Reeling over latest PEPCO bill, several questions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you have electric heat? If not, there no good reason why your Pepco bill would be that high. (Unless you're confusing Washington Gas with Pepco, which I doubt). Did you just move in? Check the 12month utility bills from the prev owner to see if this is comparable.

Go to PEPCO.com. If you have a new smart meter, there's a link on the website to tell you exactly the electricity usage is per hour (might be to the minute). Check to see when it spikes and plunges to see what appliance/use might be the cause.

Check your outlets and plugs to see if anything was left on accidently. Your electricity bill should not be doubling unless there's an energy hog somewhere.

If you do find that your heating system is the cause of high bill (it's always running), check the following:

Single Pane windows do cause loss of heat, but nothing like lack of insulation would do on the ceilings and air coming in through the basement/ground floors. If your top floor and lowest floors have a huge temp range (greater than 15degrees), that might be the cause.

#1 solution is to air seal - Caulk and seal around doors, window frames, etc.
#2 - check the ceiling insulation to see if you have adequate insulation (should be about 9inches of loose fill insulation or more around here).
#3 - check ceiling penetrations (overhead lights, vents, ceiling fans, etc.) that might be leaking air into the attic/joists, and seal them.

When those are ruled out as the cause, then go for the windows. Changing windows aren't cheap, and the above "fixes" are usually cheaper and better.

OP here, yes its electric heat. We have no gas to the house at all. Thanks for these suggestions.

[Anonymous]

You can go to Home Depot and buy the felt seal strips for your windows. They have adhesive on one side and the felt strip on the other. Do that to all of your windows- makes a big difference in drafts.
Also, if you don't have window coverings, check out the thermal roller shades. These make a difference in all seasons.
Along the same lines- buy thermal backings for your window panels.
While you're at it, re-caulk/seal the interior edges of your windows and trim. Over time it separates and can let a draft in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check to see if you have an auxiliary heating system. Those kick on when temps fluctuate rapidly or wher you make big changes in your settings. Auxiliary heat doubles the Amoy of energy you use. This was the root of my neighbors super high bills.

If this PP is still around, can you elaborate? We do in fact have an aux heating system and we've noticed that it is kicking in occasionally. We haven't made any big changes in our settings though, and I can't figure out how to prevent it from going into aux heat (other than turning off the heat I guess). How did your neighbor resolve this issue?