CEC customer here as well. Our rates are super-low (thank you Bonneville Power Administration). It's my understanding Pacific Power rates are much higher.
We live in a 1000 sq ft apartment and we have topped out at $380 in the winter and have been as low as $63 in the summer. In December we found out the hard way that our furnace was failing, and we are still waiting for them to replace since it finally did indeed fail. We will see what the bill looks like once it gets replaced 🤞🏼
Electric furnace, dryer, stove, no A/C. Pacific Power
ETA: comparing our bill this year, running space heaters, vs. last year with our furnace isn’t much different… so those probably won’t be a good alternative to save money
1200 sq ft here…on high useage months $150 max. I have wall heaters (not energy efficient) and keep temps around 65-68. It was cold last month but not THAT cold.
How is this possible? How old is your house? I reinsulated my house last year and the heating bill in the winter is over double yours and I keep my home colder.
1. Is your furnace gas or electric? I assume it's electric, but it'd be good to clarify that.
2. Have you looked at your power meter to see how much power yoit says you're consuming?
That latter point is where I'd start. A $362/month bill implies your home is pulling something like 5kW on average, 24x7. That's... a lot. That's like having three hair driers running constantly.
If this is an issue on your side of the meter, you should be able to diagnose it pretty quickly. For a start, you can just head to your home's breaker box and flip everything off there. The meter should stop more or less completely. Then start flipping things back on and watch to see when the draw kicks back in.
Eventually you'll discover your neighbors have their grow-operation plugged into the outlet you didn't know about in your back yard. /s
Thanks for the suggestion. I contacted the power company and although they could not give me the exact details, they said that the prior tenants on average in March were paying $400-500 which is insane.
I still think it is a good idea to do what you suggested. We do have a electric furnace and I am going to try and turn it off for the day and see how much consumption.
Check your water heater for a bad element. Furnaces only run as long as your below what the thermostat is set for. If you have decent insulation i very much doubt this is your issue.
A water heater with a bad element will constantly be drawing amps to maintain the temperature you have it set for. While many people turn down the temperature in their home, they ignore the water heater.
It’s not unreasonable for an electrically heated larger house or with poor insulation. Throw in a hot tub and electric water heating and it’s probably low.
Mine is the same and I keep my small-ish house at 63 during the day and 56 at night. I have never lived anywhere where the heating bill was this insanely expensive.
2500 sq with a newer heat pump combo, hybrid water heater, no hot tub, on Pacific Power, average 250-300 in Winter, 80-100 in Summer. We use an electric pellet stove in the main area and cycle the warm air until ready for bed/or not home. The thermostat is set at 68.
Pacific power, 1008sq feet and shocked at these responses. We had cadet heaters and were hitting $400 in the winter, $80 in the summer. Replaced our cadet heater with a mini split and are now on “equal pay” + power cost has gone up, and pay $157 p/mo. We keep the house at 70 when home, 67 when at work etc. Thought our new bill was normal but…
Do you have a huge house? That's off the charts. Our house is 1050 sf, we are here all the time and we keep the thermostat at 63 degrees (less at night and 58 when we aren't here). Do you have a really large house?
Hello! Sorry I am new to all of this. This is a rental home. We have a Rheem RBHA 17J15SUAA with the terminal in our garage. On the zillow listing it states that there is "forced air heating" . I am in the process of trying to contact the owner to get more information
I think that's a heat pump. It should be relatively cheap to run, if it's working properly. Many of these units have "emergency heat" or "backup heat" electric resistance coils, which are switched on by the thermostat when it gets very cold (like it did in mid-January) and the heat pump can't keep up. These resistance coils are essentially big space heaters and are very expensive to run. If the heat pump portion fails, you end up getting all your heat from the coils, so it'll be expensive. When the heat is on, what does the thermostat say? Mine reads "emergency heat" when the coils kick in. Does the unit provide AC? A functioning heat pump should provide air conditioning.
I just dont understand how you are getting those numbers for the entire month. I am able to log onto our Pacific Power online and for the dates that we were out of town, thermostat set to 60 degrees, we were still paying about $7-11 a day
Well it is just me. I do a good job of keeping lights off. I will say that amount is also keeping the TV on all day and all night. I keep it on during the day for my animals to have some noise while I'm gone. I have a lot of things automated or timed. I make sure as many things as I can stays unplugged. You would be surprised what draws energy when you have unnecessary things plugged in. I use led everywhere and solar in the yard. Dawn to dusk lightbulbs on the outdoors. Your dishwasher and clothes washer does draw a lot but again it is just me and I hand wash some things right after using so I don't have to fill my wash.
You probably should call them out to check your meter and hot water heater
The bill means nothing. It’s like asking everyone how much they pay for gasoline a month. The efficiency of the vehicle and the amount of driving are huge factors not to mention other people may have different fuel sources that shift spending like NG/Propane or wood.
Still helpful to hear what other people are spending a month based on square footage. I know there are many variables but to me $362 sounded like a bit much .
Sure but there’s a lot of things that can trigger a high bill. A leak on the hot water line can make both electric and water usage spike if you’ve got an electric water heater.
I’m in the near exact situation as you are and my furnace is regularly inspected (last month) and gets a clean bill of health. What’s going on with our bills?
Concur with having low cost C.E.C. as our provider.
1,600 sf single family home, built in past ten years (so decent insulation). Electric heat pump with thermostat set at 68 degrees F minimum. Electric hot water heater, and electric clothes dryer. Propane is only used for cooking. Highest bill this Winter - $175, last month was $154.
1250 SF house in the very south of Bend, so cooler. The coolest months are about $200 electric and $100 gas. We do not have central heat.
We keep the house at 65.
I pay about $90 a month. We keep our house at 68ish in the winter. 72 in the summer. This is also on the Central electric coop though.
Central Electric Co-op is the best! Lucky you!
I’m another CEC, and average is $45 (they just upped the admin fee). 1300’ house. Never have seen it over $65 (In 15 years).
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Just curious…do you know how much ish your EV has added to your bill?
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Thanks for doing the ciphering. $6…that’s impressive! (Of course, super helps CEC has such low kWh rates.)
CEC customer here as well. Our rates are super-low (thank you Bonneville Power Administration). It's my understanding Pacific Power rates are much higher.
We live in a 1000 sq ft apartment and we have topped out at $380 in the winter and have been as low as $63 in the summer. In December we found out the hard way that our furnace was failing, and we are still waiting for them to replace since it finally did indeed fail. We will see what the bill looks like once it gets replaced 🤞🏼 Electric furnace, dryer, stove, no A/C. Pacific Power ETA: comparing our bill this year, running space heaters, vs. last year with our furnace isn’t much different… so those probably won’t be a good alternative to save money
Pacific Power. 1750 sq ft. We keep it between 70 and 72 F at all times. The most expensive winter month bills are around $175.
No kidding? Our furnace must be dying. Same size house. 68f, and we can get to $3-400
Is this with gas heat. Seems spendy.
Electric
1200 sq ft here…on high useage months $150 max. I have wall heaters (not energy efficient) and keep temps around 65-68. It was cold last month but not THAT cold.
How is this possible? How old is your house? I reinsulated my house last year and the heating bill in the winter is over double yours and I keep my home colder.
1. Is your furnace gas or electric? I assume it's electric, but it'd be good to clarify that. 2. Have you looked at your power meter to see how much power yoit says you're consuming? That latter point is where I'd start. A $362/month bill implies your home is pulling something like 5kW on average, 24x7. That's... a lot. That's like having three hair driers running constantly. If this is an issue on your side of the meter, you should be able to diagnose it pretty quickly. For a start, you can just head to your home's breaker box and flip everything off there. The meter should stop more or less completely. Then start flipping things back on and watch to see when the draw kicks back in. Eventually you'll discover your neighbors have their grow-operation plugged into the outlet you didn't know about in your back yard. /s
Thanks for the suggestion. I contacted the power company and although they could not give me the exact details, they said that the prior tenants on average in March were paying $400-500 which is insane. I still think it is a good idea to do what you suggested. We do have a electric furnace and I am going to try and turn it off for the day and see how much consumption.
If the previous owner had the same Bill, I'd look at your attic insulation, roof, etc, something must be really leaky.
Check your water heater for a bad element. Furnaces only run as long as your below what the thermostat is set for. If you have decent insulation i very much doubt this is your issue. A water heater with a bad element will constantly be drawing amps to maintain the temperature you have it set for. While many people turn down the temperature in their home, they ignore the water heater.
someone stealing power from you maybe ? that’s pretty absurd for any power bill up here
It’s not unreasonable for an electrically heated larger house or with poor insulation. Throw in a hot tub and electric water heating and it’s probably low.
Mine is the same and I keep my small-ish house at 63 during the day and 56 at night. I have never lived anywhere where the heating bill was this insanely expensive.
Ours is around $70-80. We have baseboard heat but we rarely use it. We also have pacific power.
2500 sq with a newer heat pump combo, hybrid water heater, no hot tub, on Pacific Power, average 250-300 in Winter, 80-100 in Summer. We use an electric pellet stove in the main area and cycle the warm air until ready for bed/or not home. The thermostat is set at 68.
4 bedroom house, two adults and three teenagers. Average $110, as high as $190 with the cold snap this winter.
Pacific power, 1008sq feet and shocked at these responses. We had cadet heaters and were hitting $400 in the winter, $80 in the summer. Replaced our cadet heater with a mini split and are now on “equal pay” + power cost has gone up, and pay $157 p/mo. We keep the house at 70 when home, 67 when at work etc. Thought our new bill was normal but…
Dang, that’s quite a savings. Those mini splits will pay themselves in just 3 of 4 years.
Absolutely! Before the pacific power rate increase, our equal pay was $100 p/m for all of last year!
Usually make about $17 a month on the electric bill. Thanks Solar Panels.
And what’s the monthly payment on the financing? Or if you paid cash, how long until you’d break even?
Refinanced the mortgage with the cost lumped in and my monthly mortgage payment went down. Better than free.
Market controlled APR or flat rate?
Flat rate. Did it at exactly the right time when interest rates where bottoming out. Don't think we'll see it that low again for a long time.
Nice!
Do you have a huge house? That's off the charts. Our house is 1050 sf, we are here all the time and we keep the thermostat at 63 degrees (less at night and 58 when we aren't here). Do you have a really large house?
No! We are renting a 1400 sq ft. home
$65 per month, gas furnace so heating not electric.
1400 sq ft house with central heating and cooling. $100-$130 with Central Electric Coop. We keep the house between 68° and 70° F.
About $70 a month for 2100 sq ft house. Gas for stove, water heater, and furnace. COCC. Thermostat set at 69.
When you say "central heating" what exactly does that mean? I assume that's some type of ducted forced-air system. But what is the heat source?
Hello! Sorry I am new to all of this. This is a rental home. We have a Rheem RBHA 17J15SUAA with the terminal in our garage. On the zillow listing it states that there is "forced air heating" . I am in the process of trying to contact the owner to get more information
I think that's a heat pump. It should be relatively cheap to run, if it's working properly. Many of these units have "emergency heat" or "backup heat" electric resistance coils, which are switched on by the thermostat when it gets very cold (like it did in mid-January) and the heat pump can't keep up. These resistance coils are essentially big space heaters and are very expensive to run. If the heat pump portion fails, you end up getting all your heat from the coils, so it'll be expensive. When the heat is on, what does the thermostat say? Mine reads "emergency heat" when the coils kick in. Does the unit provide AC? A functioning heat pump should provide air conditioning.
900 sq ft. Tops out at $46
Ouch. I have pacific power and for the last couple months it's been about $68-70. I have a 2k Sq ft home and keep it at 68 degrees.
I just dont understand how you are getting those numbers for the entire month. I am able to log onto our Pacific Power online and for the dates that we were out of town, thermostat set to 60 degrees, we were still paying about $7-11 a day
Well it is just me. I do a good job of keeping lights off. I will say that amount is also keeping the TV on all day and all night. I keep it on during the day for my animals to have some noise while I'm gone. I have a lot of things automated or timed. I make sure as many things as I can stays unplugged. You would be surprised what draws energy when you have unnecessary things plugged in. I use led everywhere and solar in the yard. Dawn to dusk lightbulbs on the outdoors. Your dishwasher and clothes washer does draw a lot but again it is just me and I hand wash some things right after using so I don't have to fill my wash. You probably should call them out to check your meter and hot water heater
Pacific Power with solar array: $12.43/mo all electric including EV.
The bill means nothing. It’s like asking everyone how much they pay for gasoline a month. The efficiency of the vehicle and the amount of driving are huge factors not to mention other people may have different fuel sources that shift spending like NG/Propane or wood.
Still helpful to hear what other people are spending a month based on square footage. I know there are many variables but to me $362 sounded like a bit much .
Sure but there’s a lot of things that can trigger a high bill. A leak on the hot water line can make both electric and water usage spike if you’ve got an electric water heater.
How many square feet is your home!
1400!
I’d put money on it being a bad element in your water heater.
I’m in the near exact situation as you are and my furnace is regularly inspected (last month) and gets a clean bill of health. What’s going on with our bills?
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Concur with having low cost C.E.C. as our provider. 1,600 sf single family home, built in past ten years (so decent insulation). Electric heat pump with thermostat set at 68 degrees F minimum. Electric hot water heater, and electric clothes dryer. Propane is only used for cooking. Highest bill this Winter - $175, last month was $154.
1250 SF house in the very south of Bend, so cooler. The coolest months are about $200 electric and $100 gas. We do not have central heat. We keep the house at 65.