Electric Bill is way too high!

[TR Custom Parts]

Didn't think owning a house would be this expensive. Been here almost 4 months now and the bill is averaging about $160 a month! Oil heat, electric stove, electric hot water heater. Thought the hot water heater was the major problem so I put a timer on it, only runs about 5 hours a day during the week now. The water is still hot in the morning before the heater even comes on so it can't be working to hard to bring it back up to temp.

Have an average sized raised ranch, 3 bedrooms, two full baths, two car garage etc. Yeah, I run my compressor once in a while and the computer is just about always on but jeez, it just seems too high! We've been cooking on the outside grille most of the time so the stove isn't used that much. Most of my neighbors with similar house all have bills way under $100, I just can't wait until we fire up the central air this summer. I have added ceiling fans to all the rooms as well as an attic fan but don't think they draw that much power.

My cousing said he heard that it is possible that a wiring problem could cause the excessive use but don't know if he was pulling my leg or not. Everything in the house appears to be working fine. I am going to be contacting the electric utility to see if they can check out the meter to see if there is something up with that.

 

[Hyper]

south

Hi I live in the deep south, it is 89 here now, my house is 69 degrees inside all the time, I have the follwing running, A swimming pool, a Hot tub, my computor, and my house is total electric, no oil no gas!!, It is 2348 sq ft heated. My power bill was 79.00 this month, it will get up to 170.00 when it is 100 outside in July, But mostly it is anywhere between 65.00 and 110.00. I have Georgia Power, You are welcome to come down south, even thought we dont get to fly our flag we still get cheap power!!

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Yeah, go ahead, rub it in! No hot tub OR pool here!

 

[Buick From Hell]

Mark, you have a goofy meter or something is using too much power...more important than the cost, how many kilowatts does your bill say you used? (maybe you have crooks at the power company?)

I just barely paid my bill (ironically), was $80, I used 1,122 Kw...

I leave lights on, have a hot tub that runs 24-7, heater in the waterbed, electric dryer, BUT we have a gas stove (but with electric oven), and gas heat and water heater...

Your water heater concerns me, you say it's running 5 hours a day...assuming it's using a 5kw heater, that's 25kw a day, or 750 a month! That's 67% of my TOTAL watt usage! My hot tub only added about $20 a month in the dead of winter, but your water heater would add nearly $48 to my bill!

 

[GN One Day...]

Might consider some new windows, if yours are an older style, single pane. How's the insulation in the attic? Don't see any really long extension cords running in the direction of your neighbors house, do you?

 

[Buickz]

Mark,

Up here in Suffield, CT 3500 heated sq. ft. with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, living room, family room, dining room, kitchen, 2 car garage, blah blah...avg bil from nov-march started at around 120 a month. 2 computers, 3 TV's, Oil heat, no elec. hot water heater, just the boiler and well water. We are at about 100 a month right now... hoping to get down to 80 this month before the big bills hit this summer.

The last two years with the central air on and the pool pumping it was almost 350 a month from june-sept. So definetly be prepared to pay more in the summer.

The only thing that seems to make a difference in the winter is running the house a little colder by turning down the heat to 65 and changing the settings on the boiler so it cycles less. It dropped the elec. bill 10 bucks a month. Could have been coincidence with the slightly warmer weather though. Definetly helped the 500 a month oil bills! It was a killer year for oil with the high prices for a while here. Made the mistake of not buying in to the prepay bulk purchase plan at the beginning of the season.

Oh yeah two teenagers here too! They love leaving the lights + TV on when not in the room for a while for some reason.

No compressor here but at my shop with the compressor running a little it brings the bill up about 10-15 bucks a month depending on how much its on.

Do you have any outside lights on, nightlights, or anything running when you are not in a room? That kinda stuff used to add 10 bucks a month on here too. What about laundry do you do a lot of cloths washing/drying? How old are your appliances, especially your fridge and dryer? I noticed a difference when I replaced a dryer and dish washer here. The newer appliances are much more efficient. The fridge is next here as it's probably 15-20 years old! Do you have a well? We also pay a little more in electricity because of our well water. So the trade off of water to electricity just about equals out.

This house was built in 1963 too so we dont have the best insulation or insulated windows so that makes a huge difference when trying to heat/cool the house.

Maybe the electric company can shed some light on the usage but I noticed that before there was just a lot of stuff running in the background that wasnt needed/ being used. By turning off all of the other stuff the bills went down. OH and no more heated dry on the dishwasher they can drip dry overnight.

Smaller house = smaller bill so you get what you pay for for where you live I guess? My Boss's home is 1000 sq. feet smaller and his summer electric bills are actually the same as mine. So maybe we are just getting taken by the power company?

Hope some of this rambling can spark an idea of something that was just wasting money.

--Andrew

 

[bishir]

Mark, I feel for ya. You can try giving the electric company a call and have the re-evaluate your electric usage. I just moved out of a house that was about 3700 sq. ft and all electric. Our bill was ~180 a month. I thought that was high so I called the electric company. They were able to lower it 20 bucks. The reason was because the were estimating the usage from the previous year. A time we didn't even live there!

Currently, we pay about 79 a month for a 2400 sq ft house. Things like a ridge vent, open windows, and a sky light help with the ventilation. It nudged 90 here today and it finally reached the point we needed the air. You can try turning down the temperature of your hot water heater, checking leaks near doors and windows, and turning that computer off each day.

Good Luck,

James

 

[Grumpy]

come on your gettin away with murder....up here in Mass I am payin 200-225 month...BUT we dont have light switches so the damm lighta are allways on ohh ya gotta leave 2 or 3 TVs on to in case ya go in a different room

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Thanks for the replies guys! My house has about 1500 sq ft of living space not counting an unfinished basement and 2 car garage. The heat has hardly been on the past month so don't think the windows etc has much to do with this. Usage for the last bill was 1407 kwh. I am using a mitre saw, etc while redoing the house but not a lot. Hot water heater is already turned down to 120, maybe I should even go lower with it? Computer only stays on all day on the weekends. No extension cords going to the neighbors, , that's good one! All the appliances are brand new!

Contacting the electric company today to see if they can check things out.

 

[turboscott]

Mark,

How old is your fridge. That could be it if it is an older model. My wife's grandmother had a really old fridge that finally died. She got a new one and her electric bill cut in half. The older one was running all the time just to try and keep things cool.

 

[choppers4life]

do you have a gated yard that is locked? due to my dog i get estimated bills from dte.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Fridge is brandy new! No gated yard or dog.

 

[turboscott]

I don't know what to tell you. I know my electric bill was very high over the winter because it was so cold in MA that the burner was running so often. Since the weather warmed up my bills hase dropped about $50/month. I now pay about $80/month but that is cuz of the electric hot water heater.

 

[Lee_Burough]

Mark,

You can put an insulating blanket around your water heater. In a house with a gas water heater, experts estimate the hot water heater uses 50% of all the gas used in a years time. With an electric water heater, a blanket will help $10-20 a month for sure.

You should drain the water heater a bit from time to time to clean out sediment accumulating at the bottom of the heater....sediment decreases the effeciency of the heater, big time.

Your power company willhave a mailout kit to help you check over your house and get it up to speed for energy conservation. They may even come and inspect the house for energy conservation.

 

[Rollin]

Contact your Power Co, and get the average month usage for the last year or two for your residence. If it's lower than your current usage, the power sucker is you However, if it is lower you can always request to be billed via AMP this means you can use as much power as you want as your only paying the average monthly payment your residence has used in the past. Hint it comes in handy in the summer time, especially if you running over 200+ dollars in the summer.