Don't assume I leave everything on...we turn off things that are not needed...it is an older house built in 1984 so most likely, we need to put more insulation, cover the windows that are facing the sun with heavy drapes and A/C being set to higher temp while away from work. If the house is already hot when we get home then it would be way hotter when we get home if the a/c is turned off. I guess we will test it next week. Anyone suggest an electric company other than Reliant? We have Reliant.
wow, I thought I was the only one getting robbed. I may just turn off the AC, that's most of the problem I think.
We replaced out ac recently. Before if we had programmed the thermostat to rise when we left and lower when we came home, the ac would still be trying to cool the house and it would run for an hour or more trying to catch up. Now it will cool the house down in 10-15 minutes tops. But we don't even do that any more and we just run it at a constant 79 down and 76 up and the highest bill we've ever received was around $100. Now the heat (gas) can run around $250-300 in the winter - we live in TN - 3200 sqft. We had a $480 heating bill once but that was because the "estimated" low the month or 2 before and the "caught up" on an actual reading. And yes I did go read the meter on that bill. I like my heat set at 73 and 70. So maybe they just estimated your previous month's bill and the bill you are holding in your hand now is an actual reading.
my bill is only around 35 dollars a month. i found that if i work with my laptop instead of my desktop, i think i save around ten bux a month. it probably sucks over 300 watts. i don't use the heater or have an ac. also note. all electronic devices suck up electricity even when unplugged. the ac/dc converter (things like tv and stereos have them built in) is always drawing power. if you're really stingy, you might want to consider a powerstrip with on and off switch.
My highest bill was about $80 for a 850 sq ft apartment in Austin. Change your incandescent lights to CFLs. Incandescent lights put out a lot of heat, so they make your A/C work harder. In a small room you can really feel the difference. You can put up cellular blackout blinds in your windows. It really blocks out the sun, and provides a little bit of insulation. I bought mine from Lowes and installed them myself. Install a programmable thermostat. I put one in for about $50, it took about 30 minutes. Set it to automatically adjust itself to ~83 when you leave the house, and cool a half hour or so before you get home. Those are the cheapest things I can think of offhand.
All above suggestions do work. Also turn off your ac and go outside and take a water hose and turn the water on the outside of unit and wash all the fins don't spray the water just let it flow from the outside to the inside, you will be amazed at how much dirt comes out. Should be done once or twice a year. The unit will run less and cool better.
I think we found our main source for the high electricity bill...the fawking air ducts are in a really bad shape. I had someone from Efficient Attic Systems to give us an estimate for radiant barrier and insulation yesterday morning. The guy checked our attic, the attic is kinda complicated with a house with high ceilings, so anyway he told my dude to come up and take a look at the air ducts. They were practically falling apart and he told us that we needed to have them repaired like yesterday. I was completely floored because we had the house inspected before the closing. We used my friend who is a certified inspector for his dad's business. I couldn't believe how he missed the fawking air ducts! I contacted him and asked him why didn't he tell us that the air ducts were no good and he just gave me some bull**** saying that he couldn't see the attic really well. He could just admit that he ****ed up but he didn't. From what I know, the house inspectors are trained to inspect the air ducts. We paid him $200 or something. I could ask him for my money back but he needs the money more than us. This just cost us a lot of money. We could have used this information to ask the previous owners to fix the air ducts or lower the sale price. We had someone from ARS to give us an estimate for repairing the air ducts. A good 3k which we don't have money right now. We just decided to wait until the winter because the cool fronts are gonna come end of this month and we can get better deals from ARS - that's what the dude told us. Ugh.
What you need to do: Solar Screens on the West side of your house. Seal the windows and doors. Caulk is your friend. If possible, REPLACE the windows, esp on the West side. If you or your SO are handy, it's not that complicated. INSULATE (so cheap and easy). Buy one of those programmable thermostats. If you don't use natural gas for the stove or water heater, it may be a good idea to pay for that now. Ventilate your attic It's too bad that you bought such an old house. I should have paid attention to your buying threads and spoken up. Don't get me wrong- my house is from the 80's too- the EIGHTEEN 80's (1886), so I'm not throwing stones here. The older the house, the bigger the energy hog. That's why it's worth it to buy something 2000 or newer. Apologies for not pointing this out before...I'll be buying a newish house sometime in early 2009 when the market really bottoms out.
I knew it was something else. Somehow, there was NO WAY I believed you could use that much electricity. 1. Get your money back from the first inspector. Whether he needs the money of not MORE THAN YOU is a different matter. he shouls at least accept he missed the ducts and give you some money to cover the money YOU NEED NOW to pay for that horrific bill. Business is business but he missed something that now is costing you money and the previous owner should have fixed before selling you the house. 2. Get those ducts fixed NOW with the money you can get from the "friend" inspector. There are 5 90+ degree days coming up. Cold fronts won't be here until Octobr, and you'll get another $400 bill for September. 3. Get solar screens and radiant barriers if the ducts aren't helping. I knew it. Somehow, I thought there was something WRONG with your bill.
i went into a spare bedroom where i keep the door closed. i hadn't been in there in a while. turns out the ceiling fan has been on for a few months running on high speed. lol. oops.
lol yeah, i had closed a spare bedroom and left the celing fan overnight. Does anyone have a good recommendation for air ducts repair? ARS gave us an estimate of 3k. That is a lot.
Was it the one in the East Wing? I hate it when that happens. I thought I had told Jeeves to make sure he turns them off. And the nanny also forgot to pick the kids up from polo practice. Hard to find good help these days.
100 bucks. I have an single room apartment in NYC. I don't have the lights on much, b/c I am having sex with ladies all the time. LOLOLOL. JK. I wish But yea, 100 bucks is the most.
