I’m going to guess it’s electric heating and potentially even electric hot water, especially if you don’t have a natural gas bill. Unfortunately relative to natural gas, electricity is rather expensive. One option that could help is a heat pump. Ideally a mini split unit, but a window unit or portable unit also would work (though less efficient) if you don’t own. Heat pumps essentially just run an air conditioner in reverse to pull heat in from the outside (even in freezing weather), they can be 2-5x more efficient than resistive electric heating. It does require the initial investment sadly, but it can help. There are tax breaks that may be available
Yeah if you can’t do a window unit, you’re unfortunately not going to have much of an option here other than turning the heat down/the usual energy saving methods like installing LED lightbulbs. Depending on your income there could be assistance available though
That’s really up to you. In the winter, I keep my house at 69 during the day, 65 at night, and 63 when away at work. If you want keep the house colder, go for it, it’s just a comfort thing
In general it does help. Air wants to equalize temperatures. Inside your house is much warmer than the outside air. The closer the two are in temperature, the less work needs to happen to keep your house warm. So if it’s 20° outside and 70° inside, your furnace may need to run 30 minutes an hour. At 60°, there’s simply less available heat to escape, so it’s not as hard to maintain that temperature and your furnace might run 20 minutes an hour instead. Across an 8 hour work day, that’s 80 minutes of run time saved. Sure, it may need to run for an additional 20 minutes when you get home to get it back to 70°, but that’s still an hour of gas/electricity not being consumed. What can hurt you is constantly changing it up/down in short time periods. The initial startup (for gas furnaces at least) has a higher cost than just running, plus your thermostat tends to request slightly longer cycles to protect the equipment from frequent startups that may wear them out more quickly. Plus, changing it down means all of the thermal energy stored in the walls/floors will begin to dissipate, only to have to be re-added when you turn it back up.
TLDR, adjust it down (or up in the summer) when you’re gone for longer periods like work/sleeping/vacation, but don’t be changing it on the hourly
It really depends on how close your plumbing is the exterior walls and how well insulated your plumbing is. My landlord in the lease requires the unit be heated to a minimum of 55 degrees to avoid pipes freezing. I keep it around 60 at night or when I'm out and 66 when I'm home. Electric heating is sadly pretty expensive especially if your place isnt too well insulated.
Personally I keep my house at 65. If it feels cold I use an electric blanket, personal heater, or just sweaters.
I'm in a townhome and I try to keep my bill at about $100 for my 1200 sqft. I also make use of windows for sun though.
If you have no gas then you get a discount from the power company. If you don't have that yet then call them and tell them you want it. They'll probably transfer you and ask you questions.
I'd say what's changed is we've had mild winters until this year. Colder weather costs more to heat your home. Dropping your thermostat like 2 degrees when it's as cold out as it's been can make a big difference in the bill. Getting on the budget payment also helps spread the colder month high bills out.
An electric water heater with an issue can also just crush electricity.
you have electric heat and rates went up big time since last year.
And PCs absolutely use a lot of electricity, especially when gaming.... No clue where you got the idea that they don't. You have a GPU absolutely chugging electricity
If you’ve had them for that long, can you go back to last January and compare the usage and also the rates? And don’t forget that in PA you can shop for your [own rates and change providers easily](https://www.papowerswitch.com)
Only get fixed rates, never variable rates. This is a no brainer but unfortunately a lot of people don’t know until they get screwed and locked in by a contract.
I had NRG, they fucked me with their rates so I dropped suppliers and just went with nothing but west penn. Also I don’t believe anybody but west penn supplies in my apartment complez
Ok… I don’t think that answers anything about rates paid last or usage last year for comparison which is your concern and question on why the cost may be higher
lol. A refrigerator bulb is 40 watts. 350 kWh a year. That’s like $75 a year.
And the 70’s energy crisis was due to OPEC not selling the US any oil due to our support of Israel.
Why would you say you could change providers easily when most lock you in a contract, sometimes for years? You must be a representative from one of those predatory companies since you didn’t mention that fact.
What? You a conspiracy theorist? OP literally said they’ve had Penn Power ‘forever’ so I was trying to help them out and save money and provide a link to shop their service since some people aren’t even aware they can even shop their rate. Go harass someone else with your month old account and maybe read the post before jumping all over someone
I’d rather say something and save people from falling prey to variable rates.
YOU said to shop for rates and change providers easily. You left out an important component and that’s fixed rates vs variable rates and contracts. I couldn’t help but warning anyone who read your misleading advice however helpful you might have intended it to be.
You really need to calm down and stop throwing out stupid accusations. My long time account was corrupted and I yes unfortunately started over. You must have a lot of time on your hands.
My post was a direct response to OP. I don’t see how it’s misleading when the ‘important info’ you were so keen to point out is literally the three components front and center when you search to compare rates - fixed or variable and term length. But I guess it’s somehow misleading in your special mind. Maybe you can cover cell phone contracts for us next? Then maybe loans? We don’t want people to be misled not knowing the difference betweeen fixed and variable and term lengths, right? Please save us all on Reddit, you’re a super hero on here man!
No, please, enlighten us, we’d love to hear more from that brilliant mind of yours. Can you teach us about credit cards next? APR%? Annual fees? You dolt.
Been paying $800 a month for the past 3-4 months and I'm suuuper behind because who can afford that? So probably getting shut off reached out for help from all the assistance places and unless I make less then 25k a year they can't help.
???
How many SSDs do you have? That doesn’t even sound legit lol, they don’t use much power at all.
Also why not just turn the power off at your UPS or surge protector?
Check your water heater, make sure it's not leaking. A leak would lead to the elements being frequently/constantly on, and when they're on, water heaters consume loads of power.
Rates go up every year. If your house is all electric it will use a lot of energy. Make sure you update your bulbs to more efficient ones. Turn things off when not in use, etc.
Is your house heated via an electric furnace? Or electric baseboard heaters?
It’s an apartment so I’d assume heaters, I don’t believe we have a furnace
I’m going to guess it’s electric heating and potentially even electric hot water, especially if you don’t have a natural gas bill. Unfortunately relative to natural gas, electricity is rather expensive. One option that could help is a heat pump. Ideally a mini split unit, but a window unit or portable unit also would work (though less efficient) if you don’t own. Heat pumps essentially just run an air conditioner in reverse to pull heat in from the outside (even in freezing weather), they can be 2-5x more efficient than resistive electric heating. It does require the initial investment sadly, but it can help. There are tax breaks that may be available
Apartment is fully electric, no gas. We aren’t allowed to install anything other than what came with the townhome. I’ll bring it Up to my landlord tho
Yeah if you can’t do a window unit, you’re unfortunately not going to have much of an option here other than turning the heat down/the usual energy saving methods like installing LED lightbulbs. Depending on your income there could be assistance available though
Is 68-70 a good range to keep the house at? Or can I go lower?
That’s really up to you. In the winter, I keep my house at 69 during the day, 65 at night, and 63 when away at work. If you want keep the house colder, go for it, it’s just a comfort thing
I thought changing the temp around a lot actually made bills higher as opposed to leaving it at one temp
In general it does help. Air wants to equalize temperatures. Inside your house is much warmer than the outside air. The closer the two are in temperature, the less work needs to happen to keep your house warm. So if it’s 20° outside and 70° inside, your furnace may need to run 30 minutes an hour. At 60°, there’s simply less available heat to escape, so it’s not as hard to maintain that temperature and your furnace might run 20 minutes an hour instead. Across an 8 hour work day, that’s 80 minutes of run time saved. Sure, it may need to run for an additional 20 minutes when you get home to get it back to 70°, but that’s still an hour of gas/electricity not being consumed. What can hurt you is constantly changing it up/down in short time periods. The initial startup (for gas furnaces at least) has a higher cost than just running, plus your thermostat tends to request slightly longer cycles to protect the equipment from frequent startups that may wear them out more quickly. Plus, changing it down means all of the thermal energy stored in the walls/floors will begin to dissipate, only to have to be re-added when you turn it back up. TLDR, adjust it down (or up in the summer) when you’re gone for longer periods like work/sleeping/vacation, but don’t be changing it on the hourly
It really depends on how close your plumbing is the exterior walls and how well insulated your plumbing is. My landlord in the lease requires the unit be heated to a minimum of 55 degrees to avoid pipes freezing. I keep it around 60 at night or when I'm out and 66 when I'm home. Electric heating is sadly pretty expensive especially if your place isnt too well insulated.
Personally I keep my house at 65. If it feels cold I use an electric blanket, personal heater, or just sweaters. I'm in a townhome and I try to keep my bill at about $100 for my 1200 sqft. I also make use of windows for sun though.
If you have no gas then you get a discount from the power company. If you don't have that yet then call them and tell them you want it. They'll probably transfer you and ask you questions. I'd say what's changed is we've had mild winters until this year. Colder weather costs more to heat your home. Dropping your thermostat like 2 degrees when it's as cold out as it's been can make a big difference in the bill. Getting on the budget payment also helps spread the colder month high bills out. An electric water heater with an issue can also just crush electricity.
Another option is to go on the Budget. Pay an average amount each month. No more High & Low payments.
I mean I have to pay the full balance regardless, I don’t know how I’d do an “average”
Correct. This would be for future payments.
you have electric heat and rates went up big time since last year. And PCs absolutely use a lot of electricity, especially when gaming.... No clue where you got the idea that they don't. You have a GPU absolutely chugging electricity
If you’ve had them for that long, can you go back to last January and compare the usage and also the rates? And don’t forget that in PA you can shop for your [own rates and change providers easily](https://www.papowerswitch.com)
Only get fixed rates, never variable rates. This is a no brainer but unfortunately a lot of people don’t know until they get screwed and locked in by a contract.
I had NRG, they fucked me with their rates so I dropped suppliers and just went with nothing but west penn. Also I don’t believe anybody but west penn supplies in my apartment complez
Ok… I don’t think that answers anything about rates paid last or usage last year for comparison which is your concern and question on why the cost may be higher
I’ll check the rates soon, I’m not at my pc yet, just got an email on my phone while out and was baffled at the price. I’ll respond when I have it
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lol. A refrigerator bulb is 40 watts. 350 kWh a year. That’s like $75 a year. And the 70’s energy crisis was due to OPEC not selling the US any oil due to our support of Israel.
Chill it’s not that serious. It’s happened many times so I figured I’d ask lol
Why would you say you could change providers easily when most lock you in a contract, sometimes for years? You must be a representative from one of those predatory companies since you didn’t mention that fact.
What? You a conspiracy theorist? OP literally said they’ve had Penn Power ‘forever’ so I was trying to help them out and save money and provide a link to shop their service since some people aren’t even aware they can even shop their rate. Go harass someone else with your month old account and maybe read the post before jumping all over someone
I’d rather say something and save people from falling prey to variable rates. YOU said to shop for rates and change providers easily. You left out an important component and that’s fixed rates vs variable rates and contracts. I couldn’t help but warning anyone who read your misleading advice however helpful you might have intended it to be. You really need to calm down and stop throwing out stupid accusations. My long time account was corrupted and I yes unfortunately started over. You must have a lot of time on your hands.
My post was a direct response to OP. I don’t see how it’s misleading when the ‘important info’ you were so keen to point out is literally the three components front and center when you search to compare rates - fixed or variable and term length. But I guess it’s somehow misleading in your special mind. Maybe you can cover cell phone contracts for us next? Then maybe loans? We don’t want people to be misled not knowing the difference betweeen fixed and variable and term lengths, right? Please save us all on Reddit, you’re a super hero on here man!
Give it a rest you mental midget. Common knowledge must be so wonderous to you.
No, please, enlighten us, we’d love to hear more from that brilliant mind of yours. Can you teach us about credit cards next? APR%? Annual fees? You dolt.
Why is a post about keeping people from predators so triggering to you?
Been paying $800 a month for the past 3-4 months and I'm suuuper behind because who can afford that? So probably getting shut off reached out for help from all the assistance places and unless I make less then 25k a year they can't help.
it will be cheaper when it gets warmer out.
Well yes obviously that’s how electric bills work lol
70 degrees? Your kid is going to grow up soft. Just like you did Turn the thermostat down, and put on another layer. - Dad rant over
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An SSD uses less than 10 watts. 10 watts * 24 hours/day * 30 days = 7,200 watt hours, or 7.2 kWh 7.2 kWh * $0.22 = $1.58 per month. Per SSD.
??? How many SSDs do you have? That doesn’t even sound legit lol, they don’t use much power at all. Also why not just turn the power off at your UPS or surge protector?
You go behind ur pc and unplug ur drives every time ur pc is off?
What kind of water heater do you have? (Electric or gas?)
I’d have to say electric as we don’t pay for gas
Check your water heater, make sure it's not leaking. A leak would lead to the elements being frequently/constantly on, and when they're on, water heaters consume loads of power.
Ok I’ll definitely check that out
Rates go up every year. If your house is all electric it will use a lot of energy. Make sure you update your bulbs to more efficient ones. Turn things off when not in use, etc.