High electric bill

[JimPghPA]

You can clean the dust off of the condenser and air passageways of the fridge (this can be under or behind the refrigerator, look at where the air flows) then it will probably run as efficient as new. If someone has put stuff around the fridge that blocks air flow it will not be able to run efficiently.

The heat pump(s) outside heat exchanger(s) can become clogged with grass clippings and other plants growing around it. When that happens the air flow through the heat exchanger(s) is reduced, resulting in an increase of the refrigerant pressure, resulting in an increase in how hard the compressor has to work, resulting in an increase in the amount of electric power used. But this is usually a problem during the summer when it is running in the air-conditioning mode.

Dirty inside heat exchanger(s) will also decrease the efficiency of the heat pump.

Dirty air filter(s) will reduce air flow and cause a decrease in the efficiency of the heat-pump(s).

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A water-bed can suck up a quite a bit of electric, especially if it is set to a high temperature.

Some big TV sets use a lot of power, so you might want to look at the power requirements of any new TV sets.

The heating element of electric dishwashers uses a decent amount of electric.

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As others have said, electric water-heaters are always 100 percent efficient. If crud builds up on the heating element the temperature that the inside of the heating element runs at may increase resulting in the element burning out sooner, but every watt-hour of electric consumed by the heating element transfers a watt-hour of heat energy to the water.

Water heaters are wired to run only one element at a time. The top one runs if the top is cold (when the top one runs the bottom one does not get power). Once the top is up to set temperature the top one no longer gets power and the power is connected to the bottom one until the bottom one is up to temperature. If the bottom element burns out you would always have cold water in the bottom of the water-heater and there fore the reserve of hot water would not last as long during a long use, such as two or more people taking shower one after another. If the top element burns out you get cold water because the top thermostat is never satisfied, and therefore the bottom element never gets power, and the top one being burnt out will not provide any heating.

 

[Rick in PA]

Any dripping hot water faucets? They can be a double whammy, water and electricity cost. I have to keep an eye on our tub faucet, it's older and needs maintenance (the little rubber washer) a little too frequently.

 

[JimPghPA]

I remember one case of a person in the military who had an apartment that was part of big buildings full of apartments. That person purchased a water-bed and set the thermostat and then went out of country for a few months. The electric bill changed from practically nothing to being very high and the only thing running in that apartment was the heater for the water-bed.

 

[JimPghPA]

Also, the efficiency of heat-pumps drops (becomes less) as the outside air temperature decreases. This is because the pressure difference of the refrigerant in the outside coil compared to the refrigerant in the inside coil becomes greater because as the outside air temperature decreases the system has to run the outside coil colder so it will still absorb heat from the air. So along with having to supply more heat because the house requires more heat when it gets colder outside, the efficiency of the heat pump(s) also decrease. Kind of a double hit in how much electric the heat pump requires.

Heat pump systems that use an underground heat sump heat exchange avoid this problem, but have something like an extra $15,000 dollar upfront cost to install the underground heat sump heat exchanger.

Also, many heat pump systems have a bank of resistor heaters that are automatically used to provide heat if the outside temperature gets too low.

So while in ideal conditions (like outside temperatures just cold enough to require heating such as 60 something or 50 something degree Fahrenheit) heat-pump systems supply something like 2.5 killowats of heat for every killowat of electric used, when the temperature gets too low and the resistor heaters are use the efficiency drops to 1 and you only get one killowatt of heat energy for every killowatt of electric used.

 

[JimPghPA]

One of the things that can seem like a very small thing, yet result in a very large change in the amount of electric power used, believe it or not, is the simple selection of cold, warm, or hot water for the washing-machine for your clothes. If in the past cold was selected most of the time, and now warm or hot is being selected most of the time, the electric water heater will have to heat much more water. And it takes a large amount of electric power to heat water.

So one of the things to get across to EVERYONE who uses the clothes washing-machine is to use the cold water selection all the time. There are very few things such as crayon wax on clothing, that require hot water.

 

[sxg6]

Originally Posted By: pbm
Do computers use a lot of energy?


I have desktop pc and a 24" lcd monitor hooked up to a battery backup, and the battery backup says I'm using between 137-153 watts, the number jumps around a little.

My father has his desktop pc and 21" or 22" lcd monitor hooked up to a battery backup, and I think I remember seeing his power usage at around 120 watts or so, I forget exactly.

Power supply size shouldn't make much difference either, my custom pc has a 700w power supply and his name brand desktop pc probably has a 200w-300w power supply, probably on the lower end of that range.

I think the heat pumps are the culprits. My parents recently had a new heat pump installed at their home, and I was surprised by how much energy it uses. I know very little about hvac equipment though, so this might actually not be that much. I think that the colder temperatures causing your heat pumps to work a little harder is the reason for the increase.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
Our electric bill last month was about 20% higher (in usage) than it has ever been in February....
Any other items I should consider?


yeah, outdoor temp. Same thing happened to me during mid-Dec to mid-Jan, the e-bill went from ~ $45 the previous month to about $105 during this period...in central Tx...with the t-stat set on about 65°! I couldn't believe it. Neighbor reported the same thing...except his went to nearly $300!!

Just opened the recent bill and it's back down to $42, which is appropriate given the mild-temps I've been having recently. You're lucky with just a 20% increase....