[Grofica]

Is there an electric and gas inspector in Las Vegas? or someone who can come look at the house and find out WHY the bills are so high.

my electric and gas for the last 2 months has been insane! I'm in the green valley area. (near st. rose hospital)

I just don't think the bills should be that high. there has to be a way to reduce them. Because of how the sun hits our house our house is literally flooded with light by 5am so we never use the lights. I just don't understand why everything is so high.

Electric Bill: 170-190
Gas Bill: 150-160

House Built 2006
Sq. Foot: 2100

Average temp: 78 degrees
Forced Air system

Water Heater: Gas
Stove: Gas
Dryer: Gas

[escanlan]

Originally Posted by Grofica

Is there an electric and gas inspector in Las Vegas? or someone who can come look at the house and find out WHY the bills are so high.

my electric and gas for the last 2 months has been insane! I'm in the green valley area. (near st. rose hospital)

I just don't think the bills should be that high. there has to be a way to reduce them. Because of how the sun hits our house our house is literally flooded with light by 5am so we never use the lights. I just don't understand why everything is so high.

Electric Bill: 170-190
Gas Bill: 150-160

House Built 2006
Sq. Foot: 2100

Average temp: 78 degrees
Forced Air system

Water Heater: Gas
Stove: Gas
Dryer: Gas

Hello Grofica,

Not sure who your electric and gas suppliers are but go to their WEB site and look around. With all of the "Green Initiative" activities going on the Feds have handed out a significant amount of money to the energy suppliers to provide free or significantly reduced price energy audits. A properly performed energy audit will answer the questions you asked.

There are many different factors that can be present that are costing you money. One you have stated was the home being flooded with light. Do you have solar screens, Low-E glass on the windows, thermal shades on the windows, etc.? Yes it is nice to have a lot of free light but you are also letting in quite a bit of radiant heat that way also. This, along with many other issues, would be discussed with the energy audit.

[Grofica]

Originally Posted by escanlan

Hello Grofica,

Not sure who your electric and gas suppliers are but go to their WEB site and look around. With all of the "Green Initiative" activities going on the Feds have handed out a significant amount of money to the energy suppliers to provide free or significantly reduced price energy audits. A properly performed energy audit will answer the questions you asked.

There are many different factors that can be present that are costing you money. One you have stated was the home being flooded with light. Do you have solar screens, Low-E glass on the windows, thermal shades on the windows, etc.? Yes it is nice to have a lot of free light but you are also letting in quite a bit of radiant heat that way also. This, along with many other issues, would be discussed with the energy audit.

Electric is NV Energy and gas is... Southwest Gas Corporation. i know NV energy has some stupid online you fill out 200 questions and it gives you a chart but it says 90% of utilities is heating and i don't use the heater. EVER.

i will check out the gas website but I dont think i have ever seen anything like that.

[Buzz123]

Your electric bill is not out of line for summer in Las Vegas. In fact it's kind of low. But the gas shouldn't be that high. Call Southwest Gas and ask them to check it. They'll be glad to. Could be you have a leak. Could be the meter but not likely. But they don't mess around if there's a chance of a leak and they'll come right out.

[Buzz123]

Keep in mind that all utilities have gone sky high in the past few years. It used to be that Nevada had a strong Public Service Commission made up of people who were comsumer advocates and they did not allow utilities to rip off Nevadans. I forget which governor changed it, but now it's the Public UTILITIES Commission and they seem to represent the utilities in rate hikes instead of the citizens.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

Your electric bill is not out of line for summer in Las Vegas. In fact it's kind of low. But the gas shouldn't be that high. Call Southwest Gas and ask them to check it. They'll be glad to. Could be you have a leak. Could be the meter but not likely. But they don't mess around if there's a chance of a leak and they'll come right out.

Yeah...me too. My electric bills are more than twice yours. 3000SF house.

But the gas bill is insanely high. Something wrong. Get it checked by the Gas Co.

[Buzz123]

BTW: You should be able to call Southwest Gas RIGHT NOW and tell them you are worried you might have a leak. I'm 99.9% sure they are on call 24/7. Nobody wants your house to blow up, or for you to be asphyxiated.

[Grofica]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

BTW: You should be able to call Southwest Gas RIGHT NOW and tell them you are worried you might have a leak. I'm 99.9% sure they are on call 24/7. Nobody wants your house to blow up, or for you to be asphyxiated.

i thought they only worked mon-fri... sweet i will give them a call.

Originally Posted by Buzz123

Your electric bill is not out of line for summer in Las Vegas. In fact it's kind of low.

we are only a 2 person household. I still think it should be a lot lower... we are not big energy users.

Originally Posted by escanlan

There are many different factors that can be present that are costing you money. One you have stated was the home being flooded with light. Do you have solar screens, Low-E glass on the windows, thermal shades on the windows, etc.? Yes it is nice to have a lot of free light but you are also letting in quite a bit of radiant heat that way also. This, along with many other issues, would be discussed with the energy audit.

I guess i will try and call the energy company and see if they can come out or something. i thought when i bought the house the windows were the Low-e glass but i could be mistaken. i have blinds but no thermal shades. i think the windows might be the low-e maybe would i need both?

there just has to be a way to cut back on the bills.

[Buzz123]

You can check your own electric meter. Turn everything off and see if it's still running. If it is you have something running in the background that you don't know about that's using electricity. All houses do, such as smoke alarms, clocks, etc.) but the meter should barely turn with all the lights and major equipment turned off. Lights use a lot. But from what you've said, I'd be thanking my lucky stars that the electric bill is so low in the summer time.

Just don't mess with gas. Call them now. Let us know what they say too, please.

You can check the gas meter too. It's easier to turn off all gas appliances. Don't forget your pilot light on your gas water heater is always on, and depending on the type of furnace you have, it could burn all summer on that too.

[WestieJeff]

You're off your rocker if you think your electric bill should be "a lot lower" than $150-$170 in a 2100sf house in the middle of summer. I have a 2300 sf house with a pool and my electric bill runs around $400 in the summer. That's a two person household with two working adults and we turn the thermostat up to 82 during the day and 78 when we're home.

NV Energy will not send someone out to your house at your request, they will simply refer you to their online energy audit tool. Companies get paid good money to do energy audits, which would be the most comprehensive way for you to check your energy efficiency. They will come out and do a blower door test to check for air leaks in your home and usually do a duct blaster test to check for leaks and efficiency in your heating/cooling ducts. Based on that info they will make recommendations on how to improve your energy efficiency. It costs around $500 to have this done.

Something is wrong with your gas bill though. We have the same setup (range, dryer, water heater, furnace) on gas and our bill is around $20-$30 in the summer.

Originally Posted by Grofica

i thought they only worked mon-fri... sweet i will give them a call.

we are only a 2 person household. I still think it should be a lot lower... we are not big energy users.

I guess i will try and call the energy company and see if they can come out or something. i thought when i bought the house the windows were the Low-e glass but i could be mistaken. i have blinds but no thermal shades. i think the windows might be the low-e maybe would i need both?

there just has to be a way to cut back on the bills.