Average electric bill with electric furnace

I don't know. But I do know that I have owned 2 homes with electric heat and the utility bills were far higher than those I've owned with gas heat.

Yeah thats what I'm afraid of. It may be normal and if so I am going to have to figure out something else. I used propane one year to heat with and it wasn't nearly as high as this is.

Demand Meter?

When the electric furnace kicks on it demands more power than normally used. You pay as if you always require that much. Not fair but the utilities pay a lot of money to get the state to set the rules in their favor.

To decrease demand get a control device that does not allow all the electric heaters in the furnace to start at the same time. You may only heat a part of the house but is the electric furnace sized for the whole house?

My father in law, a plumber, had an electric furnace that had room for 4 heating elements, he only installed three. These days you should be able to switch off the unneeded elements. If you go away for a weekend in winter and there is no wood heat, you can manually switch them on.

I don't think there is any economy to size, so two electric furnaces sized for the wood and electric side of the house could be used. They should have a control that does not allow both on at the same time. Your heating zones should match your living use.

Also, if you have an electric hot water heater, it should go through the furnace control system. The water heater should have some extra storage and be set to run during the lowest power consumption time of the day. Also it should not come on until the control system shuts down one heating element. Ideal demand is to have only one heating element on at a time. So what if your house runs 1 element for 24 hours a day. Demand wise that is much better than running 4 elements for 6 hours.

Also that big number may be an estimate. On my bill the estimate is always 30% more than my average use. This I know because in the corner of the bill is an annual use mount. Again the rules are set to allow the utility to get as much money as they can. Then when they read the meter they charge much less but they had your money for an extra month to gather some interest for them.

Paul in PA

I heated with electric in Boise for several years. 1650 square feet with bills up to 275. It's really hard to say what normal is without your local climate info.
The advice regarding demand is spot on. This is an area where modern system efficiency and current knowledge on power management will save your bacon...

John, I'm just over the border from you...my highest heating bill this winter was $399..don't know what the next bill will be, probably less...that does seem high..if it was gas I could believe it being so high...

Give us more details. What your per KW charge from the elec. company? Our is about 11 cents, but it goes up to 13 cents if you use more than 1000 KW.

Im in Florida so we mostly use AC for cooling, but we've only been up to about $300 in the summer, winter is usually about $150. We have "reverse cycle" heat pumps that work for both heating and cooling, heat strips kick in if it gets really cold ... like less than 40 degrees at night...

What's your rate? How many KWs are you using?

January bill says I used 10,681 KWH

Last year I averaged 44 KWH per day

This year so far is almost 400 KWH per day.

I have what I call a redneck mansion. I have a used doublewide 28X70 and a used single wide 16X80 They are put together at a 6' opening that used to be a sliding door. The singlewide is what we lived in and heat with wood. We use it as a dining room, my office, and a bedroom. The doublewide was just added on and we bought a new furnace for it. Is it possible the furnace was hooked up wrong and is pulling to much power?

this is apples and oranges since you're in WV and i'm in TX

3000 sf house built as energy efficient as possible in 2000 w/ 3 ton and 2.5 ton heat pumps. "average" billing by the electric coop. my "average" bill lately has been around $265/mo. that comes to less than 10 cents/sf.

will be replacing both units and adding insulation in the attic soon at somewhere close to $15,000. the valves are out on the 2.5 ton, and the 3 ton has had a slight refrigerant leak that was fixed w/ some kind of sealant. hey, their 15 years old. that's 14 years longer than my first wife lasted, and w/ a lot less problems.

edit: my house is all electric

by the way, there's a dollar sign on a keyboard ($), why not cents sign?

Well John, and it seems a while since you've chimed in. Welcome back!!

I've kind of humbleized myself due to the lack of work that nobody wants to pay me for, so I've transported myself and SWMBO to our used to be "get away" spot near Lake Mead. Nice, saw the lunar eclipse this morning. Then went back to sleep for 16 minutes or so.

I've got a couple electric plug in units just to help with the cold mornings, and then the air conditioner that does get overworked when I turn it on. Me, I just say it's hot and we live in the desert. SWMBO has other concerns.

Regardless the bills are never over $80 or so. This is for a not very good insulated 32 ft trailer, but still fully equipped with water, shower, pooper, DirectTV, gas furnace, even a radio station or 2. It does get "small" for two sometimes, but the hugs in the hallway are nice.

The views in the morning coffee times are incredible!! I like the afternoon views though when the sun blasts off the cliffs. Very impressive IMO, and I get further humbled.

Sounds like you have a leak or something wrong going on. Call some electric gizmo guy to find the problem before your house burns down. It's not rocket science, it's just getting the right parts to fix the problem.

Best of to you and hope it all works out.

Go Spartans!!!! 😉

I have a geothermal system, 4 zones, 6000 sq ft. The main floor (Zone1), about 2500 sq ft, is always at 70° in the winter, 74° in the summer. The basement (Zone2), another 2500 sq ft, is only heated sometimes, never cooled. The rest of the house (2 upstairs bedrooms, which are zone3, and my office, zone4) is probably on about 75% of the time. When I am working I usually turn the A/C down to about 70°.

Although it varies somewhat, I average just under 1000 KWHrs/month for HVAC. That works out to about $100 per month over the whole year. I should add that the basement and first floor walls are ICF (insulated concrete forms), 2.5" of styrofoam, then 8" of concrete, then another 2.5" of styrofoam. Brick on the outside and drywall on the inside. Pretty well insulated. I do have so called "emergency heat", which are 20+KW of electric resistance heaters. They only come on if I try to raise the temperature more than a few degrees at a time. Geothermal is not capable of bringing the heat up fast, although in cooling mode it works great. The emergency heat has never come on under normal conditions, even when it was -10° F outside.

I live in Pittsburgh, which can get pretty cold in winter, not extreme, although we had a bunch of below zero days in february. In summer it rarely tops 95°, usually about 85°.

I have a monitor on each 200 AMP panel (one for HVAC, the other for the rest of the house load). I often wonder why I use so much for the house (exclusive of HVAC). I have all CFL or LED lights, although I do have an electric range, electric dryer, and 2 refrigerators and a freezer always on. We have gas hot water and a gas stove, so that doesn't factor in. Also 5 PC's always on.

Here is the HVAC over a year:

and the rest of the house:

>I know this is a far cry from surveyors but I am going nuts here.
>My last three electric bills have been $930 $1100 $650. Each!
>This is my first electric furnace so I don't know what it should cost.

> January bill says I used 10,681 KWH
>
> Last year I averaged 44 KWH per day
>
> This year so far is almost 400 KWH per day.
>
> I have what I call a redneck mansion. I have a used doublewide 28X70 and a used single wide 16X80 They are put together at a 6' opening that used to be a sliding door. The singlewide is what we lived in and heat with wood. We use it as a dining room, my office, and a bedroom. The doublewide was just added on and we bought a new furnace for it. Is it possible the furnace was hooked up wrong and is pulling to much power?

John,

Have had total electric homes twice. First in SE Ohio and now in central Ohio. Those bills are high for a new furnace but not for older less efficient models. As others have mentioned check into how the thermostat and elements are set to work. Even the older models could be staged to phase in one element at a time depending on demand. Usually one heat element for a short time. Then if the thermostat does not sense a change a second, and if available third, element will cycle on. The additional elements are usually accompanied by a faster fan speed to increase air circulation. If your fan speed is constant it may be a sign of your furnace is not staged.

I just replaced a 30 +/- year old electric furnace with an electric heat pump. My bill dropped about $100 per month as a result. My frame home is about the size of your doublewide and recent bills have been in the $400 range.

The other side of this, bordering on the political, is that the EPA current and proposed rules are targeting coal fired power plants. There will additional costs in the future and they will get passed on to everyone. Both you and I are in areas where most of the electric comes from those plants. Don't expect the rates to get better in the next few years.

I have gone back to my grandpas ways that I can remember. He never kept the whole house warm unless it was necessary.

He would control the heaters and if you got cold there were plenty of blankets to bury yourself under.

Put a space heater in each room. They are safe for pets and children.

If there ain't nobody in there that room don't need to be heated to 70F.

B-)

I had astronomic electric bills when the electric heat pump I was using had a computer problem that caused it to switch to the wrong mode, when the landlord got around to sending a tech the bill went down by a substantial amount, like 40 percent.

> My last three electric bills have been $930 $1100 $650. Each!
> >

That just amazes me. I have central heat and air with a gas furnace. Anything over about $120 is high for me, summer or winter. My house is only about 1300 sf. so that may be the reason.

John,

I currently live in a double wide manufactured home ( a very long, frustrating story), and it is poorly insulated. We our heater and ac unit run most of the time.

Our house is all electric, and our electric bills run between $250 almost $500 in the dead of summer. In the coldest winters, it averages between $250 and $350.

There are 5 of us living here, so there are always lights on, TV's, computers, 2 refrigerators, a freezer, etc. on.

In the summer, we have a swimming pool that runs 24/7 from late April thru the end of September.

I am looking at having the house wrapped in the plastic tyvek wrap, and adding a layer of insulation this summer, and replacing the vinyl siding, and our ac unit is just about ready for replacement. A more efficient system will be replacing the current one.

Good luck! I feel your pain there buddy.

I pay $194 per month on a budget plan. In the winter it is around 3000kw and summer with the air on all the time it is around 700kw per month.
The President said he was going make it very expensive if the electric plants are coal fired.

John, it seems to me that somehow you are getting screwed? Our bills here are rougly $150.

You're a prime candidate for one of these.

Home Energy Audit

I live in a much more extreme environment and my energy bills are a tiny fraction of what your paying. I do however heat a 1200 sf home and 1300 sf shop with gas, wood and passive solar. Heating with electricity is far and away the most expensive option on the table around here.