Just a lil worry: Electric Bill

[dmpteacher]

Well, I just bought my first house in November. I didn't get to live here for the 1st 2 weeks, so the thermostat wasn't programmed and it was unbelievably hot upstairs when I finally got here. (Oppressively hot!!!) All that to say, I got my electric bill Friday and it was $254. I nearly cried.

Here's some info about the house. It's a brand new Beazer townhome (which are supposed to be very energy efficient), 2 floors and 1216 sq. ft.
I set my thermostat at 68 degrees while I'm here and active, 65 when I'm asleep, and 62 when I'm gone.

I didnt' have window treatments until the last week or so, so maybe that was part of the problem, however, I really wasn't expecting a bill this large.

My mom has a 50 year old house at 1800 sq. ft. and even her bill wasn't this much for this month.

I contacted my contractor, but it seems as though he's done communicating with me since I closed on this house. Does anyone have a Beazer home or townhome? I just know that I definitely can't afford this amount of bill every month. Especially when they told me that my electric bill would be between $50 and $100.

HELP!!!!

 

[58cognac]

Does the statement show what date range you're being billed for? I would wonder if they are including any days prior to your close date. If it's for more than a normal 30 day cycle, or for dates before you took ownership, maybe you can take any dated closing papers to the electric company for a dispute of charges. If the dates match, there are electric companies(at least here in TX) that will let you "balance" the payment over several weeks. Just a thought.

I know that when we bought our first home, the sticker shock came the second year when the escrow(unimproved property) that wasn't included the whole first year was added to the second year. Double the escrow doubled our monthly mortgage pmt. Yikes!

 

[lisabarr]

Beazer had a ton of issues here in Florida. Matter-of-fact, I believe they filed bankruptcy here after being hit with a class action for shoddy workmanship and mortgage fraud.

 

[Pamlur]

Could there be a connection/startup fee or transfer fee in there?

 

[sjs314]

I do not have any knowledge of your particular type home but I have to ask how many heat zones is it? We found out do to our own ignorance that our home had 2 zones and if we turned the downstairs thermostate down at night the upstairs heat ran and ran making it terribly hot at night. The cold air from downstairs hit the upstairs thermostat so that the heat ran constantly during the night.

As someone who has heated with electric, gas and oil , I have to say expecting a bill of between $50 and $100 during the winter months seems a little unrealistic , sounds more like a normal lighting/appliance bill to me.

 

[SweetPeasMom2]

I would also check to see if there is some kind of carry over from the building process. When we built our house, there was some carry over on our bill from the construction portion of the process (but we were the builders so it all came out of the same pot).

 

[*love*2*shop]

BUT YOUR BILL ISNT JUST HEAT CORRECT? its electric too right...so all the lights, appliances running...if thats HEAT and your lights etc...that isnt bad.......

 

[AlternateEgo]

Sometimes electric companies don't check your meter, but go off an average of previous months. If they were building your home, it might have been pretty high. call your electric company.

 

[dmpteacher]

Could there be a connection/startup fee or transfer fee in there?

There is a connection fee. I did forget to mention that. The transfer fee was $15, so the actual bill was $239, still WAY too high in my opinion.

The person who said to check the billing cycle. I had it switched over on the 19th (my closing date) because otherwise, Beazer would turn it off and I'd have to pay a connection fee rather that just a transfer fee. So the cycle goes along with the time period that I owned it.

 

[dmpteacher]

BUT YOUR BILL ISNT JUST HEAT CORRECT? its electric too right...so all the lights, appliances running...if thats HEAT and your lights etc...that isnt bad.......

Yes, true, but I hardly use any lights, just mainly lamps around the house and I only use CFLs (CFLs are the ONLY thing in this house.. another Beazer feature). About the only thing running consistently is the refrigerator, and maybe TV (for a few hours).

I just wonder if I'm doing something wrong. There is no reason for this house to have that bill. Like I said, my mom's 50 year old 1800 sq. ft. house didn't even have that high of a bill.

 

[dfchelbay]

Well, I just bought my first house in November. I didn't get to live here for the 1st 2 weeks, so the thermostat wasn't programmed and it was unbelievably hot upstairs when I finally got here. (Oppressively hot!!!) All that to say, I got my electric bill Friday and it was $254. I nearly cried.

Here's some info about the house. It's a brand new Beazer townhome (which are supposed to be very energy efficient), 2 floors and 1216 sq. ft.
I set my thermostat at 68 degrees while I'm here and active, 65 when I'm asleep, and 62 when I'm gone.

I didnt' have window treatments until the last week or so, so maybe that was part of the problem, however, I really wasn't expecting a bill this large.

My mom has a 50 year old house at 1800 sq. ft. and even her bill wasn't this much for this month.

I contacted my contractor, but it seems as though he's done communicating with me since I closed on this house. Does anyone have a Beazer home or townhome? I just know that I definitely can't afford this amount of bill every month. Especially when they told me that my electric bill would be between $50 and $100.

HELP!!!!

Are you the first owner of this home...is it brand new construction? If not, call the electric company and ask them for the averages for the last twelve months. To see if this is the norm, or if its way out of wack.

 

[princessmom29]

It sounds to me like the heat got left turned up for the two weeks between when you closed and when you moved in. What did the thermostat say when you got there and it was so hot?

If that isthe problem then you will be responsible for it this month, but it should go way down.

 

[leight]

was this a read usage from your meter? If not and you are in a townhome community, they may be averaging the usage for everyone else -including those under construction. I would call and ask to have the meter read and get a real idea of your usage for that time frame. Also ask them to come out and do an analysis of your appliances, lighting, & heating/cooling systems-most utilities will do this as a complimentary service to get you to use less energy. Good luck and congrats on the new home!

 

[tinker&belle]

We own a Beazer home. You might check your attic insulation. Our neighbor moved in and had REALLY high bills. They checked the attic insulation and IT WASN"T DONE! There was NO insulation in the attic. If it is new construction and something like this Beazer should fix it. STAY ON THEM and push or it won't happen.

 

[dmpteacher]

I hope I cover all of the replies.

Yes, it's brand new construction. I'm the 1st person to live here and I know the attic is insulated. I had my own personal inspector come to make sure everything was ok here. I hadn't thought about the meter reading though. I would think they'd read it just for my own place, but I might call and check.

I totally agree with the person who said the heat being so high those 2 weeks might've done it. For the 1st few days I was here, I had to sleep with the windows cracked just to be comfortable. I know I wasted electricity by doing that, but didn't know what else to do at that point. I did talk to a co-worker who has the exact same townhome as I do and she shuts her vents (which are in the ceiling) upstairs and it helped heat her downstairs. She just has a space heater upstairs. I tried that and it didn't really help.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

It could be the fluctuation in your temps.

In our old house we turned the heat down at night. Well that was the highest set of bills we ever got!

Apparently the heating unit took more energy to warm the whole place back up then when we would have left the temps the same.

 

[dmpteacher]

It could be the fluctuation in your temps.

In our old house we turned the heat down at night. Well that was the highest set of bills we ever got!

Apparently the heating unit took more energy to warm the whole place back up then when we would have left the temps the same.

Huh... I hadn't really thought of that! Why would they make programmable thermostats then if that's going to use more energy? (Just a hypothetical)

I think I'm going to try what I'm doing now (now that I have window treatments and storm doors coming in this week) and see if it goes down any.

Thanks for the suggestions and help so far!!

 

[sunnyday123]

It sounds to me like the heat got left turned up for the two weeks between when you closed and when you moved in. What did the thermostat say when you got there and it was so hot?

If that isthe problem then you will be responsible for it this month, but it should go way down.

This is what I was thinking.

 

[Jenn4615]

I wish my bill was 254!
We've built three homes... def make sure you aren't being charged for any days before settlement... Builder is supposed to contact the electric company, but they don't always...

 

[scbelleatheart]

We moved recently and my DH about died over an $180 electric bill for 2800 sq. ft. and we heat with gas so i feel your pain. We were gone for about 3 months and the bills stayed the same. Turns out we have 2 furnaces but they are heat pumps and switch over to aux heat. We never even knew about the one in the attic. We're switching those out to just high efficiency next year but they are 9 years old and we rarely need to use them. Upstairs has been turned to 55 and downstairs stays on 65 but if the temp drops outside below 32 aux heat comes on.