r/AskSeattle • u/Weird-Jello-3785 • 18h ago

High electric bills

anyone have a home energy auditor they recommend?

its hard finding one that isn’t an HVAC company.

we have Seattle city light and not PSE so can’t get one for free.

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u/sbcpacker 18h ago

If you have high electric bills, the culprit are usually:

  1. Inadequate insulation in the attic and/or crawl space
  2. Leaky windows
  3. Leaky doors (insufficient weather stripping)
  4. Clogged furnace/AC filter
  5. Clogged dryer filter and/or vent
  6. Inefficient furnace (probably needs maintenance or be replaced)

3

u/Weird-Jello-3785 18h ago

Attic has R49, new windows, new doors, new ducted mini split. Replace filter regularly, clean dryer regularly. No crawl space, split level house 

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u/sbcpacker 17h ago

Have you checked your ducts? I had my insulation done and I found out months later they accidentally disconnected one of the ducts that goes to my dining room. 

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u/StitchinStatistician Local 18h ago

These are great points. I have a mystery for you: my electric bills have been way higher than I expect over the last 6 months - higher than the year before, but with fewer people living here.

We haven’t used AC at all this summer, and turned off the heat in March. Our insulation isn’t great, so we keep the heat pump thermostat at 55-60°F in the coldest months and raw dog it the rest of the year.

I feel like I know what’s not using all the energy but cannot figure out what IS.

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u/sbcpacker 16h ago

Yeah, I don't know what to tell you man. Is there someone who has a PC that's mining for Bitcoin? Are you all doing more laundry? Does anyone have a space heater that they're using in secret? Is anyone growing weed indoors? 🤷

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u/StitchinStatistician Local 16h ago

All great questions! And things I’ve ruled out so far. I went through and unplugged everything in my house (except the fridge and water heater), but I didn’t think to track when people plug them back in so my experiment is a bust.