Something is wrong with our PGE bill
I know PGE hiked their rates recently but our bills have been astronomical for about 2-3 years now. After finally asking other people what they pay, our bill seems majorly out of whack.
We are a family of four living in a 1500 sq foot house built in the 80s with an attic, newer double paned windows and a fairly new central heat and air system. We don't even use much heat in the winter because I start sweating if it goes about 65 so it's rarely on. We have an energy efficient fridge, dishwasher and stove all 2-3 years old. Washer and dryer about 7yrs old. New electric water heater that made our bill go higher but it was already through the roof. We have a maybe 500sq foot adu that a family member has been staying in the last three year. It has an old refrigerator, hot plate, toaster and space heater.
Nothing wild. Our PGE bills this winter have been $850-950 every month. Last year was about $100 cheaper. Summer is about the same, but at least in the summer we are running the air conditioner fairly liberally since it goes past 100 where we are inland.
We called PGE to see what they could do but they told us our smart meter was working and they didn't so energy assessments.
Our neighbors across the street have a 2100 sq foot house with old single paned windows built in the 70s. They have 5-7 people living there and an old furnace. Their bills are in the 400s.
What gives? Who can we call to get an accurate energy assessment to find out what's sucking all our power?
PGE had us on the 4-9 power down plan last year saying it was our cheapest option but we recently looked on their site and now the 5-8 plan is cheaper but only by about $50-100 a year. We are so frustrated and confused and if we're over using we just want to know on what so we can cut down. We can't afford to pay it much longer.
Any recommendations for self assessment or a professional appreciated! We alsready did the PGE online assessment and it was useless
Parent Replies
One culprit may be the 500 square feet at the lowest (coldest) level heated by a space heater. Those things are energy hogs.
The most important thing you need to look at in your PG&E bills is not the dollar amount. That doesn’t tell you much, you need to look at how much electricity and gas you actually used. Compare that to the past and see if there are changes. And if you want to compare to neighbors, that’s also what you need to compare.
After that you want the method they outlined to find out which are your biggest contributors to your consumption. Old fridge? Running the dryer twice a day because you have a lot of laundry? Cooking for hours every day?
While your neighbors may have gas for heating and water heater, you mention electric water heater and space heater (electric ) in the granny unit. These two can add astronomically to your bill.
That does seem astronomical. I wonder if there’s some issue with your meter covering another house or something like that? If you own your house going solar is going to be cost-effective for you if you’re paying that much per month. We have a 2100 square-foot house and solar panels and all we pay each month for electric is, the hook up fee which is something like $40. I don’t have my bill in front of me it might be $20 more. I don’t remember. We do have a gas furnace and a gas hot water heater, both of which I’d love to swap out When we save enough money. But even in the winter with the PG&E rate hikes, our biggest bill was $400. And that’s with the heater running all the time. You could save enough to pay off the solar panels and just a couple years.
It would be worthwhile to do a home energy audit--there are now federal tax credits available for this under the Inflation Reduction Act (and soon the California credits for energy efficiency upgrades will be online if you decide to do work to improve your home's efficiency as a result of the audit). Many local companies offer these. But briefly, I'd guess the difference between your home and your neighbors' home is that their old furnace is gas with no a/c, and your central heat and air system and ADU space heater are electric. That can make a difference of hundreds of dollars in your bill (and if that's the case, remember that they're also paying a separate gas bill for heating).
There are a few things you can check first, though. Look at your bill to see what your baseline credit is under the 4-9 pm plan (called E-TOU-C). Under the section called "Service Information" on your bill, look to see what your listed heat source is. You get a higher baseline allowance (which means cheaper power) if you have electric heat. If your newer system replaced a gas system and no one notified PG&E, you may still be set to a baseline for non-electric heat. Only the 4-9 pm plan has a baseline allowance so it's probably still your best bet--we tried out the 5-8 pm plan for a year and found in the end it actually cost more even though PG&E's calculator had predicted it would save a little money. However, you do also qualify for the new E-ELEC plan so you could see whether that plan--which has a monthly fee in exchange for slightly lower rates--would be any less costly. The last thing you might do is to get a programmable thermostat, if you don't already have one. This will allow you to pre-heat and pre-cool your home outside of peak hours--we have ours set to turn our heat off each day from 4 to 9 pm, and find the house stays plenty warm until it kicks back on after 9. PG&E offers a discounted smart thermostat as well if you have a/c--that may be worth getting. To the extent that you can, shift other uses out of peak hours too.
We got a home energy inspection through JMC Inspections — I think it was maybe $250-350? We were required to do the inspection due to Berkeley’s BESO requirement for new homeowners, but it was actually very thorough and informative, and gave us good insight into what was impacting our usage today as well as what longer term projects to prioritize.
They seemed thoughtful and personalized so I’m guessing if you call and explain your situation they’ll prioritize sending a more experienced person.
Yes, that seems kind of crazy, Our house is 2x as big and our winter bills are about $300 month. I would definitely pay for an assessment - I'm guessing there is something wrong with your meter (is it a smart meter?) You can check here to find a qualified assessor: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/professional-home-energy-assessments
Good luck!!
Our bill has doubled in the past year with no increase in use. So there’s that.
In addition to the useless assessment that PG&E offers, they have lots of helpful detailed breakdowns by gas/electrical that shows your actual usage by hour/comparing to weather/etc. So that can be helpful to see if you have spikes during certain times (using the stove for example) or overall high use (like if it’s still high when everyone is sleeping then maybe the old fridge or TVs/gaming systems/etc are pulling a lot of phantom power).
I did a quick search and this site explains phantom power and how to find it and what to do about it. Good luck! https://www.howtogeek.com/836580/how-to-identify-and-measure-phantom-lo…
Honestly your bill is so above average I don't think it is even possible that most devices could burn through that kind of electricity. I would guess (a) someone has figured out how to tap into your electricity and is running their whole house off it; (b) lots of EV charging; or (c) temperature control, including potentially the space heater you mentioned in the ADU -- some models can burn an insane amount of energy. Also if you run the air conditioner liberally in the summer but your bills are about that same as in the winter that would suggest that you are using a lot of energy on heating despite keeping your house not so warm, or some other seasonal activity that drives costs up in the winter. Normally you would see an uptick in energy use during the summer if you are running the A/C a lot. Unless you are doing something only in the winter that uses an equivalent amount of energy. Maybe try not using the space heater for a week or two and see if that makes a large difference in your bill (then check same with your main heating, although I think space heater is a more likely culprit).
This is probably not the most efficient method but if none of that works, what I would do is go out of town for a week and turn off/unplug every single thing you can (probably everything but the fridge). If one of your devices is causing the extra cost you should be able to notice a significant decrease in usage from having it off for a week. There is probably a way to check your daily usage on the PG&E website so once you know it's one or more of your devices you can unplug them at different times, check usage and find the culprit. My money is on the space heater though. I notice the astronomical bills started around the same time as the family member started living there.
I’m guessing it’s the space heater in the ADU. We ran a space heater often last year when we had an infant and our bills were $600-700. This year with minimal space heater use, it was more like $350-400. Space heaters can be VERY big energy draws, unfortunately.
I'm guess that the space heater may be the culprit here. Most are very inefficient, and if your family member wants to stay warm, they may keep it on a lot. The 2-3 years of increased bills also tracks with the three years they've been living there. Maybe check with them about their use of that and the cooking appliances.
In addition to all of the great advice others have posted (I learned alot!) and echoing the point about the space heater, the advisors at BayRen have been pretty awesome. It’s all free since its a service provided by all the Bay Area local govs. It sounds like they may be able to come do a free site assessment too?
https://www.bayren.org/home-learning-center