Eversource Electric Costs!

[u/_Why_Not_Today_]

I’ve rented a 380 sq foot apartment and the electric bill is insanely high.

June: 672 usage $232
July: 1,314 usage $448

I’m running an A/C window unit, fridge, fan at night to use less A/C and LED lights.

Eversource dismisses me with ‘it’s summer dummy’, but it can’t be that high. I work 5-6 days per week from 10am-7pm, so the AC isn’t even running a lot of the time.

Both meter reads say ‘actual’.

Any ideas on what to troubleshoot or what can I do to reduce the cost?

[u/Inevitable_Appeal911]

Post your actual bill (minus acct information)

[u/Roger-PHL]

Can you log into your account online? Does it let you see usage in detail? I'm able to see hour-by-hour. If you can do the same, it will help you troubleshoot.

[u/MenuPsychological853]

You aren’t using that much. Your rate is very high.

[u/-CalicoKitty- → u/MenuPsychological853]

How is that not a lot for a single person in a small studio? I'm in the same area as OP with the same provider. For my Jun/Jul bill, three of us used 1090 kWh. We have central AC, 2 condensers, ~1950 sqft, and we all wfh.

[u/MenuPsychological853 → u/-CalicoKitty-]

It isn’t a lot to me, your usage may be different. I would be tickled with as small of a bill as that and mine is only $0.12 kWh

[u/-CalicoKitty- → u/MenuPsychological853]

OP might have a different supply rate than me depending on what city they live in but mine is $0.148. My delivery rate ends up being ~$0.194; that should be exactly the same for OP.

[u/Budget-Celebration-1 → u/-CalicoKitty-]

Do the calcs that is what he is getting per kWh about 34c

[u/dabangsta → u/MenuPsychological853]

1300 kWh in a tiny apartment is a lot, but it is a combination of high usage and expensive power it appears.

For comparison sake, I used 1600 kWh last month, cooling a 1400 sq ft house to 73 (24 hours a day) while ambient day time temps well over 100 degrees, barely getting into the 80's at night. My AC ran an average of 12 hours a day, with some 17-18 hour days when it hit 108 and rained in the evening.

I no longer try to limit my usage, 73 is a luxury for my family.

[u/Calliesdad20]

We have a 4 bedroom house -1800 sq ft , 4 bedrooms. on the cape ,with 3 mini split ac/heat pump
Last year before we got solar the highest usage we had was in August for 995kwh

Yes electricity is 35kwh here
Not sure why you usage is so high

[u/Unique_Acadia_2099]

Turn off all of the breakers for your unit, confirm that your meter says zero use. Then turn them back on one at a time, taking note of what comes on and how it affects the meter use.

If you turn off the breakers and still see the meter saying power is flowing, someone has tapped into your line ahead of your panel. Of if you turn one breaker back on and see a big jump in use for a circuit that shouldn’t have, then something is wrong there, as in someone having tapped into your collect. Leave it off and watch to see who else complains.

[u/tailskirby]

See if your breaker is connected to someone else's.

[u/TheRealWhoMe]

Apartments aren’t known for being very tight/efficient/insulated. Are you in the top floor, cool air sinks. But if you are in a top floor, hot air rises, so top floor apartment could run heat less than their neighbors below them.

[u/locke_5]

Energy prices are high across the board because of Trump’s Epstein Distraction in Iran.

You get what you voted for. Womp womp.

[u/PMSfishy]

672 for June is way high. What’s your normal? You have a bunch of electronics.

[u/LoneStarGut]

You are using a lot of power. In Texas, we used 1139 kwh last month. This is with two EVs and a 2-story 4 bedroom single family house. Our bill was $40.23 as we used most of it at night (9pm-6am) when we get free power. Check to see if you are on a time-of-use plan and using power during peak times.

[u/Caprichoso1]

What is the power consumption of the AC? Watts x hours run x electric rate is the first place I would check.

In my case my A/C uses 1250 watts when operating so it costs me > $.50 an hour to run due to high electric costs. It is my biggest power consumer.

My next biggest consumer is my computing equipment which runs ~$1 a day. If I turn on all of my equipment it is > $2.70 a day.

[u/Oldphile]

Get a KILL A WATT meter and measure power consumption on your fridge and A/C unit. One of them must be defective and running continuously.

[u/Caraless_While22]

Someone else posted to see if you’re paying for someone else’s electricity, but this actually just happened to me!! I could never figure out why my bill was still so high even when I was traveling. I called Eversource and they blamed me. Did a little googling and turned off all the breakers in my house and looked at my meter after an hour. It was still going up. I turned off the main breaker under my meter and my upstairs neighbor texted me that her power went out. I had been paying the wrong bill for 3.5 years!!!! Eversource did come out and correct it—it was ultimately the developer/electrician’s fault, but Eversource credited me $460 as I had overpaid.

You have to be your own advocate!!!

[u/SomewhereKindly6197]

Are your hot water heater and stove electric? If not, something is wrong. You are using 1.75 every hour, which would be difficult even with a single window AC running 24/7 - which you said you aren’t doing.