Two fires

[Alleycat72]

Today I have one upstairs and one downstairs. Electricity bills are killing me. $750 a month is crazy. 

 

[bubbadavis]

$750 a month!  Are you powering an incandescent lighthouse or two? 

[Snaveba]

Clandestine grow house

[Alleycat72]

39 minutes ago, bubbadavis said:

$750 a month!  Are you powering an incandescent lighthouse or two? 

I wish 

[bubbadavis]

4 minutes ago, Alleycat72 said:

I wish 

I'm guessing its an older home. When we moved to Huntsville, we bought a 30% larger house. But being 23+ years newer construction, it was much, much more energy efficient. Our utility bills went down significantly.

Either this, or you have a fleet of electric cars 

[Alleycat72]

20 minutes ago, bubbadavis said:

I'm guessing its an older home. When we moved to Huntsville, we bought a 30% larger house. But being 23+ years newer construction, it was much, much more energy efficient. Our utility bills went down significantly.

Either this, or you have a fleet of electric cars 

Me and the Wife, 20 yo, 19yo, 12, 11, 10. New windows, but someone is always home and all the lights need to be on. not to mention 4000+ Square foot. The washing machine is always running. 

The 20 yo has a really good job, but I want him banking all of his money until he can get a house. 

The 19 is in college so.........

 

[Erik88]

If you haven't already done it, converting all your bulbs to LED makes a difference. 

[billmeek]

Very small house originally built in the 1800's here (< 1/4 the size of Alleycat's Home), but my last power bill was $98.  All the lights in the house are LEDs and even that minuscule draw is on automation to cut power usage.  I replaced the AC window units and floor space heaters with 2 mini-splits (1 is a 220 unit).  I could have used a single multi-head unit but wanted redundancy and the smaller 110 unit can be run off my small dual-fuel generator in a pinch.  Just installing the mini splits knocked about 1/3 off my power bill. 

The house is still a work in (very slow) progress.  Eventually I'll be replacing the storm doors and windows for better efficiency.

[Alleycat72]

Everything is LED inside. I've worked with my special needs Daughter to eliminate one large electricity expense. I just cut off the cable and home phone. We haven't used the home phone in more than  a year. We very rarely watched cable. That was $200 a month. This is my highest earning year ever and I feel like I have less money than I did last year. Inflation is a thing 

[gregintenn]

1 hour ago, Erik88 said:

If you haven't already done it, converting all your bulbs to LED makes a difference. 

Yeah, but not THAT kind of difference. Wow!!!

[jpx2rk]

7 people in a house would definitely run up the light bill.  I feel for you with all the lights on, wife is home most of the time, and the lights are always on.  Even the rooms she hasn't been in for 4 hours.    Front door is open so the dog can look out and monitor "it's domain", no matter the temp outside, 95 or 45, it's open so the damn dog can see outside  I did tint the storm door glass so that helps a little.  Drapes and blinds open as well.  She doesn't see the electric bill, and doesn't worry about it either.  LOL

[Alleycat72]

It's usually between 500 and 650. The $750 kind of shocked me. The heat hasn't been on all day. I stacked woods for days.  LOL

[Grayfox54]

Call your power company. Most of them will do a free "Energy Survey" of your home and tell you what you can do to cut down your bill. 

[pop pop]

I have 3200 Sq Ft all on one level. Just me and wife and our bill has run from 170.00 to 420,00 being the highest last winter. Up until last winter the highest was 360.00. Keep it 73 day and 72 night. Wife is cold at that. I would guess average for 12 months would be 220.00.  Your bill sounds awful high to me. Have the meter checked.  Have an energy test run. just might save you some lollie. 

[gregintenn]

32 minutes ago, pop pop said:

I have 3200 Sq Ft all on one level. Just me and wife and our bill has run from 170.00 to 420,00 being the highest last winter. Up until last winter the highest was 360.00. Keep it 73 day and 72 night. Wife is cold at that. I would guess average for 12 months would be 220.00.  Your bill sounds awful high to me. Have the meter checked.  Have an energy test run. just might save you some lollie. 

This sounds more reasonable, but a house full of people can sure run up the bill washing clothes and heating water for showers and such. I bet his water bill is crazy too!

[runco]

Expensive electric bills is one of my obsessive/centric things, and I stay on top of it the best I can, but in the summer I do not care to run the A/C to keep the house comfortable 76 in the daytime, 70 at night (program), but in the winter I do have wood heat available and tons of cut firewood.  We have a 2700 ft house, family of 6 (2 adults, 3 teenagers) and my electric bill in July is ~$300 and in Jan ~$140, with October and March the cheapest months with no heat or air running, ~$125.  My goal is to have a <$100 electric bill, but I do not think that will occur until my kids move out.  No gas here.

Many years ago, we had a deep freezer, I figured out the cost to run it and my calculation was around $30-$40 a month, so I told the wife unless she is saving $40 in bulk buy for the freezer, and that was to break even that freezer had to go (No Aunt Bee stories here!), so we got rid of it, saved ~$500 per year.  I also have the current refrigerator at the energy efficiency level, that is a another elec. drain, and there is the hot water heater too, we are a family of 6, I think we keep the 80 gallon set at 130 degrees.  I did study buying a heat pump water heater, and I do think the next time I have to replace the water heater, I will go that route, but it does require some open space to be efficient, and the current location will be a challenge.  We do have all led lights, but every morning when the family goes to school, I still have to turn off 10+ lights everyday.  Our Washer/Drier runs 24/7 (or it feels like it), so we focus on the energy savings on those units as well.  Those ceiling fans is another drain, I try to turn those off as well when no one is here, only at night over my bed is the one that is running any signficant time.

Here where we live, we have a well, so no monthly water/sewer, but has my luck would go, we had to replace the water well pump a few years back ~$1500.  My parents never had a problem with theirs, and it was close to 50 years old.  I have not calculated the daily cost of water (pump running), but I do think our newer pump was more efficient, than the previous one, but I am not 100% sure, I did see about a $20 drop, but that may be many other variables as well.  

BTW, I would stroke out on a $400+ electric bill.  Not in my future unless inflation goes Venezuela style.

[peejman]

I'll 2nd the energy survey suggestion.  Leaky doors or HVAC problems could be contributing. 

 Do you know the type and amount of insulation in your house?  Mine was very poorly insulated when I bought it. I added floor insulation over the crawlspace and more than doubled what was in the attic.  I also found a big leak in an HVAC duct.

[Alleycat72]

I found one problem with the hot water heater. I had 2, but they were not split systems. They were fighting each other so one was doing nothing but eating electricity. It's been disconnected and capped of. Not hot water issues yesterday or today. 60% of the main floor isn't installed in the crawl space. The other 40% stays cooler so I'm going to check the insulation in that roof section. It's floor is insulated. The wood stove downstairs is below that part. Downstairs gets to 80° with the stove, but I get very little benefit other then a warm chimney going up the center of the house.  Probably going to vent that hot air to the main floor. Testing that today. 

[MacGyver]

I expect you may have something on a pig rifle that will work in a pinch - but renting a FLIR for half a day is really worth it.

[Alleycat72]

56 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

I expect you may have something on a pig rifle that will work in a pinch - but renting a FLIR for half a day is really worth it.

I've used it to locate studs in the wall. LOL

[Frog4aday]

I had an electric hot water heater with a leaky t&p valve that cost me $350 in electricity one month when normal bill was $125 a month. Electric company offered no help in figuring out what changed to jack up my bill. Then I heard water running in garage one night. Touched the t&p drain pipe & burned my hand. Valve was continuously leaking hot water! New hot water heater & bill dropped to $105 the next month. Just a thought for something to chk. $750 is a monster of an electric bill. Doesn't seem right.

[Erich]

I didn’t see this mentioned, did you check the bill for a change in the kw/hr billing rate or surcharges from prior months to see how  much if any of your total increase may be due to raised rates opposed?

Or you rule that out seeing just increased useage?

That’s a crazy full house! surprised you’d ever find the time to be on the forum. 

 

[Alleycat72]

17 minutes ago, Erich said:

I didn’t see this mentioned, did you check the bill for a change in the kw/hr billing rate or surcharges from prior months to see how  much if any of your total increase may be due to raised rates opposed?

Or you rule that out seeing just increased useage?

That’s a crazy full house! surprised you’d ever find the time to be on the forum. 

 

I've recently renegotiate my work schedule. I work the same amount of hours, but now I'm off the same amount of days that I work. It's given me time to look at things I didn't have time for. I'm finding the problems slowly. We adopted 3 kid several years ago.  They are all three meet the definition of "special needs", but one is severely handicapped, one is 40% , and one is 30%. They were/are taking up most of our time. I've pretty much adopted a 4th. He is normal and an outstanding individual. He's the only person I've ever recommended at work in 25 years. They immediately hired him.

The upstairs ac unit is controlled by the kids. Kids who close all of the doors. The thermostat is in the hallway. The hallway that doesn't have vents. That's being addressed. The insulation is not what I want it to be. That's being fixed this weekend.  Talked to the oldest kid. He wants to help with the installation and cost of insulation. He also wants to help with bills, but the Wife is hesitant. Every dollar he saves goes towards a home, but he's doing well working with me.

We are going to have the power company check and see if the problem is on their end or the meter. 

I'm on vacation this week, so I'm having plenty of panic attacks. LOL  

[pop pop]

We just finished remodeling our kitchen. Purchased a 24X36 metal building to put our RV and trucks under to get them out of the weather. When all that is up and paid for I intend to get after weatherproofing our house. I need to put more insulation in the attic, weather strip 5 entry doors, and caulked around windows. Also plan to get an energy evaluation done by the Mid TN Electric company. Got to tighten up around "Reed Manor."  I have faith that the cost will be recouped in time. 

[Jeb48]

My solution wasn't cheap but so far it looks like it has cut my total electric bill by 20% or more. I had a heat pump with LP backup furnace that was 15+ years old. I have a friend out of the area that is in the HVAC business and I asked him how much longer I could expect it to last and he said somewhere between a month and 10 years. He also said if I had the money I should do it before it fails because the newer more energy efficient models sometimes took a month or more to get in and if I had to replace a failed unit I would buy what was in stock.

Since I had the money I started looking around and learning what I wanted. My first reason to replace was to have something new that would not have an unfixable problem for a long time. My second goal was a quieter unit both outside and the blower. Third was energy efficiency. I only have 2 full months with the new union but it looks like all 3 of my goals have been met. My guess is the heating and cooling part of my electric bill has been cut in half but I still have the rest of the electrical usage. I believe my LP usage will drop significantly also since the new heat pump works down to 25 degrees and still use less electricity that the equivalent LP.

Our previous house was built to heat with wood and I had IR electric and LP hot water backup. When prices got high or the bank account low I just burned more wood. For 30 years I heated almost 100% with wood, dropped back to about 25% as I got lazy. I do miss a good wood stove to sit by on cold nights.