Help with electric bill savings needed, what is wrong?

Question

Just moved to a newer home recently with one instead of two water heaters and a/c units, no pool, smaller sq. footage, and sold last house becuz of PG&E bill that was not manageable. NOW this house is JUST as large a bill! We are frantic. Any clues here to help us? We seldom run the A/C and never below 80.

Answer 1

You should compare the KWH comsumed instead of the payment amount. If you just comparing the payment from the 1st bill at the new place, you might include some non-recurring items - the deposit, etc. Sometimes the first bill may include more than 30 days in the reading because of the partial months, etc. Check the billing cycle included in the bill. Also, is this an actual reading or an estimate? If you can access the meter, go read the meter yourself and see if the number on the bill matches. There can be human error (get the wrong reading, it happens). Some companies do not read the meters monthly (to cut operating cost) and if the previous owner of the house had a high elcectric bill, they would think you do, too until they do the actual reading next time.

All the suggestions from others are good too.

Answer 2

Appliances that are not in use... don't just turn them off, unplug them, or get a power bar that you can shut off. Most people don't realize that even if an appliance is turned off but plugged in, it's using power. Computers, radios, tvs, dvd players, etc... either unplug them when not using or flick the switch off on the power bar.

Answer 3

Invest in energy efficient appliances.

Unplug any electrical devices you aren't using.

Use solar powered flood lights to light up the outside of your house.Keep the porch light off and use the solar powered flood lights.These can be purchased at Lowes or Home Depot or even online.

Front loader washers save water and energy.Invest in a front loading washer. Just invest in energy efficient appliances period.

Invest in a touch lamp.They run on batteries and you can carry it or them in all the rooms you are using.Look online.

Or you can buy that Energizer room illuminator or the battery operated lantern.These can be purchased at Target or Walmart and.

Answer 4

Well make sure your equipment is up to date, and try and buy things with the energy star. Turn off lights and by turning the AC down by one degree you could save A LOT of energy. www.agreenfuture.piczo.com

Answer 5

One water heater? and a big tank type? Well. get this. we find we can get along with our one 10 gallon water heater turned off most of the time. We turn it on to take a bath once a week. But we do use a solar water heater all summer. We find that a 2 gallon heater does all we need in the bathroom and laundry.

But  by any chance did your price /kWh  rise a lot?

Try looking at the number of kWh used to see if it is higher.

There are monitors that tell you what your current consumption is, and so allow you to track down where it is going. A neighbor discovered a 2 kW heater had been left on in the garage, turned up high with the window left open.

If your kW consumption is high you have to track it down.

If it really is not true (your monitor shows you are not using power but your meter is spinning like crazy, then it is a meter fault.

Answer 6

Call PG & E and see whether they will make payment arrangements.  Also, ask whether they will come out and do an energy audit.  We live in SDG&E territory and their energy audit of our home a few years ago made a huge difference on our electric bill after instituting their suggestions.  Another idea, check out your specific appliances, etc. on the cost estimator here:

http://energyaudit-sdge.sempra.com/appca...

You can put in the information specific to what you have and determine the operating costs.

One other tip.  Make sure to turn off vampire electronics.  We found we had a lot more of them than we even thought and it did make a difference on our bill.

Answer 7

I would call them like others have said first thing. Then change your light bulbs,appliances etc...

One thing I just did is tinted our windows, that made a HUGE difference and it is something you can do yourself :)  

Answer 8

That is strange.  I would call the electric company and tell them this.  You shouldn't be paying the same and using less electricity.  Ask them to send someone out to check if your meter is working correctly.  I had something strange happen once.  We moved into an apartment and the electric was still under the previous person's name and our bill was $112, when we finally got it switched over to our name it was $55 a month, weird.

Answer 9

The first thing that I would do is to turn off, unplug everything in the house, and then check to see i the meter is still running,

This will show you if you have a power leak in your wiring.

The least expensive way to lower your power bill is to start off installing CFL light bulbs, I lowered my bill $10 the first month, in a small one bedroom.

And then as you can afford, start replacing appliances, with energy efficient ones, and you can get rebates on these from PG&E, This link will give you information on rebate available from Pg&e, it also has an Energy Analyzer to help show you where you can make adjustments.

http://www.pge.com/rebates/

Answer 10

well there's always the usual, turn off the lights when your not there, etc

my sister used to run her stereo, computer, and tv twenty four seven but when she went away to college our electric bill dropped by 40 dollars

Answer 11

How old are your appliances?  Old refrigerators, freezers, and dryers use a lot more electricity than the new models.