Home using over 3x kWh

[DesperateGirl]

Here's our story:

We bought a house with a heat pump in September 2021 that came with a nest thermostat.  Once summer rolled back around we were quite excited to have AC!  We set out temp to 18°C, not knowing that this would essentially freeze our hear pump.  Once it warmed up, the AC would start working again.  It cut out 3x doing this. We weren't aware that our temp was too cold for the heat pump, and performed a factory reset on the thermostat.  We now keep out house at  21°C.

Ever since this event happened, our utility bills are saying that we are using over 3x as much power compared to the year before!  I don't know what happened!?!?  Our energy company, BC Hydro, is very unhelpful and happy our bills are over 3x what we used to pay.  We have not added appliances.  We have last year's winter data to compare to this year's.  We are now at our whits end.

Has anyone rum into this problem?  What would be the next step.. 

[BinaryJay]

If the thermostat is keeping your home in the temperature range that you set, it's doing it's job (telling the equipment to run until the conditions are met, and then telling it to turn off) and I would suspect an equipment problem for higher than expected energy use.  It is, perhaps, running extremely inefficiently.  The only person that can actually diagnose that is a good HVAC professional.  If you haven't been having your system serviced regularly you really should have it looked at.

[Patrick_Caezza]

Your power bill is that high probably because you are running the AC 24 hours a day. It takes a lot of energy to keep a location down to 18C and 21C is still very cold.

[BinaryJay]

If they're in BC there is no way they're running their heat pump in cooling mode right now.  I think that was just some backstory.  21C in the winter is not an unreasonable temperature to have set.

[Patrick_Caezza]

True, depending on how cold it is where they are located they could be using lots of aux heat which will cause high utility bills.

[DesperateGirl]

Whi h is odd, because I have last year's winter bills to compare it to this year's.  And it's insane!

I will call HVAC and have them diagnose if there's a problem 🙂

[Markjosephp]

Hello folks,

I wanted to ensure that everything was covered here.

Thanks for the explanation, @BinaryJay and @Patrick_Caezza.

@DesperateGirl, I hope you've got the answer you're looking for. How's it going? Have you had a chance to consult with an HVAC technician? If you're still in need of any assistance, feel free to let us know.

]

Regards,

Mark

[Markjosephp]

Hello DesperateGirl,

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,

Mark

[DesperateGirl]

Hey!

I have an hvac person coming this weekend to check our system out.  I will update after diagnosis, thank you!

[Jake]

Hey there,

I am glad to hear you have an HVAC pro coming out to assist. Please let me know how it goes, as I want to ensure you are good to go.

Best regards,

Jake

[Jenelyn_O]

Hi there,

Chiming in — I wanted to follow up and see if you still need help. Please let me know if you are still having any concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Best,

Jenelyn

[Jenelyn_O]

Hi there,

I'm just checking in to make sure that you've seen our response. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this thread in 24 hours.

Best,

Jenelyn