rude.

Sorry to hear about the high bill. There is a website that is kind of like the travelocity.com or expedia.com of energy supply. They list several suppliers you can get cheaper electricity from.

Nothing changes about your service or your bill (other than the rate). I was paying 9.1 cents a kilowatt hour and now pay 7.35 per kilowatt hour. There are renewable energy suppliers too.

Point Click Switch (http://www.pointclickswitch.com) is the site. I hope this helps you. If you have the same rate I did you would have saved about a $100 on that bill.

Take care!

Know your market. This area doesn't participate in choice programs.

Know your market. This area doesn't participate in choice programs.

Now you tell us. I've been on the phone for the past 45 minutes.

My winter bill is always higher - we have baseboard but do not use as they are in rather "useless" places - - My kitchen a/c casement - by Kenmore checks the air ever so often (some say thy do, but don't) - I suggest the electric co. plan so at least something will be under control - I do not cook - have new stove never used - dishwasher sat too long so don't use - do have energy saver fridge - have solar attic fan - and ceiling fan in every room - I agree with a/c - keep it low but always on because it will have to work twice as hard to cool things down

I just figured out my average bills for my house. I spend and average of $122 a month on electricity and $36 on natural gas. That's in a 2800 sq ft house.

Wow 1500 sq ft house with heat pump, electric water heater and a dehumidifier under the house in the crawl space, biggest bill I ever had was $160 and that was the month my fridge went on the fritz, new fridge knocked $15 off the bill the next month.

Any electronic device that can be turned on with a remote is constantly sucking up small amounts of power.


This is true.

Over the course of a month, this could easily rack up a milliwatt-hour.






Easily.