$430 electric bill? Help! (Houston, Canton: renting, townhouse, heat pump)

[imanativetx]

Hey, we just moved to Canton area and are renting a nice doublewide BUT our first bill was horrible! What can we do--all units out here don't have skirting, but have latticework instead (I know skirting would help some) but any other tips? We will be flipping the breaker for water heater and turning down the heat when we are not here. I'm used to a pretty tight, energy efficient home and feel at odds here. The water heater, furnace are all new but the doublewide is older....Wonder if there is a problem...does 3251 kw sound overly outrageous?

Moved from Houston area to escape higher cost of living--didn't plan to pay for my savings in the electric bill!

[KantLockeMeIn]

It's probably cheaper renting a house if your bill will be that high.

[nsumner]

Have your HVAC unit serviced... It may need to be cleaned. That is very high for a doublewide. Sounds like your unit is working constantly. Caulk around the windows, add weather strip around doors.

Ask the homeowner to add a skirting too. All he can say is no...

[JasonDFW]

You have an electric furnace. A 150 year old electric furnace is exactly 100% efficient. A 1 year old electric furnace is exactly 100% efficient. In 20 years an electric furnace will still only be 100% efficient, which stinks.

100% means you only get 1kw-hr of heat for every kw-hr you buy (10-15 cents each depending on your provider). What you need to do is either get a heat pump, which will get you between 2 and 4kw-hrs of heat (200-400% efficient) for ever 1 you buy, or get yourself a gas furnace, because gas gives you more energy for the same price. You could have a 50% efficient gas heater from 1960 and it'd cost you less than your electric resistance furnace.

Jason

P.S. The cost of living is really no cheaper here than Houston, not sure where you heard that.

P.P.S. To use 3000+ kw-hrs you must have had your heat up around 75+ and kept it there.

P.P.P.S. Make sure they didn't get the first digit wrong on your meter. My first bill with both Reliant and Gexa had the first digit off which put the bill 1000kw-hrs over what it really was. It doesn't matter in the long run, because your next bill will be artificially low (or negative) however I complained (and got it fixed each time) so I'd have an accurate record of usage to look back upon.

[catluvr]

We are renting a cheap crappy townhouse and our bill was roughly the same. All electric and no insulation. Good Texas Construction!

[imanativetx]

Thanks for all the good comments. Will look at that bill and meter each month, Jason.