Why won\'t my electricity bill go down?

[englishtutorjul]

I had posted a similar query in this forum, some weeks back, but now that I have more data, I thought of re-posting my query with some info that I gathered over the last few days.
Since the last 5 months, we have been getting a bill of 120$ per month, on an average. A little about us:

We do not have any recent appliance purchases. With the same appliances, and the same lifestyle, we have had bills as low as 60$ in the past.

While we are not the most frugal family, we do not overspend too. This means, on a regular day, we do not have the AC on for more than an hour. No special effort to save electricity here, it is just that we have never needed to have the AC on for more than that long.

Likewise, the dishwasher runs just once a day.

We do not have the Washer/Dryer in unit.

We are a vegetarian family of 2 with a baby. (not sure if that makes a difference, but just in case it does)

We have an electric gas range at home, but we NEVER use the oven. It is only the stove, and the microwave. We use the microwave strictly for heating, and nothing else.

Given all these conditions, I feel a bill of 130$ is ridiculously high. Last month I got the AC condenser and the AC filter of our unit changed. The bill has dropped by about 10$, which means it is still as high as 120$! We had our maintainence guys examine the appliances, and they say everything looks ok. They actually noted down how much each appliance is consuming power seperately, and found that it is all within range.
Since the past few days, I have been tracking my usage on the PGE website. I did a small test noting down the type of electric appliance, the time it is switched on, and the duration it is on. I compared this data against what I saw on the website, and discovered that the electric stove and the AC consume the most. (The stove used about 0.5KWH power, and the AC used about 0.7KWH.) Now, I would like to know if this is normal.

I would like to reiterate that I have had bills as low as 60$ in the month of March. So it is not poor insulation or something.
My neighbors, who live in the same apartment get a bill as low as 50$, with AC on for more than 3 hours per day, with the same apartment size, and the same number of members. Last but not the least, the PGE came down on my request, and tested the smart meter's working, and found it to be fine.

I am going mad over this issue now, and would appreciate your inputs on what other steps I can take to nail down the root cause of the issue. Thank you!

[Desi]

I had posted a similar query in this forum, some weeks back, but now that I have more data, I thought of re-posting my query with some info that I gathered over the last few days.
Since the last 5 months, we have been getting a bill of 120$ per month, on an average. A little about us:

We do not have any recent appliance purchases. With the same appliances, and the same lifestyle, we have had bills as low as 60$ in the past.

While we are not the most frugal family, we do not overspend too. This means, on a regular day, we do not have the AC on for more than an hour. No special effort to save electricity here, it is just that we have never needed to have the AC on for more than that long.

Likewise, the dishwasher runs just once a day.

We do not have the Washer/Dryer in unit.

We are a vegetarian family of 2 with a baby. (not sure if that makes a difference, but just in case it does)

We have an electric gas range at home, but we NEVER use the oven. It is only the stove, and the microwave. We use the microwave strictly for heating, and nothing else.

Given all these conditions, I feel a bill of 130$ is ridiculously high. Last month I got the AC condenser and the AC filter of our unit changed. The bill has dropped by about 10$, which means it is still as high as 120$! We had our maintainence guys examine the appliances, and they say everything looks ok. They actually noted down how much each appliance is consuming power seperately, and found that it is all within range.
Since the past few days, I have been tracking my usage on the PGE website. I did a small test noting down the type of electric appliance, the time it is switched on, and the duration it is on. I compared this data against what I saw on the website, and discovered that the electric stove and the AC consume the most. (The stove used about 0.5KWH power, and the AC used about 0.7KWH.) Now, I would like to know if this is normal.

I would like to reiterate that I have had bills as low as 60$ in the month of March. So it is not poor insulation or something.
My neighbors, who live in the same apartment get a bill as low as 50$, with AC on for more than 3 hours per day, with the same apartment size, and the same number of members. Last but not the least, the PGE came down on my request, and tested the smart meter's working, and found it to be fine.

I am going mad over this issue now, and would appreciate your inputs on what other steps I can take to nail down the root cause of the issue. Thank you!

Take your last 3 months bill and check the KWH (units) of electricity you are billed for. Then you will know your average electicity consumption per month.

Then make a list of major electric appliances and hours you keep them on per day.

1. Hair Dryer,
2. Iron
3. Electric Blanket
4. Heat
5. AC
6. Oven and cooking range
7. TV
8. Fridge
9. Hot water heater (if you have one and is electric)

etc

After you have made a list, go over it once again and make sure that you are not missing any major appliance.
Note down wattage of each appliance and multiply by # of hours used per month. Add all up and you will have usage in watt hours. Divide by 1000 and it will be KWH. Now compare it to your bill.

[Chakraan]

Is you cooking using electric ?

Is is too difficult to change the apartment?

Your old thread which can be merged

http://www.r2iclubforums.com/forums/showthread.php/29326-Is-an-EB-bill-of-130-normal-If-not-what-is-normal-in-summers

[englishtutorjul]

Is you cooking using electric ?
Is is too difficult to change the apartment?

Yeah, the range is electric.
And yes, we cant move, since our lease ends only next April.

[Chakraan]

Yeah, the range is electric.

This could be the culprit. How many hours do you cook per day? Use pressure cookers to save time and bill.

[englishtutorjul]

I already do that (using pressure cooker) . As I mentioned in my very first post, my March bills and the ones before have been as low as 60$. We were using the same range even then, and we still cook for the same time. The only thing I am not sure about is whether the same range is consuming more power of late (because of potential problems with the range). The maintenance crew has ruled out this suspicion saying it is working as expected. I am clueless now.

[Chakraan]

What is the difference in KW in March and now ? I mean what is the total consumption in KW now the then ?

[LearnStuff]

Are you being billed on actual meter readings now and back then? Check your bills. Some times they could be estimating the consumption based on the weather and they are not very good at that...

[Desi]

I did a small test noting down the type of electric appliance, the time it is switched on, and the duration it is on. I compared this data against what I saw on the website, and discovered that the electric stove and the AC consume the most. (The stove used about 0.5KWH power, and the AC used about 0.7KWH.) Now, I would like to know if this is normal.

KWH is the figure for total energy used not wattage and that means whether the numbers you mention are normal or not, depend upon over what duration did you measure that and how many elements did you have on on the cooking range.

A cooking range has typically four elements in different sizes that can be from 1000 watts to 2500 watts.

Electricity company charges you on price per unit. One unit is 1000WH = 1KWH.

If you take an element of 2500 watts and you have it on for say 2 hours per day, then you are using 5000WH or 5 units of electricity per day for that cooking element. And if your usage is same essentially over the month that means you are using 150 units for cooking range over a month. This is just an example to illustrate calculations, reality may be different.

Similarly and apartment AC for a single room may be using as much as 2000 watts, so 3 hours of running that AC would mean 6 units of electicity and then multiply with number of days in the month to get monthly usage.

The power of a device is measured in Watts.
The electric company does not charge you based on the power but on the energy you use. Energy is power multiplied by duration.

So a 1000 watt device run for one hour will cost the same as a 50 watt device run for 20 hours.

If you use 1000 watt device for one hour, your meter should show one unit increase.
If you use a 50 watt device for 20 hours, your meter should show one unit increase. One unit = one KWH.

[englishtutorjul]

Thanks to all of you for providing your inputs. Really appreciate it. Will update here about what happens, after I experiment some more. I have ordered a Kill-a-watt device to find out which appliance is consuming the most.

Are you being billed on actual meter readings now and back then? Check your bills. Some times they could be estimating the consumption based on the weather and they are not very good at that...

Can you elaborate a little on this? Thank you.