The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Sully]

Just got my power bill for our 2 bedroom 1000 sqft apartment. It's saying we used 2500kwh between the middle of December and the middle of January. I know there are many factors to consider but that seems extremely high. Our bill has seemed high since we moved in usually about 1200-1500kwh. Most of our light bulbs are led and we don't leave lights on all the time. Our water heater and heat/ac are both electric though but is it just me or does this seem high. We have had some really cold nights and the apartment isn't insulated worth a damn but still seems high. It's a apartment building run by a leasing company built in like the 90's so not some 100 year old building either. Thinking of contacting them to see if I can get some comparisons before contacting the power company. (we literally don't know or talk to any of our neighbors, it's a weird building)

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[Apoc]

We use 1500 kWh for roughly 1500 (heated) sqft, but our heating is oil and there's a bit of Christmas stuff in there. 2500 seems high, but hasn't it been cold as shit there? If insulation is crap, I don't think it's a stretch.

[.RJ]

I'm assuming you have a heat pump, and those things dont work worth a shit below freezing

[WRXtranceformed]

That seems high but not surprising if your heating is electric during a cold spell like we've had.  Especially if your apartment is not energy efficient.  What temperature do you leave your heat on during the day and night?  Like someone said here once it gets real cold, heat pumps usually can't keep up.

We just have electric AC, natural gas heating but our home is Energy Star certified.  I just checked our usage history and for 3200 sq ft during the hottest months of the summer we ranged between 1500-1900kwh but are normally in the 650-900 range for most of the year.  Gas is cheap so our total energy bills are lower in the winter.  Something may be wrong with your heat pump or you may be taxing it too hard for the temps.  

If your place is drafty you can feel it, especially around the windows. Check to see how leaky your place is and there is temporary stuff you can do to seal it up

[ViPER1313]

If you have an air source heat pump, that is not far out of line. I have a 1500sf house (not counting the unheated basement) built in 78 with so-so insulation and a couple windows in need of replacement and my heat pump can burn 100kwh a day when the temps go down below 10 degrees (I keep my house at 72 though because fuck being cold). It’s not a linear usage.

[JPolen01]

That is definitely high for an apartment. I have a heat pump which ran pretty much 24/7 over the last two weeks of temperatures in the teens or single digits. We only used 1814kWh. Our bill was way higher than normal at $241 but was to be expected with the temperatures.

I would contact the utility company and ask them for historical data on your apartment/complex. You may also want to have them come out and make sure the meter is reading correctly. You can try having your complex have the maintenance people give the heat pump a once over - something could be malfunctioning.

[JustinG]

3100 sqft, electric everything, heat on 68, A/C on 72

Dec 16 - 1796
Jan 17 - 1947
Feb 17 - 1534
Mar 17 - 1450
Apr 17 - 992
May 17 - 1104
Jun 17 - 1304
Jul 17 - 1772
Aug 17 - 1638
Sep 17 - 1392
Oct 17 - 1265
Nov 17 - 1010
Dec 17 - 1795

Your apartment probably has a low # SEER unit and is horribly inefficient, cause Apartments.

You try budget billing? It's what we do, they look at past usage, avg it out, and charge you that every month. Then you get the same bill every month and no guess work. They evaluate annually to make adjustments if needed.

[ScottyB]

what everyone else said. we're all electric heat here, and my 1900sq/ft house has pretty weak insulation despite being 10 yrs old. when it snapped down to 17 degrees overnight here a few days ago our heat pump couldn't keep the house above 66 degrees at night even with auxilliary heat engaged. we keep the house at 68 this time of year, which helps. if we dropped down to 10 or less i wonder how cold our house would have gotten.

check your door seals, keep your blinds closed (air barrier) and shut vents/doors to rooms you aren't using and direct as much heat as you can to where you really spend your time so you don't need to run it as much. Try keeping your place at 70 or below if you can deal with it.

are you a lower or upper floor apt? this time of year if you're low in the building you're sending half your heat up to your neighbor's floor no matter what you do. been there done that.

[Sully]

We keep it set around 69. There are definitely drafts. You can see daylight through the front door weatherseal. I've already complained and they said they added more weatherstripping but it didn't do anything. I was looking at those winter window shrink-wrap kits. They're cheap but I mean you can literally chill drinks against any of the exterior walls so not sure how much they'd help.

I actually paid attention last night and it seems like it ran constant through the night. I still don't see that adding 1000kwh. We had cold days in November and early December that should have been on the last Bell like bill. There's no way the apartment will do anything about it unless the unit just completely craps out. Our fridge runs quite a bit too but once again don't see that doing it. My dad's 2200 sqft house has like 3 fridges and the heat upstairs is an electric heat pump and he and 17 year old broken down windows and he doesn't use that much. I know it's comparing apples to oranges with all the variables

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[WRXtranceformed]

Yeah if you can feel air coming through your door and windows, get some kind of foam "stop" that you can put on the inside at the floor. It's not the permanent or correct fix, but you're just renting the place so you don't need to burn up a lot of cash on it. If you can still see daylight around the sides of the door they need to come back out and fix that. You lose 70-80% of the energy in your home through your windows, and I promise yours are trash, so you may want to look into those window sealing kits or at the very least check the caulking around the edges and see if the property mgmt company needs to come and redo it. Since you're renting you obviously aren't going to replace the windows so you'll have to deal with uninsulated panes and frames.

I should add that we also like to sleep really cold so in the summer we crank the AC down to like 66 or 67 at night and keep it around 70-72 during the day. Most recommendations are that you never drop the thermostat below like 75 in the summer for maximum energy efficiency but that's crazy talk. If we did that, I don't think we'd ever break 1500kwh

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I'll add that I helped two friends start an energy efficient window and siding company here in Charlotte years ago. As another note on the windows, for most of our big home installations people were seeing upwards of $400-500/mo heating bills before the swap and then overnight after the installation their energy costs would drop by 50-60%. Granted these were really high end windows but if you own a home and you still have old wood windows or even 90s-early 2000s vinyls, there is a cost savings that nets out the cost of the windows (which are not cheap) if you live in the home for a long time.

[JPolen01]

I would still complain to the management office. If their equipment is not running efficiently they should repair it so it does so. Both for the sake of your bill and in hopes of preserving their equipment. Routine maintenance is a lot cheaper than replacing an entire heat pump.

We keep it at 69 in the winter and 72 in the summer. Programmable thermostat so that the house drops to 65 during the day and warms up gradually a couple of hours before we get home. Same thing in the summer - swing up to 78 during the day and back down to 72 before we get home.

[ViPER1313]

I would still complain to the management office. If their equipment is not running efficiently they should repair it so it does so. Both for the sake of your bill and in hopes of preserving their equipment. Routine maintenance is a lot cheaper than replacing an entire heat pump.

We keep it at 69 in the winter and 72 in the summer. Programmable thermostat so that the house drops to 65 during the day and warms up gradually a couple of hours before we get home. Same thing in the summer - swing up to 78 during the day and back down to 72 before we get home.

Using a programmable thermostat is tricky with a heat pump in the winter. You may force it to use the aux coils to warm back up, which is serious money. If you set it back, only set it back 1 or 2 degrees.

Also quit your bitching (keep in mind, this is also for a family of 4, I work from home all day, kids generate tons of laundry, and I keep my house warm.)

[JPolen01]

Using a programmable thermostat is tricky with a heat pump in the winter. You may force it to use the aux coils to warm back up, which is serious money. If you set it back, only set it back 1 or 2 degrees.

Very true. I have it set to increase in 2 degree increments back to the desired temperature so that it does not force aux/emergency heat to kick on.

[WRXtranceformed]

I would still complain to the management office. If their equipment is not running efficiently they should repair it so it does so. Both for the sake of your bill and in hopes of preserving their equipment. Routine maintenance is a lot cheaper than replacing an entire heat pump.

We keep it at 69 in the winter and 72 in the summer. Programmable thermostat so that the house drops to 65 during the day and warms up gradually a couple of hours before we get home. Same thing in the summer - swing up to 78 during the day and back down to 72 before we get home.

Using a programmable thermostat is tricky with a heat pump in the winter. You may force it to use the aux coils to warm back up, which is serious money. If you set it back, only set it back 1 or 2 degrees.

Also quit your bitching (keep in mind, this is also for a family of 4, I work from home all day, kids generate tons of laundry, and I keep my house warm.)

Wow that is massive usage.  If you plan to be there a while, some energy efficiency upgrades (especially windows) may actually pay off pretty well for you

[ViPER1313]

House is pretty well sealed with the exception of my rear slider and 2 windows upstairs, which have plastic over them in the winter. Other windows are Atrium 2 pane and some door to door brand of triple pane window the previous owner had installed. Heat pump is a 2013 15 SEER unit.

Call me when you work from home and have 2 kids.

Edit: another big draw for me is working in the garage in the winter. I run 2x 1500w space heaters out there. That costs a pretty penny.

[WRXtranceformed]

Call me when you work from home and have 2 kids.

Edit: another big draw for me is working in the garage in the winter. I run 2x 1500w space heaters out there. That costs a pretty penny.

I WFH and wife is here all day.  We don't have "away" settings programmed on our t-stat.  I doubt kids will change things much with our energy usage, we already have 3 people living here (wife's sister has lived with us for a few years) but when a newborn comes she probably won't still be here.

Pheww the space heaters will do it though haha.  Is your garage insulated? (ours is and it's awesome)

[D_Eclipse9916]

Call me when you work from home and have 2 kids.

Edit: another big draw for me is working in the garage in the winter. I run 2x 1500w space heaters out there. That costs a pretty penny.

I doubt kids will change things much with our energy usage,

HA...hahahahaah.

I am not sure our Laundry Machine ever actually isn't running....

[Apoc]

+1 for a baby consuming more electricity than a third adult

In addition to somehow tripling the amount of laundry we do, my kid also sleeps better when his bedroom is 78-80°. I like it really cool at night, so we use a fire safe space heater in his room. Don't forget being awake every two hours when your house would normally be in sleep mode!

[JPolen01]

In addition to somehow tripling the amount of laundry we do, my kid also sleeps better when his bedroom is 78-80°. 

I'm just curious as to how to how you determined this. I'm imagining a science fair-esque tri-fold board of sleeping times and room temperature on a line graph.

[JustinG]

Grumpy old man status....

Not sure my kid knows a light switch has an off position.

And, allllll the laundry. It gets better as they age, but still, laundry for days.