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buy draft guards for some of your doors (or stuff with towels) and close off certain rooms of your house if you can. make sure your windows aren't drafty. do you have 2 heating systems, or is it all on one? if you have 2, you could leave 1 turned off and spend the majority of your time in the other part of the house.
We used to keep our house at 73 and now it's at 66. We dropped about $80 off our bill each month =].
We also bought one of those electric fireplaces that uses pennies a day or something. It really helps. We also block the door to the basement--last year it was open!
More effective than just turning your overall house temps down is what is called "zone heating". Basically, you turn the temps way down all over, and only heat the areas you are currently occupying. So, you could turn down the house heat to 60 or 62, and then use efficient space heaters for your office (or the living room or bedroom at night). The trick is, you need to shut the doors to keep the heat in the "zone" you're in at the time. We use this all the time since our upstairs and downstairs are basically two different systems. Make sure you're using an efficient or energy star rated space heater, though, or it's not going to save any on your energy bills. It also might not be as effective if you have high ceilings, a really open floor plan, etc...
I live in a rental and there is 'supposedly' a meter per unit, but I think it's a total scam. The reason I think so is because for the month of June, when we got married and were only in our apartment for 7 days total and don't even have an air conditioner, our bill was the highest it's ever been. I know it's because of everyone elses air conditioners and they were just taking an average. There is no other explanation since we unplugged and turned off everything and weren't even home to run the dishwasher or microwave.
I feel your pain, my comfortable temperature is mid 80s. But because we're cheap our house is set at 60 now and sometimes below that, but the weather here as been in the 20s and teens.
Check your windows for drafts and cover them in that plastic stuff. Also draft guards by the doors. Fire in the fireplace if you have one. Open the drapes for windows that the sun comes in during the day and then put them back over the windows once the sun goes down.
See, this is pretty much what we've been doing! We have towels covering all drafts, our HVAC and all that is less than a year old and the most efficient available. My space heater is small and EE... and during the day the central heat pretty much doesn't even run.
We only have 1 thermostat which is upstairs (which is also always warmer). We have a traditional style house so... no open floor plan and no high ceilings...
:/
@Mrs. Spring:yes zone heating! that's what i was describing, i just couldn't remember the word.
@moderndaisy:my building works this way too, but they don't pretend to have individual meters. they just divide all of the bills based on square footage. it's absolutely awful -- no one has an incentive to reduce their energy use, because nothing you do will make your bill lower.
Does your energy company do audits? A lot of companies are starting to do free energy audits for home owners as part of "going green." At least it would be a place to start in looking for areas to improve on.
Do you have a basement or crawl space? You lose A LOT of heat through the crawl space if it's uninsulated.
How are your windows? Old or new? Old windows are super drafty, use window insulation kits.
Even if you have new windows how's the caulking around the perimeter? Inside AND outside.
And the other question is was the bill from a actual reading or guessed from last year's usage?
@Gerbera: We do have a crawl space and it's a work in progress to make more EE. (We've already spent a few grand on it but it will take about 6k more to get it "done."
Windows are 2 years old. Roof is 2 years old.
Our bill was based on actual usage (this time last year the house was empty and "winterized."
We actually had an energy guy come around the house yesterday to make suggestions and stuff and tell us about rebate programs the state has.
If you have an attic, make sure the insulation is at least 8 inches and there are no gaps.
If you have an attic and have the drop down ladder, get a cover for it, since that thin plywood is not insulating at all.
Get the window insulation kits, another layer helps, even if you have double pane windows.
Curtains help too, once again, any layer of cold air that isnt free to move will help.
If you have ceiling fans, turn them on low, that will help move the hot air that rises around the room.
Sounds like you've got the rest down with making sure theres no drafts and closing off unused spaces.
Did you guys opt for spray foam insulation at your crawl space? We got a quote and it was ridiculous! This isn't our forever home so we opted to just use regular batt insulation but if it was our forever home we would have splurged for the spray foam as well.
Having the insulation done at the crawl space helped a TON.
We also have new windows everywhere and still use the window insulation kits. It's a noticeable difference when those go up.
Does VA have any rebate programs? They quoted us about 2800 to get the spray insulation in the attic and to insulate the sky lights and stuff up there. But theres a 75% rebate up to 2k for that in MA, so we'd only have to pay 800 to get it done.
OMG! That's an awesome rebate! NY does have a rebate program as well but nowhere near as good as yours!
I live in VA too and our gas/electric bill for our condo was REALLY high this month. Electric bill was double what we usually pay and gas was almost 4 times more. We've had our thermostat set at 68- I turned it down to 63.
I'm going to look into something to winterize our windows.
Other things to think about - even when electronics are off they draw phantom power. Its not a huge amount, but if you think about all the things plugged in, that really adds up. We bought a really cool power strip that has a remote and two "always on" plugs. We pluged our DVR and Modem into the always on plugs, so they are always on. We use the remote to turn off our TV, DVD, Apple TV, etc at night and its off during the day when we're at work, so we save a lot of power that way. Here it is:
DH works from home and I'm trying to get him to use this same type of thing for his office so the printer, scanner, montior, laptop, desktop, etc aren't drawing phantom power at night and on the weekends.
During the summer and fall our power bills were amazing! So I'm not too concerned about phantom power etc... Our Bill is about double what it was in July when it was 90+ degree's outside...
thermal window coverings/drapes. just bought some for my basement and it went from an ice box to comfortable OVER NIGHT!
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Our December power bill was the highest we've had yet. We attributed it to the record breaking snowfall and keeping our thermostat at 72. We put the temp down to 67 and I run a small space heater in my office off and on through the day to keep it comfortable enough.
Our bill was $5 HIGHER this past month despite these changes. We haven't been doing more laundry, cooking more, etc... If anything, it should have been lower.... we would think.
Any ideas? We're both slightly frustrated... especially me who is at home all day is a "cold" (I'm from Texas :) house....