Utilities last month (luxury, home, price)

[Theresejenkins]

Yes! mine went from $80 to $180! I thought it was because I used a lot of a/c or something...but it is very disconcerting! and, the sad part it, there is almost NOTHING you can do about it unless you sit in the dark and sweat...

[Luvsdabeach]

You all had me concerned how much ours was going to be when it came in the mail. Well it came today and last month we paid 117.00, this month 123.00. Not bad for a little over 2400 sq ft home.

[pokrplr]

Originally Posted by Luvsdabeach

You all had me concerned how much ours was going to be when it came in the mail. Well it came today and last month we paid 117.00, this month 123.00. Not bad for a little over 2400 sq ft home.

You must be burning alot of candles and sleeping with the windows open?

We've got one of those digital meters and last month we averaged 88 kilowats perday, well I've been looking at this every day and this month averaging about 112 per day...$400 Bill is almost inevitable...
sh*t!

[Luvsdabeach]

Originally Posted by pokrplr

You must be burning alot of candles and sleeping with the windows open?

We've got one of those digital meters and last month we averaged 88 kilowats perday, well I've been looking at this every day and this month averaging about 112 per day...$400 Bill is almost inevitable...
sh*t!

Nope, we keep the thermostats on 78 and the ceiling fans going 24/7. The highest our electric has ever been is 179..

[Condorll]

Originally Posted by Luvsdabeach

Nope, we keep the thermostats on 78 and the ceiling fans going 24/7. The highest our electric has ever been is 179..

Thanks for the tip!

As an example many people keep their thermostat at 68 in the summer and 72in the winter when it should be the reverse to save energy.

[Luvsdabeach]

In the winter we keep the heat on 69. I have also switched to compact florescent bulbs.

What I believe really helps is that our heat pump is set on a zoning system. This is the one we have.
Honeywell Temperature Zoning |Your Home Expert | Thermostat Zoning - Honeywell Your Home Expert

[lpyrbby]

Another thing I've noticed a lot of people do is they turn the unit off during the day. There's no way it'll save energy when it's as hot as it is!

Also, another piece of advice, clean out those AC closets and change those filters! Also, make sure your unit outside can breathe too. You don't want anything blocking those fins.

We have BEC out here and ours went up about $50 I think.

[Rennie Manning]

My advice to all of you: Learn how to read your meters! I got down on my hands and knees and pulled grass away - braved snakes and frogs - and picked the damn thing up and it was so blurred I had to go get WD 40, clean it, and then read it. My electric bills have been 'read' wrong for years - and now I even know how to tell if I have a leak. I paid a plumber to come out and he taught me invaluable things - these folks who work for the electric companies don't necessarily get accurate readings just because they 'ride around.' It is a serious problem, and I fought for months until I finally got resolution about a ridiculous water and sewer bill. Even a history of 23 years at the same address, with the water use maintaining pretty much the same amount, seemed to not matter, until I finally took my OWN READING.

[pokrplr]

Well I found out why my bill was so damn high! Unknown to us, we've been cooling our attic! Had Berkeley Elec come out with their auditors and they went through the home, every square inch. In the attic there were 2 ducts that had seperated and splling our cold air into the 4,500 degree attic...NICE! Being the home is only 8 months old, Centex and there Heating/Air guys are fixing it right now as I type this, THANK GOD!

The Audit was FREE, so i suggest if you guys have ANY doubts, don't hesitate to contact them...This will definitely save us $$

[tgava]

I'm going to take the advice I read here and learn how to read my own meter becase something is definitely wrong. We've been in Summerville since last September and our SCE&G electric bill has consistently been between $180-$225. But we just got our most recent bill on Friday and it was $482.

What has me most confused is, since we've been here we've had the central air on 68. But about 5 weeks ago (I read an article about how to save on your electric bill) and it said to turn your air up to 74 ... which I did ... even 75 some days.