My 3 bedroom 2 bath 1300 Square foot apartment bill is over $1200, Help please (Dallas: apartments, house)

[Kenjr7492]

I have been staying in the Same apartments for 3 years now and have always had issues with my upstairs A/C unit. Over the past few months, my Electric bill has skyrocketed over $1200 and shows usage ranging from 5107 KWH to 7144 KWH. I can't comprehend how this is possible, please help me understand how my usage can be so high and how to know if it's all truly coming from my apartments.

[Kenro911]

Well it has been very hot in past 2 months. My usage has doubled. However, 5-7KWH for an apartment or even a house seems insane unless you have a condenser/hvac from the stone ages.

I would move.

[callmebutter]

McMansions don't even get to that much kWh usage. You have an issue. you need to have it checked out or move.

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

That's absolutely absurd. I cannot imagine an apartment needing that much energy to run AC regardless of the ambient temps. You need to get this checked out. There is indisputably an issue.

[Sunbather]

Even assuming a very old unit, it would be hard to pull even half the kWh you are stating with the unit running 24/7. This does not make sense. We have a 1000ft2 home with a 22 year old 2.5 ton split system and the most we have pulled in one month is 900 kWH which was this past July with the heat wave.

[EastDallasDude]

My 1800 sq ft sf home netted a bill of $169 in July. It will be slightly higher in Aug. This is due to excellent insulation, and the fact we vary our thermostat between 79 and 83 generally.

If ur trying to keep ur thermostat at 72 when it's 102 outside, you're fighting a losing battle. Best thing u can do is get used to a little heat in the summer. People lived for millions of years w.o ac.

[CCCyou]

Originally Posted by Kenjr7492

I have been staying in the Same apartments for 3 years now and have always had issues with my upstairs A/C unit. Over the past few months, my Electric bill has skyrocketed over $1200 and shows usage ranging from 5107 KWH to 7144 KWH. I can't comprehend how this is possible, please help me understand how my usage can be so high and how to know if it's all truly coming from my apartments.

If the outdoor units have been allowed to get clogged coils (dirty) this can happen ( max amps draw on compressor with continuous running due to reduced capacity) at high outdoor ambient temps.
Also saw one time where a winding in the electric heat strip of unit shorted causing partial heating in the middle of summer on a fairly new unit so it ran continiously seemingly to only partially cool, but eating tons of kilowatts fighting against itself.
Units need to be thoughly checked out including amp draw.

[move4ward]

The upstairs unit needs an HVAC service. It could be a freon leak, bad compressor, dead exhaust fan, or multiple issues at the same time.

[Sunbather]

The OP is long gone and likely had no intention of sticking around.

That being said, I just want to point out a few things. Yes, keeping your coils clean and your unit serviced and in good working condition both keeps components working longer and helps it work more efficiently. However, you also have to look at the facts the OP provided to realize the numbers don't add up.

Let's assume the unit is 10 SEER (required by 1992 - so a 30 year old unit at this point) and 3 tons (on the large size for an 1800ft2 apartment but I bumped it up a half ton to be conservative). Even this unit would have a max power draw of roughly 3600 W. You can also look at it another way. Assume it has a 240V/1 feed and a 80% NEC rated 20A breaker. You're talking 15-16 amp MAX amp draw either way. Even if that unit ran 100% nonstop, 24 hrs a day, for 30 days, it could only use about 2500 kWh. And even with a system running poorly, that's an exaggerated number. Ad the OP is still talking about 2-3X this power usage. If the original story were actually true, there is way more going on than the AC system here.

[Kenro911]

Originally Posted by EastDallasDude

My 1800 sq ft sf home netted a bill of $169 in July. It will be slightly higher in Aug. This is due to excellent insulation, and the fact we vary our thermostat between 79 and 83 generally.

If ur trying to keep ur thermostat at 72 when it's 102 outside, you're fighting a losing battle. Best thing u can do is get used to a little heat in the summer. People lived for millions of years w.o ac.

79 and 83? How do you live in that. My parent's place is new built (2020) it's 2800sqft and they keep their air on 68-70 during the summer. The usage is around 1900-2200kWH over this summer which is around $200-250

I would suggest you look into your HVAC system because you're using around 1200-1500kWH to cool a 1800sqft home to 83 degrees.