I'm up about $90 too

u have electric heat? it's been cold out on these streets.

I'm guessing that you have a heat pump or some other form of electric heat, and this bill may cover the days when the artic blast hit before Christmas. When it gets that cold out, heat pumps will struggle to keep the temperature up, and will kick on the Emergency/Aux Electric Resistant Heat, and depending on the size of that E/Aux heat, it can consume a massive amount of power. I should be getting my bill any day now that covers that time, and I'm not looking forward to it...

Yup mine doubled. 300ish dollars

Mine was 583 dollars for an 1800 sf house

mine was 300 exact and i had my aux set to 68 - 1250sqf house

Glad I’m not the only one. I have 1800 sq ft and it was a bit more than that. I usually have it on 70

Mine definitely doubled. Fucking bananas

I’m not upvoting this because I like anything about it, just because I can relate to the cost (mine is primarily spent on home heating oil though).

Our electric bill doubled as well

My last electric bill was $65. We won't discuss the natural gas bill.

$254 checking in.

319 this month

We jumped from 160 to 250 to 450 this month…

Last month was rough. My usage was about triple November per my bill.

Invest in a smart thermostat that can report if your emergency heat is kicking on (like an ecobee). Used that report to have my HVAC serviced and part replaced to correct an issue with it when I had no idea it was kicking on for such long times.

My ecobee has saved me about 23%+ comparing alike-external temp times with last year on monthly reporting.

Also get it linked to beestat for best reporting.

We have electric heat and after our December bill ($333) we lowered the heat from 68 to 60. Insulated all our windows and did everything we could to keep the heat in. We saved a whopping $8. The bill we got yesterday was $325, which was shocking because we feel like it hasn’t been warm in our house and the heat isn’t even blowing that much, but the usage on those really cold arctic blast days was crazy high. 2 bedroom, less than 1000 sq feet, but we do have an attic that has insulation falling out of it. I have no solution to it, just commiserating with all who have high electric bills.

499 yay

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I replaced heating parts 1-2 years ago. So, it's not that.

I'm hoping it just spiked from the arctic blast and this is not the new norm

Alright those of you who moved from Buffalo, what do people in even colder climates do? I doubt someone in Buffalo just accepts the fact that their electric/power bill is 300-600 November-April?

Do they have different heating systems?

This bill is the highest I have ever gotten in the 5+ years I have lived in my house. So, it's not 'it's winter'. I keep my thermostat at 68 and still got high bill.

I got that warning back when it got really cold in December. Figured it was because it was really cold and that it was normal. Will keep an eye on next bill to be sure.

$120 but my gas bill is another story!

My heat bill was up a lot this past month too. I have two heat pumps, one for upstairs one for down. Definitely an expensive month..

In Philly we had a furnace that got oil deliveries usually once a season. Big ass behemoth in the basement. Used to scare me as a kid. For cooling we had window/wall AC units because central air wasn't very common with old brick rowhomes.

In colder places people typically have oil or gas heat, which (at least in my experience) works out to be cheaper. In New England my highest winter heating bill over the past 4 years was around $230, whereas my electric for last month here was nearly $350 for about the same square footage; I'm even keeping it colder here than I was up north.

Make sure you compare month to month KWH usage. You may have electric heat and used a lot in December during the cold snap.

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Auxiliary or emergency heat is typically a setting in your thermostat. You can raise that threshold, so it won’t kick on or will kick on at a better temperature for your preference. All thermostats should have this if digital. Had to mess with this a lot when installing these due to high bill complaints.

I switched over to eco bee. Love it. I discovered during the artic blast my AUX was set at 35 degrees. I quickly changed that to 25 but at least it gave me a screen notification that AUX had been running. The reports are enlightening and if you connect it with Dominion, they reward you. Got a check for $35 from them a few weeks ago for letting them change my thermostat during peak times.

Because heat pumps don’t work when we had temps like we had at Christmas? My daily usage that day was 3x what it usually is this time of hmyear. That day it never got out of the twenties and was in the teens.

Please get an energy audit, that’s wild.

Sign up for their Budget billing and never have to worry about this again.

1400 sq ft, $300ish checking in here as well.

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Mine has steadily doubled over the last 2 months. Know it’s been cold but wasn’t prepared for a $200 bill.

Houses are better insulated. My MIL lives in upstate NY. Went to visit her last month. She lives in an old 2 br and I was expecting it to be drafty as hell but she’s got triple-glazed windows and something like R9000 batting in the walls.

Doubled at our house too!

Thank god for this thread. We moved over the summer, our new house is 2600 and has two old heat pumps, one for each story. I got a $350 bill and was terrified that was our new normal because of the age of the house or condition of the heat pumps. At least if it’s hitting that hard elsewhere too I know it WAS an outlier and I’m not gonna lose my ass on heating bills.

$60 to $145

$70 to $180 😮‍💨

I use 4 remote temp sensors in my home and found huge savings switching home mode (just downstairs temp control) and sleep mode (just my upstairs) in both heating and cooling.

The way it averages out temps when multiple remote temp sensors are used keeps my home the most even temp as well.

I also found out the thermostat was installed way way too close to the intake for my HVAC system. Just using a remote temp sensors saved a ton of overwork it was doing and short cycling that saved tons of $$$

Oil prices have gone up about 45% since last year. It's definitely not cheaper anymore

a technical quibble - most heat pumps won't work, but a hyperheat inverter type will go to -5.

That said, you know if you have such a thing, and for 98% of the people out there you are correct

I have not dealt with ecobee, but have heard many good things about it. Much better than the Nest by all reports

is normal below say 30 depending on variables

installation near the intake/return is generally considered good. But more sensors better

often yeah they pay that, they either accept it or move.

we moved south

you get the most random downvotes lately, you seem to have really pissed off the lunatic left still from that last bit

You are correct. My home design however has a large (oversized for the home actually) system and the intake is in a small hallway near the front door (small amount of total air volume in that space).

When the system is on it pulls all the either heat or cold into that smaller hallway space which makes the thermostat on the wall miss read the rest of the house. Example. Temp gets push up or push down much more then the remaining of the house. This causes short cycling of the system as the air settles and the temp differential quickly changes. Kicking the system back on when it’s not needed for the rest of the home.

interesting, it usually avoids that issue. But if your system is oversized that would be a complete issue.

You might be able to adjust airflow down a bit. Just don't go too far or the coils will freeze

$220 for us, typically $120 - $150. 1600 sqft two stories, 68-71f depending on time of day.

True as well, my home has a giant 22 foot by ~18 foot window in it which makes it “unique” for hvac operations. Solar heating and cooling. Some drafting although the window is double sealed (a new window interior to it as it’s original steel and iron framed window from 1913, with all the original glass).

Looks great though and fills the home with a lot of light.

Our bill also went up but luckily we went solar last year and that has cut our usage down by over 65% and I am really thankful we did.

We have our account on a budget plan so it is the same amount all year long. It gets adjusted every six months up or down. Same for gas. It makes it easier to have a monthly expense budget.

Part of the problem can be they were estimating your usage and did an actual meter reading. It should show on your bill either way. You can also request a reread. If you had a smart meter installed this is what seems to happen. The older meters were not operating accurately in some instances.

No smart meter. Just plain old meter that I've always had

Surely not many people can afford that, right? I mean, yes, there are some people who make good money, but you can't tell me someone who's making slightly more than minimum wage can afford a $500 electricity bill in addition to all other expenses?

I mean, we only had about 8 really cold days back go back and everyone's bill went from $75-$100 on average to about $300-400. Now imagine what would happen if we had those same cold days for 27 out of 30 days? That same bill would be $1,200.

It really eats up people's free income. It's one of the big reasons people move south. Thousands of dollars every winter

ah, one of those. You can model that. Though they make life interesting. Usually more 70s houses have that

170 in a 100 year old attached rowhouse. Temp is between 65-68. About r38 I’m the attic with a lot of expansion foam to seal air gaps in the unfinished basement, ceiling, and wall penetrations.

16 year old 10 seer heat pump that’s properly charged and maintained. I use my ecobee to lockout my heat strips, upgraded to a demand defrost board, and monitor performance with beestat. My heat pump will maintain temp until the low teens.

$412 which just seems crazy.

My cousin in IL says his per kwh charge went from 4.3 to 12.1 cents. In my Roanoke apartment, my usual $40 a month electric went to $96. That was paid the beginning of January, it did not include the xmas arctic blast. (I dropped in here bc I may be moving.)