Extremely high electric bills

Just wondering if anyone out there is having this problem My geo system was installed over this past summer It is a water furnace 5 ton unit with 3 250 ft wells. Not sure of the model as I am not at home. My home 1s about 2800 sq ft with a full basement not counted in the square footage. The original home was built in 1989 and the addition completed this fall. My Oct - Nov bill was $1,259.16 and my Dec- Jan bill is $1,951.17. These bills are up from around $300 for 2 months the previous year and time frame. I am about ready to give up and put in something else as I can't afford these high electric bills. A friend who works for the utility company said that my use of 13,737KWH for 2 months is more than what some commercial buildings use.

 

Amber wow ,

you win the prize for highest electric bills. I am sorry to hear

What does your installer say about this?

It sounds like you are running on all back heat, no geo heat at all.

Can you give us any more info like EWT, GPM ?

 

Around here

You'd be immediately tagged as a grow-op.

Some quick calc's show that you can get that amount of kwh's for 2 months if you have a 10kw electric heater running constantly that entire time period.

The connection is a little too obvious. Get your contractor over immediately to actually turn the geo on...or fix it.

 

WOW

Your unit must be running on the electric heat.Does the unit ever stop running, does the house stay at the T-stat set point. If the unit is shutting down on a regular basis then your electric heat and compressor may be running at the same time every time the unit comes on this would better explain such bills. If you have a Envision Dual Capacity unit the solenoid vavle may not be operating when there is a call for second stage. There are a number of reasons for this,but it would explain the high bills because it would take the electric heat to satisfy the T-stat.Post all the info you can.

 

You didn't mention the WF model#, but an Envision ND049 should draw no
more than 3.5 kW (including two UP26-99 circ pumps, but no aux heaters).

That's 2600 kWh/month MAXIMUM -- running 24/7 at stage-2.

Looby

 

Just so you know you have a problem, and it can be fixed. I have same sq. ft as you , 5 tons, kids and more lights then Times square and pay the same per KWH. I use 1/3 the KWH's that you are using, listen to all the advice in this forum and you will get it fixed.

 

ambergold4,

I have a 5 ton WaterFurnace Envision in a house that is 2800 sq ft plus a 1900 sq ft basement. we used 4,848 KWH we ran all month without the electric heat coming on, so it definitely sounds like you are running on total electric heat. You need to have your dealer come out immediately to troubleshoot the problem.

 

Ambergold
It sound like your heat pump is not running at all, and your electric resistance is doing all the heating.
The other is that you have an electric wire broke in your yard and the electricity is running wild

 

Amber

Ditto for me. I also have 3 250 ft bores, 4500 sq ft house on 3 levels. 5 ton WF. Used 2000 kWh last month for heating and hot water and will use 1600 kWh this month. You are definitely using the strips for heating your house and not the geothermal. If my strips (20 kW) have to run, I use about 200 kWh per d which would be 6000 kWh per month, same as you.

 

There are indicator lights on the front of the unit. What lights are on? Usually the only light that should be on should be the blinking status light and maybe the DHW Hi Limit light if you have the desuper heater option.

 

I had a New Water Furnace connected in Oct. 2008, and the installer neglected to run electric to the compressor, they just ran a line for the fan/AUX heater. I suspect this is what may have happened to you. Can you tell if any water is running thru the system? If there no water flow, it's not working, period. Most Water Furnace models require two seperate circuits, especially if it has AUX heat. Make sure your unit has Two breakers in the panel box and two disconnects on the unit.

 

Interesting comments

Amber, what part of the country are you from? Just curious.

 

the flow is 14 GPM and the EWT is 33 with the ELT 29. The type of system is the versatec 5 ton system with 740 ft of vertical loop(this is a whole new issue as when I was sold the system I was never given any other choices) The company was out here for 2 hours on Thursday checking the system out and lsft saying the system was running fine and they had no concern at all about my $2,000 and almost 14000 KW usage. I am not quite sure where to go from here. I also called Water Furnace customer service but got no where with them. I am heading out now to look for a new furnace that will not cost $2000 to run.

 

Hudson Valley NY

 

Near Gardiner?

 

no in Cairo Greene County

 

Amber,

have you though about getting another contractor to look at your system.

As others have said here, it is impossible for a heat pump operating properly to use as much power as yours is doing.

 

Amber

Amber

Yes it sounds like your electric heat strip is running all the time have your installing contractor check the unit
Do not shut of the main electric panel this will reset any falt codes then the service tech can not see the falts prlonging the problem.
We have had lots of power outages and power flickering on and off and many storms this can put your system into a compressor lock out for the safety of your equiptment this may be the lockout have you had a storm come thru the prevoius month ???
1. call Service man installer
2 check for flashing light on front of Wf the only light that should be flashing is a green statis light if any other lights are lit take note and read next to the light
3. the service tech will put the unit into test mode on the dip switchs
and then count the problem code.
then take action from there.

Good Luck
George Kontol
www.NorthwestGeothermal.com

 

ambergold4 this is not WaterFurnaces fault its your contractor. Call WaterFurnace again and tell them just what your contractor said, do not get angry with them it will not help.You can ask them to recommend another contractor in your area. I deal with WaterFurnace all the time I know they will help you but you must follow their advise. They will not tell you how to fix the problem they want their dealers to do that, they have their reasons and they are valid.

 

How about something simple to start with, go to your breaker box and find the breaker for the electric heaters in the geo unit. Before you shut off the heat strips take a meter reading, go to your power meter and right down the numbers, to read a power meter write down the lower number on each dial, if arrow is pointing between 7 and 8 the number to record is 7. now wait 24 hours and write down the number again, subtract the previous number and this will be total KWH used in 24 hours multiply by .14 and that's your cost for electric. Now shut off heat strips and take the reading again 24 hours later , did you see a big difference, did your house stays warm? One thing this tells you is weather the geo. unit is to blame for your power usage. Do you have a old freezer running in the house, I have seen them go and suck up lots of power, A frost free freezer with a stuck or bad auto defrost switch could cause electric heaters to run 24/7 and the freezer would run 24/7 to try to keep it cold. Just make sure your problem is you geo and not something else. good luck.