Heat & Air Unit & High Electric Bill

[Heatin'A'intEzy]

A question for all you experts out there. We have a 13 year old heating unit. For the last two months, our heating bill has DOUBLED ( Dec, Jan). I nearly passed out when I received the bill. After the first extreme bill, we began to use power strips and turn off as much as possible to reduce the bill; We also lowered our thermostat and supplemented with propane heaters. However, the second bill was only about a $120 lower than the first crazy high one (about $700 for 2500 square feet). Another note to this never ending thread, our refrigerator compressor went out during the first month's bill and cycled on constantly for about five days. We did not know how this may affect the bills. Finally the question: How can we determine if it is no longer efficient and is the source of the high bills? Any ideas about this issue, what else could be causing this, would be very much appreciated (before we end up in the poor house just trying to pay our electric bill).

[Texas-Tech]

How many killowatts are you being charged for? Is your ele meter the same or have they installed a new meter?

[Mr Bill]

How many killowatts are you being charged for? Is your ele meter the same or have they installed a new meter?


And he said he switched from I guess HP to strips? How is that a money saver?

[SJProwler]

I nearly passed out when I received the bill. After the first extreme bill, we began to use power strips and turn off as much as possible to reduce the bill; We also lowered our thermostat and supplemented with propane heaters.

Resistance Strips are one of the most expensive ways to use electricity.


Another note to this never ending thread, our refrigerator compressor went out during the first month's bill and cycled on constantly for about five days.

Fix the fridge, turn the heat pump back on and then see what happens.

[egads]

Have you had this unit serviced?

[Heatin'A'intEzy]

Thanks for all the responses! To answer the questions:
The first bill we were charged for about 7000 KW. The second bill was a charge of about 5700 KW. The meter is the same one that we installed when we built the house. It is about 13 years old. The unit has not been serviced. Any advice on getting the unit checked out? Also, we did fix the fridge and the second bill was still almost double the other ones for the last twelve months. On average, we use about 3000 KW. Some months we use as low as 1700 KW. Anyone have any thoughts on a more energy efficient unit?

[snooked321]

Have a maintenance done on it. You will then know if it is the culprit or not.

[pwg11386]

It would help if you would say what kind of heating system you have. I'm assuming that is either a Heat Pump with electric strip backup heat, or it is a simple electric furnace. You mentioned "power strips" but I suppose you could have been referring to a strip of 120 recepticles.

[jerryd_2008]

Thanks for all the responses! To answer the questions:
The first bill we were charged for about 7000 KW. The second bill was a charge of about 5700 KW. The meter is the same one that we installed when we built the house. It is about 13 years old. The unit has not been serviced. Any advice on getting the unit checked out? Also, we did fix the fridge and the second bill was still almost double the other ones for the last twelve months. On average, we use about 3000 KW. Some months we use as low as 1700 KW. Anyone have any thoughts on a more energy efficient unit?

YIKES!!! I have a larger home and my TOTAL ELECTRIC USAGE for 12 months for our home in 2009 was 7200 kWh and that includes AC. With a new 4-ton DFHP our total house electric usage for the December 2010 and January 2011 was 1559 kWh. IMO you need to have that unit checked. :eek2:

I am no pro but IMO a fridge wouldn't generate that kind of usage.

[jeff520]

I just retired a 17 cu ft refrigerator that used 160Watts when running and replaced it with a 25 cu ft LG model with a linear compressor that uses between 40 and 120 Watts when running.

Anybody know how a linear compressor works? Seems to be very efficient.

[just_opinion]

A question for all you experts out there. We have a 13 year old heating unit. For the last two months, our heating bill has DOUBLED ( Dec, Jan). I nearly passed out when I received the bill. After the first extreme bill, we began to use power strips and turn off as much as possible to reduce the bill; We also lowered our thermostat and supplemented with propane heaters. However, the second bill was only about a $120 lower than the first crazy high one (about $700 for 2500 square feet). Another note to this never ending thread, our refrigerator compressor went out during the first month's bill and cycled on constantly for about five days. We did not know how this may affect the bills. Finally the question: How can we determine if it is no longer efficient and is the source of the high bills? Any ideas about this issue, what else could be causing this, would be very much appreciated (before we end up in the poor house just trying to pay our electric bill).

Did you call a technician out to check your system BEFORE you check this site for 2nd opinion ??