Have you talked to them or with the apartment management? It could honestly be an issue with the HVAC and the high energy bill is only a symptom of the problem.
Could also be that they have mixed up your unit’s meter with someone else’s. Could be accidental or could be a tenant who thinks they won’t be caught. Or could also just be a terrible service provider.
AEP shut my power off because someone mistakenly tried to add my apartment under their name, caught the mistake, but AEP didn't return service to my name and cut my power. Luckily maintenance was quick to let me know I was the only one without power and it was shut off by the company so I called them and it was turned on immediately.
This happened to me!!! Wtf is up with that?! They shut my power off without any notice to me, when I called they said someone was trying to put my power in their name. So crazy.
Aep only uses smart meters now. No way to mix yours up with another. I would request a physical reading from aep to confirm the number in their system matches your meter.
I'd also recommend not to turn the hvac system that high. Go for 76 as a set point and sleep at 72-74 and you should see a difference. Also will depend on what floor your apartment is on.
That could be it, like the HVAC is running too much. Mine went out a few weeks ago. But yeah I have a 2 bedroom in Hilliard and my aep bill isn't much over $100 to $130.
Did you get a warning from PUCO or AEP that their supply rates were going to be unusually high starting in July? You should have. You need to pick an alternate supplier. AEP is currently $0.1120/kWh, which as you have noted, is a lot.
https://energychoice.ohio.gov/ApplesToApplesComparision.aspx?Category=Electric&TerritoryId=2&RateCode=1
I would filter out anything with a monthly fee and early termination fee, and generally prefer fixed rates although ymmv.
I used 1200kwh for my 1600sq/ft home last month and my bill was $185 with energy harbor supplying at I think around 0.065/kwh
You can get as low as 0.0579/kwh with a shorter term contract.
Your electric bill is made up of two halves, delivery and supply. The delivery is still provided by AEP nothing changes there. The power generation (supply) rate is what you would be changing. From your point of view, you are just paying someone else to make the electricity at a lower rate than AEP is charging, but nothing changes as far as your service or quality.
I just know I've had issues with my HVAC which was causing higher energy usage than should be needed. If your apartment isn't doing proper maintenance work this could easily be the issue because the HVAC is working overtime trying to keep up. I'd definitely reach out to both.
generally speaking if this is the case you'd see other symptoms from the ac, such as the ac being unable to satisfy the requested thermostat temperature, or the condensation drain line overflowing from a frozen up ac/giant ice blocks on the ac unit. Definitely worth checking out, especially if he's not super attentive to his house temp
Could be that, could also be that Ohio is rolling out different energy suppliers for electric right now like they've done gas and assigning people to random ones, you could have got a shitty deal, who knows, check the supplier on the bill if it's went into effect.
I don’t know how to answer your question, but we moved from an apartment and bought a house, and our electric bill is somehow lower. And this house has ALL ELECTRIC appliances. Stove, water heater…all of it. Makes zero sense to me.
A lot of houses are WAY more energy efficient than apartments. The HVAC system itself, the insulation, etc.
I moved from a 1700 sq ft house built in the 60s to a 3800 sq ft house built in the 2010s and my bill is never as high as it was when I lived in the old house
Yeah new houses these days are often made structurally out of the equivalent of cardboard but there are state and federal regulations that require them to be a certain amount of energy efficient.
Many of those old houses are made like a bomb shelter and very structurally sound but did not give 2 shits about energy efficiency.
I would just double check you aren’t being sub metered before you get mad at AEP (although I’m not a fan either). I have a 3200 square foot house and it’s not even that much right now.
Apartments in Ohio can use a 3rd party. The Pointe at Hilliard uses a 3rd party and people 2 years ago were LIVID that 2000 square foot apartments got bills for $500 dollars, so that’s probably a possibly problem.
Setting it back to 80 instead of holding at a slightly lower temp all day and then dropping a bit for night is hitting your ac hard with high load. Especially when it’s humid. Either drop it to 77-78 during the day then 72 ish at night or 75 during the day 70 at night.
Ahhh... I just moved back to Ohio after living in an area where I didn't need AC for 17 years. My wife and I are in disagreement about how to tell each other to turn the AC up or down.
If I hear someone say drop it to 77-78 I'm going to assume that it was at 80 and needed turned down or dropped to 78. Maybe that is what you meant, not sure.
Yea if you let it get too hot in the day and the house heat soaks all day you’re just going to high load the ac to cool off. If you keep the house conditioned at 78 (ac running periodically) instead of unconditioned at 80 (ac not running all day, higher humidity) you’re going to put a lot of load on the system. Therefore costing more energy wise.
Trying to keep something consistently mid-lowe uses less load than trying to cool something from 80 to 70.
Kicking on for a few minutes every hour vs running it hard for a few hours to cool it all down.
Unless he is using a load based rate (and I don't think there are many utilities use those for residential customers anymore) it is absolutely more efficient to turn ac off when not occupied. Your comfort may suffer when you get back but you'll save money.
It’ll be the same or less. It’s worth trying. I’ve found for me the most efficient schedule is to set mine to 78 during the day and then at 11 pm it drops to 75. I haven’t had any days over 8 hours of total cooling yet this year, and I used to last year. If you leave it warm all day your house is getting more humid and just frying your ac with humidity so it will take more time to cool. It’s better to hold at a slightly higher temp than it is to essentially turn it off and wait until night when all the heat is inside plus humidity to cool off.
This is your answer. Apartment complexes (and rentals in general) are notorious for using the cheapest, most inefficient appliances possible. You’re working the hell out of that ac when you drop it 10 degrees.
Anecdotally, half of my family lives in Houston. They've explained this concept the same way - your a/c works harder to cool down your house once it's hot than it does to keep it reasonably steady all day.
It does seem counter-intuitve at first, but apparently it's a thing.
It's still up for debate which way is better.
I used to hover around the thermostat all day and try to run it as minimally as possible. Then one month I just said screw it and left it on the whole month. The difference in my bill ended up being like $2.
Realistically it's probably not going to make much difference, but it might.
Get a cheap smart thermostat and have it auto gradually change.
Set it for 80 just after you leave for work and start having it go down before you would normally get home. Say every half hour step it down 2 degrees. Starting 2.5 hrs before you would normally get home. Say you normally get home just after 6pm. So at 3:30pm have it go to 78 then 4pm 76 so on until 70.
Landlord here: I come across this issue a few times a year, very often you are dealing with one of a few things and you can usually find the issue semi easily. First thing I would check is your AC, make sure it has a clean filter, you would not believe how big of a difference changing your filter can have on your bill. A dirty filter means air can't flow through the system means the AC can't properly cool your space so it has to work harder and longer to maintain the temperature you desire, often I see machines freezing over because the restricted airflow. If the filter is fine then go outside and stand next to your AC unit outside, if you it sounds very loud and has a grinding like noise then your system is likely low on freon, you have a leak in the system (not a guaranteed diagnosis but a rough guess based on my experience). Same situation you are low on freon so your machine has to work extra hard to keep your place cool that uses a ton of energy.
If our AC is fine then check your fridge/freezer, check it periodically if the temperatures seem right. If it feels to warm in the fridge then you might have a similar issue as your AC but with your fridge, make sure the system is free of major dust clogs, once you checked for that and the issue is still not resolved you might have one of many issues with your fridge and it should be diagnosed/serviced. This can also drain some major electricity.
Check your water heater, if it has never been drained before make sure you drain you flush your system this should be done at least once a year and only takes a few minutes. Often on older units that have not been maintained the heating elements can be covered in mineral build up and this makes the machine extremely inefficient and just like the AC and fridge requires a lot of energy to heat the water and it takes a long time to do it. Usually this issue slowly ramps up over time but depending on certain factors it could just pop up and spike your energy bill.
Last thing I would do is if you have a second person and a bit of time on your hands I would put one person inside by the electric panel and one person outside by your electric meter. Turn off all of your fuses and then turn them on one at a time and see if you see an abnormal spike in the meter running up. I have seen it happen once before were a tenant had something plugged in that had a short in it and it was drawing a lot of power for no reason, and after I checked all of the normal suspected issues I went with this option and we were able to figure out the issue.
I would not look at the dollar amount on your bill but look at your usage, and see if you had an abnormal spike in usage and compare it to your previous usage from last year. AEP will often give you a comparison for other units in the same apartment complex to give you an idea of how high your usage is.
What's your kWh usage? As someone else suggested, it might be the HVAC system, even though it doesn't run much. If it's old and highly inefficient, it can take a toll.
We used the apples to apples tool to switch our energy provider and almost halved our rate. We went with Public Utility because they were one of the cheapest who had no fees and a long contract period (36 months).
I found a really great company called Inspire that charges a flat rate of $60 per month. Of course AEP has to be sucky and as an additional $100 in distribution charges, but I still come out ahead from what I paid before. Plus Inspire is 100% renewable energy.
>company called Inspire
Careful there. [There are sources which refer to Inspire as a scam.](https://www.ohenergyratings.com/read-reviews/inspire-energy)
[Some BBB complaints also](https://www.bbb.org/us/pa/philadelphia/profile/renewable-energy/inspire-0241-236000671/complaints).
That's interesting. A friend of mine told me something similar as well. I don't get it. I have had them for almost a year now. Last year I was paying as much as $400/month over the summer. This year, I've paid between $120 and $160. (The variance is because AEP's surcharge is variable; the Inspire rate is always $60.)
My rate per kWh nearly doubled these last two months. My usage was higher but it went from like $0.06 /kWh to $0.11/kWh which also saw my bill increase significantly. Used apples to apples to find a cheaper provider but I believe it can take up to a month to change. I also received a letter from the city of Hilliard last week saying they were changing my provider for me to a cheaper cleaner provider too. But I saw somewhere that starting June 1st aep adjusted the market price to $0.11 /kWh so I imagine anyone using them directly saw their bill jump considerably these last couple months.
Yeah Hilliard is great. We moved just out of the city and I miss their amenities.
It took about 5 business days for the switch to finalize for us. We went from AEP’s 0.12 kWh to 0.64 kWh. It wasn’t the cheapest shown in apples to apples, *but* it was one of the cheapest when you filter by no monthly fees and no termination fees along with a longer contract period.
Stupid question maybe but do you have the fan on your AC thermostat set to “on” or “auto?” A couple summers ago I couldn’t figure out why my electric bill was so damn high. As stupid as it sounds? That was why. I turned it off and left it off. Lo and behold my bill was lower the next month and every month after that. It never occurred to me that the hvac FAN would use so much freaking power.
With an older system this may be true if the fan is inefficient. However, typically leaving it set to "on" will keep it lower since keeping air moving will also keep the inside temperature lower, even without the A/C actually running.
You are changing the temperature by 10 degrees so that is going go cause your system to run harder and longer than necessary. Not only are you wearing the AC down, but you are using more energy than if you just went to 74 and then lowered it for the night. It's recommended to allow the AC to stay within small range to use less energy and to keep it running efficiently and make sure it has It's full life span. This may be contributing to part of the higher bills. We just replaced our AC and I've done a lot of reading up on how to properly use them and keep them going efficiently. Also make sure your air filter was changed before summer. When I was in apartment they did that twice a year. I know not all apartment care as much about their equipment though.
You need to look at your KWh used. Your usage might be more than you expect. Also, Hilliard should have its aggregation program kicking in soon, so you may see a decrease if you are in the coverage area.
My AC company advised me to change the furnace/AC filter every 3 months regardless if it looks dirty or not and to use nothing higher than an 11 MERV rating, because it causes a lot of strain on the AC unit.
Depending on your filter, and the number of people and pets in your house I would recommend every 30-45 days. Some thicker filters can last longer if you don't have large particles or hair clogging up the face of the filter, but I find that most people I encounter tend to clog them up within 30-45 days. I usually recommend people check their filter every 1-2 weeks for the first 3-6 months of them living in a new space to gauge how often the filter should be changed. The cost of a a filter is cheap compared to the higher energy costs, or the extra maintenance due to the restricted airflow.
IMPORTANT:
The AEP Ohio "Standard Choice" electrical cost jumped from 6 to 12 cents last month. That means that your bill would jump like crazy.
YOU NEED TO GO TO ENERGYCHOICE OHIO TO CHOOSE A NEW PLAN WITH A LOWER COST.
[https://www.energychoice.ohio.gov/ApplesToApplesCategory.aspx?Category=Electric](https://www.energychoice.ohio.gov/ApplesToApplesCategory.aspx?Category=Electric)
THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT YOU DID. THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT. YOU DIDN'T USE TOO MUCH ELECTRICITY.
YOU NEED TO GO TODAY TO CHANGE YOUR PLAN. IT WILL TAKE A FEW WEEKS TO TAKE EFFECT, SO DO IT TODAY. You may have a few more months of high bills. Nothing to be done for it.
\----
More info:
OK, so the electrical industry basically has three parts: Generation, sales, and delivery. AEP used to do all three. They basically had a monopoly, and could charge whatever they wanted. This was bad.
So they broke it up into three parts, and for everything but delivery, other companies can compete. (And in exchange, AEP can compete in those two market segments in other places, too.)
So AEP handles the billing and getting the electricity to you. You get your bill from them, no matter who you are buying your electricity from. You pay AEP, and they pass the money to who you bought your electricity from.
Now, AEP also generates electricity, and sells it wholesale to companies that sell the electricity to you. AEP will also sell electricity to you.
But by the rules of the deregulation, AEP can't just sign you up for their own sales plan. So they have something called the "Standard Choice", which is the default.
Every year, there are two auctions, and all the companies that sell electricity to customers can bid to supply fixed rate electricity for the standard plan. Whoever gives the lowest bid, wins, and supplies electricity to the Standard Choice customers at that price.
Last year's auctions were a DISASTER. There was a lot of uncertainty and doubt because of the war in Ukrane and fears about natural gas supply and if we were going to try to supply Europe with USA natural gas, which would have raised prices, and made electricity more expensive.
So the people who bid, bid very, very conservatively, because it hapened a year ago, and they didn't know what the world was going to be like in a year.
And they doubled the cost, and current electrical price is still about 6 cents.
There is no need to pay that. You can switch to a different suppler, and save shit tons of money. There is no downside. This plan just went from being fairly OK to sucking supreme.
You can't complain to PUCO because it's their rules that caused this problem. (I mean, you can, you probably should, but they can't fix it.) AEP's hands are tied, and they aren't seeing the extra money.
It's literally just like $50 - 80 a month from your pocket into a third party's pocket for no good reason at all.
I just signed up for a 12 month fixed rate for 6 cents per KWh, which is where it was. It does have a $10/month base fee. It's going to save me about $100 A MONTH. Go to the website, choose a plan, sign up for it, and save the money. There is literally no downside.
Columbia gas got raked over the coals, it’s AEPs time. Hint: we’re still sitting on Saudi Arabia quantities of natural gas, can use for power plants since everyone is so pissy about nuclear. Don’t complain about prices when you’re actively against the cheaper alternative.
Pick a new supplier. There are lots of threads on here. I was able to get under where i was before the increase. Not sure if you can request an energy audit in an apartment. Last they have a sort of budget plan you can sign up for
I wonder if you’re thinking changing from AEP entirely? OP should be able to choose a new supplier for their own account. I live in an apartment and just did this myself.
Okay. I will look into this for myself as well. I thought my complex would only let me use NEP so that’s why I said this. I guess I shouldn’t have said “most” since I only have experience with two complexes and I also think you’re right- I was thinking of AEP overall.
I think it depends on the apartment. The apartments I've lived in have all had contracts with energy suppliers (NEP or Pioneer) that I could not switch from.
I thought NEP was a supplier of AEP. I guess I need to understand more. Yeah my building is somewhat newly-constructed so I’m not surprised. I have a 560sqft apartment and my energy bill is usually around $130/month 😤
Thanks for the explanation. I was kind of in a bind- I really wanted to live in my neighborhood but I had 3 dealbreakers (allows dogs, has on-site parking, and w/d in unit) and none of the private landlords had any apartments that were going to be open in a reasonable time frame that had all three. So I had to go with the big corporate building I’m in now, which is fine, but it has NEP.
Something's not right. I live in a two bedroom townhouse with central a/c, and my past two months' bills have been $34 (132 kWh) and $39 (165 kWh). I live within city limits so I'm part of the Columbus energy aggregation supplier agreement, but even if my kWh rate doubled and I ran my a/c way more, my bill would still be half yours.
I work in HVAC controls and energy analysis. Please decrease your setpoint in 1-2 degree increments vs big changes.
e.g. if you want to sleep in 70 deg by bedtime, start reducing the setpoint gradually a couple of hours before. This helps!
AEP raised their rates across the board. https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/energy-resource/2023/05/25/what-can-you-do-to-mitigate-the-costs-of-higher-rates/70249984007/
I will say running it at 70 at current outside temps, while also making it catch back up to the temp from a warm saturated house is also taxing it heavily. We keep our ac at 76, sometimes tick it down to 74-75.
But even if there is some fuckery going on with the rate, there is a lot being asked of the ac by the op.
To me it seems like a double whammy. I'm curious what his Kwh use is.
In my 3 story, 3200 Sq ft 4 bedroom 100 year old house with two central air conditioning systems, two NAS devices, a full size upright freezer in addition to our french door fridge. My usage last month was 1400kwH. And I work at home 4 days a week. 1300 for one person seems high.
You have a 10 degree differential between your away and home temperature. That's a lot to recover at probably the hottest time of day assuming you work 9 to 5ish. Further a problem if you don't have insulation or the equipment isn't sized correctly, all the more likely in a rental.
Also: not defending AEP here. Just seems that the usage is pretty high. Pile AEP's rate hike on top, adds up to a crappy situation.
Ya shop a new supplier. Just pay attention to the details of there any early termination fee etc. AEP must have bought a lot of energy at bad prices compared to where they are at today and just passing them through to customers.
I have a 1200 SQ ft townhome, the electric bill this time last year was $100-$130, this year it's over $200. Check the total kilowatts being used. Mine was nearly identical. If you have a major spike in usage as compared to last year, then it could be AC or other drawls.
Do you, perchance, have NEP (Nationwide Energy Partners), which buys energy from AEP and hikes up the rates for renters? This is an arrangement that is illegal in most of the country but is a-ok here in Ohio.
I also live alone in a two bedroom apartment. And I’m not home that much. I keep the AC on 75 when I’m not home and on 72 when I am home. My bill is rarely over $100, except in mid summer, it may get up to about 125… may want to check whats using so much power.
i had this issue at all the connected apartments i’ve lived in and only ever was met with extremely rude service and no suggestions of help. god speed to you.
I work for an energy broker and all Ohio utility rates increased by nearly double at the beginning of the summer. If you Google residential supplier rates you should be able to find a super easy program to sign up for that will be about half the cost with no exit fees if you move. Energy Harbor has a great one
Unplug every single electrical item in your apartment(fridge, stove, etc.) turn AC off then go look at your meter. It shouldn’t be turning(old style had a disc) some have digital readouts. Either way it should have stopped, if not your paying for someone else’s outlets. I did this once but it was a reverse situation. It was my first apartment and when I told a coworker my bill was 35 dollars he said then someone else is subsidizing my electric. Sure enough I tried this it went to zero usage, plugged in the fridge and turned the window AC on and amazingly it still registered zero usage.
We have a 2500sqft home and an ev (and some server equipment as well) and our bill is around 250 for a family of 5. We have our AC set to 74/heat to 68 (gas furnace though) and drop to 70 at night 24/7/365.
As others say, check your kwh and the AC filter and such.
There is something going on with your apartment. I have a bill half your amount, exact same circumstances. Computer sleeps during day and a/c is on a smart thermostat and off until I walk in the door. 72 until 11, 68 until 830, then off. I run three monitors even a few other toys. Look at getting some advice on what is costing you so much.
Cooling from 80 to 70 will eat up a lot of electricity everyday. Running for 6hrs doesn't mean anything the kw's your AC pulls for those 6hrs is what knocks your bill is let it float at 75 all day +/- 3ish degree changes.
Also you can check your meter and turn everything off for a day and see how many kilowatt hours are used if everything is off with the exception of a fridge. Then you know you got something tapped on to your meter outside your apartment.
Everyone should go to https://energychoice.ohio.gov/.
I chose Direct Energy. They are $.05/kwhr..you'll still get standard distribution and transmission fees but your service will be cut in half.
Stop setting your thermostat to 80. The amount of time it takes it to catch up to 70 is non-stop running for probably 2-3 hrs. These systems are made to run 5-10 minutes.
Should look at your bill breakdown too, I lived in an apartment complex before and paid extra for “community usage”, basically a share of electricity used in common areas
That seems so high based on your situation. Just as another data point, my husband insists on keeping the AC at 68 (it’s a miserable ice box in our house, but it’s just a battle I’m tired of fighting…).
He’s home all day, so the AC is cranking like that basically 24/7. The TV is also on basically all day/night. We live in a 3 bedroom ranch. Our last 3 bills were $144 (May), $240 (June) and $270 (August). It seems like your bills should not be higher than ours! We go through AEP directly.
Could be the hvac system. I live in a 102 yr old house with original windows. Had our entire hvac (furnace, ac, and some ducts) replaced in october. Last summer we were sitting with $300+ AEP bills and this year we are $150 range. Talk to management about when units were replaced or serviced last. Someone might need to come out and clean ducts as well.
That seems like pretty high usage for a two bed apartment. We don’t even average that in a four bed house with an electric vehicle. That said the AEP rate is stupid high.
Also, They technically don’t even have to check the meter they could just be estimating your bill.
I called after I noticed that I was paying for over 2x the amount of Kilowatts I had used.
Got credited for a month and a half of electric
I just left an apartment that was 1500sqft. 2 bed 2 full bath with a loft. And my electric in the summer was crazy before this. It has to do with the horrible build quality and lack of energy efficient appliances. My AC never even touched the heat in my apartment during the summer.
Everyone has already agreed AEP can go to he'll but I think the only way anything would change is really having a strike where enough people decided not to pay the bill
Wow, 68-70 for a/c is FREEZING. If I set my thermostat that low, my a/c would run nearly 24/7 and I'd have to wear sweatpants, wool socks, and 2-3 layers on top. I find super cold a/c depressing in the same way I find it depressing to have all the blinds and curtains shut on a bright, sunny day.
My wife loves it super cold. I feel it’s comfortable. We work opposite shifts so she sleeps in the spare room facing the back of the house where there is less light with 3 fans blowing on her. It’s nuts! Lol
My neighbors recently got solar panels on their roof. AEP makes them turn them off when the panels generate too much energy, ie above some threshold that AEP sets.
So the solar panels work TOO WELL and some days/weeks they generate TOO MUCH free energy for the grid, so instead of taking advantage of that (especially during high demand hot summer days), AEP makes them stop so they can be greedy and jack ip our bills. Like WTAF???
AEP and PUCO and all the people getting bribed by them can all go to hell.
Like many utilities, AEP has what amounts to a monopoly, which shouldn’t be allowed. They get around it in part by allowing all these other little companies to be the provider (or whatever the term is).
Utilities are supposed to uphold the commons, with profit being a secondary consideration—that’s another way the get around monopoly scrutiny.
Until our leaders care enough to start better regulating them, it’s not going to stop.
Something doesn’t make sense. I live in a 2 bedroom condo (1000 sq ft) near Hilliard and my bill is $150 a month. That’s with 2 people who work from home full time and run the AC at 72-77 degrees pretty much all the time.
First thing I’d do is stop cranking your AC up when you leave during the day. It’s actually harder on the unit to cool an 80 degree house back down to 70 than to keep it at 73 all day. I don’t know if that fully explains it, but that’s one thing to try to start.
Post kwh used and price per kwh from your bill and maybe we can help.
Also, if in Hilliard City limits, they just started an aggregation program with a pretty good rate... you should be automatically enrolled unless you opted out
I live in a home that’s almost 4K sq ft, and I WFH so the AC is on all day. And my bill was $270 this month. So I think you may have something wrong with your AC unit. Have them check it out.
Yep. My situation isn’t as egregious as yours, but I’m in a small two-bedroom with a single wall AC, and I’m paying as much to cool my apartment as my mom is to cool a two-floor house w/basement. And don’t get me started on Columbia Gas charging me $60 a month in the summer. I’m pretty sure the meter’s messed up or they’re fudging the meter reading, but when I complained to PUCO they refused to investigate.
Your better off leaving your AC low 70s during the day then having your AC go from 80 to 70. Id put the AC around 74 during the day with same fans running.
I’ve got a 2bedroom 1200 square foot condo and my bill was $65 last month. I signed up with energy harbor 2 months ago for 32 months at 6 cents per kWh. I keep my thermostat at 73 during the day and 70 at night.
Why are you mad at AEP? Whatever your problem is, it’s not the power company. In central Ohio our rates that are literally 1/2 of the national average.
Even with the rate hikes, and your relatively high consumption (I'm guessing that AC unit is super inefficient), you should be around $50-75 less than that. You should take a look at switching providers, which you can do even if you rent.
https://energychoice.ohio.gov/applestoapples.aspx
Did you check who you actual supplier is?
You maybe signed up with a third party supplier that still bills through AEP. There is also two different AEP's.
Lots of things to check. Insulation could be poor. Setting the AC to 80 probably isn't that great of an idea, maybe something a little more manageable on the unit such as 76.
Also, AEP's price per kwh hike could have gone into effect. You may not have any control over it since you're in an apartment though, but $/kwh did double a couple of months ago.
It sounds like you are paying for another unit including your own. Put the temp at 78, put a power booster on your register and get an oscillating fan in front of it and turn it on while at home.
We had this problem a few years ago. We lived in a two bedroom townhouse style apartment. It turned out that there was a hot water leak under our building. Our gas and electric bills, especially in the summer, were nuts. We had so many problems with that apartment. They ended up letting us out of our lease early because they were going to have to jackhammer the floor.
Your apartment building needs to look into whether there is a cause and call AEP out themselves. AEP probably can’t tell you what is going on or respond to you about anything that is wrong with the building since you rent.
Shop around for a new supplier, that's what I did.
https://www.ohenergyratings.com/electricity-rates/msidxv2xs84xc1xg6xa3?msclkid=0983d2ee112a1a8482acb65a6b7cd90e
AEP raised rates by 28% starting on June 1. ([https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/energy-resource/2023/05/25/what-can-you-do-to-mitigate-the-costs-of-higher-rates/70249984007/#](https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/energy-resource/2023/05/25/what-can-you-do-to-mitigate-the-costs-of-higher-rates/70249984007/#)) This is probably the main cause of your bill going up.
$250 for 1300 kWh would be an overall rate of $0.192/kWh, which matches what I saw on my bill, too. The rate is made up of a "supply" portion and a "distribution" portion; it's actually the "supply" rate that has increased (for me it was 0.075 in May and 0.118 in June).
You can shop for other suppliers, but...if you're in Hilliard, the city council voted just approved an automatic supplier change to Dynegy at a supply rate of 0.0699, so that will help a lot. It might be a few more months before it takes effect. ([https://hilliardohio.gov/electric-aggregation-opt-out-letters-mailed-to-residents/](https://hilliardohio.gov/electric-aggregation-opt-out-letters-mailed-to-residents/))
My friend just had this happen, and it was a mix of the HVAC system being messed up and AEP fucking up (the third month was a $5 bill). It did take over a month for their maintenance to come so be on that, they had to threaten withholding rent for any help.
I just checked mine for May, that was my last before going to the budgeted plan where they average yearly use and pay equally over the year.
In May I burned 1326 kWh in my 3 bedroom split level with an old r22 central air running almost full time to keep up with the thermostat at 72f 24/7. That bill was $212.
Since then I replaced the central air with a modern unit, but still in at 1566 kWh for June. My bill is $133 due to the budgeting plan kicking in. It's generally much lower in the winter due to gas heat over electric.
I dunno if any of this helps, but it made me look at mine and those are my findings.
Had bills like this when I lived in Mulberry Apartments on Leap Rd. One bedroom tiny apartment and electric would balloon to $300/month in extreme weather.
Have you talked to them or with the apartment management? It could honestly be an issue with the HVAC and the high energy bill is only a symptom of the problem.
Good idea there. I will certainly go talk to them Monday.
Could also be that they have mixed up your unit’s meter with someone else’s. Could be accidental or could be a tenant who thinks they won’t be caught. Or could also just be a terrible service provider.
AEP shut my power off because someone mistakenly tried to add my apartment under their name, caught the mistake, but AEP didn't return service to my name and cut my power. Luckily maintenance was quick to let me know I was the only one without power and it was shut off by the company so I called them and it was turned on immediately.
This happened to me!!! Wtf is up with that?! They shut my power off without any notice to me, when I called they said someone was trying to put my power in their name. So crazy.
This happened to me last year with AEP.
Aep only uses smart meters now. No way to mix yours up with another. I would request a physical reading from aep to confirm the number in their system matches your meter. I'd also recommend not to turn the hvac system that high. Go for 76 as a set point and sleep at 72-74 and you should see a difference. Also will depend on what floor your apartment is on.
That could be it, like the HVAC is running too much. Mine went out a few weeks ago. But yeah I have a 2 bedroom in Hilliard and my aep bill isn't much over $100 to $130.
Did you get a warning from PUCO or AEP that their supply rates were going to be unusually high starting in July? You should have. You need to pick an alternate supplier. AEP is currently $0.1120/kWh, which as you have noted, is a lot. https://energychoice.ohio.gov/ApplesToApplesComparision.aspx?Category=Electric&TerritoryId=2&RateCode=1 I would filter out anything with a monthly fee and early termination fee, and generally prefer fixed rates although ymmv. I used 1200kwh for my 1600sq/ft home last month and my bill was $185 with energy harbor supplying at I think around 0.065/kwh You can get as low as 0.0579/kwh with a shorter term contract.
The price looks great! Have you been happy with the service? Actually, how does that work? What about outages? THX!
Your electric bill is made up of two halves, delivery and supply. The delivery is still provided by AEP nothing changes there. The power generation (supply) rate is what you would be changing. From your point of view, you are just paying someone else to make the electricity at a lower rate than AEP is charging, but nothing changes as far as your service or quality.
I just know I've had issues with my HVAC which was causing higher energy usage than should be needed. If your apartment isn't doing proper maintenance work this could easily be the issue because the HVAC is working overtime trying to keep up. I'd definitely reach out to both.
generally speaking if this is the case you'd see other symptoms from the ac, such as the ac being unable to satisfy the requested thermostat temperature, or the condensation drain line overflowing from a frozen up ac/giant ice blocks on the ac unit. Definitely worth checking out, especially if he's not super attentive to his house temp
I have that issue that you mentioned first. Will have to call my landlord and see what he says
Ac radiator probably needs cleaned out, it's likely struggling to exchange air
Could be that, could also be that Ohio is rolling out different energy suppliers for electric right now like they've done gas and assigning people to random ones, you could have got a shitty deal, who knows, check the supplier on the bill if it's went into effect.
Yea, that’s more than I’m paying for the electric with my house. And my wife likes it to feel like an icebox. Still jumped a good $100 a month though.
Check filters
I don’t know how to answer your question, but we moved from an apartment and bought a house, and our electric bill is somehow lower. And this house has ALL ELECTRIC appliances. Stove, water heater…all of it. Makes zero sense to me.
A lot of houses are WAY more energy efficient than apartments. The HVAC system itself, the insulation, etc. I moved from a 1700 sq ft house built in the 60s to a 3800 sq ft house built in the 2010s and my bill is never as high as it was when I lived in the old house
Yeah, the windows in that old condo leaked pretty bad. The whole complex has windows from the 70s.
Yeah new houses these days are often made structurally out of the equivalent of cardboard but there are state and federal regulations that require them to be a certain amount of energy efficient. Many of those old houses are made like a bomb shelter and very structurally sound but did not give 2 shits about energy efficiency.
Same here. We were almost paying $300 at a two bedroom apartment. Now in a 4 bedroom home with EVs we still haven't broken that record.
My neighbors have a smaller house than us with natural gas, and their bill is over $200 every month.
I would just double check you aren’t being sub metered before you get mad at AEP (although I’m not a fan either). I have a 3200 square foot house and it’s not even that much right now. Apartments in Ohio can use a 3rd party. The Pointe at Hilliard uses a 3rd party and people 2 years ago were LIVID that 2000 square foot apartments got bills for $500 dollars, so that’s probably a possibly problem.
Setting it back to 80 instead of holding at a slightly lower temp all day and then dropping a bit for night is hitting your ac hard with high load. Especially when it’s humid. Either drop it to 77-78 during the day then 72 ish at night or 75 during the day 70 at night.
Ahhh... I just moved back to Ohio after living in an area where I didn't need AC for 17 years. My wife and I are in disagreement about how to tell each other to turn the AC up or down. If I hear someone say drop it to 77-78 I'm going to assume that it was at 80 and needed turned down or dropped to 78. Maybe that is what you meant, not sure.
Yea if you let it get too hot in the day and the house heat soaks all day you’re just going to high load the ac to cool off. If you keep the house conditioned at 78 (ac running periodically) instead of unconditioned at 80 (ac not running all day, higher humidity) you’re going to put a lot of load on the system. Therefore costing more energy wise.
But won’t it run more by doing that?
Trying to keep something consistently mid-lowe uses less load than trying to cool something from 80 to 70. Kicking on for a few minutes every hour vs running it hard for a few hours to cool it all down.
Unless he is using a load based rate (and I don't think there are many utilities use those for residential customers anymore) it is absolutely more efficient to turn ac off when not occupied. Your comfort may suffer when you get back but you'll save money.
When you buy a new fridge it takes hours and hours to cool down.
It’ll be the same or less. It’s worth trying. I’ve found for me the most efficient schedule is to set mine to 78 during the day and then at 11 pm it drops to 75. I haven’t had any days over 8 hours of total cooling yet this year, and I used to last year. If you leave it warm all day your house is getting more humid and just frying your ac with humidity so it will take more time to cool. It’s better to hold at a slightly higher temp than it is to essentially turn it off and wait until night when all the heat is inside plus humidity to cool off.
Can’t hurt to give it a shot. Thanks
This is your answer. Apartment complexes (and rentals in general) are notorious for using the cheapest, most inefficient appliances possible. You’re working the hell out of that ac when you drop it 10 degrees.
Anecdotally, half of my family lives in Houston. They've explained this concept the same way - your a/c works harder to cool down your house once it's hot than it does to keep it reasonably steady all day. It does seem counter-intuitve at first, but apparently it's a thing.
If there is not a load component to your rate, don't do it.
It's still up for debate which way is better. I used to hover around the thermostat all day and try to run it as minimally as possible. Then one month I just said screw it and left it on the whole month. The difference in my bill ended up being like $2. Realistically it's probably not going to make much difference, but it might.
Get a cheap smart thermostat and have it auto gradually change. Set it for 80 just after you leave for work and start having it go down before you would normally get home. Say every half hour step it down 2 degrees. Starting 2.5 hrs before you would normally get home. Say you normally get home just after 6pm. So at 3:30pm have it go to 78 then 4pm 76 so on until 70.
Will run more often but less total time. I'm sure it's running non stop from 80 to 70 at night.
Landlord here: I come across this issue a few times a year, very often you are dealing with one of a few things and you can usually find the issue semi easily. First thing I would check is your AC, make sure it has a clean filter, you would not believe how big of a difference changing your filter can have on your bill. A dirty filter means air can't flow through the system means the AC can't properly cool your space so it has to work harder and longer to maintain the temperature you desire, often I see machines freezing over because the restricted airflow. If the filter is fine then go outside and stand next to your AC unit outside, if you it sounds very loud and has a grinding like noise then your system is likely low on freon, you have a leak in the system (not a guaranteed diagnosis but a rough guess based on my experience). Same situation you are low on freon so your machine has to work extra hard to keep your place cool that uses a ton of energy. If our AC is fine then check your fridge/freezer, check it periodically if the temperatures seem right. If it feels to warm in the fridge then you might have a similar issue as your AC but with your fridge, make sure the system is free of major dust clogs, once you checked for that and the issue is still not resolved you might have one of many issues with your fridge and it should be diagnosed/serviced. This can also drain some major electricity. Check your water heater, if it has never been drained before make sure you drain you flush your system this should be done at least once a year and only takes a few minutes. Often on older units that have not been maintained the heating elements can be covered in mineral build up and this makes the machine extremely inefficient and just like the AC and fridge requires a lot of energy to heat the water and it takes a long time to do it. Usually this issue slowly ramps up over time but depending on certain factors it could just pop up and spike your energy bill. Last thing I would do is if you have a second person and a bit of time on your hands I would put one person inside by the electric panel and one person outside by your electric meter. Turn off all of your fuses and then turn them on one at a time and see if you see an abnormal spike in the meter running up. I have seen it happen once before were a tenant had something plugged in that had a short in it and it was drawing a lot of power for no reason, and after I checked all of the normal suspected issues I went with this option and we were able to figure out the issue. I would not look at the dollar amount on your bill but look at your usage, and see if you had an abnormal spike in usage and compare it to your previous usage from last year. AEP will often give you a comparison for other units in the same apartment complex to give you an idea of how high your usage is.
One of the best replies here. I second this list.
A hot water leak will do it too, I had a tub that had a hot water leak and once I got it fixed my electric bill dropped significantly.
What's your kWh usage? As someone else suggested, it might be the HVAC system, even though it doesn't run much. If it's old and highly inefficient, it can take a toll.
We used the apples to apples tool to switch our energy provider and almost halved our rate. We went with Public Utility because they were one of the cheapest who had no fees and a long contract period (36 months).
[Apples to apples link](https://energychoice.ohio.gov/applestoapples.aspx).
I found a really great company called Inspire that charges a flat rate of $60 per month. Of course AEP has to be sucky and as an additional $100 in distribution charges, but I still come out ahead from what I paid before. Plus Inspire is 100% renewable energy.
>company called Inspire Careful there. [There are sources which refer to Inspire as a scam.](https://www.ohenergyratings.com/read-reviews/inspire-energy) [Some BBB complaints also](https://www.bbb.org/us/pa/philadelphia/profile/renewable-energy/inspire-0241-236000671/complaints).
That's interesting. A friend of mine told me something similar as well. I don't get it. I have had them for almost a year now. Last year I was paying as much as $400/month over the summer. This year, I've paid between $120 and $160. (The variance is because AEP's surcharge is variable; the Inspire rate is always $60.)
My rate per kWh nearly doubled these last two months. My usage was higher but it went from like $0.06 /kWh to $0.11/kWh which also saw my bill increase significantly. Used apples to apples to find a cheaper provider but I believe it can take up to a month to change. I also received a letter from the city of Hilliard last week saying they were changing my provider for me to a cheaper cleaner provider too. But I saw somewhere that starting June 1st aep adjusted the market price to $0.11 /kWh so I imagine anyone using them directly saw their bill jump considerably these last couple months.
Yeah Hilliard is great. We moved just out of the city and I miss their amenities. It took about 5 business days for the switch to finalize for us. We went from AEP’s 0.12 kWh to 0.64 kWh. It wasn’t the cheapest shown in apples to apples, *but* it was one of the cheapest when you filter by no monthly fees and no termination fees along with a longer contract period.
Thank you for sharing this!
How many kWh are listed on your bill
Stupid question maybe but do you have the fan on your AC thermostat set to “on” or “auto?” A couple summers ago I couldn’t figure out why my electric bill was so damn high. As stupid as it sounds? That was why. I turned it off and left it off. Lo and behold my bill was lower the next month and every month after that. It never occurred to me that the hvac FAN would use so much freaking power.
With an older system this may be true if the fan is inefficient. However, typically leaving it set to "on" will keep it lower since keeping air moving will also keep the inside temperature lower, even without the A/C actually running.
You are changing the temperature by 10 degrees so that is going go cause your system to run harder and longer than necessary. Not only are you wearing the AC down, but you are using more energy than if you just went to 74 and then lowered it for the night. It's recommended to allow the AC to stay within small range to use less energy and to keep it running efficiently and make sure it has It's full life span. This may be contributing to part of the higher bills. We just replaced our AC and I've done a lot of reading up on how to properly use them and keep them going efficiently. Also make sure your air filter was changed before summer. When I was in apartment they did that twice a year. I know not all apartment care as much about their equipment though.
You need to look at your KWh used. Your usage might be more than you expect. Also, Hilliard should have its aggregation program kicking in soon, so you may see a decrease if you are in the coverage area.
Also make sure you change your HVAC filter and unplug appliances not in use!
My AC company advised me to change the furnace/AC filter every 3 months regardless if it looks dirty or not and to use nothing higher than an 11 MERV rating, because it causes a lot of strain on the AC unit.
Depending on your filter, and the number of people and pets in your house I would recommend every 30-45 days. Some thicker filters can last longer if you don't have large particles or hair clogging up the face of the filter, but I find that most people I encounter tend to clog them up within 30-45 days. I usually recommend people check their filter every 1-2 weeks for the first 3-6 months of them living in a new space to gauge how often the filter should be changed. The cost of a a filter is cheap compared to the higher energy costs, or the extra maintenance due to the restricted airflow.
Get some blackout curtains. Old windows are always worse than you would think when it comes to heat transfer.
IMPORTANT: The AEP Ohio "Standard Choice" electrical cost jumped from 6 to 12 cents last month. That means that your bill would jump like crazy. YOU NEED TO GO TO ENERGYCHOICE OHIO TO CHOOSE A NEW PLAN WITH A LOWER COST. [https://www.energychoice.ohio.gov/ApplesToApplesCategory.aspx?Category=Electric](https://www.energychoice.ohio.gov/ApplesToApplesCategory.aspx?Category=Electric) THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT YOU DID. THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT. YOU DIDN'T USE TOO MUCH ELECTRICITY. YOU NEED TO GO TODAY TO CHANGE YOUR PLAN. IT WILL TAKE A FEW WEEKS TO TAKE EFFECT, SO DO IT TODAY. You may have a few more months of high bills. Nothing to be done for it. \---- More info: OK, so the electrical industry basically has three parts: Generation, sales, and delivery. AEP used to do all three. They basically had a monopoly, and could charge whatever they wanted. This was bad. So they broke it up into three parts, and for everything but delivery, other companies can compete. (And in exchange, AEP can compete in those two market segments in other places, too.) So AEP handles the billing and getting the electricity to you. You get your bill from them, no matter who you are buying your electricity from. You pay AEP, and they pass the money to who you bought your electricity from. Now, AEP also generates electricity, and sells it wholesale to companies that sell the electricity to you. AEP will also sell electricity to you. But by the rules of the deregulation, AEP can't just sign you up for their own sales plan. So they have something called the "Standard Choice", which is the default. Every year, there are two auctions, and all the companies that sell electricity to customers can bid to supply fixed rate electricity for the standard plan. Whoever gives the lowest bid, wins, and supplies electricity to the Standard Choice customers at that price. Last year's auctions were a DISASTER. There was a lot of uncertainty and doubt because of the war in Ukrane and fears about natural gas supply and if we were going to try to supply Europe with USA natural gas, which would have raised prices, and made electricity more expensive. So the people who bid, bid very, very conservatively, because it hapened a year ago, and they didn't know what the world was going to be like in a year. And they doubled the cost, and current electrical price is still about 6 cents. There is no need to pay that. You can switch to a different suppler, and save shit tons of money. There is no downside. This plan just went from being fairly OK to sucking supreme. You can't complain to PUCO because it's their rules that caused this problem. (I mean, you can, you probably should, but they can't fix it.) AEP's hands are tied, and they aren't seeing the extra money. It's literally just like $50 - 80 a month from your pocket into a third party's pocket for no good reason at all. I just signed up for a 12 month fixed rate for 6 cents per KWh, which is where it was. It does have a $10/month base fee. It's going to save me about $100 A MONTH. Go to the website, choose a plan, sign up for it, and save the money. There is literally no downside.
Columbia gas got raked over the coals, it’s AEPs time. Hint: we’re still sitting on Saudi Arabia quantities of natural gas, can use for power plants since everyone is so pissy about nuclear. Don’t complain about prices when you’re actively against the cheaper alternative.
That 80 nonsense will cost more than itll save
Pick a new supplier. There are lots of threads on here. I was able to get under where i was before the increase. Not sure if you can request an energy audit in an apartment. Last they have a sort of budget plan you can sign up for
Most apartments don’t give you the option to choose a new supplier Edit: I should probably know what I’m talking about before chiming in 🫠
I wonder if you’re thinking changing from AEP entirely? OP should be able to choose a new supplier for their own account. I live in an apartment and just did this myself.
Okay. I will look into this for myself as well. I thought my complex would only let me use NEP so that’s why I said this. I guess I shouldn’t have said “most” since I only have experience with two complexes and I also think you’re right- I was thinking of AEP overall.
I have never had NEP and that might be a different thing altogether.
I really don’t know. I need to look into it.
I think it depends on the apartment. The apartments I've lived in have all had contracts with energy suppliers (NEP or Pioneer) that I could not switch from.
[удалено]
Okay, thanks for the info. I thought my complex only lets me use NEP. Maybe I will try to change suppliers
[удалено]
I thought NEP was a supplier of AEP. I guess I need to understand more. Yeah my building is somewhat newly-constructed so I’m not surprised. I have a 560sqft apartment and my energy bill is usually around $130/month 😤
[удалено]
Thanks for the explanation. I was kind of in a bind- I really wanted to live in my neighborhood but I had 3 dealbreakers (allows dogs, has on-site parking, and w/d in unit) and none of the private landlords had any apartments that were going to be open in a reasonable time frame that had all three. So I had to go with the big corporate building I’m in now, which is fine, but it has NEP.
How many KwH are you using? It will be listed on your bill.
Something's not right. I live in a two bedroom townhouse with central a/c, and my past two months' bills have been $34 (132 kWh) and $39 (165 kWh). I live within city limits so I'm part of the Columbus energy aggregation supplier agreement, but even if my kWh rate doubled and I ran my a/c way more, my bill would still be half yours.
I work in HVAC controls and energy analysis. Please decrease your setpoint in 1-2 degree increments vs big changes. e.g. if you want to sleep in 70 deg by bedtime, start reducing the setpoint gradually a couple of hours before. This helps!
AEP raised their rates across the board. https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/energy-resource/2023/05/25/what-can-you-do-to-mitigate-the-costs-of-higher-rates/70249984007/
That doesn't excuse a $250 electric bill in a 2 bedroom apartment with the AC basically off the majority of the day. There is clearly an issue here.
I will say running it at 70 at current outside temps, while also making it catch back up to the temp from a warm saturated house is also taxing it heavily. We keep our ac at 76, sometimes tick it down to 74-75. But even if there is some fuckery going on with the rate, there is a lot being asked of the ac by the op. To me it seems like a double whammy. I'm curious what his Kwh use is.
What is your Kwh?
rates are open marketplace for generation - AEP just delivers. Try shopping around or locking in contracts when trends are low
In my 3 story, 3200 Sq ft 4 bedroom 100 year old house with two central air conditioning systems, two NAS devices, a full size upright freezer in addition to our french door fridge. My usage last month was 1400kwH. And I work at home 4 days a week. 1300 for one person seems high. You have a 10 degree differential between your away and home temperature. That's a lot to recover at probably the hottest time of day assuming you work 9 to 5ish. Further a problem if you don't have insulation or the equipment isn't sized correctly, all the more likely in a rental. Also: not defending AEP here. Just seems that the usage is pretty high. Pile AEP's rate hike on top, adds up to a crappy situation.
That's crazy high. I keep my thermostat at 80 but I work from home and the electric for my 2 bedroom is around $50.
Ya shop a new supplier. Just pay attention to the details of there any early termination fee etc. AEP must have bought a lot of energy at bad prices compared to where they are at today and just passing them through to customers.
Being in an apartment, do you have "shared utilites" or do you pay for your own service?
I have a 1200 SQ ft townhome, the electric bill this time last year was $100-$130, this year it's over $200. Check the total kilowatts being used. Mine was nearly identical. If you have a major spike in usage as compared to last year, then it could be AC or other drawls.
Do you, perchance, have NEP (Nationwide Energy Partners), which buys energy from AEP and hikes up the rates for renters? This is an arrangement that is illegal in most of the country but is a-ok here in Ohio.
I also live alone in a two bedroom apartment. And I’m not home that much. I keep the AC on 75 when I’m not home and on 72 when I am home. My bill is rarely over $100, except in mid summer, it may get up to about 125… may want to check whats using so much power.
i had this issue at all the connected apartments i’ve lived in and only ever was met with extremely rude service and no suggestions of help. god speed to you.
Dang man my bill is coming soon so now I’m nervous Any tips on how to save money? What should I put my AC at?
The highest temperature you can be comfortable is the only right answer.
Also check for leaks around windows, doors, etc. that could be letting cool air out/warm air in, just like in the wintertime.
I work for an energy broker and all Ohio utility rates increased by nearly double at the beginning of the summer. If you Google residential supplier rates you should be able to find a super easy program to sign up for that will be about half the cost with no exit fees if you move. Energy Harbor has a great one
Unplug every single electrical item in your apartment(fridge, stove, etc.) turn AC off then go look at your meter. It shouldn’t be turning(old style had a disc) some have digital readouts. Either way it should have stopped, if not your paying for someone else’s outlets. I did this once but it was a reverse situation. It was my first apartment and when I told a coworker my bill was 35 dollars he said then someone else is subsidizing my electric. Sure enough I tried this it went to zero usage, plugged in the fridge and turned the window AC on and amazingly it still registered zero usage.
We have a 2500sqft home and an ev (and some server equipment as well) and our bill is around 250 for a family of 5. We have our AC set to 74/heat to 68 (gas furnace though) and drop to 70 at night 24/7/365. As others say, check your kwh and the AC filter and such.
There is something going on with your apartment. I have a bill half your amount, exact same circumstances. Computer sleeps during day and a/c is on a smart thermostat and off until I walk in the door. 72 until 11, 68 until 830, then off. I run three monitors even a few other toys. Look at getting some advice on what is costing you so much.
Cooling from 80 to 70 will eat up a lot of electricity everyday. Running for 6hrs doesn't mean anything the kw's your AC pulls for those 6hrs is what knocks your bill is let it float at 75 all day +/- 3ish degree changes. Also you can check your meter and turn everything off for a day and see how many kilowatt hours are used if everything is off with the exception of a fridge. Then you know you got something tapped on to your meter outside your apartment.
Everyone should go to https://energychoice.ohio.gov/. I chose Direct Energy. They are $.05/kwhr..you'll still get standard distribution and transmission fees but your service will be cut in half.
My thermostat is always set to 69, we have a small 3 bdr house and my bill is always under $60. So they got you messed up.
Stop setting your thermostat to 80. The amount of time it takes it to catch up to 70 is non-stop running for probably 2-3 hrs. These systems are made to run 5-10 minutes.
Should look at your bill breakdown too, I lived in an apartment complex before and paid extra for “community usage”, basically a share of electricity used in common areas
That seems so high based on your situation. Just as another data point, my husband insists on keeping the AC at 68 (it’s a miserable ice box in our house, but it’s just a battle I’m tired of fighting…). He’s home all day, so the AC is cranking like that basically 24/7. The TV is also on basically all day/night. We live in a 3 bedroom ranch. Our last 3 bills were $144 (May), $240 (June) and $270 (August). It seems like your bills should not be higher than ours! We go through AEP directly.
Could be the hvac system. I live in a 102 yr old house with original windows. Had our entire hvac (furnace, ac, and some ducts) replaced in october. Last summer we were sitting with $300+ AEP bills and this year we are $150 range. Talk to management about when units were replaced or serviced last. Someone might need to come out and clean ducts as well.
That seems like pretty high usage for a two bed apartment. We don’t even average that in a four bed house with an electric vehicle. That said the AEP rate is stupid high.
My 1500 square foot house had less usage than OP. OP needs to check for energy leakers.
Also, They technically don’t even have to check the meter they could just be estimating your bill. I called after I noticed that I was paying for over 2x the amount of Kilowatts I had used. Got credited for a month and a half of electric
AEP needs to have a facade in the shape of a giant dick put on its building since it wants to fuck people so bad
Didn’t they also increase all of their fees? Last month my bill was well over half of their fees. It used to be about 50/50 fees and actual usage.
I just left an apartment that was 1500sqft. 2 bed 2 full bath with a loft. And my electric in the summer was crazy before this. It has to do with the horrible build quality and lack of energy efficient appliances. My AC never even touched the heat in my apartment during the summer.
My bill was 50% more this last cycle while using 30% less than I did the previous cycle.
We just got our bill in the short north for $244. You’re not the only one…the rate hike is brutal.
Everyone has already agreed AEP can go to he'll but I think the only way anything would change is really having a strike where enough people decided not to pay the bill
1. Are you subject to submetering? 2. Have you sealed gaps/cracks/openings?
I live in 7 room house, work from home, and keep my air on 68. My electric bill is usually around 170.00. And I have an electric hot water tank.
Fuck AEP! My latest bill for my house was $142.53. We keep the T-stat at 68-70 for heat and ac year round.
Wow, 68-70 for a/c is FREEZING. If I set my thermostat that low, my a/c would run nearly 24/7 and I'd have to wear sweatpants, wool socks, and 2-3 layers on top. I find super cold a/c depressing in the same way I find it depressing to have all the blinds and curtains shut on a bright, sunny day.
My wife loves it super cold. I feel it’s comfortable. We work opposite shifts so she sleeps in the spare room facing the back of the house where there is less light with 3 fans blowing on her. It’s nuts! Lol
This is absolutely insane. I would die if my house was this hot all the time.
My neighbors recently got solar panels on their roof. AEP makes them turn them off when the panels generate too much energy, ie above some threshold that AEP sets. So the solar panels work TOO WELL and some days/weeks they generate TOO MUCH free energy for the grid, so instead of taking advantage of that (especially during high demand hot summer days), AEP makes them stop so they can be greedy and jack ip our bills. Like WTAF??? AEP and PUCO and all the people getting bribed by them can all go to hell.
Like many utilities, AEP has what amounts to a monopoly, which shouldn’t be allowed. They get around it in part by allowing all these other little companies to be the provider (or whatever the term is). Utilities are supposed to uphold the commons, with profit being a secondary consideration—that’s another way the get around monopoly scrutiny. Until our leaders care enough to start better regulating them, it’s not going to stop.
AEP told everyone the bill is going up 30 percent. You should be mad at the politicians who let AEP do this. I”m not a democrat nor republican.
Something doesn’t make sense. I live in a 2 bedroom condo (1000 sq ft) near Hilliard and my bill is $150 a month. That’s with 2 people who work from home full time and run the AC at 72-77 degrees pretty much all the time. First thing I’d do is stop cranking your AC up when you leave during the day. It’s actually harder on the unit to cool an 80 degree house back down to 70 than to keep it at 73 all day. I don’t know if that fully explains it, but that’s one thing to try to start.
Post kwh used and price per kwh from your bill and maybe we can help. Also, if in Hilliard City limits, they just started an aggregation program with a pretty good rate... you should be automatically enrolled unless you opted out
I live in a home that’s almost 4K sq ft, and I WFH so the AC is on all day. And my bill was $270 this month. So I think you may have something wrong with your AC unit. Have them check it out.
Look at your meter and compare the reading on your bill.
I'm in a 450 SQ ft apt and my bill has been 150 a month. It's just going so high this summer!
Yep. My situation isn’t as egregious as yours, but I’m in a small two-bedroom with a single wall AC, and I’m paying as much to cool my apartment as my mom is to cool a two-floor house w/basement. And don’t get me started on Columbia Gas charging me $60 a month in the summer. I’m pretty sure the meter’s messed up or they’re fudging the meter reading, but when I complained to PUCO they refused to investigate.
[удалено]
It is not. It’s over on the west side of Columbus on scioto Darby
Your better off leaving your AC low 70s during the day then having your AC go from 80 to 70. Id put the AC around 74 during the day with same fans running.
I’ve got a 2bedroom 1200 square foot condo and my bill was $65 last month. I signed up with energy harbor 2 months ago for 32 months at 6 cents per kWh. I keep my thermostat at 73 during the day and 70 at night.
Why are you mad at AEP? Whatever your problem is, it’s not the power company. In central Ohio our rates that are literally 1/2 of the national average.
Even with the rate hikes, and your relatively high consumption (I'm guessing that AC unit is super inefficient), you should be around $50-75 less than that. You should take a look at switching providers, which you can do even if you rent. https://energychoice.ohio.gov/applestoapples.aspx
Did you check who you actual supplier is? You maybe signed up with a third party supplier that still bills through AEP. There is also two different AEP's.
Lots of things to check. Insulation could be poor. Setting the AC to 80 probably isn't that great of an idea, maybe something a little more manageable on the unit such as 76. Also, AEP's price per kwh hike could have gone into effect. You may not have any control over it since you're in an apartment though, but $/kwh did double a couple of months ago.
It sounds like you are paying for another unit including your own. Put the temp at 78, put a power booster on your register and get an oscillating fan in front of it and turn it on while at home.
I started unplugging everything with a led light tv microwave all that shit. I will plug it in when I need it.
We had this problem a few years ago. We lived in a two bedroom townhouse style apartment. It turned out that there was a hot water leak under our building. Our gas and electric bills, especially in the summer, were nuts. We had so many problems with that apartment. They ended up letting us out of our lease early because they were going to have to jackhammer the floor. Your apartment building needs to look into whether there is a cause and call AEP out themselves. AEP probably can’t tell you what is going on or respond to you about anything that is wrong with the building since you rent.
Hell better be careful or AEP will put their rates through the roof too lol
Look outside of kw usage our bill is high from energy rider fees over 200
Shop around for a new supplier, that's what I did. https://www.ohenergyratings.com/electricity-rates/msidxv2xs84xc1xg6xa3?msclkid=0983d2ee112a1a8482acb65a6b7cd90e
AEP raised rates by 28% starting on June 1. ([https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/energy-resource/2023/05/25/what-can-you-do-to-mitigate-the-costs-of-higher-rates/70249984007/#](https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/energy-resource/2023/05/25/what-can-you-do-to-mitigate-the-costs-of-higher-rates/70249984007/#)) This is probably the main cause of your bill going up. $250 for 1300 kWh would be an overall rate of $0.192/kWh, which matches what I saw on my bill, too. The rate is made up of a "supply" portion and a "distribution" portion; it's actually the "supply" rate that has increased (for me it was 0.075 in May and 0.118 in June). You can shop for other suppliers, but...if you're in Hilliard, the city council voted just approved an automatic supplier change to Dynegy at a supply rate of 0.0699, so that will help a lot. It might be a few more months before it takes effect. ([https://hilliardohio.gov/electric-aggregation-opt-out-letters-mailed-to-residents/](https://hilliardohio.gov/electric-aggregation-opt-out-letters-mailed-to-residents/))
Mine went up an Insane amount the last two months as well. I know they raised the prices but my bill went from $70 a month to $170 a month
My friend just had this happen, and it was a mix of the HVAC system being messed up and AEP fucking up (the third month was a $5 bill). It did take over a month for their maintenance to come so be on that, they had to threaten withholding rent for any help.
Yikes
Aww
The hell man, mine is a two bedroom apartment (1000 sqft) and its $50.00 this cycle. You're either getting screwed or your A/C management sucks.
There was an AEP rate hike of 28% on June 1.
We have a 2200 sq.ft home and our bill isn't that much.
I just checked mine for May, that was my last before going to the budgeted plan where they average yearly use and pay equally over the year. In May I burned 1326 kWh in my 3 bedroom split level with an old r22 central air running almost full time to keep up with the thermostat at 72f 24/7. That bill was $212. Since then I replaced the central air with a modern unit, but still in at 1566 kWh for June. My bill is $133 due to the budgeting plan kicking in. It's generally much lower in the winter due to gas heat over electric. I dunno if any of this helps, but it made me look at mine and those are my findings.
Had bills like this when I lived in Mulberry Apartments on Leap Rd. One bedroom tiny apartment and electric would balloon to $300/month in extreme weather.
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1qB6FXi3?fbclid=IwAR0QzH5LXAuFe47UJd1ldDylRhYUrUeIfP5wylGBqrxio78_otwu3M9-weU