Absolutly INSANE hydro bill

[AdamBlackmore]

Hello all!! Have a rather stressful issue here.

Purchased a property a couple months ago. I am living in basement and there are two people upstairs and there is a shared kitchen. Utilties are in my name. First bill came in today and hydro from Apr 15th-Jun 8th was $502.90 before taxes. Yes, that is JUST hydro. 4368 KWh for 54 days!! Over 80 kWh a day!!

Another rental I own in same city with same company came in at $102 for same time period.

This $502 bill (Before tax!) for 54 days comes from a 1,550 sq ft home that is heated by natural gas. It has a new a/c unit but I used it very sparingly. Generally not used but if it was it was off during the day when everyone was at work, on for a couple hours after work and off before bed.
Other big electricity appliances are:
- One relatively new stove,
- 3 fridges which are all fairly new
- 2 large LCD TV`s and one 27 inch CRT TV
- Two large stereos
- an electric water heater
-newer dryer/washer.
- small 15x21 heated workshop that is newer and insulated that is heated by electricity, but thermostat was off (Not that it would have needed a lot of heat in late spring anyway).
-No hot tub, no pool, no dishwasher, no fancy outdoor light set up, only three people in house.

Am told by hydro company that this property has been a huge energy user for a while and was actually more in winter running at $450/month just for hydro (heated garage?). These tenants were here then as well. Again, they have a couple big TV`s and like to blare music, but nothing over the top. I am conservative in my own use.

Cannot figure out where this massive electricity drain is coming from. I wouldn`t even expect this from this house if heated by electricity in dead of winter. My first move I think will be to get an energy audit, but can they help? The only "out of norm" this property has is electric workshop, but it was off and weather was warm regardless.

Any ideas/solutions? Am baffled on how bill could be so high.

 

[Aneta]

You indicate you purchased property several months ago. I wonder if seller knew something was up and didn`t tell you? Getting an energy audit done may be a good idea, it is only several hundred dollars, you are overpaying that much in electricity each month it seems anyway, so maybe worth your while to jump on it. Energy audits are useful information and you may be able to get some government grants for repairs. I wouldn`t even know this is possible without physically noticing, but maybe someone is stealing your power? Good luck!

 

[AdamBlackmore]

Thanks for the response!!

I agree with you that an audit is a good idea regardless of energy. I have a sinking feeling the energy audit will just tell me my electriciy use will improve with more energy effecient appliances. While true, they are all fairly new, and is not why bill is 3-4 times higher then it should be (Other property with same company/city has so-so appliances and comes in 1/5 the bill). Not sure what else to do though. I had a building inspector through house, and he was happy with electrical system.

Perhaps old owner did know something, but I can`t even figure out what it could be. I`ve sent him an e-mail about it.

Am hoping someone has a similar experience to myself out there!!! Thank you all!!

 

[fisher1]

Ask your hydro provider to change your meter out, because maybe yours is not calibrated properly.

 

[fisher1]

Try turning the breaker to the workshop off. Electric heat draws the same power if whether your thermostat is set a 10 c or 20 c, it just does not run as long. You can also turn the temp. down on your hot water tank and save some power. Also compact fluorescent light bulbs can cost 75% less. Make sure no one is using portable space heaters cause they load a circuit up and cost a fortune to run.

 

[AdamBlackmore]

Thanks for the tips,

I cannot turn breaker to small workshop off, as someone rents it off me (Only uses it to store painting supplies for company). Thermostat is off in it, he will use lights and garage door opener. I have been in tenants rooms many times and have never seen a space heater, but from Apr 15 - June 8th, I don`t see how much use they`d get. Even if they did, the bill is still crazy high.

I love your tip about the hot water tank, I will definitly do that.

I am a fairly young landlord (27) and this is only second property, so have only seen so many hydro bills.

I suppose I`m more wondering if this bill is possible for given situation or is there something not right. I expected maybe 15% more hydro vs. other rental due to some a/c and small electric water heater vs natural gas water heater, not 4 times the use (And in other rental I`ve seen tenants having space heaters!!). Other rental is no superstar hydro user either, slightly smaller, has 4 students in it, 2 fridges, freezer chest, several TV`s, computers and non energy star appliances so it using around 15 KWH per day vs 80 KWH in this place does not add up at all.

I will pray the meter is just flat wrong, and have someone look at it, but have hard time believing previous owner did not check that out.

 

[fisher1]

I don`t find it hard believing they did not check that out. People just pay what they are told to. I am an electrician and I guarantee you electricity does not vanish. Either you are using it or the meter is wrong. The meter is a mechanical device with moving parts, it could be out.

 

[Nir]

Hello Adam,
Did you receive a copy of the hydro bills from the last 12 months prior to releasing conditions!? Going forward, always include that requirement in your offers.
In order to reduce your risk, do not guesstimate what can be estimated. There is "enough" to guesstimate in RE that is unknown like repair & maintenance.
Regards,
Neil

 

[LukasWywrot]

Utility companies usually charge a deposit when you take over an account if you dont have 1 year history with that utility which equates ~300. Check your bill maybe that was the case.

 

[Berubeland]

I had very high usage in my own house and couldn`t figure out why.

A month or so ago my fridge stopped working completely. We tried to figure out why the fridge wasn`t working and found that the fan under the fridge had burned out eons ago due to a piece of cardboard getting wedged and stopping the fan. The fridge had a lot of hot spots on it. We figured that the fan had stopped working years ago.

I am currently waiting for my next bill and hoping that it will go down. The fridge was obviously continually working overtime to cool.

To find out if this may be a problem with your fridge just run your hands over the side and top of the fridge. We actually had to put a board over the top of the fridge to keep chocolate stored up there from melting. We had to let the fridge cool completely for one day, we changed the fan $35, and now the fridge seems to work perfectly. No hot spots!

 

[AdamBlackmore]

Thanks all,

It is not deposit, it is straight electricity.

Investsmart, I wish now I had asked for old hydro bills when I bought it. However since heated by natural gas, and similar size/tenant profile/appliances to other rental, I was not too worried about it. It actually had newer appliances then other place!!!

I will get an energy audit done and see what they say.

How much are others paying on their hydro???

 

[hotbunz4]

...check the attic well your at it for unnecessary lighting.

 

[RebeccaBryan]

Check out what your garage tenant is doing. Make sure that he`s doesn`t have something plugged in that you don`t know about. It happens. I had a tenant install heat lamps as lights once, that I didn`t discover until they moved out. I checked the place many times and couldn`t figure it out because I didn`t look up!!, when I checked out the garage. I`m so oblivious when it comes to that kind of thing, if I did look up, I likely wouldn`t have known what I was looking at anyway. Hope you find out what is causing your high hydro bill.

 

[dplummer]

Do your tenants have a small grow op? :>)

Doug

 

[ontariolandlord]

QUOTE (dplummer @ Jul 8 2010, 05:24 PM) Do your tenants have a small grow op? :>)

Doug
Adam, I now what you are going through! Although I hope you just need to fix a few technical things to resolve your issue.

I had two properties that were nearly the same size, and had nearly the same people in them in Ontario. Both inclusive. The regular bills for one property were 3x the amount of the other.

I investigated and found it was due to a couple `out of control` teens in one unit who thought it was "eminem style cool" to install an air con and open other windows.

This is why I will never rent `inclusive` again.

 

[Ready4Rent]

I second the "check the attic" for a grow-op.

 

[Holenchuk]

We had a client that went through a similar ordeal a few months back. It`s still not resolved, so we are finding this thread interesting. Thanks for all your shares.

 

[RCrein]

Just a thought about something to check out. Is there any chance your workshop tenant is actively working in the shop perhaps using an arc welder? Just a thought. Grow-op has already been mentioned, but deserves investigation as well. Good luck solving your mystery.

 

[AdamBlackmore]

Hey all,

Thank you for the posts!!

It has nothing to do with the workshop, thermostat is off, and tenant is barely there, once every couple days to pick up painting supplies as he runs painting business. I live on premise and have been in there several times over last month and nothing is plugged in at all.

Previous posts mentioned heat lamps (Nope), as well as possible air conditioning installed with windows open. Already has central a/c which is not on often and there are no window a/c units.

I will be checking attic though shortly (When tenant returns from holiday), just in case, current tenants have been here a while though and home inspector saw nothing suspicious in attic or otherwise to warrent grow-up just a few months ago. UNless they had it, then replaced it when he left and there was no evidence/damage.. then there isn`t one. They`ve never been squeamish about me checking out their rooms and nearly moved to an apt building a month ago which would have been very hard to hide any grow-op activity.

Hydro says place has been a "heavy" user for quite some time but would not give me specifics. When I told them what I was running, they seemed surprised (assummed electric heat/pool etc). Guy came to re-read meter, but didn`t find them to be much help.

An electrician will be comign by within the weak, hopefully he can help me out!! I guess no one has had a 1500sqft house with 3 people in it using 80KwH a day unless something "extreme" is going on???

Thanks!!

 

[JimWhitelaw]

If you`ve checked things out and there doesn`t appear to be a grow-op onsite, perhaps the neighbors have one. It`s very common for grow-op operators to steal power from their neighbors.