600+ electricity bill - What do I do now?

electric fireplace 600 square feet image

Eliza

We have lived in our house for a year and a half now and have had no problem with our monthly utility bills. Every month we have approximately the same bill, going up slightly in the colder months (100-200 per month depending). Last month we received a bill for almost 300 dollars but decided it must have just been very cold that month. However, a few days ago we received our electric bill for November - 593.00.

I assumed this must be a mistake; a faulty reading, a computer error, something! When I called Appalachian Power to find out what was happening they instructed me to go out and check the meter. So I wandered out into the snow in my slippers and finally found the little gray meter box and read her the number on the front. She was silent for a few seconds and then said..."yes, that's the reading we have as well"..Needless to say our house was pulling enough electricity to run a small factory.
She told me that if the current usage patterns continued our bill for december would be over $1,000.

She instructed me to turn off the breakers to the heat pump because this was usually the culprit for such a large amount of useless wattage. I finally located the correct breakers and heard the fan stop running. An hour later I checked the meter again and the usage had gone down to a fairly normal (but still more than i would have expected without heat) rate.

A few days before this fiasco I had called our Landlord (Chris) to explain/complain to him that the heater would not heat the house over 64 degrees. He brought us some gas for the fireplace to keep it warm in the living room but didn't bother to check the heat pump as "Heat pumps can have a hard time in the cold weather".

So I called him after discovering the heat pump was using ~1000 dollars a month to attempt to warm a 1000 square foot space to over 64 degrees and he "explained" to me that it must be something else and that his electric bill had also doubled this month.
He then reluctantly came down to the house and brought us a brand new filter! However, upon turning the breakers to the heater back on and watching the meter, it was still pulling almost a kilowatt a minute (a LOT). Needless to say, I turned the power to the heat back off.
When I called back our thoughtful landlord had left for vacation with his girlfriend.

Here I am, two days later, sitting next to the gas fire huddled up with my 1 year old daughter trying to keep her warm.

The power company agreed to send someone out to do an 'energy audit' and check the meter again sometime next week. until then, I am stuck either footing 1000 dollar bill from the power company or not moving away from this fireplace ever again.

What would you do?

Answer
I agree with several answers here that the Heat Pump is not going to help as well at temperatures below 32 degrees. And here's why, the heat pump is only capable of raising the temperature around 40 degrees above the outside temperature. At that point the heat strips kick in to assist. the heat strips are what is causing the high electric bills. given that, you may also have a low Freon level in your heat pump. that will reduce the design temperature difference from 40 degrees to something significantly less. Possibly only 10 degrees which means the heat strips may be coming on when the outside temp is only 60 degrees instead of 32 degrees.

Other items that will help if the Freon is at the correct level:
1) change those filters
2) Clean the condenser coils
3) make sure there is no air flow blockage to the return vents

The best thing to do right now is to get the landlord to call an experienced HVAC service company to check it out.

Fireplace and it's cooling effect in a small suite.?

Joel

So, here's the thing;
I'm looking to rent a basement suite with a fire place. It's small, brick, and leads straight to the chimney - nothing fancy. I have heard that a fire place can cool the rest of a house by drawing colder air in through drafts. Firstly, does this still hold true for a suite that is sufficiently small enough? Say 400 Square feet? 600? 800? I figure that a large house may have a bigger draft problem then say, one single small "hermit cabin in the woods" kind of room. Can anyone confirm?

Second, is there anything I can do that that would make the fireplace house heating friendly? I am renting, and not owning the place, so I can't do anything particularly permanent or invasive. Please note that winters around here can range from -20 to -30, with cold snaps of -40 degrees Celsius.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

Answer
The basement part of the equation is the deal breaker in this situation. A buildings air stack effect will naturally push hot air up and out of the building through the path of least resistance. This force of heated air rising will keep the upper apartments nice and toasty. But you are in the basement where the whole building is trying to suck in cold air to replace the heated air volume going out the top floors. You will be hard pressed to get that apartment tight enough to stop that natural flow.

The more you use the fireplace the more you will be inviting draft down the chimney past the damper. You will likely even have trouble getting the fireplace smoke to draft well out the chimney if the stack effect is strong. Basement fireplace dampers are usually the path of least resistance for air to enter a building. That is why in weatherization work we plug the fireplace flues with a chimney balloon and work on getting an alternative heat source for the occupant.

You will be better served relying on furnace heat. If you have no furnace venting to your apartment then go with electric / ceramic heaters and zone heat for a short term solution. If you are low income you can ask for the county weatherization energy auditor to review the apartment and make corrections for energy efficient heat. If they have to reroute ducts and returns for you they will at little or no cost.

Powered by Yahoo! Answers

Title Post: 600+ electricity bill - What do I do now?
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: Unknown

Thank FOr Coming TO My Blog