My kilowatt usage keeps going up! Help!

cognitive77

cognitive77

CAGiversary!
Ok, the girl and I got our first real house in early August. Brand new appliances when we move in. Started off with just the TV hooked up downstairs. 1744 sq ft house, with just the two of us. Here's how the kwh usage breaks down:

Sep - 1100
Oct - 900
Nov - 1300
Dec - 1800
Jan - 2479

Now...I've been told that the heating elements in a blowing unit really suck up the juice, but we've had the heat set on 67 during the night, and typically 69 during the day. I did get a water softener sometime in Oct, but it only runs when it needs to (from what I was told). We have some of those energy saver lights, and we're pretty energy conscious. It is a new construction home. I have a battery back up for the desktop, but never use the desktop. Nothing is every left on, we even shut down the Dish DVR every night.

We never go out, so the amount of time we spend watching TV is pretty constant.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
Well, if it wasn't a new home, I'd say check your window and door seals. Even still, you might want to. Also, you can have drafting at light switch boxes and power outlets. You can check all this by lighting a stick of incense (or anything that smokes), and hold it near these places, watching the smoke to see if there is any drafting.

You might want to check the insulation in your attic. An attic has been well-insulated if the rafters are not visible (the rafters for the ceiling of the house, not the roof). Check to make sure your attic door seals well, as you can lose air that way.

Ceiling fans are a good choice for energy preservation. Use the down-flowing cycle in summer to keep cool air blowing and save AC power, and use the up-flowing cycle in winter to circulate the warm air back throughout the room, saving on heating costs.
 
Do you have an electric or gas heater? I'm assuming electric.

I would recommend you call the local power company to check your meter and make sure they're not using an estimated usage. Thought I doubt they'd be using an estimate for new construction.

Then do anappliance estimate. How many fridges, TV's, computers, etc.

I can't say if your bill is high or not. Not enough info. But the peak/valley of it seems consitent with legitimate usage.
 
Yeah, it's an electric heater. And the meter is actually read rather than estimated. Here's how our appliances/electronics break down.

1 Fridge Energy Star
1 Stove
1 Microwave
Washer
Dryer
2 Laptops
Water Softener
50" Pioneer Plasma
Xbox 360
Wii
PS2
Dish DVR
Sony Surround Sound
Sony DVD Player
Electric Water Heater
Central Heating/Cooling
Elliptical


The two laptops are on quite a bit, but just as much as when we moved in in August. The only new additions would have been the water softener and the elliptical (which I use once a day for 45 minutes, sometimes 5 times a week). My other half uses it roughly every other day. I turn off all of the home theater equipment that I use each night, and I rarely game during the week. I do have all of the the equipment hooked up to a APC surge protector/power strip. Also, our power seems to surge...I can notice that the lights dim and brighten constantly. Not real noticeable, you really have to watch, but it's there.

From 10-5-07 to 11-5-07 1391 Kwh usage 31 Days $4.24 per day
From 11-5-07 to 12-4-07 1820 Kwh usage 29 Days $5.73 per day
From 12-4-07 to 1-3-08 2479 Kwh usage 30 Days $7.33 per day
 
My bill went sky high in December as well. I changed nothing for the month and even had the heat off for about 9 days. Last month it was $61. This month, $97. I'm thinking they are passing along everyone elses use during Christmas to customers like us.

For the record, it's a new house, energy efficient, blah blah blah.
 
The Ender had some great points. Some other suggestions would be
1. only do the washing up at night, like washer/dryer since its a cheaper rate at night.

2.Don't use the dishwasher, do it by hand. ( i know its a pita, but saves energy in the long run)

3.Turn the heater off overnight/or put it on a timer. Put on some extra blankets

4.I hear that stuff on standbye like PCs, dvd players, electronics in general still sap energy while on standbye so maybe unplug them if you know you wont be using them for more then a few hours/overnight. Give it a try for a week unplugging everything and see if it makes a difference.

5.Defintely check the seals on your windows, doors and maybe put a towel over the seal if you can feel any cool air coming in. Maybe look into getting some nicer windows like pella or some of those other super sealed windows( extra cost , but maybe worth it in the long run)

6.Make sure you have a heavy duty insulation thingy( dont know what they call them) on the bottom of your doors. Sometimes apts and cheap construction will put a weak on on, you need to make sure you have a tight fitting insulation seal on them.
 
The trend seems normal to me given that you have electric heat. My usage increases steadily in the colder months, typically peaking in late January / early February.
 
Live above Indian people who like their New England apartment as warm as the sands of Pakistan. I have yet to turn my heat on this winter and its always 70-75 in here. They must have to pay their electric bill off with bank to bank armored cars.
 
If the water softener is new it never hurts to make sure its not malfunctioning. If for some reason its running near continious it probably takes a fair amount of wattage. That's a long shot really, the heating due to cold weather is probably the culprit.
 
This looks like a job for the Hardly Boys!

Hardly20Boys.jpg
 
You've got electric heat and you're keeping your place pretty warm.

My suggestion would be to keep your house at 60ish and buy a couple of space heaters, use them only when a room is occupied.
 
Adding onto the Space Heater idea just get some of those Christmas tree light timers and have the space heaters come on like 10 minutes before you wake up in the morning and put them in strategic locations (meaning where ever you are in the mornings like the bathroom or kitchen).
 
Great stuff in here, guys.

Also, remember to keep in mind that this month and maybe next will probably be the worst of the year by far. Unless, of course, you crank your AC in the summer, which you probably should not.
 
Sell all your alarm clocks and buy sundials.

I think it's probably the cost of your heating/cooling. The rise in cost as the climate gets colder seems to be the reason for the costs. As was said earlier, the cost might be going up because the majority of power consumers are cranking the heat and everybody (no matter what their power usage) pays more to balance it out. Kinda like how cable bills go up for people that don't switch to the TV/internet/phone bundles so they can afford to give a "deal" to the people that do subscribe to a bundle. Shit, my parents were paying extra for cable and couldn't figure out what it was...oddly enough the difference just happens to be the cost of Charter's VOIP service they just debuted. So you pay for it if you don't subscribe, and get it for free as part of the bundle if you do subscribe. Capitalism rocks!
 
all silliness aside, it could be bad insulation. Your heater could be running round the clock to catch up to that comfort zone.
also, maybe buy some insulation for your water heater itself. Also use saran wrap on the windows (cuz i presume you're too cheap for the actual insulate material).

also, yea, use compact fluorescents instead of incandescents.
 
If it's not too much trouble, can some of you guys post your sq footage of your home and how much kwh's you last used for the month? Also location would help to. The only data I was able to find was that in 2001, the average house used 888 kwh.
 
I don't think that's unreasonable for electric heat in Missouri. I heat with propane and my bill last month was 350 dollars, and I keep it a hardy 66 degreees day and night. On top of that my electric bill was around 70 dollars. This is upstate, NY and my house was built in the last 15 years and is 2400 sq. ft.

Do you use any space heaters? Those suck up the juice. Things like laptops and cell phone chargers don't add up to see much of a difference. Your big ticket electric users are: furnace (or AC in summer), hot water tank, dryer, oven. Your 360 and plasma screen use quite a lot of juice. There may be a power saving mode in your plasma screen menu, that will use less power at a cost of a dimmer picture.

I assume your dryer is electric, but how old is it? A couple years ago our electric bills were getting higher, and we noticed it was taking longer to dry our clothes. The heating element was going, and once we replaced the dryer our bills dropped right back to where they were.

Also, you can turn down the heat on your hot water tank. I have mine (propane) set so when the hot water is all the way on it isn't scalding -- just nice and warm.

But all in all I think I'd like to spend 220 dollars total for heating and electricity, and I consider you pretty lucky.
 
I don't have any space heaters going. I actually have a digital read-out for my power meter, so I'll be keeping an eye on that throughout the day. So far, with nothing on, my meter reads 5 kwh. I'm assuming that it's estimating at 5 kwh an hour. I'm gonna go adjust my water heater as well. I know that when I crank the water to maximum hotness now, it gets pretty damn hot.

I did get a reply back from my power company also.

"If your heat is “forced-air” electric, you spend $1 for $1 heat, if your heat is an air-source heat pump, you get $2.50 heat for the same $1."

She also stated that in comparison to others electricity usage, ours was about the same. I know that for insulation, the contractor used R-10 I believe in the ceiling (I have a vaulted ceiling with black shingles and no shade whatsoever).

I know I have a heat pump unit. And after doing some digging, my water softener costs approx. 10 cents a month to operate. So I'm pretty sure the energy hog is the heat.

I also saved the sticker from one of the windows. I haven't deciphered these yet, but:

U-Factor .49
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient .56
Visible Transmittance .59
Design Pressure Rating DP-50

Overall I guess I really can't complain. $220 really isn't that bad if that's the highest it's gonna get. I'm gonna keep the thermostat set at 65 degrees while I'm here by myself to see if that changes the next bill.
 
Install a programmable thermostat if there was't one already put in (my new construction house came with just a constant temp one). That way you can program it to drop the temp of your house way down when you are not home or sleeping in the middle of the night. Its really not hard to do and they only cost about $25/E. Just note how the current one is installed and follow the directions for the new. Hope it helps.
 
/\ good point. I have an electric water heater, Storm windows on most of our windows (house came that way, they are Pella with the storm screen combo).

We have an electric range and dryer etc. We do have fuel oil for heat, and I actually have a propane tank as well for the indoor pool. Obviously the propane doesn't run in the winter as we haven't used the pool during the winter since the first two years we lived here, the cold ass weather doesn't really make you want to swim.

So I run about 75-120 for electric a month depending on seasons etc. Also Our fuel oil is pretty efficient so we fill that maybe once a year and it will last us. So far this year Michigan has been up and down for temps, which has saved us I think on the fuel oil. A month ago I filled half a tank though and it ran $450, that should last us the rest of the year and into say October-Nov of 2008.

I don't know on your windows what those mean. Typically you will get an R value, they can be reflective and have Argon gas etc. Its been about 6-7 years since I worked in Millworks and sold windows.

An R10 insulation is not that great especially for ceilings. Heres a tip. If it snows and your one of the first houses to melt the snow on your roof, your roof is bleeding heat. Normally if you get a few inches of snow, it should not melt off the roof. Now keep in mind you can lose some with wind etc if you are in an open area.

Also lights on in the winter can really change your bill. The electric water heater is probably the culprit, along with the heat.

A few years ago my bill was being claimed as "read" and not estimated every month as well. I didn't believe it, since we had snow fall and no foot prints were visible. I was worried and called. The lady claimed he was using binoculars from the road... with our trees its pretty hard to get a sight on the meter from the road. So I put tape right over the meter and wrote a note on it. It took about 4 months and then the tape got pulled.... every month it was coming in as "read" and not estimated during that period. So take from that story what you want. I was worried I was going to get a big ass catch up bill, so far its never happened.
 
[quote name='JimmieMac']Live above Indian people who like their New England apartment as warm as the sands of Pakistan. I have yet to turn my heat on this winter and its always 70-75 in here. They must have to pay their electric bill off with bank to bank armored cars.[/quote]

I love how you say Indian people and then say Pakistan. It's not like India hates Pakistan or anything...
 
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