Quote :

"We notice it usually blows out cool air, but I assume that's just what 68 feels like."

Quote :

"It should be blowing out warmer air than that to eventually bring the temperature of the home to 68."

Unless the heat pump iced over, then it will run in AC mode to defrost. The coils fire up, but that only takes the edge off when you're running the AC when it's 15 degrees outside.

1/18/2011 9:41:10 AM

Is the house on a crawl space? If it is, double check that the foundation vents are CLOSED. But be sure to reopen them after last frost.

1/18/2011 10:01:12 AM

Quote :

"You shouldn't be closing any of your vents"

Out of curiosity is it ok to close vents to balence heat load??

For example my room, bathroom, and closet each have their own vent. In the summer if i keep these all open my room turns
into an ice box. On the reverse my roommate as a FROG and by closing one of the three living room vents and closing the
bathroom vent (bathroom closest to the thermostat) we are able to keep his room warmer without jacking the heater to 75. By
the way increasing heat to 75 bakes out my room.

1/18/2011 10:26:47 AM

"Now back to your regularly scheduled trolling ITT."

What a dickhead. The vast majority of the messages were helpful. You may have something wrong, but you're not the first asshole to be surprised with a high bill. Apartments have shitty A/Cs.

if you want professional help, then call a professional. Dont expect great things from a tdub thread.

[Edited on January 18, 2011 at 11:19 AM. Reason : .]

1/18/2011 11:17:05 AM

^First off, its a house

Second, yes, the majority of the comments were helpful. The few, like yours right there^, weren't.

Update

There's so much shit wrong with it that the tech doesn't even know how to fix it. He took a report, has to go figure out what to do to fix it, ask what the realtor wants to do, then come back tomorrow

Thank you very much for those who posted helpful comments, such as what might be wrong with it and confirming that there is doubt to it working correctly.

For trolls thinking I should just stop bitching about a high bill,




[Edited on January 18, 2011 at 12:19 PM. Reason : lkj]

1/18/2011 12:17:00 PM

^ Idiots gonna post

1/18/2011 12:50:07 PM

Quote :

"Is the house on a crawl space? If it is, double check that the foundation vents are CLOSED. But be sure to reopen them after last frost."

Why reopen them?

From a lot of the reading I've done it doesn't sound like they can help you, and from personal experience you can end up with moisture issues in the summer time when AC is running.

Quote :

"I use an oil filled radiator style heater in my bedroom when it gets really cold. Once the oil is brought up to temp it doesn't run much at all."

Really? I put a kill-a-watt on mine, turned it on high and let it run for a few hours. It was using 1600 watts constantly, i never saw it turn off. and i've got one of the nicer delonghi ones.

Quote :

"Oil filled supplemental heaters FTW."

I love mine, but I'm wondering if it's truly efficient. If I'm running the thing on high in my average sized bedroom, it'll bring the temperature up a degree or two, but that sucker is eating 1600 watts while my heat pump heat strips 'only' use 5000 watts and can raise the temperature of the entire house a couple degrees in maybe 10? minutes...and obviously just running the heat pump in normal mode can heat the house using less watts than the strips, so what am i missing...how are these oil filled space heaters so efficient?

I understand the concept of not heating the rooms you're not in, but say you're running two of these things at 1600 watts each to 'only heat the rooms you're in'...might it be cheaper to just set the thermostat a few degrees higher and let the heat pump take care of it?

1/18/2011 12:57:52 PM

You must be leaving the door open. My desktop computer burning just 250 watts will heat my room five degrees when the door is closed and the central air is off.

That may be what is going on. If you don't turn off the central heat/air, then whenever the fan for the heat-pump comes on it will push all the warm air out of your room to warm the rest of the house. As your electric heater is only 100% efficient, compared to the heat-pump's 220% efficiency, by using it in conjunction with an operating heat-pump you are driving up your electric bill without heating the room very much. Have all residents get an electric space heater then turning off the heat-pump completely would work better, such as a thermostat with a programmable schedule.

Another suggestion is an electric blanket, which only burns 100 watts and can even pre-heat your bed for you.

ThePeter, as the AC is broken, you would be better off turning it off by flipping the switch to emergency heat and just using the coils. As the compressor is not producing any heat, no point having it burning electricity.

1/18/2011 5:09:09 PM

just got my electric bill today, $300 for about the same date from progress energy. Mine is a 2 br townhouse. I knew it would be higher with the snow, but this is outrageous. I keep pretty much everything unplugged and only turn the heat up while im home. Not sure what else I can do to keep the bill lower to be honest with you. The apt is kinda old, so maybe it leaks the hot air out. And i know its way higher due to the downstairs vents being on the ceiling

1/18/2011 5:20:20 PM

Quote :

"Really? I put a kill-a-watt on mine, turned it on high and let it run for a few hours. It was using 1600 watts constantly, i never saw it turn off. and i've got one of the nicer delonghi ones."

I don't have a kill-a-watt to test it, but when the room is quiet I can hear a relay click on and a slight hum when it is heating. It doesn't appear to run very often to me, but my test isn't nearly as accurate as yours. I usually keep mine on the lowest heat setting (out of three) with the thermostat right in the middle. What settings did you use for your test?

My house is a 70's split level with very poor HVAC distribution. There is probably a ~5-8 degree difference between the downstairs part of the house and the upstairs part at any given time. The downstairs rooms have 1 register in the wall near the ceiling whereas the upstairs rooms have 1-2 registers in the floor + the advantage of being insulated by the lower floor. I use the oil filled radiator at night when it gets really cold.

1/18/2011 5:26:04 PM

Quote :

"What settings did you use for your test?"

Thats a good point...on mine it was on high (don't think that part matters) but i had the thermostat on the highest setting

1/18/2011 5:32:09 PM

Yeah, I don't really understand the "low, medium, high" deal when it has a thermostat. I always assumed the hottest thermostat setting on high was hotter than the hottest thermostat setting on low, but I really don't know. I can't tell much difference between low and high in terms of comfort.

1/18/2011 5:35:41 PM

The low, med, high sets the power output when it is on and the thermostat sets the temperature at which it turns off.

If the max output is 1600watts, then medium is probably 1200, low is 800, or something like that. The manual would tell you. The goal is to use as low a setting as possible that still warms the room. If the unit is set too high it will cycle a lot and produce warm/cool spots in the room. At higher settings they will also waste energy from the voltage drop across the wiring in the walls and outside transformer, only one of which you care about.

1/18/2011 7:09:25 PM

We contacted them last Saturday about fixing out heat. A maintenance mean came out and looked at our heat pump, but said there was a lot of shit wrong and he needed a part. Didn't hear from him so Peter called him to see what was up. Apparently, the part is expensive and they are collecting quotes and we'd hear back soon. Haven't heard shit from them yet and we're running on emergency heat. I think they should help us with our next electricity bill if they don't hurry the hell up.

1/21/2011 10:42:40 PM

I agree. Suggest to them to let you withhold a portion of the rent. Try to negotiate a temporary rent reduction both of you will agree to in writing. Only ever unilaterally withhold rent for obvious offenses, even then be sure to give them 30+ days notice before you do and then pay the reduced rent two weeks early to give them time to negotiate an agreement.

1/22/2011 2:51:00 AM

18 degrees off kaplan

1/23/2011 1:39:58 AM

I checked my account for December a little while ago and similarly found it to be super high.

I looked at the weather trends, and yes, this was entirely due to the temperature. There were a LOT of people who got sticker shock for that month. The uptick was huge and I think that a ton of customers saw it.

1/23/2011 2:23:44 PM

I hope youre not saying that to me

1/23/2011 3:08:44 PM

I dunno, i guess i didn't read enough of the thread.

1/23/2011 3:12:19 PM

December was sticker shock month for me. My bill tripled from 67 to 180 so now I'm just using the bare essentials to try and cut down on my bill but I'm still expecting a high bill for January.

1/23/2011 3:54:11 PM

hopefully the will fix our unit soon.

1/23/2011 4:33:13 PM

Attn heat


plz stop running so much

1/24/2011 11:37:07 AM

Repair guys are at my house now fixing it while I'm at work...I'll have to go let them in when they're nearly done

Here's to hoping A) they fix it correctly and B) the realtor doesn't try to bill it to me

1/24/2011 11:59:45 AM