How high is your electric bill?Mine-754.58 for 1 month?

Question

I dont know what is going on.We live in a house that is about 2,500 sq ft at the most.We have added Radium barrier and regular insulation and the bill keeps climbing.We know people who live in larger houses paying WAY less a month,they say $750. is the worst they have heard.I'm in Texas but come on................Any ideas?

Answer 1

You should contact your elec. co. and ask them come at and test your meter or put a "test meter" on your line. Meter may have worn out or been damaged in sime way. In t Just some quesionhe meantime what have you dine to moniter the use of elec. in your himeand to reduce consumption? Do you heat and cook with elec.? A/C running all the time? Are you doing small loads of laundry or waiting until you have afull load? Are unnecessary lights being left on? How many tv's are runnning at one time? Are all of your elec. spplisnces operating the way they should? Just some questions that the elec. co. will ask you. Been ther abd done that. My elec. bill averages $60.00 mo. But I cook with porpane and have an oil-fired hot water heater and heat my house with oil. Don't need an A/C here in Alaska.Excue the typos....not one of my skills. Good luck !!!

Answer 2

OMG SHEESH I definitely DO NOT want to see MY bill! LOL

Maybe you need to have a Energy Analysis done on your house. Have the Gas or Electric Company OR Community Action Agency do one. MOST do these for free.

Keep your drapes/blinds SHUT during the day. Turn your A/C up a few more degrees 74 or 76. Close vents and doors in rooms you don't use very often/much.

Is there SOMETHING in your house that is CONSTANTLY RUNNING OR ON???


Reflect the Heat for a Cooler Home


One aspect of cooling I covered only briefly in past articles is using reflection to cool your home. Much of the heat one gets in a home, comes through the bright hot sun pouring heat into the rooms. Now in the Winter this "solar gain" is what you wish to augment and I have articles which describe Heat Catchers which use sun light for part of home heating.

But in the summer you want to reflect the heat away. Yop can do this several ways.

1) You can hang aluminum foil in back of the curtains to refect the heat back outside. This is the most effective method.

2) You can hang white or light colored curtain liners in back of your window treatments. White also reflects light, but not as effectively as shiney metal.

If you place these in your windows you should notice a noticible drop in room temperature. It can be as much as 20 degrees cooler than before. I know for certain this is true. We have a unheated attic that we use a Heat Catcher in the winter to keep it above freezing. I got busy and did not remove it from the attic window. It was over 100 F degrees up there! However, when I turned it around so the reflective side was facing the "sunny side" and the temperature dropped quickly over 20 degrees F less than before.

So apply this technique as well as those in my past cooling articles and have a cool summer!

Answer 3

I have a 2600 sq ft home, that is all electric with a pool. I live on the coast. My bill is about 500 dollars per month using a "balanced billing" arrangement. If you're in Houston, and not using balanced billing, I'm not suprised that your bill is that high.

Two things I would recommend. Add an additional layer of isulation using fiberglass batts, in your attic. I did this and it lowered my ceiling temperature by 5 degrees. It made a measureable impact on my electric bill.

Also, if you're not home during the work day, install a programmable thermostat. You can program it to raise the setpoint during the day while you're gone, and lower it again before you come home from work.

Answer 4

You didn't say how many kilowatts you are consuming or the price per kilowatt.

We have an all electric house in East Texas. It is 3000 sq ft and the bill is usually less than $300 a month. We are paying about 10.5 cents per kilowatt. If you are using more than 2800 to 3000 kilowatts a month then the problem may be the price per kilowatt.

How old is your ac unit? If it is more than 10 or 15 years, you might want to consider a new more efficient one.

Answer 5

Get a representative out there to do an evaluation. My late husband and I once lived in an apartment building where the maintenance man turned a large room across the hall from us into his own personal gym. The jackass fed his electric line to our meter and for two single people, living in a one-bedroom, who were never home, and only ran a small TV, a stereo, an alarm clock, a fan, lights, and a refrigerator, it was $79 in ONE month! His sister had two toddlers and had her lights on practically all-day long (nightlights, included) and *she* was only paying $15! Now mind you, this was back in 1980, but it gave us something to compare our bill to! You might want to make sure the same thing isn't happening to you!
Years later I had another landlord in another town who opened my gas heater all the way, without telling me, and the place was a sauna! It ran me $3,000 for 3 months. Now this was in Connecticut and it *was* a bad winter (the year 2000), but still, $3,000 for 3 months energy???
You have to make sure you check everything, including energy valves that are cranked too far open.
It could also be that no one is home to allow the energy company access to your meters so they end up estimating your energy usage. That's also happened to me and they always seem to estimate on the high side, thereby driving your costs up even higher.
I hope my suggestions helped.

Answer 6

Is it possible that someone is tapping into your electric? This is outrageous... definitely call the company and have them check it out..

I live in a 2500 sq ft home too w a/c.. My wife freaks when the electric bill goes over $30 during hot season.. but then, in contrast to our property taxes, btwn $5 and $10 a year - - our electric bill seems high.. - ok, I live in an agrarian farming village in central thailand but you could live a nice life here on your electric bill alone.. and after reading the other comments, it is difficult to relate.. good luck

Answer 7

Call your electric company. Check the history of your charges and see if there is a spike. You might have a power leakage. I have heard of bad lines touching a ground and then you pay for power going from the electric line to the ground. You need someone to check out the wiring of the house as well as examine the bill history to see when the high rates started and why.

Answer 8

Are you sure someone is not swiping your electric? Man, that is high!

Are you running more then one refrigerator? They take the most out of all the appliances. Maybe reduce your air conditioner use. Turn it down while you are not in the house. Shut off rooms you are not using.

All in all I would have the electric company come out and check your meter. Maybe something is wrong with it and it needs to be replaced.

Answer 9

It's about $20-30. I live in Hungary in a 70 m2 flat.

Answer 10

my electric bill is low. i think last month, it was only like $50. i live in a 2550 house. if u call someone from "energy trust" or a company that certifies homes as "green" or energy efficient, he/she would probably be able to tell u what's goin on. i use compact fluorescent light bulbs in nearly all my lighting fixtures, too, which have helped quite a bit.