Has any ones bill went up in the last two months? I am on auto pay , so I know payments have not been late.
My last 2 bills were 226 and 218. And I don't know why. We have a gas pack and I do laundry and dishes in off peak hours. Duke Energy is screwing us.
Checked my bill, price per kw didn't change. Just my usage was up for my last bill since I was home more from the holidays, had family visiting, and it was cold. I keep a spreadsheet with all the info from every bill in it to track my usage.
If I had such distain for them as Sherry and Hught seem to have, I'd just...................................quit paying them.
$119 and $97 were my last 2. Only 1500 square foot house though. All electric and large freezer in mudroom. Rolling 2 year average as of today is $79.75
How do you keep your bill so low? We have just over 1500 square feet and ours runs $200. Give me some hints. Pat
Energy Bill-Tips Hi Pat. I will try and explain what works for us and hopefully you and others can benefit as well. 1. Effective utilization of your heat pump. Days like this when the afternoon ambient temperature highs are in the 50's and overnight lows are in the 20's-30's are a good example. What I do is around 11am when the temps are in the 40's heading to the 50's is I will start inching my thermostat up 1 degree about every half hour until my temp is around the 72 degrees and then I will bring the set temp back down to 64. Even when I reach 72 with my house facing the south side and all my blinds up, I am able to catch and maximize any solar gains from the sun. Depending on sun and outside temp, I can maybe reach 73-74 degrees. With the indoor temps 73-74 during the late afternoon, and my set temp @ 64 depending on the overnight temperature, my heat may not even kick on. Here is the money maker...the lesser amount of times your heat kicks on while your overnight temps are in the 20-30 range, the better because it is during this time that heat becomes expensive....this is when the heat strips come on as the heat pump is unable to use any outside warmth. 2. During the summertime what I do as an example is say my inside temp is 74 degrees and it is projected to be hot around 90+. lets say around 5am before the sun starts to rise and the outside temp is say 62, I will open all my windows and doors and get the house as cool as I can, I will even use a fan or two to maximize the air flow to cool it down. lets say I am able to lower the inside temp to 68-70 degrees by 7-8am, I will shut all windows/doors and close all blinds. When i do this, I can get to mid-late afternoon before my inside temp reaches say 80 degrees. Some other information-tips that might help. All my windows are low "E", argon gas windows which work well. 50 gallon electric hot water heater loosely wrapped with insulation-don't wrap to tight. Crawl space and attic must be able to breath. Do not use these special merv-micron filters that can stop a gnats fart, because if it can stop all these things, it surely is restricting your air flow, using more energy and when dealing with HVAC, its all about air flow. This is what I use. Also make sure your return is sized properly. Mine was originally 16x20. Resized mine to 20X25. its all about air flow. Fan speed is important as well and that should be worthy of research. Heat-cool your house to fast is not good...minimize the amount of times your system is turning on and off. My heat pump is nothing special at all. Replaced my old unit in 2001 with a 13 Seer Ruud achiever series unit. So anyone with a more efficient system should do well. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbrande...-Air-Filter-Case-of-12-10055-012025/203143715 Exterior doors. I have 5 of them. 2 front, 2 rear and 1 garage. You need to ensure that they are sealed properly. Use a incense on a cool drafty day to determine any leaks and/or late a night, use flash light. Check your hot water heater. I set mine at 120. Some are set way to high. I have a high temp booster on my dishwasher and always use my dishwasher, never wash by hand. Coffee...love my coffee morning noon and night..almost as much as I love my IPA's. I have a coffee machine with a carafe, and as soon as it's done dripping...off she goes. No heating element drawing for hours. Options for laundry. Pin them out occasionally as well as cloths racks. I use a small counter top convection oven that uses less energy then a oven. As far as our house, there is 3 of us. One is a teenager who loves long hot showers. if I think of any additional tips, I'll add them. Hope this helps.
An "On demand" water heater will save money too. The gas versions are more efficient, IMO, but there are some decent electric models which do not require the several gallons of water to be kept warm all of the time.
Ours jumped $130.00, and we have LED - we call it The Coal Ash Tax. Duke Energy just "won" another 5% hike through the courts - AG tried to stop it.
Does anyone have a link to current on/off peak times for Duke/Progress? I have found a couple of conflicting sources. A bonus would be if these links contain the rates for off and off-peak
