Electric bill is freaking driving me crazy! UP 150% from last year!

[JanND]

I've heard that all our instant on appliances...Large TV's, computers.....anything that is plugged in still runs current even if off.
I found an interesting link:http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/

[Robyn55]

I just want to say that I was in the garage today. And it seems like all the tubes and wires and the like between our air handler and our compressor look like they were replaced when we got our new components. Simply because they look like they have 5 years of dust on them - not 16.

We've been very happy with our A/C company and the companies that made our "stuff". OTOH - we have never tried to push our systems beyond their useful lives. So perhaps it's a little of them - and a little of us . Robyn

[Robyn55]

Guess I would be remiss if I didn't talk about our electric bill - which was what the OP was complaining about. Ours isn't cheap. We have about 3000 sq under AC/heating. We run our AC at 76 in the hot months and our heating at 73 in the cold months here in north Florida (sorry - I'm old and a wuss when it comes to temps that are too hot or too cold). Our temp stuff is probably the biggest part of our power bill.

Our hot water throughout the house is "instant hot water everywhere" - some kind of circulation system - I just change the timer 2x/year when we go to and from daylight savings time. It's on 16 hours a day. I reckon that's our second largest power hog.

We have lots of other smaller power hogs too. And honestly don't try to save on our power bills. Which average about $350/month. Robyn