SECO bill
 

Just got my February bill. $107! More than three times usual bill. Anyone else?

Mine was consistent with last year bill.

SECO bill
 

Oops! I meant TECO bill.

lil higher due to having heat on..not to worry
:pepper2:

Mine was $101 quite a bit higher. However January was cold and your furnace ran a lot more. Also it depends what you set your thermostat to keep warm.

Our SECO bill was about 25% higher, and I noticed the aux heat was on the HVAC system. Since I had never noticed this before I had the system checked, all was fine but I found out this happens occasionally during longer than usual cold spells.

My SECO bill was extremely high (3 x normal) this month. I called SECO and asked about this, and at first they said it was probably due to the cold January. I explained we have gas heat (TECO) and so the furnace fan probably was running as much as the AC in the summer, and this bill was 3 times either of those. They said they would have someone come out and check the meter. Got a call this morning and they indicated that there had, in fact, been an error and they were adjusting the January charge to what it should have been. So, if you don't think the bill is correct, contact them and ask for assistance. It worked for me.

Was this an estimated bill or a meter read ?

Bill details
 

Our SECO bill was 100.69 for 2000 Sq. Ft stucco designer. 867.6 KwH. Average temp was 72 degrees, Heat strips did come on for an average of two minutes or less. That is reflected in the detail below.

Details of last month's bill:

40.6% was the heat pump
11.8% was the water heater
10.5 was "always on' devices
7.8% was the dryer and heat strips combined
3.9% fridge
Less than 1% each:

Ice maker
Dishwasher
Washing machine
Fluorescent lights in laundry room and garage
Microwave
Stove
Oven
Iron
Toaster
Garbage disposal

20.5% was other devices not specifically identified

Last year's bill without the heat pump and heat strips only was 113.50 for 979 KWH. My take away is heat strips alone are expensive

The Villages had a hard freeze and lower temps than normal in January for the first time in Several years. It is no surprise that our gas and/or electric bill would be significantly higher.

A heatpump will periodically go into defrost mode to melt the ice buildup on the condenser coil as the temperature approaches and drops below freezing. When this happens, the heating strips will come on (because it is now running as an AC and you don't want to feel cold air from the ducts). Defrost mode lasts a few minutes.

We have gas heat and our TECO bill was about 2.5 times that of last January. We have our thermostat set on 76 and it ran quite a bit. Our electric bill was the same as the previous January.

Shoot. I wish my Electric bill was $107. Mine was almost $200, this month.

I'm desperate to get new windows installed!

How did you get the percentages?? That would be very interesting to know?

For heat pumps, when it gets too cold outside, the heat pump can't "pump" heat so it uses heat strips for electrical resistance heat backup. These stay on as long as necessary to heat the house. You can tell they are on because the heat from the ducts is warmer than usual and there may be an electrical heat smell. The thermostat will say that the backup heat is on.

Per heating unit, this costs 4 times more electricity/ money than heat from the heat pump system.

I would love to know how you got your percentages?

Toymeister might have a "Sense" device (sense.com).

For whole home energy detectors there are sense, neurio, and The Energy Detective (TED).

For me it paid off. That's how I discovered that the heat pump was not working and I only had heat strips. It gives you information that you can use to make decisions.

Actually it is twice the KwH, not four times. It may provide more heat, I didn't measure that

It was the coldest winter in 13 years some experts have claimed.

It certainly was the coldest here in 6 for me. However that is a relative term...compare vs Minnesota if you want a shock in bill:22yikes::cold:

No surprise and common sense.

Heat pumps are new to me. Can you describe what heat strips are and how they work?

:cold:Do you have gas heat? If you don't you have a heat pump.

Heat strips are electrical resistance strips in the air flow that supplement the heat generated from the heat pump and also offset the cooling when the heat pump goes into defrost mode. Essentially they are wires that current is passed through and they get hot.

Which one do you have?

I have the sense energy monitor. It and Neurio use machine learning to identify energy users in the home. Neuro is slightly cheaper and located in and outside the electrical main box. It detects appliances down to 300 watts. Sense is completely in the breaker box and identifies down to 30 watts or so.

It is worth the cost if you use the information to save. One watt saved from the always on category saves a buck a year. It is pretty easy to save 75 or 100 watts without being inconvenienced in the slightest. Rinsing the dishes with cold vice not water before placing in the dishwasher saves nearly fifty a year. That is you are like my wife. Point is you can decide if certain changes are worth it to you.

New Englander,
I gather that you are also curious about heat pumps. That is a.c. run in reverse. Heat to the home, cold outside. Heat pumps drop in efficiency at low temperatures. That is why they don't work in northern climates.

Even here at some temps the heat strips supplement the heat pumps. Some thermostats automatically switch to heat strips of heat increases of more than two degrees are asked for by the thermostat.

I have a heat pump but being from the frozen north and new to heat pumps, I had never heard of heat strips.

Our TECO bill was also over 2-1/2 times higher than last January's.

Submitted a request for a review online through their site, but...still waiting for an answer.

I'd say it was TWICE as cold this January than last year.

I almost never think that large companies are out to fleece me.

Why...? Because everyone is a watch dog. They would be caught.

LOL

As if "large companies" can't have computer or billing issues?

In fact, I think just the existence of this thread...shows that some people have questions about the billing. :oops:


PS. I would say that it WASN'T TWICE as cold this January...as it was last January. ;)


Jan 2018

The Villages Month Weather - AccuWeather Forecast for FL 32159


Jan 2017

The Villages Month Weather - AccuWeather Forecast for FL 32159

According to degreedays.net, there were 179 heating degree days in The Villages during January 2017 and 377 during January 2018. So actually, it was slighly more than twice as cold this year than last ...
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Bob C