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I got a shock when I received our electric bill this month: it doubled over the previous month.

There are several things that could explain part of the increase: We are now in the peak pricing season, temperatures have increased by about 10 degrees over the prior month, and our billing cycle was an extra week longer than usual.

But still! Twice as much?

I could see 35% more, or maybe even 50% more over the prior month. But a hundred percent more seems out of hand.

Did I mention that we had a new electric meter installed during the billing cycle in question? Maybe that could be it. So of course I called the electric company.

They asked me a series of questions:

• Did we install any new lighting? No, and we have CFLs.
• Did we have a water heater leak? No.
• What is the water temperature set at? I’m not sure, but it hasn’t changed.
• How often do we change the filter in the air conditioner? We’ve been changing it monthly.
• Have we had the AC serviced? Yes, and it’s pretty new too.
• Are our dishwasher & refrigerators energy star rated? Yes, I think so. Plus they haven’t changed.
• Did we get any new computers or electronics? No. We got a new clock, but we only had that the last 2 days of the cycle, so I don’t think that’s going to cause a 100% increase in our bill.
• Do we have a pool? No.
• Have we had company over? No. In fact, we were gone for part of the time.
• What do we have our AC set at? 83 during the day, 85 at night.
• What is the insulation like? No idea, but again, it hasn’t changed.
• What are your windows like? They’re new. (And highly efficient.)

I asked about the meter, and they said that the new meters are much more accurate, and that our old meter might have been running slow. They offered to have someone come out and perform an evaluation, but it would be at a $25 charge. They would check the load that our AC and water heater are putting on the system. I’m going to be looking into ways to check our actual energy usage myself to see if it is accurate. It COULD just be a coincidence or a combination of factors, but I’d like to know for sure. (And for free.)

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