Electric heat. 'Nuff said.

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We depend too much on natural gas for electricity. If you lived in the neighboring province of Québec, electric heat would be a no-brainer thanks to their hydro-electric power.

I think it's the fact you're using electricity. One of my friends (family of 4) just moved from their house that was heated with oil and propane. Their new house is all electric heat. Their bill was $1,200 for the month. They were shocked and so stressed out. Similar to your emotions, I imagine. You're not alone.

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Electric heat is a major power suck. I’m so sorry this is happening to you - my $500+ bills in the summer to my new house (pool filter, acs etc) was enough for me to switch to solar. I changed to Direct energy in the meanwhile and my bills went down to just over $100/mo (paired with turning off the pool pump and not running ACs lol)

I’m about to knock down a home. There’s nothing in it. I got a bill an it was $300. I was like wtf. I went over and one of the thermostats was set to 50° for the electric baseboard heat. I had someone in there the other month clearing stuff and I think they turned it up. Then down but not off

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The only way you’ll save money is turning down the heat or getting a more efficient electric heat source (but you’d need to buy it). If there are thermostats on each heater, you can turn down when you aren’t in the room. We have only one zone and our thermostat is set to 58 with oil heat unless someone is sick. Some rooms have electric heaters to keep things a little warmer.

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Our price per kWh roughly doubled a couple months ago. That bill should've only been ~$300/mo. You're paying the price of "supporting" Ukraine. We all are. Better turn that thermostat down to 55F. No complaining now, or the Pentagon bots will label you a Russian bot!

As an aside, you really don't have to sweat the lights. LED bulbs use almost nothing. If you still have old Boomer incandescent bulbs, you should replace them. It'll save you a couple hundred bucks in the long run, but the wasted energy of an incandescent bulb is lost as heat, and well, you're heating with electric heat anyway, so it really doesn't matter in the winter.

Is it a heat pump split system or something like electric baseboard? Heat pump is pretty efficient.

EPA advises turning it down 6-8 degrees if you will be gone for more than 8 hours. Turning it completely off and then back on when you get home it would use more energy than just holding 68 degrees.

OP, as others have suggested, electric heat is very expensive to heat with.

When it’s 10 degrees outside, you have have your heat set to 65 degrees, you have a 55 degree differential. Bumping it up to 70 degrees inside and you have a 60 degree differential. The point is that the difference between 65 and 70 set point is not that much different compared to the 10 degrees outside. EPA says generally lowering the thermostat by 1 degree is roughly a 1% savings in electric bill.

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I have a propane heater. Otherwise my electricity bill has just shot up to $180. Myself and two adult sons with electric hot water and a pump for our well water. Also we use a lot of lighting at night. Electric heat in New Hampshire is unaffordable. My folks tried it fifty years ago and they couldn't do it then. A wood stove, than a coal stove, and finally a propane heater which I'm still using.

Turn off when leaving for work. From off, turn it down to 62 for sleeping. When you wake up, turn up from 62 to 68, then immediately turn it off when you leave for work. Something not adding up there.

Anyways, turning heat down is advisable only for long durations and should never be turned off.

Is this person trying to usurp 5nd? The person you're responding to I mean.

Yet you ignore the fact that the energy companies, especially oil, raked in record profits last year. They just used Ukraine as a scapegoat to line their pockets. Unfortunately, this is a direct result of unfettered capitalism. But the people who support those who vote to keep capitalism unrestrained, refuse to see that they got what they voted for.

Blame the corporations recording record profits. Then blame those who vote to ensure that corporations can get away with it over and over again. I’ll wait.

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I moved out of NH (Somersworth) this last October for this very reason-the price of electricity. It was unsustainable to pay that much for one person who worked and was gone 12/13 hours every day.. I had a 3 room apt. A bedroom a living room and a kitchen. 380 Last winter for electric never mind I kept my thermostat at 60 because I was on the very top floor and got residual heat from the lower floors and got a Ton of sunshine. I had no space heaters or blow dryer or even an electric coffee pot. I was a miser when it came to electricity to no avail. In September of 2022 (my last month) I paid 290 for this same place. No air-conditioning or anything. Even had an "energy audit" from Eversource. "NOPE Nothing to see here this is legit" Live Free or Die. Smh. Good luck with this.

kWh went from $0.11 to $0.22. I locked in at $0.16 a kWh.

Soooo…what were they paying for electric, plus gas, plus propane before?

My bill this month was $488 for a half duplex with two people and a dog. If I hadn’t switched from Eversource to Direct Energy it would probably be the same price as yours. Granted I work from home but I basically freeze during the day and only turn lights on that I 100% need. Electric heat is fucking killing me

We absolutely should've had price controls on food and energy like Nixon did in the 1970s, at a bare minimum. Really though, the oil companies should all be nationalized. But hey, that's my ideal world. We have a president who makes Nixon look like a socialist now. What can you do?

My electric bill is more than double it had been in the same months in the past

You can try unplugging everything that is not being used. Even in the off position some things still draw power. My house is almost all electric. I have a 1200 sqft house with a detached garage. Our bill averages about that. We switched our hot water and heat to propane some years ago and that saved us money.

If you rent and the electric is in your name you can definitely switch suppliers. But seeing as you rent if the landlord has other things pulling from your ‘unit’ that could be causing the high rate. I would call eversource and an electrician to have them investigate where that use is coming from.

Can you look into budget billing on eversource's page and see what it quotes you. I'm trying to see if other people see it as a benefit vs standard billing.

Can you do an energy audit?

Using a clothesline has dropped my bill by 20%.

There are crappy landlords who didnt want to pay for appropriate metering or the wiring to keep circuits separate. If you have access to your meter shut everything down for as long as you can and see if the meter moves. Document everything.

You may be crossed wired to another apartment or to hall lights or even a laundry room.

Also alot, but not all, of meters are now "smart" ones and you can check daily use on eversource. If you paying for anything but your own usage, report the theft to the police and landlord. But if your lease says you have to pay for things that are common area then you would have to move.

Rate was .25 per kwh this statement. Used 100 less kWh this month and bill was more thank last… I should have locked in a rate

How do you go about locking in? Is it too late for me to do that and have a decent rate at this time of year?

Nest and ecobee thermostats can't handle baseboard electric heat without a relay board.

Go to this link for the company I used.

energy suppliers

The 24 month green plan with direct energy is what I did but in august. Cancel at anytime and extend in 24 months. You still pay your utility bill through your regular provider but you get a discounted kWh rate.

My bill went from $150 most months, to $300 in august, and down to $175 in September. My house is super energy efficient and is a passive solar house so the sun rises on one side sets on the other so that helps out a whole lot!

Thank you! That’s great. I’ve got an early 1900’s house so not super insulated. I plastic the windows and keep some doors shut. Thankfully don’t use much electric or oil and rely mainly on the pellet stove. But any savings helps.

If you don’t have a newer stove next year look into the tax incentive for a new stove in the summer. As long as it’s installed by end of the year, you can get the rebate/incentive. Newer stoves can be connected to a thermostat as well and you can get uninterrupted power supplies for them if you don’t have a generator. I grew up with pellet stoves and we have one now, so warm!!

Even if you're not a crappy landlord you still can't do it. I contacted a bunch of electricians and they all flaked out. The one I did manage to contract disappeared before they finished.

Plus the 20k-30k cost to separate everything (real quotes), don't complain about your high rent.

It’s a pretty good newish stove. Very happy with it. It does not connect to a thermostat but it does have one built into it. The power supply is a fantastic idea! Rarely lose power and not for long but things happen so prudent to be prepared. Thanks for sharing.

1. Have you put up plastic film around your windows?

2. Are your lights LEDs?

3. Are you using a power strip to turn off your electronics like your TV and other devices? You can't trust their power buttons.

4. Is your refrigerator overloaded or opened too often?

5. Do you use an electric dryer?

6. Turn it down to 60F and wear better clothing.

7. Can you feel drafts around your doors or other vents?

Ours was $560 in a 7500 square foot house this month. No electric heat though.

Its theft if not disclosed in a lease, and you are the thief. There is no way you should not have known that the wiring was defective. ..in most states its criminal but realistically the prosecutor will give you a chance to pay back the tenants and redo the wiring.

Otherwise, as a civil matter, you still cant steal tenants electricity. A smart tenant can recover damages, punitive damages, and force you to do the work while the lease is valid...realistically you would pay their whole electric bill for the term of the lease plus meet some reasonable demands.

Im amazed at how few tenants know their rights. The state needs a tenants association...join with a small yearly fee..learn their rights and get hooked up with an attorney if their claims are realistic. You could get a good rating and get a premium on rent for doing things right.

You know that you can charge as a high a rent as you want...just dont count on being paid if the tenant hits hard times. But you cant lie.

It's not defective wiring. It's systems put in place decades ago before current hosing codes. They're all grandfathered in and are fine to keep in place until you upgrade part of the system.

Yes you have to disclose, I never commented on that. I was pointing out updating it to modern standards isn't a trivial task.

You don't need an association, you just need to do some basic research. If you're unwilling to put in the time for that you'd be unwilling to read the association's paperwork too: https://www.apartments.com/rental-manager/resources/state-laws/new-hampshire

I think an association would be a great idea for everyone.

My bill with a similar sized house and one person is $250 with the direct energy rate lock in at 13 cents over the summer for comparison- sadly, that sounds right

Drop it to 55 while you are at work and at night while you are sleeping. We run mini splits to heat a 2500 sqft house and our last bill was around $450. Windows make a huge difference too, if they are old you could replace them and it will save a ton on heating/cooling

I live in Exeter, my house is 2,700 sq. ft and our electricity bill is about 200 USD. I do agree it is the electric heating

You’re definitely not alone in this - electric bills are insane right now

We live in a 1,200 sq foot home and our electricity bill was $240 and natural gas $95. We have 3 people at home during the day doing WFH. We're paying $0.33/KWH (power + delivery). It sounds like your main problem is electric heat. BTW, my son used to live in an apartment in Boston - it was an built in the 1960s with electric heat and his electricity bills in the winter were monstrous. The only consolation is that this time of the year is the worst. Bills go way down in the spring and fall and are only moderate again in the summer if you have air conditioning.

Our kids lived in an apartment that had electric heat when they were in college but utilities were covered in the rental price. It was a 2-bedroom in Lowell back from 2008-2012 and the rent was $1,000. The good, old days I guess. Back when I was renting, the prices were around $300/month.

My electric bill is $120 for 1600ish sqft and my oil is about $250 to keep the house at 60. Last year would have been about $60 for electric and the same for oil (it was much colder but lower prices and of course electric rates went way up). Oil delivers based on degree days not monthly but in winter it works out to about once a month. I think that electric heat is screwing you.

We moved to NH in the 1980s and what people told us is to avoid electric heat. I think Seabrook improved things with electricity prices but it's something that's always stayed with me. There's an overall shortage of electricity in New England. NH generates more than enough power for the state but a lot of it is sold outside the state due to demand. I think that we should put in another nuclear reactor at Seabrook but permitting to construction is typically 10 years in the US.

I don't know if you're aware of this but electricity prices doubled in NH last summer. So what we paid last year was a lot less than what we are paying now. We had plenty of notice so that we knew it was coming but it's still unpleasant to deal with.

Great list, I’ll add the water heater! Take shorter showers and cold wash laundry when possible

We have electric baseboard heat in the basement. We've been here since the 1980s and I turned it one once for a few minutes to see if it works. My office is in the basement and I have a small, electric space heater but most of the time I just get used to the cold. Even moreso with the high electricity prices. My wife is away in Singapore for five months so I'm using her office in the living room when it is cold outside.

The problem is the cost of natural gas. The New England grid relies on power produced by natural gas, and the cost of that has skyrocketed. You probably aren't using an obscene amount of electricity, it's just that electricity costs an obscene amount here in New England.

Everyone is blaming the utility companies, but in actuality, it is the natural gas suppliers that are raping and pillaging our wallets. It's no different than what went on with gas prices post covid. Supply and demand.

This is why electric cars are receiving the pushback that they are. First off, the power plants will generate more emissions than a gas car does in order for you to charge it. Secondly, you will still be at the mercy of a supplier regarding the cost of operation, and thirdly our infrastructure is not capable right now of handling the demand if we were all plugging in our cars everyday.

It's a wild time to be alive. We have put the cart before the horse in our attempts to "fix" these problems.

We went to synthetic clothes (mostly) about ten years ago. These clothes dry quickly and it has reduced the amount of washing and drying as they are less dense than natural fibers and about 70% of the wash is hang-dry instead of using the dryer. We have a very long closet in the basement and hang dry on the hangers.

I bought a power meter for about $20 and it's handy to get an idea of what appliances use. It may make sense to upgrade appliances if you were thinking about it anyways. I upgraded the computers that I use and the new ones take about one-tenth the power of the old ones.

We switched to LED lighting many years ago and that did make a difference.

I wouldn't call 65 low...

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>First off, the power plants will generate more emissions than a gas car does in order for you to charge it.

You've been mislead. Even after accounting for power plant emissions and vehicle life-cycle emissions (from manufacturing the car and battery), EVs generate lower emissions than gas cars.

This is especially true in New England because our electricity comes mostly from natural gas and nuclear power and these are relatively clean power sources compared to coal which is used in some other places.

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths

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>and thirdly our infrastructure is not capable right now of handling the demand if we were all plugging in our cars everyday.

This is also untrue. Electric vehicles are typically charged overnight when the grid is running at a fraction of its peak capacity. As more EVs are sold, it will be important for utility regulators to ensure EV owners are properly incentivized to charge when grid demand is lowest.

Programs to do this are already being deployed all around the country. Unfortunately, NH is a laggard here but they'll eventually tag along in the tailwind of more forward thinking states. Some states even have special programs where grid operators can pull power from EVs to help the grid out during emergencies.

Here's an example of an EV rate plan in Georgia where charging overnight costs 1.4 cents per kWh compared to 7 cents during normal times and 20 cents during the busiest times.

https://www.georgiapower.com/content/dam/georgia-power/pdfs/electric-service-tariff-pdfs/TOU-PEV-9.pdf

Here's an article about a Telsa pilot program in CA that helped out during the grid emergency they had over the summer:

https://electrek.co/2022/08/18/teslas-virtual-power-plant-first-event-helping-grid-future/#:~:text=Tesla%27s%20virtual%20power%20plant%20in,plant%20looks%20like%20the%20future.

Get a radiant space heater. One that glows red. Be sure to follow the safety precautions.

Could always get a heated blanket, or a 1500w radiant heater. That’s enough of a heater to do one room, and then you could keep the thermostat turned down.

Unfortunately electric heat will always be hella expensive.

Heat costs money. Electric heat costs a lot of money. You can pay the cost for the electric heat or suffer in the cold. Whining about it on Reddit because you have to pay for a service is the real bullshit.

Your friend was not that knowledgeable about electric heat. I thought everyone knew it is VERY expensive.

Live and learn. Check to make sure your next NH apartment has oil or gas heat.

Who are you Joe Manchin.

Sorry to hear that. But if you leave it at 65 you're going to keep paying a lot.

I think someone recommended a space heater... that would be a good way to keep the house lower but the space you're occupying comfortable.

A programmable thermostat of some sort would probably be optimal so you can keep it lower at night/when you aren't home.

They make plastic sheets to help seal windows further. It's going to get worse as January and February Temps roll through.

Just wait until it actually gets cold and your heat has to do some real work to keep your place warm. So far this heating season has been incredibly mild. Consider your $600 bill a preview of coming attractions.

They weren't knowledgeable, I agree. They expected a large increase but not 1200 a month. Luckily, it's been a relativel mild winter otherwise I can't image the cost.