$82 electric bill for 700 sqft no ac apartment? (how much, water heater)

[Sunday1]

Originally Posted by liz451

Is this right? Is electricity through Edison that much more expensive than Phoenix (where we moved from)? We have an 800 sq ft apartment with no ac or washer/dryer and just received this for our first full month. We have a couple tower fans we use in rooms and one tv. I'm not sure how energy compliant the kitchen appliances are but they are only a few years old. In Phoenix in our two story 1600 sq ft townhouse when ac was off our bill would only be $70/month!

And yes, I do plan to get on the website and do some analysis but I'm just frankly shocked! My brother lives in San Diego and his is typically $40/month with a very similar set up so was expecting a bill much more along those lines.

Southern California Edison rates are crazy-high:


https://www.jea.com/Manage_My_Accoun...omparison.aspx

[russlancea]

You can have Edison come out and access the usage. My husband and I did that when we were in a 2 bedroom w/o A/C and no kids at the time. Our bills would be $50, then higher and higher until it was near $100 for just 2 people in a 900 sqft apt.

My husband's coworkers, all computer guys, didn't have high bills like he and I did, so we were curious. Edison was nice. The guy checked all the appliances and everything and it turned out that it was mostly the hubby's "toys" that caused the high usage--yeah, something like 3 computers on all day long, a laptop, etc. Don't ask me why he "needed" all that. A man just needs his Macs and a Windows-based computer for gaming. He works hard, doesn't gamble, get drunk, etc., so I'm okay.

But sheesh. $100 a month for his computers, oh, and the dinosaur fridge we inherited after getting married. Just have Edison out to check. You're also comparing Orange County rates to Phoenix, which is another city, etc. Rates are only going to get worse

[brainwashed_in_church]

Huntsville AL is seven cents a kWh.

[Sunday1]

Southern California Edison rates are extremely high compared to other parts of the country and your cost is about right.

Chicago 114.42 KWH
Seattle 109.55
Portland 128.44
Sacram 180.66
So Cal 313.12

https://www.jea.com/Manage_My_Accoun...omparison.aspx

[liz451]

So according to our bill we were in tier 3 at 483 kWh with avg daily usage of 16 kWh. I did an online chat with SCE and they were not very helpful. Our usage is very high in the mornings - like 3kWh at 8, 9, or 10 am. She seems to think the coffee maker and me occasionally scrambling eggs causes that. I do work from home but the high usage happened this week when I was out of town and my boyfriend was at work (of course the SCE employee had no answer for that).

As far as hot water it might be a good theory but we live in a condo building and have no hot water unit in condo. I'm not sure if that means it's somewhere else or HOA covers it.

Any other thoughts? I'm going to ask if they can come out and assess usage because it's overall very weird. I can afford the $80/month but I was hoping to at least have a lower electric bill when all my other bills went up with the move!

[Sunday1]

They weren't very helpful because the rates are the rates! 313.2 KPH. (See above).

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by liz451

So according to our bill we were in tier 3 at 483 kWh with avg daily usage of 16 kWh. I did an online chat with SCE and they were not very helpful. Our usage is very high in the mornings - like 3kWh at 8, 9, or 10 am. She seems to think the coffee maker and me occasionally scrambling eggs causes that.

The amount of the bill seems reasonable for 483 kWh. Your customer charge is probably about $15 a month and your rate is about 13.87 cents per kilowatt hour. Look on your bill it should give you the exact figures.

Keep track of when you do laundry and check if your usage goes up on those days. I can easily see that laundry was done on Monday, by the extra 20-30 kWh usage. If it tracks with laundry than you know it is hot water.

Call your HOA about the water. It would be unusual for the condo association to cover hot water. Your heater may be in the basement where you can't see it.

Thu, Aug 29, 2013 53
Fri, Aug 30, 2013 58
Sat, Aug 31, 2013 56
Sun, Sep 1, 2013 63
Mon, Sep 2, 2013 86 <========
Tue, Sep 3, 2013 56
Wed, Sep 4, 2013 34
Thu, Sep 5, 2013 57

I am still betting on hot water. Coffee makers and rangetop cooking don't use 3kWh . A 4 cup Coffee pot is 650 watts but it only takes 10 minutes to brew the coffee. The warmer shouldn't be that expensive.

That is the equivalent of fifty 60 Watt light bulbs being on at once.

The other possibility is that you have a tankless hot water heater. It would be relatively small (possibly less than 10 lbs) and less than a foot in length. You may have overlooked it.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by Sunday1

Southern California Edison rates are extremely high compared to other parts of the country and your cost is about right.
So Cal 313.12

My last bill in PA was 2536 kWh for $206.34. So that bill is shockingly high for only 1250 kWh. Are you on tiers?

[pacific2]

Originally Posted by liz451

I'm going to ask if they can come out and assess usage because it's overall very weird. !

This sounds like the best thing to do because your bill is exceptionally high.

[kwong7]

I would demand an audit or investigation with SCE and/or your property manager. When my wife I lived in an 800 sq ft 1BD/1BA apartment with washer/dryer & AC, our bill as $35 on the average. We now live in a 2000 sq ft 3BD/2BA house and our electricity bill is $40 on the average (I run the AC about an hour a week on average).

My friend's condo in Fullerton had a similar issue as you describe. He was never home and he unplugged just about everything, yet his bill was still $100 a month. SCE was not helpful for him either. I suspected that someone was stilling his electricity and running their AC off his line. He turned off the AC switch at his electrical panel and his bill shrank to $30.