I received in the mail from Pacific Gas & Electric a great reading which is the best. It stated my energy consumption was up 2% from the previous year. I try to be careful and not be wasteful. I think PG&E has gone up though. They need to pay for the lawsuits from the exploding gas lines and major fires due to suspected poorly maintained lines somehow.
I usually get good or great from PG&E also. More so in the winter because I don't use heat too much. Even in the summer I'll get a good report because I'm not home all the time, otherwise my bill would be very high with all the A/C I need here.
Duke Energy sends an email telling you how you have done when compared with homes the size and similarly equipped as yours. Mine is usually in the lowest number of usage. But, I dread to see what it will be this month. My heat pump switches to the heat strips when the temperature goes down to about 20ยบ. It has been running on the heat strips for the last week or ten days. Can anybody spare a dime to help a poor old lady pay her electric bill?
@Shirley Martin Sorry about that. When I owned the house, about 1100 square feet, I had a heat pump also (new had to replace the piece of crap that came with the place) I ran it on the heat strips only. If I ran it naturally, I'd get all the smoke from all the houses running their stoves. I had a fireplace but never used it. I want one of those fake stoves. The highest bill I ever got was $140-something. It never went over 150. That was winter only. It was less in the summer. What I would do was heat the place and then turn it off. When I felt cold again which could be an hour or two later, I'd run it again I would then and now leave my AC on for the cats. I don't run the heat at all when I'm not home. The cats just have to keep each other warm and Chloe liked her covered bed I always found her in. My Tortie Daphne never minded the cold. I'm in an upstairs apartment that doesn't get the afternoon sun. I think my largest electric bill last summer was 70-something. Could have been over 80 but no higher for sure.
In the winter I'm usually below $60 but in the summer it's above $150. The house is almost 2,000 sq ft but I have most of the bedrooms closed along with the vents in those rooms.
That's actually pretty good @Chrissy Cross When I owned that house I heard two of the idiot neighbors bragging to each other about their electric bills. One was over 300 and the other over 400. They both had pools and hot tubs. We had experienced a heat wave and I kept my AC at 84 and my bill was less than 80 dollars if I remember right.