Why is my electric bill so high?

We understand unexpected high electric bills are concerning. Butler Rural Electric Cooperative is here to help you understand why your bills might be higher during cold weather months.

Our region experienced the coldest January in over a decade. The extreme cold weather led to higher heating bills due to extended subzero temperatures. Several factors can impact your monthly bill, but the primary reason is increased energy use. Heating and cooling make up 40 to 50% of your bill.

Here’s how cold weather impacts your bill

• Your heating system works much harder to keep your home comfortable. Even if you don’t change your thermostat setting, it runs longer to heat your home.
• Space heaters consume a lot of energy and increase your bill.
• People usually spend more time indoors during cold winter months, which increases electric use for appliances, lights, and electronics.

Do you have a heat pump? Please read!

If your heat pump has electric only backup, accidentally setting your thermostat to EM HEAT/AUX HEAT mode is an easy (and costly) mistake during extremely cold weather. The emergency/auxiliary heat supplements an electric heat pump to continue providing heat to your home. Auxiliary heat can consume electricity at a rate three times greater than normal heat pump use, which can lead to higher winter bills.

When the temperature drops below 35 degrees, electric heat pumps face challenges including decreased heating capacity. Heat pumps extract heat from the outside air. In cold weather, there's less heat available, reducing effectiveness. Heat pumps also begin using emergency heat if you raise your thermostat temperature by more than two degrees.

If you heat your home with an electric heat pump with electric backup, check your thermostat, and make sure it’s set to HEAT and not EM HEAT or AUXILIARY HEAT.

If you have a dual fuel system and your heat pump backup/auxiliary is fossil fuel, the opposite is true. When the temperature drops too low, the efficiency of the backup/auxiliary heat source will be the better choice.

We’re here to help

• Monitor your energy use through SmartHub to see where spikes occur. With SmartHub, you can view your yearly, monthly, daily, and hourly electric use to see when spikes occur and to track what you did differently to make your electric use go up. Changing your behavior around those spikes can help you save on your bill. You can even set energy use alerts that notify you when you go over a pre-set amount. Learn more about SmartHub here.
• Budget billing can help avoid extreme swings by making your bill more predictable. Budget billing levels your annual electric costs. We’ll calculate your budget billing amount based on your electric use over the past 11 months plus your current month’s electric use. Learn more and sign up here.
• We offer payment extensions and contact information for payment assistance organizations here. 

We’re always here to help. If you have questions about your bill or need payment assistance, please contact us at butler@butlerrural.coop or 513-867-4400.