Thread:

HIGH Electric Bill

We think our power bill at home is inordinatley high (averages $180 ish) , we do have two late model Refrigerators ( small one in the wet bar) , we dont heat with electicity, and we dont run the AC , our water heater and hot tub are gas fired and the climate here averages around 60 to 70 , theres just two of us and we work most of the time There are Tvs and Sat recievers plugged in but other than a dryer load every couple days we just dont use that much hell even the outside lites are solar, Wife thinks all the little black transformers for various electronics like landline phones etc are the culprit I say the don't draw much current We do have two desk tops in home office that are on alot , Thanks in advance Tom

Seems high compared to mine. Winter runs around $80 and summer can get up to $250 ish because of the air we keep at 80. House is 1800 SqFt with 4 people and 3 home during the day. I run 3 computers 24x7 and have a few transformers running for the phones and such. Our AC unit is 12 years old and was told if I replace it with a new high seer it would drop my summer bill quite a lot.

Well anybody in Vegas would love to trade you! i live in a new super insulated and efficient house and my power bill was almost 400 last month, many here in older houses pay much more during the summer. Newer freezers and fridges use less energy but how long would it take to pay off the cost of upgrading? also the newer units are wimpy in comparison and dont seem to cool as well IMO. Here in Vegas the utility will by old units and or gives rebates towards upgrading maybe they do there as well?
Hot tubs that have a small circ pump run less to run than one with a large motor but still that probably adds 20-40 a month in power depending how much you use it..

Ours is averaging less than last year due to reinsulating all the duct work.
Down to$620 last month.........

I live in a small 1000 sqft house here in Indiana temps been in the 100s all month and our bill is about %150 a mo. Running the ac about $90 in winter.

Originally Posted by TexasJet

Look at your bill. It will tell you how many killowats you used and should say cost/killowat. I have a 2000sq.ft home, all electric with extra blown in insulation in the attic. In the summer we use around 3000 kw/mth which = $265/month. I have a 16 seer AC about one year old, two stage scroll compressor. House is at 75 during the day and 73 at night.

We have a choice of about 12 different utility providers, maybe more.

Its especially informative if you guys have the newer smart meters, you can figure out when during the day the electricity is being used. I switched to LED and/or CFL lighting throughout the house, made about a $50 difference over incandescent.

Originally Posted by jetboatperformance

We think our power bill at home is inordinatley high (averages $180 ish) , we do have two late model Refrigerators ( small one in the wet bar) , we dont heat with electicity, and we dont run the AC , our water heater and hot tub are gas fired and the climate here averages around 60 to 70 , theres just two of us and we work most of the time There are Tvs and Sat recievers plugged in but other than a dryer load every couple days we just dont use that much hell even the outside lites are solar, Wife thinks all the little black transformers for various electronics like landline phones etc are the culprit I say the don't draw much current We do have two desk tops in home office that are on alot , Thanks in advance Tom

thank you for your support jeff also thanks you, as does eddie billet...

as was previously mentioned, check your kwh use and the tiers you are jumping into. the hottub may be gas fired, but it's probably got a pump on it. you can always call your friendly local pg&e office to come out and conduct a survey. they will be happy to show you where you can make things more efficient, and give you several ideas to cut costs. no charge, and thank you for your support...

and in the mean time. my elect bill is still $8.75 a month...

Tom,
You can request a copy (or summary) of your billings back 12-24 months I believe with PG&E. (im guessing that who does your utility or else a city agency is subcontracting with them. But ask them for a copy and look for any changes in costs, markups, weird charges etc.... then look at the differences from month to month and yr to yr.

We do utility surveys all the time for people and find them "in question" many times..... if you dont ask they dont care or mind charging you more until you bring it to their attention. Then they will reimburse you and say "sorry"!


Good Luck

any more questions be glad to help

We live in North Orange County (SCE area) in a 2500sq' two story home. Until 4 months ago our bill was always $220-250 month. Our upstairs tenants (daughter, SIL & gdaughter moved out and now I've got it down below $150. Very seldom use the AC but do have a big pool that sucks most of the power, a 12 year old fridge and my wife likes to leave the power sucking 500 watt plasma TV on all the time. I need to get an LED one to replace it.

Anyway your bill sounds way out of line to me, get your electric supplier involved to try and find the root cause.
Maybe your neighbor has tapped into one of your outdoor supplies?

Originally Posted by ptc

Tom,
You can request a copy (or summary) of your billings back 12-24 months I believe with PG&E. (im guessing that who does your utility or else a city agency is subcontracting with them. But ask them for a copy and look for any changes in costs, markups, weird charges etc.... then look at the differences from month to month and yr to yr.

We do utility surveys all the time for people and find them "in question" many times..... if you dont ask they dont care or mind charging you more until you bring it to their attention. Then they will reimburse you and say "sorry"!


Good Luck

any more questions be glad to help

Lots of Good info here and appreciate the help , and your right Bob I'm prolly paying for Diablo honestly whats baffling is we are always working , even though we have AC we never run it , we use the hot tub (propane ) sparingly so the only things that are on during the course of an average day are the two fridges and all those little "tranformers" Going to call PGE for an energy review, Josh has a bigger house in Paso and his monthly bill is half mine Tom

82RaysonCraft

Anyway your bill sounds way out of line to me, get your electric supplier involved to try and find the root cause.
Maybe your neighbor has tapped into one of your outdoor supplies?

82 RC Just had a similar situation (Kids and Grand Kids) proud to say they have thier own home as of a few months back and the bill is now half however I agree (even present bills out of line still ) re the "neighbor" that would be one long ass extention cord closest neighbors about 1000 ft away ahhh country living

BTW turns out theres alot of "gobbledy gook" data one can get ....heres a chart of my use vs a more "efficiant" home ?