Question about energy usage
 

I have been away from home for two SECO billing periods, just 2 days difference between first and second month. For the first month SECO shows usage of 441 kwh, for the second 980 kwh, MORE THAN TWICE the usage. I have had them reread the meter and they say the reading is correct and all looks fine with the meter. Has anyone had the same experience and/or has an explanation? Please note, I am not arguing about increased rates, only about unexplained usage.

What is your A/C setting and the outside temperature, we have had some very hot days recently. I just got my bill and SECO has some online tools that may help you find answers look at the recent bill insert. BTW June and July bills were about 50% higher than previous months.

My usage increased about 500kwh from May into June. This has to be due to higher temperatures leading to the AC running more. If those were the two months you were away then that might be the reason for your increase too.

Its been hotter than normal, so your usage will be much higher than previous months.

Duke has an option to look at your daily usage for some customers. Maybe SECO has the option and you can see what happened on the hot days.

It’s most likely the heat. July, August, (hottest months), and January ( heating our pool during the coldest month) are always the highest energy usage months.

Same experience with SECO. June used around 900, July is 1900, we left July 6 and set the thermostat at 80. Doesn’t make sense. July 2021 bill was $64, July 2022 bill was $300.:mad:

My May bill was for 30 days and my June bill was for 34 days. That’s cause for 13% of the increase and the rest of the difference was weather related.

80 degrees
 

I would make sure to watch your ecobee and have an alarm setting to let you know if the humidity goes over 70% that's when things start to happen inside. We've had to reduce the temperature inside during the day to maintain the maximum 70% humidity. And this will probably increase your electricity by more.

I have an ecobee and it seems to be running all the time. I try to keep the humidity at 63 64% last night I turned off the air conditioner at 8:00 p.m. and the house stayed at 78 all night. Maybe if you see the temperature dropping at night to 75 or below, it might be a chance to turn off the air conditioner. If I don't turn off the air conditioner it runs all night every half hour or so. Also my bills have been twice as much in June and July

No question June was hotter, couple extra days add on… I would also add that SECO adjusted their “PCA Hotbucks” or discount based on natural gas prices significantly in my read of the bill. I understand you’re not arguing the bill however.

I had a solar install so I see usage daily (really 15 min increments) - the only other possibility could be your AC if it’s old or potentially low on refrigerant - it may be working harder or longer than needed. Ours froze up in June due to being low and having a slow refrigerant leak. The difference in usage was immediate and significant.

I could be off here - just my two cents/thoughts.

Respectfully, DB

Mine is higher too.
My neighbors was read incorrectly.
So I am going to challenge them

Have you tried reading the meter yourself? Mine has an LCD display showing a number. I compare that against my last bill to see whether it looks reasonable.

Mine was read incorrectly one time - a "5" was misread as a "6" resulting in an unreasonably high usage number. I read my meter myself and easily determined what had happened. In my case I decided not to do anything about it and just let it catch up on the next bill. Sure enough, the reading the next month was correct and the bill showed an unexpectedly low usage.

June to July we were only $50 difference, by physical inspection it apears it won't be much different this next bill. we only used about 300kwh additional. I do not anticipate any surprises in 9 days with the august bill.

It seems very strange that your house humidity is 64 percent at a temperature of 78 degrees. I maintain my house at 78 degrees all the time, and my humidity stays at around 45 percent. I don't use any humidity control system. You may want to purchase a temperature and humidity monitor at Home Depot or Lowes for about 12 dollars to double check the humidity in your house. It it is still at 64 percent, I think something is wrong.

Might want to check the “average degree days” listed on your SECO bill. If the average is higher on the higher bill then hotter weather may be the culprit. If average is same or similar I would suspect one of your home appliances may be to blame (A/C system, refrigerator, etc). As things get older they run less efficiently .

Ohiobuckeye
 

We as American citizens just sit back & let things like this happen,😲. Same thing going on everywhere not just in Florida! Something is terribly wrong!

I’m angry about increased rates as well as usage. My bill last month was $190. I’ve never had a bill that high in my patio villa.

$ difference was probably paritally related to increased fuel costs .

Mine went from 40 kWh to 1,997 kWh (from $44.24 to $277.69)!!!!! And they tell me that nothing is wrong....

40kWh seems unbelievably low. My house used between 175kWh and 400kWh when I was back north and it sat empty.

In another post I mentioned that my meter was read incorrectly one time resulting in an abnormally high usage followed by an abnormally low usage. Could this have happened to you?

What I decided to do was to record my own readings every day for a month. Then I could see that I used just about this much every day and I could multiply by the number of days to get an estimate of what the monthly bill would be. This is how I noticed the incorrect reading. You might try doing the same thing. My current usage is about 35kWh per day.

We had the same issue and SECO read our meter twice. I had the HVAC looked at though it was serviced last Sept. It appears that the AC was running more than usual. That is all I can attribute it to. The person who I spoke with at SECO also mentioned that sometimes the outdoor HVAC unit can freeze up which causes it to run continuously. That goes beyond my area of knowledge.

My June bill was 260, July bill 410 and August is 128! Obviously, incorrect meter reading in July.

Thermostats
 

Thermostats are not always the same. Your 78 degree setting could be different from my 78 degree setting etc. We were in a very good friends home lately and it was actually cold. 🥶. Their temp was set same as ours at 76 degrees.

The Ecobee has a setting for how the fan operates. It can be set to run the fan at least xx minutes per hour, even if no AC is needed. There are arguments pro and con, but most HVAC techs say that isn't necessary, and causes extra wear and tear plus wasted money.

Ecobee can be connected to your internet so you can make adjustments from anywhere. If you are gone for months (and have no internet service) perhaps you can talk to your neighbor and they will let you onto their network.

The outdoor unit gets hot and never freezes. The indoor unit, where the cooling happens, can freeze. That happens when the system is oversized, and too much cooling is produced for the volume of air. Bigger is not better when it comes to AC. It can also happen if the indoor coils are caked in dirt or the filter is clocking a lot of air flow. If no air can get to an area, and condensate gets trapped, it can freeze. Clean everything and check the filter housing for bypass leaks and for a bad filter.

I agree, but I actually have 3 thermometers, two of which are Acu-Rite devices sold at Home Depot and Amazon for about 11 dollars. The Acu-Rite devices monitor the temperature and humidity and display the high and low readings over a 24 hour time period. The temperature in my house never varies more than a degree or so away from 78 degrees. This morning, the humidity in my house is 41 percent, and it did not exceed 44 percent during the past 24 hours. It rarely ever goes above 50 percent. I think the poster who said that their air conditioner is set at 78 degrees and the humidity in their house is 64 percent is very inconsistent with my experience, unless they keep the windows open.

My first bill was about $100, covering May/June. 2nd bill was about $84. Still cheaper than my former place in Vegas during the summer... which had less square feet. I typically run AC all day at about 77 (did there too) during non winter months.

That seems totally out of whack to me. Our bill (patio villa) only differed $5, $96 in June, $101 in July. We have Duke.