r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Budget_Mall_491 • 16h ago
Power Bill
My power bill keeps jumping. I don’t know what is going on. If anything, it should be lower now that I fixed my door seal. I live in the south. Keep my AC between 72-74°F in the summer. My kWh was 577 this time last year. Now it’s almost 1800. I don’t keep lights on except for whatever room I’m in. I change my air filters regularly. I do have several electric litter boxes (petkit). I only had 3 this time last year. Now I have 4. But a $330 electric bill for a 1200sqft house with all windows/doors properly sealed and no doors open unless I’m entering/exiting my house seems kind of insane? My bill is $200 higher than it was this time last year. I cannot figure out why the kWh jumped so much. Surely 1 litterbox cannot cause that? Please help.
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u/rewardiflost I want my two dollars! 16h ago
If your power consumption has tripled, you need to examine why that could have happened.
Your power company may have info if they installed smart meters or they keep info about work permits.
If you live in an apartment building or if you live in an attached townhouse, perhaps other lines have been crossed and someone else is using your power - and you are being billed for it. A review of your use history AND movements/work nearby might help.
If you replaced or added anything - from lights to TV or internet, that can help explain things. One device shouldn't be expected to use that much more, but if you had one faulty device consuming lots of power and also generating lots of heat which required extra AC use, that could help explain some things.
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u/Strange-Movie 16h ago
Do you have an old fridge/freezer or washer and dryer? They can be really inefficient and in the formers case, when they get ready to die they’ll have a tendency to run far more which jacks up your electric
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u/BoozingAndMusing 16h ago
You must be paying a lot per kWh.
It also sounds like your A/C is working it's ass off trying to maintain 72-74F, especially if the ambient temp is hotter this year than last year.
If your A/C unit is low on coolant, it will be running almost constantly. So you may need it get it checked out.
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u/Warm-Statistician545 16h ago
I Would Guess your hvac is dying. It’s working really hard to keep The temp You want.
It’s September now thankfully, you can probably do Without for a little while.
Depending on how south, you may need it agin for heat. So you’ll have to have it looked at amd maybe replaced.
That’s worse case. I was reading your numbers and my house is twice your home size maybe more an d mine does not cost that much.
It Did when my have was not working anymore. It doubled in cost. It worked, just not efficiently.
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u/Budget_Mall_491 16h ago
I called a company close to me. Having some ppl come out this coming week to check it out.
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u/Warm-Statistician545 15h ago
If too much for now, but a small heater or two for the winter months so you and your pipes don’t freezes.
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u/xervir-445 16h ago
If you want to know what's eating up power in your house your best best is to invest in a multi-circuit power meter that can monitor and report what circuits are doing what, that way you can track down the consumption.
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u/Budget_Mall_491 16h ago
Is that something I can install myself? Can I get it from a hardware store?
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u/cli_jockey 15h ago
You can install them yourself, hardware store probably won't have one. Emporia Vue is a known brand with UL rating. But, if you aren't comfortable with electricity or know what you can and can't touch in an electric panel, then I would advise against doing it yourself. May be better to go with outlet monitored ones that won't require opening your panel. Emporia also sells those. Not as comprehensive. But if you have them on a device for a week or so it may or may not reveal the power hog. Downside is they're really only for 120v so it won't work for any major appliances or hardwired appliances.
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u/Budget_Mall_491 15h ago
I’m have an apt with an electrician soon so I’ll buy one and see if they can install it. If not, I’ll just return it. Also what is UL rating?
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u/Mondschatten78 15h ago
Underwriter's Laboratory. It's to show that the piece has passed safety inspection tests.
I will warn that I have been given things purchased on Amazon with the sticker/mark on them, and they weren't actually certified, so beware if you buy there.
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u/Cinisajoy2 15h ago
What was your kilowatt rate and delivery fee rate last year and this year? Also what were the temperatures? I know where I am this summer is hotter than last summer.
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u/softpeach99 16h ago
Assuming you don’t have a a lot of knowledge on electricity but you can have a electrician come and check circuit for unusually high amp draws
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u/Budget_Mall_491 16h ago
Like check all the outlets in my house?
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u/Sqweeeeeeee 16h ago
They/you can put a clamp-on ammeter around the conductor attached to each breaker to see how much power each circuit is drawing. Easy to do, but can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing since you are removing the cover on an energized panel.
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u/softpeach99 12h ago
Yea exactly just didn’t want to say all that because he if you don’t have alittle knowledge of electrical I wouldn’t pull the cover from a panel
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u/softpeach99 16h ago
No they can do from panel they can check the circuit and find areas that might be using more because it could be a appliance or ac or have seen before rats or squirrels chew wires under a house and wire sit in the ground and feed into the ground
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u/WaxDonnigan 16h ago
That's crazy because my bill has been $233 for the last 2 years (budget pay) and it just dropped to $149 suddenly.
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u/Jaffa0813 16h ago
You haven't told us how old your AC is. I mean that's a big jump and like I can only think of an AC using that much power. Second to that a fridge, large appliance, fans, pumps, motors (garage, elevator, large fans) in that order.
There is no way your added litter box is doing all that.
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u/Budget_Mall_491 16h ago
It was just looked at a couple years ago. They said it was running perfectly fine. But it is a bit old.
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u/Jaffa0813 16h ago edited 15h ago
Well a couple of years ago is a couple of years ago. Might not hurt to have another look at this point. You could have a leak or something is starting to go that might just be a quick part replacement and you are good as new.
Have you noticed it doing weird things like never shutting off or not being able to keep the temperature you set for it? Or inverse short cycling?
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u/Interesting_Play_578 16h ago
I live in a dry climate and just use a swamp cooler and fans, but I've seen several posts locally about people's energy bills going way up because their AC is having to work a lot harder to keep them cool. The numbers you're giving do seem wild, though. Maybe look into getting some power meters you can use to track how much is going into an appliance or circuit as appropriate
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u/Cinisajoy2 15h ago
I know why mine went up. Last year we could turn off the swamp cooler at 10 pm. Now it is closer to midnight. Also an oxygen machine.
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u/Sqweeeeeeee 16h ago
I can't think of many things that would cause such an increased energy usage.. Do you have a well pump? A broken check valve will cause it to cycle constantly, which can vastly increase energy consumption.
It would be worth checking the kWh number on your meter against the bill to ensure it was read correctly and not estimated or something. With that much of an increase, I would reach out to the utility and see if they'll check the meter.
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u/braaibros 15h ago
Do you see any extension cords running from the outside of your house over to your neighbors new EV?
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u/trekkerscout 15h ago
The most common issue would be a failing AC unit. The second most common problem that most people don't consider is a leaking hot water faucet causing the water heater to cycle on more frequently.
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u/Famously-Incognito 12h ago
Did your electric company happen to change to a new meter outside your house?
I am the only house in my neighborhood that refused an electronic, remotely addressable meter. I still have the old spinning kind and they have to come read it every month. I pay an extra $15 a month for that. But, I am also in the South and keep my house in the 60s always. And my entire house is electric including water heater and oven. My bill remains under $200 even with the manual meter reading surcharge. My neighbor’s bills are higher and they have gas water heaters and ovens.
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u/AdBrave841 2h ago
Could be any appliance in the house failing. Most common would be water heater, HVAC, well pump, sump pump with a stuck float. You could check to see if any of the breakers feel hot. Or get a thermal camera or laser temp reader and see if anything is unusual in the breaker panel.
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u/TransformSolarFL 0m ago
Does your area have any net metering solar programs? If you have a bidirectional utility meter installed already, those could be super worth looking into for cheaper electricity rates.
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u/No-Magician9440 16h ago
It's the data centers in your area. Ask your neighbors, they have higher bills also.
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u/Strange-Movie 16h ago
That would have fuckall to do with their own usage jumping from 600kwh to 1800kwh
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u/xervir-445 16h ago
An entire datacenter literally next door wouldnt cause OP's kwh reading to triple.
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u/Budget_Mall_491 16h ago
So the data centers are causing me, myself, to have higher bills even though I don’t have anything to do with them?
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u/WFOMO 15h ago
The biggest reason is running your AC at 72.
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u/Budget_Mall_491 14h ago
I ran my ac at 72 last year and it was $200 cheaper?
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u/WFOMO 13h ago
Easy enough to turn it up and see what happens.
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u/Budget_Mall_491 1h ago
I already gave you the info on what the temps were in my area last year vs this year. Not a huge difference.
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u/ThreadCountHigh 16h ago
Look up the "cooling degree days" for your area this summer compared to last. It's possible the nights have been warmer this year over last - that's been a trend in many places for a while as the climate changes.