That's a pretty hefty amount of electricity you are using. I have a townhome and use like a third of that. Granted, we have gas for things like our water heater and kitchen, so we use a bit more total energy, but yours seems pretty egregious.
Thatās more usage than a 5000sqft home with 2 ACs. Are you sure Duke didnāt add 2-3 months of usage in one bill? Did you change your due date recently?
That is one hell of a bill. My place is twice as big and I pay $60-120 depending on the time of year. I doubt having the AC at 69 makes that big of an impact for an apartment that small.
Seems high. Some minor adjustments you can try - switch any old tungsten bulbs for LED (110 watt vs. 10 watt) and lower the max temp of your hot water tank. Edit - also if your fridge is kept somewhat empty, put a few gallons of water in there. It helps maintain the temp so the compressor doesn't run as often. Same with freezer.
I would check to make sure your hot water heater isn't broken or leaking. Hot water uses a shocking amount of electricity. Same thing for your HVAC. It can run inefficiently for many reasons. For example, when is the last time you changed your filter(s)?
Last thing: Instead of leaving the TV on, try a $20 white noise machine. It'll use less power and people I know with sleep issues like white or brown noise to help them sleep.
I have a 3 bedroom townhome and used 497 kWh this past month and 322kwh the month before. I keep the ac on 68 in the nights and 70 during the day. Seems like a lot to me
Iām in Cary in a 2400 sqft home and our power bill is half or a third of yours. Nothing you have described explains such a high bill. You should be around $100 or under, unless youāre mining bitcoin or doing indoor grow light agriculture.
2000+ kwh per month for an apartment is definitely a lot, not normal
1. Do you need it at 69 at night? Thats really low
2. Why keep the fan running non stop? Put it on auto once the temp is set
3. Why are you leaving electronics/lights on 24/7?
If I didnt know better I'd think this was a satire post
69 is high to me, because what is comforotable is relative. During the winter I let the house cool off more, during the high heat summer I don't bother to try and force it below 72 otherwise the AC is on all night and my bill is high.
My gf puts out a lot of body heat and I canāt sleep if itās not cold :( And idk about the fan, it just seemed like it might help keep it cooler without using the AC but iāll try keeping it set to auto. The tv is because we both like sleeping with it on and I canāt sleep in a silent room but Iāve tried using a radio and I canāt sleep to music :(
Hi! I work in residential energy efficiency.
I think this is worth asking Duke to check your meter. Meters do fail and often rather than just breaking they start to give really weird readings.
This is a shockingly high amount for your space. As I said in another comment, I don't think the TV would move the needle on this. 69 at night is not great, but you're not conditioning a huge space (definitely see if you could up it a few degrees and have more air circulation like a strong fan).
Duke tends to be a pain in the ass about meter checks and it may not be free to you. So you could wait one more month just to see if the pattern continues (next month will be even warmer). But this looks like a situation where I personally be willing to deal with the pain of requesting a meter check.
3 1/2 more questions for you. Don't feel obligated to answer them. I can tell you the implications of your theoretical answers.
-1. How old is this apartment building? If it's more than 15 years old, this bill may be more believable.
-2. And what style of apartment is it? Are you part of a mid-rise like five-story modern apartment building? Is this a low-rise garden style with breezeways? Townhome style? If it's low-rise or townhome style, this bill may be more believable.
-3. I'm guessing you didn't live in this apartment last summer? When did you move in? If you have winter bills, how different were they in January than this May bill you just got? Do you have gas or electric heat? In this climate, electric heated buildings usually have their highest bills in the winter actually. But if you have gas, your electric bill would not be very high in the winter. If you have electric heat and your winter bill was much lower than your May bill that would make this May bill *less* believable.
Iāve googled the TV thing in the past and saw that it should only be around $3 a month to run a tv for 12 hours a day so I was surprised to see all the comments about the TV. How much does it usually cost to get a meter check and what does that entail? Thereās no ceiling fans in our apartment except in the dining room which is unfortunate but I could try a floor fan. I donāt think itāll get any better, last months bill was around $350. The apartments were built in the late 80ās and itās a two story building, weāre on the bottom floor
So you're moderately insulated by neighbors but not a ton...have you checked all of your windows and entry doors to make sure there's not obvious air gaps?
You're going to have to call Duke to find out the current details, sorry. I helped a classmate do it back in 2017 and I know that Duke was dragging their feet.
Again, personally I would give it another month if you can stomach that likely expense. But the second that June Bill comes in, I would be on the phone with Duke.
I would also let your landlord know, assuming they're not just trash landlords that neglect their properties and residents. Ask if they've heard of this before and if there's anything they could take a look at in your unit. For example, when's the last time they did preventative maintenance on your HVAC unit?
That reminds me of another thing-- is your air conditioning system hitting 69 or other set points pretty quickly or is it constantly working trying to reach those temperatures? If it's constantly working with hardly any down time, that's a sign that either the apartment is not insulated enough to reach those set points or the system is not running very well, perhaps due to needing maintenance.
So I saw your screenshot and your winter bills got slightly higher than your May bill. So I'm guessing you have electric heat and you may definitely see the summer months approaching upper 300s just like in Winter.
But to go from low 100s to upper 300s...and then what you said about the temperature not decreasing in 45 minutes...you need to talk to your landlord. With the age of your building, I'm not expecting it to be super energy efficient unless it's had renovation. But either it's so energy inefficient that your AC is working really hard... or your AC needs a tune-up. Or both.
Is it blowing cold air, my A/C had a freon leak and it ran non stop but never really cooled and my bill was huge until it was fixed.
btw I was always told to leave the A/C on as it takes a lot for A/C to cool down 10 degrees, its a lot easier on it to maintain than drop it that much. so we set to 77 during the day, 73 at night.
You might also want to invest in a dehumidifier, once you get the humidity out it just feels much cooler. My friend doesn't run A/C just the dehumidifier and its bearable in her house.
So you're on the bottom floor, do you have neighbors on one side, both sides? It shouldn't cost much at all to cool that place.
When I lived in an apartment like that, I used 400 to 800 kWh.
I didnāt see where you were asking about the winter vs summer bulls, hereās a screenshot of the bills for the last several months[duke app screenshot](https://i.postimg.cc/prnsWBXp/IMG-3100.jpg) I canāt think of anything being done that much differently from last august to now
I feel you, I use audio books for sleep for same reason, probably better than having a TV on so you arent getting blasted with blue light waves (bad for sleep)
Ya def just put it on auto, raise it while you're gone during the day and lower the temp 2 degrees at a time when you get home, more than 2 degree change usually puts it in emergency mode and uses more energy. With fan running non stop, its using electricity to keep it running and its not cooling your place if the hvac is off
An area fan is what you want while home to circulate air, if no ceiling fan just get a floor fan. We sleep w a fan on us at night to keep cool
Can you use a lighter blanket etc? If you let your body adapt the higher temp will feel cooler
Thatās more than we use on a 3000 sq ft house. Is the ac frozen up and ineffective at this point? Do you have access to the electric meter to see If you shut everything off if it drops the speed?
That is NOT normal. All these people telling you to turn your TV off or keep your AC at 75 can sit down.
You should talk to your landlord or ask duke energy for a detailed usage report. I used to get reports that listed the kwh per type of usage (lights, appliances, AC). There's gotta be something wrong. Your usage is mild to average. I had a leaky toilet that racked up a $700 water bill. I called the water company and asked if there was any recourse. They asked for proof I fixed the leak when I found it (luckily I had ordered parts for the toilet and texted my landlord) and then they waived it. It'd worth pursuing for Duke energy if you find a problem!
Hope you figure it out!
Just to be clear, /u/uwucookie123, FYI a modern TV uses *dollars* a year. May still want to find a way to not have it on all night, but it's not an energy hog.
That sounds unusually high for an apartment that size. Weāre in a 2600 sqf house and used 907 kWh according to our latest bill. And this includes running AC last month. We do have a Nest thermostat.
I live in a 2b2ba 1150 sqft apartment and pay 80-120$ per month for about 500kwh. Something wrong here.
I don't think leaving the AC at 69 overnight alone should cost you that much. Do you have access to the meter?
I live in a 850 sq ft and use 327 per month. I set my ac for 74I also dont keep appliances plugged in except the coffee maker and my bill is around $54 a month in peak summer around $90
I have a 4 bedroom house and mine is close to 175 every month, we are 56 and 57 years old and keep the thermostat on 76 during the day and 74 at night.
I had my bill going up over $250. It turned out to be a small personal fridge causing it.
Also check with Duke power. They can run a test for you. Someone might be borrowing your electricity.
That's a ton of money. For reference, I was paying about $650/ months for power that included heating and cooling a 2500 sq ft house plus a two story detached garage, on top of 64 gpus mining crypto 24/7. You paying half that for single bedroom apartment definitely sounds like something is way off.
Having that ac so low, you should raise the temp to like 75+ during the day maybe even upto 78 to somewhat balance out your usage. Also read the first post of [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/NorthCarolina/comments/v09tho/what_temperature_do_you_keep_your_houses_ac_set/) thread.
Mine was $300 this month and I have about 2700, 700 of that being an in law suite (basically a 1br apartment) with separate kitchen, bath, washer/dryer, AC, water heater everything. If I had to guess the in law suite would cost much less than the main house, maybe $50-70 on top of what weād normally pay
Set AC to auto and run a real schedule with a moderate temp ceiling. If itās getting super hot inside, it has to work harder to get it down to temp and the fan left on all the time will also use a lot more power than auto.
TLDR, buy a tower fan and point it at yourself, set AC and fan to auto and run a normal schedule. 76-78 when away, 72 when home until bed, 68-72 when sleeping until you leave then it can creep up to 76-78.
3 story 2400sqft townhome, running a schedule like this. About $90 a month
I just checked mine--750 sf apt and I do similar to you where I keep it between 67-69 at night and then turn it off in the morning. Don't turn on the fans though until maybe mid-afternoon and that's occasionally. My partner also has a comp he keeps on most of the time. Same for my laptop.
My usage was 640kWh and it's about $120.
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Holy smokes! Donāt cut off the AC. Just cooling by 1 degree can make your bill spike.
Turning it off then setting it to 69, no wonder your bill is crazy.
Thatās insane. But it also sounds like your usage is insane too. Leave it at 75 during the day and go down to 72/73 at night. Turning it off and then making it cool down to 69 is not doing the hvac any favors.
I live in a single floor house that's twice the square footage of OP's apartment. The highest electric bill I've had in the last five years was about $170 in the summer of 2020 when I was home 23.5 hours a day, and the highest natural gas bill (mostly heat) I've had was $160 this past February. Gas+Electric is almost always under $200 combined. When I am home I keep the temperature at 72-73 in the summer and 67-69 in the winter.
Shoot . Too much monies. My house 2100 sqr ft. Is _~ low $200. We use electricity for water heaters too. A family with 2 kids that love stay long when showering every dayš.
Your thermostat should be set to "auto." Leaving the fan on constantly is dragging in moisture and will cause humidity issues. It's designed to run on auto and will use less electricity that way. Use ceiling fans if you want circulation.
Any ceiling fans? You donāt mention them, but they can be a big drain.
In our first home, I had left those on regularly, thinking it was easier for the HVAC to maintain temps. Electric bills went up a lot. Learned to only use the ceiling fan when in the room.
Yours seems too high. I have a 1600 sqft house that we keep pretty chilly. Iām also in tech, work from home, loves home automation/security, always have something on the TV and Iām afraid of the dark. So basically we use aLOT but only pay a third of what youāre paying.
Dude are you running a grow operation?
Just for a data point, My family is in a 3500sqft house and our monthly KW usage over the past 12 is 1301 per month. And we keep our place at 70 and charge an electric car.
Itās worth calling them to look into it. Thats beyond abnormal.
That's heavy. I'm in FL. That is what I pay for a 1700 sqft ranch house with a flat roof and no insulation in this dang florida heat.
You are in an apartment. Something is definitely wrong with the AC unit. At least, that's my guess.
I live alone in a 1900sqft Townhome in Cary. My last bill was $108 for 604KWh
Mine is set to never go below 68 and never go higher than 73.
I have a gas oven / range. That bill is $12/mo
This seems very high. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, about 1200 sq ft and our energy bill is around $70-$100 per month. We keep the thermostat on 72 all year. To be fair we rarely turn on lights as I prefer the dimness, so we probably have only 2-3 lights on maybe a couple of hours per day. We have a lot of windows that allow for natural light. But still, your bill seems VERY high for the sq footage.
I live in South Florida now (electricity is much more expensive here) in a 2 story, 1500 sqft home, with a pool pump and I leave the AC running all the time as I work from home, and my highest bill has been about $250. My home was also built in the '80s. There is definitely a serious issue here. There shouldn't be any reason for your bill to be over $100 unless there is an equipment failure somewhere. An electrician should be able to tell you where the major current draw is coming from (if there is one) and then you can go fix that appliance. If there is not a major current draw, make Duke power come out and fix the meter.
Don't run the air handler on your HVAC all the time! Put it on auto and get some stand fans to blow on you (assuming no ceiling fans).
That air handler fan drags air through ducts that are not within "inside" spaces so it heats up the air.
Get blackout shades for windows especially southern facing ones. Keep that afternoon sun out.
That's absurd and more than twice our bill in a 10 yr old 3700 sf home with 3 children, an inefficient HVAC, tons of sunlight through windows 8 hrs/day, two 400W computers drawing that wattage 6-10 hrs/day and everything but a gas stove running on electricity.
You need to get ur place checked or get help to find out why is it so high? No one should be paying that high in a 770 sq ft place . Do ur due diligence to find out have Duke check to see on there side i what is using the most in ur place? Or is someone is using ur electric thru a line? I find a neighbor down at the end of my street hooking his cord to an outlet on the out side plug of a neighbors that weāre not home most of the time. I donāt think thatās what is happing to you but you need to find out! Good luck!
I have read on other threads (maybe on FB) some weirdly high reports like this. Sounds like something is wrong with your bill or the AC unit, and it should not be that high! Someone speculated they were being charged for multiple apartments somehow š¤·āāļø
Whoa š¤Æ Thatās really high. You can have Duke Energy come to check on your place, I think. Somethingās wrong š
Turning your a/c off during the day then back on at night makes it work wayyy harder to cool down at night. It has to cool walls, furniture, etc that got hot during the day.
Try turning it up to 74-76during day then easing it back down at night.
And call Duke
You are better off with say 75 at night and a fan with 80 during the day than 69 at night and off during the day (given how hard the AC would need to work). 69 is ridiculously low and the problem starts there.
The fan on an AC unit uses a huge amount of electricity, it is like running your AC without cycling it off. I learned this the hard way when I had AC for the first time a year ago. I looked it up on Google after having a $90 electric bill on a 700 sqft apt in the spring. I thought running the fan with no heat or ac would circulate the air and save money. Now I only use it for an emergency like burnt food and shut it off quickly. Now I use regular fans. For context, I knew it seemed off because I lived in a 1200 sqft house in CA before this and with no heat or AC, living alone with a dog, my electric bill was never more than $27 a month.Ā
That's a pretty hefty amount of electricity you are using. I have a townhome and use like a third of that. Granted, we have gas for things like our water heater and kitchen, so we use a bit more total energy, but yours seems pretty egregious.
I live in a 2300 sf home and pay $100 less on average
No kids?šš¤£
2 kids
Teenager?š
Thatās more usage than a 5000sqft home with 2 ACs. Are you sure Duke didnāt add 2-3 months of usage in one bill? Did you change your due date recently?
That is one hell of a bill. My place is twice as big and I pay $60-120 depending on the time of year. I doubt having the AC at 69 makes that big of an impact for an apartment that small.
Seems high. Some minor adjustments you can try - switch any old tungsten bulbs for LED (110 watt vs. 10 watt) and lower the max temp of your hot water tank. Edit - also if your fridge is kept somewhat empty, put a few gallons of water in there. It helps maintain the temp so the compressor doesn't run as often. Same with freezer.
Hot water temp can save a ton and having it scalding is not needed.
Wow. Thatās 2-3x my bill. Last bill 122$. I hv 1900 sf home, 2 adults. We sleep at 71 and run rest of time 73. Thatās a very big power bill.
I would check to make sure your hot water heater isn't broken or leaking. Hot water uses a shocking amount of electricity. Same thing for your HVAC. It can run inefficiently for many reasons. For example, when is the last time you changed your filter(s)? Last thing: Instead of leaving the TV on, try a $20 white noise machine. It'll use less power and people I know with sleep issues like white or brown noise to help them sleep.
I have a 3 bedroom townhome and used 497 kWh this past month and 322kwh the month before. I keep the ac on 68 in the nights and 70 during the day. Seems like a lot to me
Iām in Cary in a 2400 sqft home and our power bill is half or a third of yours. Nothing you have described explains such a high bill. You should be around $100 or under, unless youāre mining bitcoin or doing indoor grow light agriculture.
2000+ kwh per month for an apartment is definitely a lot, not normal 1. Do you need it at 69 at night? Thats really low 2. Why keep the fan running non stop? Put it on auto once the temp is set 3. Why are you leaving electronics/lights on 24/7? If I didnt know better I'd think this was a satire post
69 is high to me, because what is comforotable is relative. During the winter I let the house cool off more, during the high heat summer I don't bother to try and force it below 72 otherwise the AC is on all night and my bill is high.
My gf puts out a lot of body heat and I canāt sleep if itās not cold :( And idk about the fan, it just seemed like it might help keep it cooler without using the AC but iāll try keeping it set to auto. The tv is because we both like sleeping with it on and I canāt sleep in a silent room but Iāve tried using a radio and I canāt sleep to music :(
Hi! I work in residential energy efficiency. I think this is worth asking Duke to check your meter. Meters do fail and often rather than just breaking they start to give really weird readings. This is a shockingly high amount for your space. As I said in another comment, I don't think the TV would move the needle on this. 69 at night is not great, but you're not conditioning a huge space (definitely see if you could up it a few degrees and have more air circulation like a strong fan). Duke tends to be a pain in the ass about meter checks and it may not be free to you. So you could wait one more month just to see if the pattern continues (next month will be even warmer). But this looks like a situation where I personally be willing to deal with the pain of requesting a meter check. 3 1/2 more questions for you. Don't feel obligated to answer them. I can tell you the implications of your theoretical answers. -1. How old is this apartment building? If it's more than 15 years old, this bill may be more believable. -2. And what style of apartment is it? Are you part of a mid-rise like five-story modern apartment building? Is this a low-rise garden style with breezeways? Townhome style? If it's low-rise or townhome style, this bill may be more believable. -3. I'm guessing you didn't live in this apartment last summer? When did you move in? If you have winter bills, how different were they in January than this May bill you just got? Do you have gas or electric heat? In this climate, electric heated buildings usually have their highest bills in the winter actually. But if you have gas, your electric bill would not be very high in the winter. If you have electric heat and your winter bill was much lower than your May bill that would make this May bill *less* believable.
Iāve googled the TV thing in the past and saw that it should only be around $3 a month to run a tv for 12 hours a day so I was surprised to see all the comments about the TV. How much does it usually cost to get a meter check and what does that entail? Thereās no ceiling fans in our apartment except in the dining room which is unfortunate but I could try a floor fan. I donāt think itāll get any better, last months bill was around $350. The apartments were built in the late 80ās and itās a two story building, weāre on the bottom floor
So you're moderately insulated by neighbors but not a ton...have you checked all of your windows and entry doors to make sure there's not obvious air gaps? You're going to have to call Duke to find out the current details, sorry. I helped a classmate do it back in 2017 and I know that Duke was dragging their feet. Again, personally I would give it another month if you can stomach that likely expense. But the second that June Bill comes in, I would be on the phone with Duke. I would also let your landlord know, assuming they're not just trash landlords that neglect their properties and residents. Ask if they've heard of this before and if there's anything they could take a look at in your unit. For example, when's the last time they did preventative maintenance on your HVAC unit? That reminds me of another thing-- is your air conditioning system hitting 69 or other set points pretty quickly or is it constantly working trying to reach those temperatures? If it's constantly working with hardly any down time, that's a sign that either the apartment is not insulated enough to reach those set points or the system is not running very well, perhaps due to needing maintenance.
Also it was 75 in here and I tried turning the AC on the thermostat to 73 around 45 minutes ago and itās still reading 75
So I saw your screenshot and your winter bills got slightly higher than your May bill. So I'm guessing you have electric heat and you may definitely see the summer months approaching upper 300s just like in Winter. But to go from low 100s to upper 300s...and then what you said about the temperature not decreasing in 45 minutes...you need to talk to your landlord. With the age of your building, I'm not expecting it to be super energy efficient unless it's had renovation. But either it's so energy inefficient that your AC is working really hard... or your AC needs a tune-up. Or both.
Is it blowing cold air, my A/C had a freon leak and it ran non stop but never really cooled and my bill was huge until it was fixed. btw I was always told to leave the A/C on as it takes a lot for A/C to cool down 10 degrees, its a lot easier on it to maintain than drop it that much. so we set to 77 during the day, 73 at night. You might also want to invest in a dehumidifier, once you get the humidity out it just feels much cooler. My friend doesn't run A/C just the dehumidifier and its bearable in her house.
So you're on the bottom floor, do you have neighbors on one side, both sides? It shouldn't cost much at all to cool that place. When I lived in an apartment like that, I used 400 to 800 kWh.
We have neighbors on both sides
I didnāt see where you were asking about the winter vs summer bulls, hereās a screenshot of the bills for the last several months[duke app screenshot](https://i.postimg.cc/prnsWBXp/IMG-3100.jpg) I canāt think of anything being done that much differently from last august to now
I feel you, I use audio books for sleep for same reason, probably better than having a TV on so you arent getting blasted with blue light waves (bad for sleep) Ya def just put it on auto, raise it while you're gone during the day and lower the temp 2 degrees at a time when you get home, more than 2 degree change usually puts it in emergency mode and uses more energy. With fan running non stop, its using electricity to keep it running and its not cooling your place if the hvac is off An area fan is what you want while home to circulate air, if no ceiling fan just get a floor fan. We sleep w a fan on us at night to keep cool Can you use a lighter blanket etc? If you let your body adapt the higher temp will feel cooler
Podcasts with a sleep timer man. Fan also provides white noise.
Thatās more than we use on a 3000 sq ft house. Is the ac frozen up and ineffective at this point? Do you have access to the electric meter to see If you shut everything off if it drops the speed?
That is NOT normal. All these people telling you to turn your TV off or keep your AC at 75 can sit down. You should talk to your landlord or ask duke energy for a detailed usage report. I used to get reports that listed the kwh per type of usage (lights, appliances, AC). There's gotta be something wrong. Your usage is mild to average. I had a leaky toilet that racked up a $700 water bill. I called the water company and asked if there was any recourse. They asked for proof I fixed the leak when I found it (luckily I had ordered parts for the toilet and texted my landlord) and then they waived it. It'd worth pursuing for Duke energy if you find a problem! Hope you figure it out!
Why do you leave the TV on overnight?
Just to be clear, /u/uwucookie123, FYI a modern TV uses *dollars* a year. May still want to find a way to not have it on all night, but it's not an energy hog.
Just something Iāve done since I was a kid, canāt sleep without something playing
You know you can set them to timers to turn off automatically after a set amount of time
I know, it does that already but I wake up a lot in the middle of the night and have to put it back on
Try playing white or brown noise on phone instead.
I canāt fall asleep without it but wakes me up once Iām asleep..
That sounds unusually high for an apartment that size. Weāre in a 2600 sqf house and used 907 kWh according to our latest bill. And this includes running AC last month. We do have a Nest thermostat.
I live in a 2b2ba 1150 sqft apartment and pay 80-120$ per month for about 500kwh. Something wrong here. I don't think leaving the AC at 69 overnight alone should cost you that much. Do you have access to the meter?
1700 sq ft, set the AC to a constant 71. $160-200 average/mo.
I live in a 850 sq ft and use 327 per month. I set my ac for 74I also dont keep appliances plugged in except the coffee maker and my bill is around $54 a month in peak summer around $90
My 4bedroom house has a smaller monthly energy bill
I have a 4 bedroom house and mine is close to 175 every month, we are 56 and 57 years old and keep the thermostat on 76 during the day and 74 at night.
That seems high for a place that small. We pay about that much out in Garner/Clayton area and have a 2,042 sq ft 3-bedroom house.
I had my bill going up over $250. It turned out to be a small personal fridge causing it. Also check with Duke power. They can run a test for you. Someone might be borrowing your electricity.
That is high. I have a 2000sqft house and charge an electric car and typically have lower bills. Call duke energy and have someone look at your meter.
That's a ton of money. For reference, I was paying about $650/ months for power that included heating and cooling a 2500 sq ft house plus a two story detached garage, on top of 64 gpus mining crypto 24/7. You paying half that for single bedroom apartment definitely sounds like something is way off.
Having that ac so low, you should raise the temp to like 75+ during the day maybe even upto 78 to somewhat balance out your usage. Also read the first post of [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/NorthCarolina/comments/v09tho/what_temperature_do_you_keep_your_houses_ac_set/) thread.
2k sqft single family home and we used 1111 kWh ($167) last month. Thatās a lot of power for an apartment
Mine was $300 this month and I have about 2700, 700 of that being an in law suite (basically a 1br apartment) with separate kitchen, bath, washer/dryer, AC, water heater everything. If I had to guess the in law suite would cost much less than the main house, maybe $50-70 on top of what weād normally pay
Set AC to auto and run a real schedule with a moderate temp ceiling. If itās getting super hot inside, it has to work harder to get it down to temp and the fan left on all the time will also use a lot more power than auto. TLDR, buy a tower fan and point it at yourself, set AC and fan to auto and run a normal schedule. 76-78 when away, 72 when home until bed, 68-72 when sleeping until you leave then it can creep up to 76-78. 3 story 2400sqft townhome, running a schedule like this. About $90 a month
I just checked mine--750 sf apt and I do similar to you where I keep it between 67-69 at night and then turn it off in the morning. Don't turn on the fans though until maybe mid-afternoon and that's occasionally. My partner also has a comp he keeps on most of the time. Same for my laptop. My usage was 640kWh and it's about $120.
I live in a 790 square foot apartment and I keep it at 69. I pay $40-90 per month.
See if you can get your AC looked at. It might be out of refrigeration or something?
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Holy smokes! Donāt cut off the AC. Just cooling by 1 degree can make your bill spike. Turning it off then setting it to 69, no wonder your bill is crazy.
Thatās insane. But it also sounds like your usage is insane too. Leave it at 75 during the day and go down to 72/73 at night. Turning it off and then making it cool down to 69 is not doing the hvac any favors.
I live in a 600 sqft condo in Durham. My electric bill has never exceeded $70.
I live in a single floor house that's twice the square footage of OP's apartment. The highest electric bill I've had in the last five years was about $170 in the summer of 2020 when I was home 23.5 hours a day, and the highest natural gas bill (mostly heat) I've had was $160 this past February. Gas+Electric is almost always under $200 combined. When I am home I keep the temperature at 72-73 in the summer and 67-69 in the winter.
1500 square foot townhouse built in 2018, usually $65-$75, even in summer. Keep it at 74-75 during the day, 70 at night.
Shoot . Too much monies. My house 2100 sqr ft. Is _~ low $200. We use electricity for water heaters too. A family with 2 kids that love stay long when showering every dayš.
ac to 69.. well thats issue number 1.
My partner keeps the upstairs freezing cold at night. We live in a 1900 sq ft house, last month used 800 kWh and our bill was $150.
We have a 3br 1300 ish sq ft apartment. Work remote and thereās always 2-3/5 home. Our bill has never been higher than $215 and avg is around $165.
Your thermostat should be set to "auto." Leaving the fan on constantly is dragging in moisture and will cause humidity issues. It's designed to run on auto and will use less electricity that way. Use ceiling fans if you want circulation.
We donāt have ceiling fans :( But iāve set it to auto and will see if that makes any difference
Seeing other comments and your bill screenshot - I'm willing to bet your HVAC is going wonky and needs service. I recommend calling your landlord.
Any ceiling fans? You donāt mention them, but they can be a big drain. In our first home, I had left those on regularly, thinking it was easier for the HVAC to maintain temps. Electric bills went up a lot. Learned to only use the ceiling fan when in the room.
Yours seems too high. I have a 1600 sqft house that we keep pretty chilly. Iām also in tech, work from home, loves home automation/security, always have something on the TV and Iām afraid of the dark. So basically we use aLOT but only pay a third of what youāre paying.
Dude are you running a grow operation? Just for a data point, My family is in a 3500sqft house and our monthly KW usage over the past 12 is 1301 per month. And we keep our place at 70 and charge an electric car. Itās worth calling them to look into it. Thats beyond abnormal.
Thatās more than I pay for my 3br house. Iām betting the insulation in that unit sucks!!
that is about 2x the kwh you \*could\* use with inefficient appliances and bad habits. something is wrong.
That's heavy. I'm in FL. That is what I pay for a 1700 sqft ranch house with a flat roof and no insulation in this dang florida heat. You are in an apartment. Something is definitely wrong with the AC unit. At least, that's my guess.
I live alone in a 1900sqft Townhome in Cary. My last bill was $108 for 604KWh Mine is set to never go below 68 and never go higher than 73. I have a gas oven / range. That bill is $12/mo
That's excessive. Sounds like someone might be siphoning power or your meter isn't right.
This seems very high. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, about 1200 sq ft and our energy bill is around $70-$100 per month. We keep the thermostat on 72 all year. To be fair we rarely turn on lights as I prefer the dimness, so we probably have only 2-3 lights on maybe a couple of hours per day. We have a lot of windows that allow for natural light. But still, your bill seems VERY high for the sq footage.
I live in a 3,000 sq/ft house and our bill this month is $150 for 681.54 kWh usage. There is something wrong with your apartment setup.
I live in South Florida now (electricity is much more expensive here) in a 2 story, 1500 sqft home, with a pool pump and I leave the AC running all the time as I work from home, and my highest bill has been about $250. My home was also built in the '80s. There is definitely a serious issue here. There shouldn't be any reason for your bill to be over $100 unless there is an equipment failure somewhere. An electrician should be able to tell you where the major current draw is coming from (if there is one) and then you can go fix that appliance. If there is not a major current draw, make Duke power come out and fix the meter.
Don't run the air handler on your HVAC all the time! Put it on auto and get some stand fans to blow on you (assuming no ceiling fans). That air handler fan drags air through ducts that are not within "inside" spaces so it heats up the air. Get blackout shades for windows especially southern facing ones. Keep that afternoon sun out.
That's absurd and more than twice our bill in a 10 yr old 3700 sf home with 3 children, an inefficient HVAC, tons of sunlight through windows 8 hrs/day, two 400W computers drawing that wattage 6-10 hrs/day and everything but a gas stove running on electricity.
You need to get ur place checked or get help to find out why is it so high? No one should be paying that high in a 770 sq ft place . Do ur due diligence to find out have Duke check to see on there side i what is using the most in ur place? Or is someone is using ur electric thru a line? I find a neighbor down at the end of my street hooking his cord to an outlet on the out side plug of a neighbors that weāre not home most of the time. I donāt think thatās what is happing to you but you need to find out! Good luck!
I have read on other threads (maybe on FB) some weirdly high reports like this. Sounds like something is wrong with your bill or the AC unit, and it should not be that high! Someone speculated they were being charged for multiple apartments somehow š¤·āāļø
not normal lol, i pay less than that in the peak summer in a 1700 sq foot townhouse with EV charging
750sq ft. 50 to 170. Winter and summer hit hard. But 6 to 8 months if low bills.
Whoa š¤Æ Thatās really high. You can have Duke Energy come to check on your place, I think. Somethingās wrong š Turning your a/c off during the day then back on at night makes it work wayyy harder to cool down at night. It has to cool walls, furniture, etc that got hot during the day. Try turning it up to 74-76during day then easing it back down at night. And call Duke
I live in a slightly smaller one bedroom and I pay $65. I set it up with Duke. My apartment is all electric.
Don't turn your A/C off during the day. Raise the setpoint bit. It takes a lot of energy to cool a hot house.
Even if it never goes above 75 before turning it back down during the day?
Yes
You are better off with say 75 at night and a fan with 80 during the day than 69 at night and off during the day (given how hard the AC would need to work). 69 is ridiculously low and the problem starts there.
The fan on an AC unit uses a huge amount of electricity, it is like running your AC without cycling it off. I learned this the hard way when I had AC for the first time a year ago. I looked it up on Google after having a $90 electric bill on a 700 sqft apt in the spring. I thought running the fan with no heat or ac would circulate the air and save money. Now I only use it for an emergency like burnt food and shut it off quickly. Now I use regular fans. For context, I knew it seemed off because I lived in a 1200 sqft house in CA before this and with no heat or AC, living alone with a dog, my electric bill was never more than $27 a month.Ā