Why Is My Electric Bill So High? - Bring The 'Ceaseless March of Digital Technology' to The Fight

It's summer and as temperatures soar so does your electric bill as you turn on the air conditioner and the 'fridge is working extra hard to crank out those ice cubes for your lemonade. Fortunately the ceaseless march of digital technology provides you with a number of inexpensive tools that you can use to manage your use of electricity. We'll survey a few gadgets you can buy but we're also going to introduce you to some free tools from GELD which you may not even be aware of.

Gadget Corner

Being a bit of a geek, I can't resist buying a gadget now and then and over the years I have collected a few gadgets that can be used to track down electricity usage around the house. On the high end is TED (The Energy Detective) 2000 system. Most TED owners seem to use it to monitor their solar powered homes. Due to its cost and complexity the TED system is not for the faint of heart. Installation requires a fair amount of computer knowledge as well as fair work inside the main electrical panel (professional electrician recommended).

The system's two parts are a measuring component which sits inside your electrical panel and transmits the electrical usage information to the second component which is a "wall wart" that plugs into a nearby electrical outlet and contains a small computer/web server that processes usage information and displays it on a website and an (optional) LCD unit. The two boxes connect with each other via power line networking. The web server component requires a wired connection to a network router.

Once you input all information about all your electrical rate plan, location, etc., you can view the real time status of your electrical use on private web page which looks like this image below.

TED has a lot of options and features to help track electrical usage but, to be honest, it is probably overkill for most folks. It is also a complicated piece of equipment to maintain unless you're comfortable with computer networking and sticking your hands in a high voltage panel (a somewhat rare combination).

For simpler needs and fewer set-up hassles you may want to invest in something like the Kill-A-Watt unit which is available through Home Depot and other retailers for less than $20. GELD also has a couple of loaner units available. The limitation of these units is that they can only measure electrical usage for a single 110-volt outlet. Unfortunately, many of the large energy consumers in your house are 220 volts and may be directly wired with no chord attached.

Introducing Your GELD Smart Meter

A few years back our municipal electric department replaced all residential electrical meters in town with so-called "smart meters." Because these meters can connect back to their home base in Groton Center, they are capable of transmitting information such as hourly usage, outside temperature, etc. from your house to GELD servers. Anyone with this type of electric meter can request a free account on the GELD web portal where you can view the details of your electric usage over time. Your first step is to contact GELD for your personal account and password.

After logging into your account, the smart meter portal provides a number of electrical usage reports. By default you will see a consumption report comparing your usage this year to last year's which looks something like the graphic above.

The ready-made reports are interesting but pretty rudimentary. If you want to do your own analysis using a spreadsheet you need to press the button labeled 'generate report', generate a table report and then extract that table on to your computer. The data is also a somewhat inconsistent. For example, the temp information does not show up if you select the "daily" detail level but it does appear if you request hourly information albeit only every three hours. If you want to use the temp for a report, you will probably have to do a linear interpolation on that column of data since there are two blank cells between each reading.

GELD Energy Calculator

The Energy Calculator is located on the GELD web site: http://www.grotonelectric.org/energy-efficiency/calculator/ This tool works in the reverse fashion of other tools described here. Rather than analyzing usage data, it allows you to model the electricity use interactively in your house. Once you completely configure the model, the total cost should equal your actual bill and by looking at the details of the model you will know the cost of running individual electrical appliances in your house. If there is a significant difference between the model and your bill you may need to place a call to GELD for assistance.

Non-Technical Solution

Finally, we present a non-technical option which might be described as "follow the wisdom of Kevin." GELD Manager Kevin Kelly has visited a lot of homes to help customers track down energy wasters and he sees a few things consistently. First, the biggest energy users in the house are appliances with motors or compressors (fridge, dehumidifier, A/C). Lighting is generally not a large percentage of your electric bill. Within this set of devices the most common culprit is dirt and/or pet hair restricting airflow through the unit. Look for dirty filters, dirty cooling coils in your refrigerator, air conditioner or dehumidifier. Unrestricted airflow is the key to efficiency for this type of device.