What am I doing wrong? (ski resort, appliances, credit)

[elflngchld]

Hey there! I am a new home owner (as of last April, yay!).

We had a new home built in the High Desert area of Phelan, CA. During the summer, we used our "energy efficient" A/C unit at about 75-80 degrees, and our bill skyrocketed to $800 for the month! During most of the year, we tend to be between 200-350, but then we ran our heater this past winter at about 60-65, and our bill went to $1000 for January alone!

All our windows are double paned, we used portable fans in the rooms during the summer, and kept two of our rooms closed and shut up during both winter and summer (with vents closed to those rooms). Our house is all electric (no gas lines out here) and all of our appliances are Energy Star appliances.

I don't get it! I even had SCE do recounts on our electricity usage and they told us that the counts were right!

SCE told me that "people around here don't use heaters." .... so how do you keep your house warm??

What am I doing wrong? How can I keep my house cool during the summer and warm during the winter (it gets down into the 20s during the winter, particularly at night, and we had snow about three times this year).

HELP!

[EscapeCalifornia]

Ouch. There's no extension cords running to the neighbors, are there?

All I can say is to adjust your thermostat. I have family in Texas and they run their AC around 80-82 in the summer and use ceiling fans in every room. For the winter, what do you run the heat at overnight? 60-65 sounds OK for waking hours but too high for night. I set mine at 50 at night when we're asleep and often gets down into the low 50's in the bedroom but we have a nice silk comforter so we don't feel it.

What direction does your house face? Can you take advantage of the sun during the day in the winter?

Some additional thoughts: You might want to look into a swamp cooler. They're a lot cheaper to run than traditional AC. Also, a whole house fan might help you use less AC in the spring and fall when its warm in the day but cooler at night.

[da jammer]

Go up into your attic area and check out the insulation. Often the builders will put in the bare minimum to cover code. If you have a two story be sure your garage walls and door(s) are insulated. The garage can become an over in the summer and a freezer in the winter and if it is uninsulated (many builders do not insulate these walls) any rooms above will take a beating. The last house we had lived in for two years before we realized one wall in the guest bedroom has NO insulation installed!! How it passed inspection is beyond me. Anyhoo we tore our the drywall and corrected the situation.

In addition you may want to inquire about a level pay plan with your electric company so you can have a predictable bill each month.

[elflngchld]

Thanks Escape California for getting back to me!

No extension cords . We actually don't even have neighbors and are the only house on our side of the street - there's a ranch down the way on the other side though.

Our house faces east and the backside faces west. We are installing ceiling fans before summer this year, so I hope that does help. Our house was getting down to 50 at night internally once we stopped running the heater at night, and that just made getting out of bed so hard! But we got used to it after that nasty bill.

During the winter, it was particularly bad because we are in a downdrift from this mountain ski resort.. yikes! You get lots of cold air coming in so even when it was sunny, it did not get warm.

We are thinking about getting a swamp cooler, but they all say that they only do up to 400 sq ft. Our whole house is pretty open (except the bedrooms) and one of the very big, open rooms is 419 sq ft all on its own, so I'm not sure if it would be cost efficient? Does anyone have experience with that?

Thank you for the input!

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Ouch. There's no extension cords running to the neighbors, are there?

All I can say is to adjust your thermostat. I have family in Texas and they run their AC around 80-82 in the summer and use ceiling fans in every room. For the winter, what do you run the heat at overnight? 60-65 sounds OK for waking hours but too high for night. I set mine at 50 at night when we're asleep and often gets down into the low 50's in the bedroom but we have a nice silk comforter so we don't feel it.

What direction does your house face? Can you take advantage of the sun during the day in the winter?

Some additional thoughts: You might want to look into a swamp cooler. They're a lot cheaper to run than traditional AC. Also, a whole house fan might help you use less AC in the spring and fall when its warm in the day but cooler at night.

[elflngchld]

Thanks for the response da jammer. However, we are a single story house, no garage, and no attic. We have an under-house crawl space, but that's all. The house does have insulation throughout.

I'll think about a pay-plan, but my interest is in reducing the amount of electricity used, not spreading the cost out throughout the year. Thanks

Originally Posted by da jammer

Go up into your attic area and check out the insulation. Often the builders will put in the bare minimum to cover code. If you have a two story be sure your garage walls and door(s) are insulated. The garage can become an over in the summer and a freezer in the winter and if it is uninsulated (many builders do not insulate these walls) any rooms above will take a beating. The last house we had lived in for two years before we realized one wall in the guest bedroom has NO insulation installed!! How it passed inspection is beyond me. Anyhoo we tore our the drywall and corrected the situation.

In addition you may want to inquire about a level pay plan with your electric company so you can have a predictable bill each month.

[bhcompy]

1) invest in solar.. i believe you can write off some of the cost

2) dont run the system 24/7.. turn it off when you goto bed and when you're leaving the house for an extended period of time. i know its not normal in california, but most houses in denver that ive seen have attic fans that pump the air out of the house(fairly quickly) and cool the house significantly without using too much energy(hot air rises, makes sense that a system to pump air from the ceiling out the top of the house would work well). you may want to consider looking into that for when you get home from work.

also, is your attic space/ceilings insulated?

ceiling fans work very well at a much lower use of energy as well. ive always liked casablancas as i feel they have a very good longterm durability when running the motors constantly.

[Niners fan]

You need a whole house swamp cooler, not a room one. And if you do get a room swamp cooler, it will not work unless it is drawing air in from the outside.

For the winter, you could get a wood burning stove. Where I live that is how most people heat their homes. There is talk of banning them on certain days, however, at below 4000' elevation.

[sheri257]

I don't live that far from you and, our bills never got that high ....

But, we just had a HUGE adjustment in our utility bill to the point that we haven't had to pay anything for four months.

I don't know what happened or why but, I got a bill showing adjustments going back to last summer ... stating that our account had been credited for various amounts over several months.

I didn't call the power company about it but, maybe this is what happening in your case. Some of kind of major error because ... your bills are way higher than ours were ... even before this adjustment.

[elflngchld]

Thanks for the response bhcompy!

However, we do not have an attic. Also, my problem is that I still need my house cool enough even when I am not there. I have three cats and three chinchillas (which overheat fairly easy and will die if they get too hot). All my pets are indoors only as we are out there in rural area and the cats would get eaten if they went out side.

Thanks for the tip on ceiling fans. I am definitely going to get a few!

Originally Posted by bhcompy

1) invest in solar.. i believe you can write off some of the cost

2) dont run the system 24/7.. turn it off when you goto bed and when you're leaving the house for an extended period of time. i know its not normal in california, but most houses in denver that ive seen have attic fans that pump the air out of the house(fairly quickly) and cool the house significantly without using too much energy(hot air rises, makes sense that a system to pump air from the ceiling out the top of the house would work well). you may want to consider looking into that for when you get home from work.

also, is your attic space/ceilings insulated?

ceiling fans work very well at a much lower use of energy as well. ive always liked casablancas as i feel they have a very good longterm durability when running the motors constantly.

[elflngchld]

THanks for the response Niners Fan!

We are just bout at 4000' elevation, and I have a wood burning fireplace, but an electric stove. I have been advised to use the fireplace more frequently and intend to do so next winter.

Does anyone know where I could get a whole house swamp cooler? I have been looking around casually so far but have not found any "big" ones like that.

Originally Posted by Niners fan

You need a whole house swamp cooler, not a room one. And if you do get a room swamp cooler, it will not work unless it is drawing air in from the outside.

For the winter, you could get a wood burning stove. Where I live that is how most people heat their homes. There is talk of banning them on certain days, however, at below 4000' elevation.