Investor · Laurel, MD · Member since 2014 · 251 posts · 140 votes
Have a fairly new tenant in. She told me she had a high bill about $800. So she had an energy audit done which was free, they told her the vents had leaks and the thermostat was wrong.
So called the pro's in for this one to see what's really going on technician should be there soon.
She requested that I pay half of the bill since it was not her fault. I will probably help her out and pay the half or offer to do a few up dates to the place instead so my money goes to something instead of an electric bill.
But curious how other landlords would tackle this one.
Orlando, FL · Member since 2016 · 70 posts · 5 votes
10y
If it is a heat pump, the tenant may have put the thermostat in emergency heat instead of heat. This will only run the heat strips and not the heat pump itself. This will cause a very high utility bill. That may have been what the auditor was referring to ("thermostat was wrong") The condenser outside may also not be functioning properly which runs the electric heat more often.
Investor · Thermopolis, WY · Member since 2012 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
10y
I have seen $800 electric bills on all electric heat houses one was only 1400 square feet. It was a combination of the electric plug in heaters, insulation, and older baseboard heat. The bills were usually over 600$ during the winter. They didn't tell me for 5 or 6 months. I installed a gas forced air furnace at almost $8K by time I added vents but gas bill is less than $200 per month and electric bill is usually under $100. The property is much easier to rent now and I have not really done anything to make it more energy efficient with insulation. In my area electric heat is about 3X the cost of natural gas heat. We get pretty cold winters here too. It is dam hard to rent a house for $600 per month when the electric bill is $600 per month. That particular rental house had a lot of learning curves for me. I grew to hate it but it taught me a lot.
Investor · Narragansett, RI · Member since 2013 · 8k+ posts · 4k+ votes
10y
don't forget those fees they tack on and that fact that utility rates are not the same everywhere. I have a couple of tenants that have racked up the electric.
@Levi T. what is that emergency heat for? why would you turn the heat pump off, just curious. We have electric baseboard but will have a heat pump in a southwest place.
Rental Property Investor · Tucson AZ / Nice FR / Washington DC · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
It's for emergency, if the unit quits working, it insures you have basics heat so you don't freeze to death. It uses a electrical heat strip, and I've seen tenants turn it on and not understand what's happening, thus running up the electrical bill big time.
Investor · VA · Member since 2015 · 21k+ posts · 19k+ votes
10y
I had this with a heat pump that the heat strip was bad and was running all the time. Another issue with heat pumps is if the tenant turns the temp up by more than a few degrees the heat strip will kick in which can jack up an electric bill. $800 definitely something going on
Have an electrician put a meter on the wires in the panel to see what is drawing all the amps
Severna Park, MD · Member since 2013 · 7k+ posts · 7k+ votes
10y
First , the tenant could have signed up with a different energy supplier , some of those put the screws to you , they give you a loss leader and then hit you hard . Second , if its a heat pump they could have had it on emergency heat , nice and warm , cozy , BUT the meter spins like mad . I wouldnt pay a dime of it .
Puyallup, WA · Member since 2015 · 52 posts · 13 votes
10y
When I was in college, our 7 bedroom house we rented had the glass sliding door fall off the tracks and shatter in December in North Idaho. The property management company dragged their feet for 6 weeks before they replaced it (long story). Anyhow, we had a tarp and blanket pinned up over the back door, so it was bleeding heat like crazy - but we had baseboard heaters in every room cranked on high as well as space heaters running 24/7. Even then, our one month bill was $550.
Real Estate Investor · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2012 · 54 posts · 9 votes
10y
As everyone is saying, the emergency heat is an extremely inefficient way to heat a house (think $1 of heat for every $1 spent on electricity). Which is why typical electric systems are installed with a heat pump, which are much more efficient ($4 in heat for every $1 spent in electricity). BUT... A heat pump is only effective when the outside temp is above 32-35 degrees. Many times, HVAC contractors will install a switch that turns the heat pump off (emergency heat on) when the temp drops too low. This is to save energy... No point in running the heat pump if it's not helping!!
Another reason for emergency heat kicking on is an issue with the system. For example, at one of my rentals, the tenant started complaining of extremely high electric bills. It turns out the coil was bad, causing the refrigerant to leak out. If the system is low on refrigerant, the heat pump will not work properly and possibly freeze into a huge block of ice (which mine did!).
If tenant isn't doing anything out of the ordinary (turning on emergency heat at the thermostat, running space heaters, etc), I'd recommend having an HVAC contractor come check the system.
Best of luck!
Investor · Colonial Heights, VA · Member since 2014 · 115 posts · 68 votes
10y
I had a sequencer go bad on a heat pump. the strip heat was on at the same time as the a/c. house would not cool. This resulted in a 600 bill. He didn't ask for me to help with the bill but I did. This tenant has been with me for several years and I ended up paying half..
Real Estate Agent · Tucker, GA · Member since 2016 · 90 posts · 144 votes
10y
Yeah that sounds insane! I once had a tenant that got a 1000 dollar water bill. It turned out that it was for 2 months. The toilet upstairs in an unused bathroom has a leak. She said she heard something but had no idea what it could be. I told her I was not responsible for monitoring the toilets. That if it was leaking she should have turned the water off to that toilet and notified me immediately. She was kind of an air head. I did pay like 200 dollars of it, by force because she took it out of the rent. These people were nothing but trouble. I ended up allowing them to break the lease just to get them out of my life. When I went to do the inspection I found out that their "service dog" had thrashed the whole house! Ate the Windows! Pissed on every wall! I mean it was awful. They left me all their trash, only gave me back one key. I took them to court. So whatever you do, make sure you cover all your bases. You don't want this to be a constant issue. Get a copy of the bill before you do anything!
Investor · Laurel, MD · Member since 2014 · 251 posts · 140 votes
10y
Hey everyone sorry it took me so long to get back with the results.
It was quite the adventure.
I called up the tech immediately. Told her I was going to let my self in since she wouldn't be there her words "do what you have to do" so I get to the house just before the tech arrives and there is some guy I have never met before in the place. He asks me what I'm doing here I tell him I am the landlord blah blah blah. He informs me he is leaving soon and I can't stay...uhhhh...yes I can, tenant said it's okay. He argues with me and then proceeds to call her.
This is where it gets confusing...she tells me why am I doing this to her that she had told me to wait and we had an agreement that I would come another day, and that she doesn't want me there with out anyone else there. She actually seemed angry that I was trying to fix the issue immediately.
Needless to say, I eventually got that guy out of my hair and convinced her that I needed to get in there and she should trust me, eventually she came around and said it was okay (again) for me to go in.
Tech showed up...(it reminded me why I took it upon myself to do things myself) He was pretty much useless. Told me the wrong size for the filter and said that the thermostat was not working it was energizing wires it need to. (which technically was right, but I already knew that from the energy report by BGE) He told me go buy a new one and pop it in it will work.
Ran to Lowes put in a new one annnnnddddddd NOTHING still not working. *Banging head against wall* Come to find out it wasn't that the original thermostat was broken...it just wasn't programmed right but of course the tech didn't catch that and assumed it was just broken.
So I went ahead and programmed it and the fan on the outside unit came on..such a good feeling.
The real kicker is the tech wanted $305 dollars to install a thermostat...outrageous.
The bill was high due to the stat not being programmed right, which like a few people here guessed it was running on emergency heat. I have not seen the bill yet 3 times now she has failed to leave it when I have popped in. I told her we would talk about it when I pick up rent. So we will see how that goes. Thank you everyone!
I lived in a 2 story house with myself, wife and 2 kids. We were 'renting to own from friends of the family. Anyway, we received our first electric bill and it was over $800. We figured it must have been.....something, I don't know but the next months came in and was around the same. The month after that it was $900. The month after that it was over $1000. The place had issues and long story short we decided to move and O went ahead and turned all the electricity off from the breaker and there was no electricity running at all but we still had an account. I got the bill for the month that the power was shut off in the house from the breaker and it was $754! How is that possible? I called the power company yet again(keep in mind I was a sucker and paid all the previous bills on time somehow like a good boy) and they gave me some hard to follow explanation about we are not charged for the power we use....We are charged based on the sum of the regions power usage and it is divided up between customers and is also based on the previous years usage of the same month!?? Huh? What if we didn't have an account the previous year or moved from out of state? That explanation can't be true right?
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