First, here's some background info. In June I graduated college and moved into my first apartment. I am located in Metro Detroit. It is 800 square-feet and one-bedroom, with gas heat and a gas stove, and electric central air. Gas is included in my rent, and I have DTE for my electricity. I do not have a dishwasher, washer/dryer, or hot water heater in my apartment (there is a washer/dryer and hot water heater shared in the basement).
I recently received my first electric bill, and was shocked at how high it was- nearly $185 for my first bill. Most shocking was that it said I used nearly 1130 kWh for the 28 days in my cycle. For the same month, my parents used only 920 for their 2 story house with 2 kids, and nearly all appliances electric.
I have a smart meter, so I downloaded the DTE Insight app, and have been tracking my usage. For the first half month, my air conditioner and fan was on, but not working. I thought it might be this, but my usage actually went up after getting it fixed, but only maybe 20%. My usage is very consistent, with a low day of about 36 kWh and an average of about 44.
I bought a Kill-A-Watt and measured for 3 days, and my entertainment center (laptop, tv, etc) and refrigerator use around 100 a month. Nothing else is significant. I decided to check to see if it was my central air, as it has been very warm and I figured it might be inefficient. This weekend I was gone, and turned off my A/C and unplugged everything except my fridge for a day. For the day I still used 44.6 kWh! I used at least 1.6 kWh every single one-hour period of the day.
I called DTE last week (before turning off the A/C), and they were extremely unhelpful. The lady assured my that my bill was only high because of the $5 new account fee (Of course. That was the problem!), and tried to get me to use energy at times when the rate was cheaper, like shower in the morning. She wouldn't really listen to the fact that I thought my energy usage was incredibly high, and I was more concerned about that than the total dollar amount. She would not give me previous usage for the apartment, since it wasn't me on the bill. She also wouldn't tell me an average for my complex.
So my question is- how do I proceed from here? I feel like there is obviously something wrong, but need to know what it could be, and who I need to bug about it. My usage has actually gone up this month, and will probably be around 1500-1600 kWh. I would prefer not to pay $200+ electric bills on a basic apartment.
Submitted August 02, 2016 at 06:18AM by highElectricBill http://ift.tt/2avnNSE personalfinance
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