Cost of electricity for 1 month
 

I know this subject has been dscussed previously but I have some additional questions. I just received my first full month's electric bill from SECO and I think it's high. Some background, my tenants moved out in mid-August and the house has been sitting empty since then. I already paid SECO the re-connection fee so this bill is only for electricity used. My management company has closed down the house to the bare minimum, ie. hot water, AC down to 80, sprinkler set at 2 x per week, etc. It is a 3 bedroom, 3 bath designer home. The bill I just received is $158.00 for the month. I have read on this forum previously that electric bills run about $150.00/month and that's with someone living and using the electric all day and night. Now, I'm wondering if they were talking about maybe a smaller home, not a designer. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind that amount if it is normal, I just thought from what I read previously that that is high. And if it is, I need to have SECO look into it.

My SECO bill was running high when my home was not occupied and it turned out my air-conditioner had a small leak and it was running constantly to maintain the temperature of 80 degrees. It is just a thought of something to check out.

EL, Does $158 for an empty house seem high?

Does seem high. My bill for similar house with everything going is about $150. Did you empty and shut off the refrigerator? They use a lot of juice.

Look at your usage numbers and compare vs previous months.

My neighbor has a humidistat, was gone all summer, and his bills were about $40 per month.

Our bill for last month (8/26-9/24) was $143 (1101 KWHs) for a designer home with 2 of us. This is with the temperature set to 77. I would start by having the AC checked.

When we close our Designer home up for the Summer our SECO bill is never over $40 and we do not turn the WH off. We water 3x a week. I would say $150 is WAY high for an empty house. We did install a humidity control and leave our AC set at 78. The AC will not come on unless the humidity get to 60% or higher. Heat is not a problem but humidity is.

We have a new home in Lake Deaton which is sitting empty, other than an occasional visit, awaiting our retirement next year. Can someone give me the name of a company who puts in a humidistat?

Since you are in a new home, you probably already have one as part of the A/C system. When we moved into our new home in Hillsborough last spring, Munn's came out and did a full orientation on the A/C system and how to use the humidistat. The orierntation session was at no charge, so check the documents you received at closing because may have the same "coupon".

My 3/3 was $172 with people living in it. Bill was for 5 weeks. Check your dates.

We have a new home in Lake Deaton and the HVAC was installed by Munn's. It did not come with a humidistat but they would add one for about $180. Whoever did your HVAC (The Villages uses several different companies) should be able to install one.

There is a humidistat on the new ones. Read your manual or have Munns come out & show you. I'm fortunate to be married to an HVAC Tech & we are using the humidistat on our thermostat in Lake Deaton that Munns also installed. Our bills are approx $40

I had asked Munn's whether the "thermostat" would try to maintain a specific humidity because there was a display of the actual humidity and the person who did the walk through said "no", it will not attempt to control the humidity, it is only a display. I checked the manual and sure enough, as you stated, it will control the humidity. Munn's (or the factory) had turned off the humidity control so I turned it on and set the humidity I wanted. I am not sure how effective it will be since they did not install an air handler with a variable speed fan (they really should have as the incremental cost is small but the benefits are big). We shall see. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention.

I would suggest looking at the SECO bil to see how many Kilowatt Hours were used. Compare that with previous bills to see if they are increasing or not. The bill tells you what the charge per kwh is.

Our designer Begonia is sitting and waiting for us next year. I got our SECO bill today and it was $78.

Our summer hydro bill for an empty home with a humidity control is around $35/$40 per month.
We leave our fridge on because that is what the tech recommended.

Why don't you call the electric company.

We had something similar from the time the house was ours before we moved in. The electric company (SECO) checked the meter and realized that they had read it wrong. The bill; was corrected to a lower, correct price.

Cost of electricity
 

We had a dehumiditat and that worked fine but we recently installed a Nest Thermostat and it can be controlled remotely via wifi. The first bill was higher then using the dehumiditat but this month it looks like we save a few dollars and expect our bill to be in the 40.00 range for a smaller designer. The nest needed to be set at 81/82 degrees and the humidity has been around 53/55%. With the dehumiditat you never knew the humidity in the home, we set it at 60%. Tom at TheVillagesAV supplied and installed the nest thermostat. He also installed a smoke detector that can be monitored via wifi also. I love gadgets and technology. There have been days in September when the ac did not run at all, these charts are on your account and you can at it for everyday.

just got my first ele.bill..........$40 for turn on..........$5 something..........$25 for ele, empty designer, ac set at 80.

We have bills around $50 for our designer when we're not there in the summer. Your's is much too high. Do not empty and unplug your refrigerator as someone suggested. It may stink and be ruined. Always leave the door open if you unplug it. Anyway, new refrigerators use very little electricity...about $5 per month is typical. If you have a DVR that's plugged in, it will use at least as much.

Electricity Usage
 

Same situation and same amount.

For those who aren't familiar with SEER (a measure of AC efficiency), that's a typo - he means 15, not 1500.

One other thing be sure to check your air filter on a new home. It may have been installed long before you moved in. Ours was pretty dirty even though no one was living in the home. A dirty filter will increase your AC cost. You can get replacements from your AC company or at Ace Hardware.

Check with your builder or home warrenty dept. If I am not mistaken,all the new homes south of 466a have a humidistat built into the new ac units, When you buy a new home your ac company will come to your home and give you a briefing on how your system works. When replacing your ac filter, make sure it's an EXACT SIZE as the one that is in your unit now. HD has these in stock, made by Flanders Filters ,an American company. If the filter is slightly smaller than the original it will not filter the air properly.

We keep our designer between 72 and 75. 72 at night. Our bill was around 150.

Brrrrrrr - thats cold.

Thanks for all the advice. My house is somewhere around 2000 sq. ft. It was built in 2013. I live in Africa at the moment, so I can't check on anything right now, including past bills/usage, which I have never had because I had tenants for the past 9 months. I have my management company going over to the house today to check what they can. If they don't find anything, I'll be there in January to check for myself. I just hate to pay 3 times the monthly cost for the next 3 months. Which is why I asked for confirmation that it was high. I emailed SECO and they just gave me some crap excuse:
(After reviewing your account, I’m showing that on this billing cycle you were billed for 36 days of service. Normally you are billed for about 30 days. So this is one reason why your bill would be higher. Also even if no one is home and you leave your AC set to 80 degrees with the temperatures we have been having the AC will run very often.) I don't think this explains a $158 bill, but not much I can do until I get there in January. thanks everyone, I'll let you know if they find a reason for it.

If you leave for any extended time, don't forget to shut off your water heater. They also use a lot of electricity. Our bill runs about $150 in the summer months for a 1,900 sq ft home and us at home.

You have relatively new home. If it is like mine, it probably comes with a 10 years parts/5 year labor warranty on the AC system but you need to have an annual service on the system to maintain the warranty. I think there is a good probability that you have an AC issue plus you probably need to have an annual service anyway. I would instruct the management company to call the original AC contractor and have an annual service done. Assuming you have the same warranty as me, if there is an issue it wont cost you anything (except for the annual service - probably less than $100??). Eliminate the most likely causes first. Good luck as let us know how it all works out.

Tuccillo can you tell us the model/number of thermostat you have and what you did to turn on the humidistat. Thank you.

We have one the "EDGE" thermostats with humidity control. I think I hit the "mode" button and cycled through until I toggled on the humidity control. If you don't have the manual, go to Carrier.com and go under products and select the thermostats you have and there will be a pdf of the manual. If your does not show a "dehumidify" value with then it won't try to control the humidity. Our last house had a Carrier Infinity system with a variable speed air handler and 2-speed compressor and it did a much better job of humidity control than the systems installed here.

A previous poster said it best when discussing this there are so many variables. Age of ac, seer, sq ft ac space, thermostat setting. That would be base info and it goes from there. The only way to tell is to check the records. You may not be able to obtain exact info if the account with seco was not in your name. If you talk with a customer service person, they can give you month by month usage. If there is a dramatic variation when occupancy and usage are the same then it's time to look at the equipment. You should easily resolve this in a timely manner with seco over the phone at no cost to you. I worked for an electric utility co in fl for 38 yrs.

Correction Made
 

I have never paid SECO more the 98.00 dollars for a month and I live here full time…..I would have this checked out…..

Ours is over $300 in the heat of the summer. As previously noted, it depends upon what appliances and/or electrical items are in use full time. 2 1/2 refrigerators and a freezer, several TVs and PCs and printers will run that bill up. Not to mention maintaining 68 degrees for sleeping.

We are the third family that was faced with a costly repair or replacement of the HVAC system. We opt to replace. We replaced with a top of the line unit which has a SEER rating of 18. since it was just installed we will have to wait to see if it yields the kind of savings the manufacturer claims. It is my understand ing that the ranking of units that are costly begins with the A/C then refrigerators then DVR boxes.

One poster stated full time status with only a $98 per month bill. I would like more detail so that i can figure out how to reduce my bill

If you are all electric, I believe the big users are AC, water heater, and clothes dryer. Depending on whether you leave lights on, CFLs or LED bulbs could have a positive impact. A large screen TV could burn 200 watts or more so if you leave it on all day it can add up.

We have a water heater and clothes dryer powered by gas

Let me tell you my experience
 

$158 is high to me. I have a NEST thermostat. We come and go to our house even during the summer. My bill never goes above $60 and we have a Bridgeport style. We set the thermostat to 85. The NEST has temp / humidity ability. Even though the house may get to 84 or 85, that's ok!!! it's the humidity that you have to monitor. The rule is... be below 70% humidity all the time; 65% most of the time.. if you are at 60-62% humidity, you are fine.. even if it's 85 degrees in the house.

Anyhow, just passing on our experience.. good luck.