High Power Bill

[James Maher]

My tenant let me know last month that their power bill was about double what it had been.  Since it was really cold, I wasn't concerned too much about it, but still had an HVAC tech go check it out.  I wanted to make sure it wasn't hung up on EMER heat.  He checked the unit and said it looked fine, and also checked the temperature coming out of the vents and said it was okay too.  He did however mention to the tenant that I should have someone look at the ducts under the house. 

Fast forward to this month, the power bill is still really high.  Could there be something else going on other than the HVAC that I should look at?  Also, I'm not sure why he mentioned checking the ductwork if he thought the temperature at the vents was okay.  What kind of person would I call to check the ducts?  The crawl space is literally about 2' - 3' high, so I'm sure that won't be fun.

[Bill Tyler]

Have someone standing at the electric meter, and then start turning off circuit breakers one at a time. We found a water heater that was constantly running by doing this.  After replacing the elements, the problem was resolved.