We bought the house last march, and it is the first house we own, so we’re still getting used to what the winter bill should look like, but since october it has averaged to about 80$ a month. In the summer it was about 35& or less since we don’t use anything to cool down but our windows. We live in Central Pennsylvania and have oil heat. My question is, is the furnace to blame for this spike in our energy bill now in the winter? I understand the fact that the water heater is also working more now in the winter, but I just want to hear from other pepole I guess. Is this spike in our electric bill normal? Thank you for your answers.
I am not using space heaters or bathroom heaters. I cook most of the meals at home and use washer/dryer to do about 5-7 loads a week.
Your furnace has a big fan in it that draws a BIG slug of power each time it starts up. Once running the current draw drops way back. Whether you burn gas or oil doesn’t make any difference in the electric bill. In fact you get more heat from oil than gas so the fan should run less. Some folks run the fan all the time so that start-up power draw doesn’t take place. You could turn everything off in the house, go outside and observe the power meter, is it still turning?? If so you missed something. Observe how fast it is spinning, then start turning things back on. Does any one thing cause it to spin fast, if so that one is drawing a lot of current. While doing this make sure the furnace is off, then turn it on (fan on) and watch for that spike in meter spin. You could do all of this with current meters but you should get a good feel as to what is drawing the current. Don’t forget to turn on the dryer, run the hot water so it comes one, etc. Have fun….. And yes, the furnace is to blame for the spike……