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Read your electric meter everyday to get an idea on your usage. Once you find out how much you use everyday then turn off items that are not in use. I used 610 kWh on my last bill and I live in a two bedroom apartment.
We moved from California to Texas and currently live in a one bedroom apartment. We were originally told that the "average" of electricity would be in the $60.00 range...we have yet to have a bill in that range. Our electric bill is now in the $200+ range, and we are wondering if this is average for a one bedroom apartment in the summer? We run our central air off and on through the day, and turn it off at night. We've been assuming it's our building and an older, non-energy efficient a/c unit, but now we are wondering if there is something we are doing to cause such a high cost.
We lived in two different two bedroom apartments (over time) in one complex in mid-cities in the 1990s. In the second apartment, the air ran constantly beginning in April, and we still could not get the apartment cooler than 95 degrees. The complex put in a heavier duty unit for unit for us, but it did not help much. Maintenance could never figure out what was the problem. It was so bad that we ended up moving.
What you are experiencing could be one or a combination of things others have suggested to you. Also, I have heard of people who know how to piggyback their electric wires on to someone else's metre. Although it is not very common, it can happen. If I were you, I would look for another, newer apartment with better insulation. I live in a two bedroom half duplex with about 900 sq. feet, and I have only rarely approached $200 during the hottest months, so there is something wrong where you are.
This happened to me when I was living Ina complex. No matter what we did, our bill was stupid high. A rep from electric came out and performed a test that went something like this. He turned everything off, went out to the meter and turned things on one by one to see what was eating up the most juice. It turned out that during a revamping of the blah blah blah (don't know the official verbiage for what they did) they had to unhook the electrical wires that connected each apt. unit to the outside meters. Well, when they did that they reversed the order. That is, we were the 1st floor unit but they hooked us into the 3rd floor and vice versa. They credited our account and everything worked out.
This happened to me when I was living Ina complex. No matter what we did, our bill was stupid high. A rep from electric came out and performed a test that went something like this. He turned everything off, went out to the meter and turned things on one by one to see what was eating up the most juice. It turned out that during a revamping of the blah blah blah (don't know the official verbiage for what they did) they had to unhook the electrical wires that connected each apt. unit to the outside meters. Well, when they did that they reversed the order. That is, we were the 1st floor unit but they hooked us into the 3rd floor and vice versa. They credited our account and everything worked out.
We asked Oncor to investigate, Jayerdu, but they said they saw nothing wrong. After reading your post, however, it makes me wonder if whoever looked at ours simply was not experienced enough to know how to diagnose the problem. It is amazing how many incompetent people there out there on jobs.
We moved from California to Texas and currently live in a one bedroom apartment. We were originally told that the "average" of electricity would be in the $60.00 range...we have yet to have a bill in that range. Our electric bill is now in the $200+ range, and we are wondering if this is average for a one bedroom apartment in the summer? We run our central air off and on through the day, and turn it off at night. We've been assuming it's our building and an older, non-energy efficient a/c unit, but now we are wondering if there is something we are doing to cause such a high cost.
You may wish to ask your landlord to have the system thoroughly checked. There may be a problem with the air conditioning system that is contributing to the high bills. Beware, however, that if your landlord is like my landlord, he may not use competent contractors who know how to diagnose the problem and fix it. Take my case for example.
The air conditioner at my apartment completely broke down as I was moving in a few years ago in the midst of the awful July heat. The landlord's contractor, who had installed the air conditioner just a couple of years before, said they would have to replace the entire unit. Unbelievably, it took them 10 days to replace the unit. Luckily, I had not turned in my keys at my old place, so I slept on the floor at my old place (my furniture had already been moved to the new place) until they switched out the air conditioner. After they replaced the air conditioner at the new place, however, there were still problems with the system. The outside unit would cycle on, but the inside would not cycle on.
Next, the contractor then said that the thermostat needed to be replaced, but replacing the thermostat did not solve the problem, either. I did not complain too much so long as I was reasonably cool during the hot weather and reasonably warm during the cold weather. This year, however, I realised that the problem was getting worse, so I had to ask the landlord to have the air conditioner looked at again. The landlord sent over the same contractor again. The landlord claims he uses this contractor because their charges are so much more reasonable than some other contractors. Looking at the facts, however, I totally disagree that the landlord is saving any money whatsoever by using this contractor. In fact, I think he is actually spending more and getting less because they end up coming out again and again for the same problem, and each time they "fix" something and charge him for it.
Well, first off this time, they were supposed to come "sometime" one Monday. I waited in all day for them, but they never showed up, and they never even phoned to cancel the appointment. I called them in the afternoon, but the call rolled over to voice mail. I left a message. They called back that night and said they would be out the next morning at 8:30. Fortunately, the air conditioning was still holding up, but I felt it was unprofessional of them not to have shown up and not to have even called to let me know they could not make it.
In any case, they arrived on time Tuesday morning, and after I explained the problem again for the umpteenth time, the man said "it is probably either <A> or <B> (I cannot recall the exact parts he mentioned), and we are betting it is <A>." I just stood there looking at him and thinking to myself, "here we go again." Who uses a contractor who "guesses" what is the problem and proceeds with a repair without even testing the equipment first? That would be like going to a dentist who "guessed" that the pain you were experiencing was caused by either this tooth or that tooth, and he "bets" it is this tooth and pulls it without taking x-rays or examining you. No one in his right mind would patronise that dentist, so why patronise an air conditioning contractor who "guesses" what a problem may be and then "bets" on which one it. Madness!! Unutterable madness!!!
Well anyway, they spent an hour and half "repairing" the indoor portion of the system. Some time after they left, I noticed it was becoming a bit too cool inside. I checked the thermostat and discovered that they had turned it down to 50 whilst they were working on the unit and then left it like that. I adjusted the thermostat back to 76 and got on with my work. It was already very hot outside, and with four of my windows facing west and two facing south/southwest, it began to heat up in here pretty quickly again. After a while, I noticed it was becoming really hot inside, but the air had not come on. I checked and found the outside unit was running, but the inside unit had failed to cycle on-----the exact problem they were supposed to have fixed. I tried everything I knew to coax the unit to cycle on inside, but nothing worked.
I called the contractor, and he said the men were on another job and could not return for at least two more hours, probably longer. I was bloody annoyed, but I said okay. Then, he said, "wait a minute, that would put them into overtime. They will have to come back another day." I said it had to be asap today because I was not able to stay here in these temperatures. It was already in the 90s inside and the high outside had yet to be reached! It was baking inside here! He said sorry but he simply would not pay the techs overtime to come back out.
I then called and emailed the landlord, but no reply. Later, I called the contractor back again and demanded that he have someone come over and repair the unit, but once again he said he would not pay overtime, and then he hung up on me! I phoned and emailed the landlord a second time. By the end of the day with no reply from the landlord (his M.O. is to ignore anything he does not want to deal with), I called and emailed him again to say I was going to call another contractor to come out. I then called a reputable contractor who finally made it here by 7:30 that evening. I had been baking inside for several hours by this time, and I had the most awful headache you can imagine. The landlord never did return my calls or reply to my emails.
The second contractor spent a good while looking at both the outside and the inside portions of the system to determine what was the true problem. He asked me what they were supposed to have replaced/repaired because he said he could not see anything that looked like a new part anywhere. I said I really did not know. All I could tell him was what the cheap contractor told me. Finally, he said the problem was the fan relay switch. It needed to be replaced, but as the system is so old, no one carries those parts with them. He said he would have to get the part from the parts store in the morning and come back out. I felt quite ill, and I was wondering where I was going to go because it was far too hot to stay here any longer. The man kept tinkering with the unit, however, and all of a sudden it cycled on inside, much to my relief! He told me to leave it set at "ON" until he came back the next day with the part; otherwise, it would stop and not come on again. I said no problem. I would rather be cold than hot.
Mind you, the good contractor I called was one that the landlord has used before any time he could not get the cheap contractor for some reason or another. The landlord has an account with the good contractor, but as I said, I told the contractor I would pay for the repair and take it up with the landlord, otherwise the good contractor would not have come out. Anyway, I emailed the landlord again that night and advised him that the good contractor diagnosed the problem as being a worn out fan rely switch and that he would be back in the morning to replace it.
The next morning the good contractor phoned me to say that the landlord had phoned their office earlier that morning and royally balled out the lady for sending anyone out to repair my air conditioner. The contractor said the landlord shouted that he would not pay their fees, so they better not try to bill him for the repair. The lady replied that I had told her I would pay them and take up the matter with him afterward, so there was no reason for her not to have sent someone out. The good contractor asked me what he should do now, and I said come back and finish the repair, which he did do. Since then, I have had no problems with the air conditioner.
The entire repair cost $168. The good contractor charged $75 for the after hours call out fee which I do not think unreasonable since Sears charges $95 to come out to look at an appliance between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays. The part cost $30, and the remaining $63 was labour and tax. As the tech spent at least 2 hours total working on the unit, the $63 labour charge did not seem excessive to me either. However, the landlord refused to reimburse me the $168. He claimed it was too much money and that I should have simply waited until his cheap contractor could make it back another day.
I was appalled. I told the landlord that it is the owner's responsibility to pay for repairs, not mine, and that I had a right to expect repairs be done both promptly and competently. He had no right to be angry with me or with the good contractor. If anyone was to blame it was his cheap contractor for first standing me up, and then making the problem worse instead of fixing it. I told the landlord it was also his fault for using irresponsible, incompetent contractors. I said it was unconscionable of both he and his cheap contractor to expect to leave me in these temperatures with no air conditioning. I said if he did not reimburse me the $168, I would deduct it from my next month's rent. The landlord told me if I deducted the $168 from my rent, he would file an eviction against me. He was as serious as a heart attack, and I knew it, so I told him in that case I would have no choice but to file a suit against him to recoup my money. He said fine. I expect he either thinks I will not file a claim and/or that I will not prevail against him if I do, but he has another think coming. I am going to wait until the autumn to file because I do not want to cope with going downtown to court in this punishingly hot weather, but I will indeed file the claim.
The thing that amazes me about the landlord is that he thinks he is saving money by using the cheapest contractors he can find. I told him that even if the cheap contractor only charged 50% of what the good contractor charged, he still was not saving money if he had to pay the cheap contractor to come back over and over again. In the end, the landlord pays the cheap contractor more to come out several times than he would have paid the good contractor to come out just once. Moreover, the cheap contractor alienates the landlord's tenants by standing them up, then making a problem worse instead of better, and finally refusing to come back because he does not want to pay his techs overtime. All things considered, I do not understand how the landlord thinks he is better off using the cheap contractor over a reputable who charges a little bit more. I told the landlord his cheap contractors are like little vampire bats that come back again and again and again to drain him dry. I am astounded that he cannot see what is happening in this sort of situation.
So, I suppose the upshot of my story is to be sure that Oncor's people, and whichever contractor your landlord uses, know what they are doing. Good luck! I hope things improve soon for you.
Last edited by the_little_truth_writer; 06-29-2012 at 03:31 PM..
We asked Oncor to investigate, Jayerdu, but they said they saw nothing wrong. After reading your post, however, it makes me wonder if whoever looked at ours simply was not experienced enough to know how to diagnose the problem. It is amazing how many incompetent people there out there on jobs.
They actually came out twice. The first time, they said nothing was wrong. But the next month when it was still high, they came out again and the second guy caught it.
Writer---
It wouldn't surprise me to find out that the apt owner/manager has scam going with the HVAC person and anyone else he sends out
maybe he has found a way to fudge his expenses and put some money in his pocket
there is no money saved by hiring and paying incompetent service people---
and if I were you I would be looking for another rental...
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