Duke Energy High Bill?

So it’s time to pay the power bill so I check. Difference from last month to this month was 26 dollars, 26 kWh more this month then used last month, but compared to last year it was up 6 dollars and I used 16kWh more this year than last, it was colder this December then the previous year and the month before everything looks about where it should be compared to the last 5 years of data.

I will add I have a wood insert and use it for most of my heating needs heat pump may kick on once before I get home and once during the middle of the night


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shawn said:
Only $100 more than "normal"?

Shit....
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Yup. For this time of year. We usually have 2 months that are around 350, maybe 400.
Older house w/ poor design for heat retention, older not-so-efficient unit, & higher rate per therm than you guys.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Yup. For this time of year. We usually have 2 months that are around 350, maybe 400.
Older house w/ poor design for heat retention, older not-so-efficient unit, & higher rate per therm than you guys.
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Your electric rates are 30% higher than ours, but your cost for gas appears to be about the same.

I'd be blowing in some insulation and buying storm windows, if I were you.
 
awheelterd said:
That's too damn cold. How cool do you keep it in the summer? I'd just put the dog outside during the winter :lol:
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He stays outside a big chunk of the day but he stays inside at night. Too many critters around here...
In the summer we turn the sunroom into his private pad. His own separate window unit and we draw the blinds
It may sound overboard, but he (like any pet) deserves to be treated as well as possible.
 
I'm on City of New Bern's power even though I'm way outside of city limits. The highest my bill has ever been was 150 bucks. Just paid last month's and it was only 80. There are a few guys at the end of my road that live right on the powerline and have Duke and their bills are higher than mine. However, my double wide is a 2014 model and very well insulated.

I'm interested to see what next month's bill says. That cold spell was the longest and coldest since I've had this place.

I'm sure I'll have a helluva light bill once my shop is built, but it'll have its own 200 amp service and meter.
 
shawn said:
Your electric rates are 30% higher than ours, but your cost for gas appears to be about the same.

I'd be blowing in some insulation and buying storm windows, if I were you.
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We have storm windows, but they suck and are part of the main window panes. To do it right we'd really need to do full replacement windows, actually insulate around them etc The return savings on the cost is difficult, it'd be probably be 7+ years to pay off.

This is one of the ongoing struggles. I almost did it when we bought the house, but we never intended to stay... yet here it is 8 years later and now looking like this will be it for awhile. Now in the classic "wish we'd done it back then" mode.

An unusual feature of our house is that we actually have a full walk-up staircase to the attic. Blowing in insulation would negative this rather nice feature as a selling point. There's a lot more to that, I've added a 2nd layer of R30 on stacked risers which was a major PITA.
 
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My meter was read on the third, so about midway of the deep freeze last week. Electric bill was up 30 bucks over same period last year. Duke said I used 271 more kWh than last year, and it was more expensive per kWh. Propane delivery was Thursday, we got just over 91 gallons at $1.64/gallon, and it had been more than a month since our last fill up (we only heat with propane, no other gas usage.) We should only need one more fill up before spring.

Duane
 
I'd be interested to see what everyone's use is like...

2067 sqft house, vacant. Minor use and limited lights on for security. Thermostat set on 65. Natural gas heat and on-demand water heater. Built in 1901 with some insulation added in exterior walls and ok insulation in ceiling.

454 kWh ($65)
160 ccf ($202)

Usage dates were 11/16 thru 12/21



2020 sqft house, built in 2007 and its the 4 of us here with normal use. All electric.

2218 kWh of use from 11/22 thru 12/22 ($250)


Usage is comparable but the older home was vacant. I don't doubt that with a little more insulation in the ceilings it would do better. If I were moving in there, it may would be a good idea to blow in some insulation in all of the exterior walls somehow.
 
1200 sqft house, built in 2002 2 of us here. All electric

1052 kWh of use from 11/20 thru 12/20 ($117.27)
 
rockcity said:
If I were moving in there, it may would be a good idea to blow in some insulation in all of the exterior walls somehow.
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It's not going to make a bit of difference on the energy usage. Storm windows help with energy and user comfort, because they reduce air movement from the exterior. Sealing air leaks in the ceiling and getting a decent layer of insulation should help.

RatLabGuy said:
We have storm windows, but they suck and are part of the main window panes. To do it right we'd really need to do full replacement windows, actually insulate around them etc The return savings on the cost is difficult, it'd be probably be 7+ years to pay off

An unusual feature of our house is that we actually have a full walk-up staircase to the attic. Blowing in insulation would negative this rather nice feature as a selling point. There's a lot more to that, I've added a 2nd layer of R30 on stacked risers which was a major PITA
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So are there two layers of glass in the window, or just one?

What keeps all the hot air from just going up the stairs and out of the house, if you have a walk up attic?
 
FWIW is anyone on "budget billing" ? we've been on this since we bought our house almost 18yrs ago, same payment every month, based on yearly average consumption.

in the beginning we were $150 a month but there was a few years where i was burning a lot of metal making junk. has steadily gone down as we've made other energy improvements, (questionably) better refrigerator, more efficient laundry stuff, wife started hanging clothes out as well when its warm. almost all lighting is LED or CFL, main light in kitchen that stays on 24/7 was a circline fluorescent, is now LED in the same fixture. more light less power. 13seer heat pump in 2014.

1100 sqft, all electric, bill is currently $109 a month down from $128 the last 3 years. hearing some of my neighbors, they're paying $200+ a lot of the time. that just confuses me
 
shawn said:
It's not going to make a bit of difference on the energy usage. Storm windows help with energy and user comfort, because they reduce air movement from the exterior. Sealing air leaks in the ceiling and getting a decent layer of insulation should help.

So are there two layers of glass in the window, or just one?
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Window itself, just one. Old school single pane. Then a drop-down single-pane storm window in front of it. Neither of which seal great.
What keeps all the hot air from just going up the stairs and out of the house, if you have a walk up attic?
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Unfortunately not a whole lot.
You know how a typical ranch w/ basement has the dead space over the stairs going down, so the base of the stairs is like 16' from floor to ceiling? They built stairs running up into the attic using that space, so they parallel the basement stairs, with a door to access the stairs in the corner of the adjacent room. I've put XPS on the backside of the door, but I'm 95% sure there's no insulation in the walls on either side of those stairs. I'd have to rip out the drywall to put it in. I hate drywall work.
However, now that I think of it, I could at least rip out the drywall that's on the attic stair side and push some in, and re-cover.. .that doesn't need to look nice.

We bought the house from the original owners, who obviously never thought about efficiency. The basement has a metal belco "Dorothy door" exterior access, and the stairs leading up to it were just a 4' wide break in the cement block walls with the metal door at the top. Soooo much heat was just flowing out of there. Made a huge difference when I put in an interior barn door and insulated it.
Oh, and the ceiling was only R13 fiberglass from 50 years ago.
 
Has anybody taken the time to use a thermal camera and look around their house? I've often thought that would be useful.
I brought home a direction temp gun w/ a laser site from work once, it was pretty illuminating to point as specific spots, but not nearly as useful as a full image.
I'd think a nice cold day like now would be ideal.
 
RatLabGuy said:
I've put XPS on the backside of the door, but I'm 95% sure there's no insulation in the walls on either side of those stairs. I'd have to rip out the drywall to put it in. I hate drywall work.
However, now that I think of it, I could at least rip out the drywall that's on the attic stair side and push some in, and re-cover.. .that doesn't need to look nice.
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I'm imagining a sorta-skinny, sorta-steep stair with a door at the main level that's open to the attic above. It sounds like you've added batts in the attic, but I'm not clear on how that relates to the area of the attic that presumably has a floor.

That said, in lieu of trying to insulate the walls and door on the main level, what about getting a sheet of 3/4" plywood, some hinges, and a bunch of XPS and building a rated cover over the stair opening that sits in plane with the attic floor (and presumably the insulation)? Assuming it's a hole about 3' wide and 12' long, you could even build the hatch in two pieces - one piece over the back half that is only moved on rare occasions (if at all), and one piece that's hinged to allow for quick and easy access to the Christmas decorations or WTFever you're storing up there. Add as much XPS to the underside of the plywood as you can and make it as airtight as you can with caulk, expanding foam, and foam tape.
 
My house was built in 77. 1500 sq foot, all electric heat. Set at 68 during the night when at home, and 65 at overnight/daytime.

Dec 29 to Nov 28
kWh usage 1400
$143.3
Average temp 44
 
Early 00s. 2500+ sqft. Cold months and Hot months we average 38 kwh/d. Total use for November was 1100 kwh. $60 to $120 depending on outside temps. Except for this Dec 8 to Jan 8 bill cycle, where either there is a mass Duke conspiracy or my alt heat kicked on way too soon and ran way too often. We keep it 65 to 68 in winter. Maybe up 70 if in the house that day and just feeling too chilly with warmer clothes on already. In the summer we keep it like 76-78 and then bump to 75-74 for the night.
 
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RatLabGuy said:
Has anybody taken the time to use a thermal camera and look around their house? I've often thought that would be useful.
I brought home a direction temp gun w/ a laser site from work once, it was pretty illuminating to point as specific spots, but not nearly as useful as a full image.
I'd think a nice cold day like now would be ideal.
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I've always wanted to take one home from the fire dept and check my house out for fun. It's a rental so I doubt I'd do much to fix any little problems but I feel like there's a big one somwe here that would be worth the effort.
 
DSM Turbos said:
My house was built in 77. 1500 sq foot, all electric heat. Set at 68 during the night when at home, and 65 at overnight/daytime.

Dec 29 to Nov 28
kWh usage 1400
$143.3
Average temp 44
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Electric WH? How many hours of welding? Did you cook a turkey on Christmas? What about a ham? Do you have a plasma TV, or an LCD? Do you run the surround sound whenever you watch TV, or only on special occasions? Subwoofer? How many times a week do you estimate you run the vacuum?

Honestly, there are too many variables involved to make these a real apples to apples comparison. Still interesting, but before anybody reads too much into them, keep in mind that I've seen 3*F calibration error deltas in residential thermostats.
 
2,600 sq ft (heated not counting basement)
Built in 07
2,659 kwh 11/22 - 12/22
89 kwh/day this year
80 kwh/day last
 
shawn said:
Electric WH? How many hours of welding? Did you cook a turkey on Christmas? What about a ham? Do you have a plasma TV, or an LCD? Do you run the surround sound whenever you watch TV, or only on special occasions? Subwoofer? How many times a week do you estimate you run the vacuum?

Honestly, there are too many variables involved to make these a real apples to apples comparison. Still interesting, but before anybody reads too much into them, keep in mind that I've seen 3*F calibration error deltas in residential thermostats.
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When replaced tbe old stat w a programmable one, the next day we felt it was colder. I put the old stat back, waited a day and used a seperate thermometer to read, tben swapped again. 2 deg different.
Which is about enough for the average human to tell.
 
shawn said:
Electric WH? How many hours of welding? Did you cook a turkey on Christmas? What about a ham? Do you have a plasma TV, or an LCD? Do you run the surround sound whenever you watch TV, or only on special occasions? Subwoofer? How many times a week do you estimate you run the vacuum?

Honestly, there are too many variables involved to make these a real apples to apples comparison. Still interesting, but before anybody reads too much into them, keep in mind that I've seen 3*F calibration error deltas in residential thermostats.
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Electric WH from '77 efficient as hell!
I have no welder
Lets be honest, I don't cook, or use a vacuum - thats why I am currently looking for a new GF.
There are multiple computers in the house and LCD TVs though.
 
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