OMG!!! My Power Bill...

Turn everything off in the house, and wait until the A/C cuts off. See if your meter is still spinning quickly. If so, you have something running that's driving up your power bill. If everything is off, and you still see it spinning and spinning, you can start flipping breakers, one at a time until you find the perpetrator. The first place I would check would be the water heater. A bad element will cause the power to run continuously against it and drive up your power bill.
If the meter acts as expected, then it could just be your consumption. That does seem like a drastic change. I live in the south too, and I have never had a bill that high for one month. Usually, it's around $180 even in the heat of the summer.

Living in Texas, I've seen bills close to that... We are looking at a very hot summer... so far, there have been probably 15 days at or over 100 degrees.

Our house (1 level) is about 1800 sq ft, but summer of 2009, when our AC unit was basically on its last legs, the unit was running probably 12 hours a day without shutting off, and barely keeping the house at about 81..... I think our highest bill that summer was around $500.

Our compressor died that October, but we haven't replaced it.... we just didn't have the money. We bought a bunch of used window AC units, and used those, instead. With 7 people in the house summer 2010, our highest bill was like $340, and it was kept much cooler, closer to 79 degrees or so. This year, with just 2-3 in the house, we only cool the rooms we are using, and we have had a bill as low as $99 at the beginning of the "hot" season (which started in April, this year), and our last bill was $155....

The rooms we aren't using are shut off and not cooled. At night, the only room we cool is our bedroom. Other bedrooms, if they are being used by family that is home, are also cooled then. I usually don't turn on the main AC units until about 8 am.

You might look at how old your unit is, and whether it is needing repairs or maintenance. A dirty coil will reduce efficiency, also. Check and see if your filters need replacing. It is amazing what that will do, also.

How big is your house? My electric bill in the summer is usually high about $500 but we have had weather over 100 degrees for the last 2 weeks. Our air conditioner is no lower than 78 and we use ceiling fans in all the rooms. Out house is about 2000 sq feet that we are trying to cool. That seems normal to me; we looked into this cost when we bought the house but we expected it. Make sure to check your meter and do the math yourselves. It is possible the numbers are wrong or they did the math wrong but I found that is rarely the case.

I would have them check out the meter as well, then I would also see where your house is loosing money. Do you need to have the attic done? Do you need new windows or doors? Do you need a new air conditioning unit? There are always reasons for these things and if any or all of these need to be done then there is your explanation. You can also change your light bulbs to more energy efficient and focus on unplugging things regularly.

i have never seen a bill close to either of those prices but we have a duplex and before that we lived in apartments. ours did almost triple this month, however. i don't think it's just you.

Do you alternate actual and estimated bills? Ours used to be about $100 different every other month when we did and the high one was usually 300 or a little more

You can have your meter re-checked, have your AC system checked as well. Make sure your filters are changed often.

We have had several days over 100 and I expect our next bill to be high. Our previous one was a little over $200 and we are in a 4000+ SQ FT house and we are quite free with the thermostat as in it stays on lower 70's most the time upstairs and downstairs. We are not energy conservers here.

What energy company do you use? Have they raised your rates? What do you pay per kilowatt?

We built this house and the builder quality for the AC units sucked so about 3 yrs into living here and bills hitting $700+ we gutted the AC system and everything spending upwards of $20,000 and since we did that and went with Champion Energy, we've never had a bill over $400 in this Texas heat.

Make sure you call them and have it checked out. It could be as simple as changing energy companies....

well, mine was $646 yesterday, so i can totally feel your pain... i would do two things. first, have your meter checked by the utility company. second, have someone look at your a/c unit(s) to see if they are functioning properly(maybe it needs coolant?). also, change your air filter(s). beyond that, idk what to tell you. it's HOT out :(

ha! Yes, ours went from $81 to $190 and now this month is was $260 and our highest in august will be in the $400's and our house is only 2000sf and we keep it at 78 too which I still think is too freaking hot! So welcome to the heat! Oh, ask your elect company if they have a year round payment plan where you pay the same amount all year. Ours is usually about $190 but I missed a payment last year and we were taken off so now we have to wait until Nov to start again. Good luck.

Well, it will be interesting to see what others are commenting...part of me is nervous, for I work for an electric utility.
Yes, bills do go up in the summer time normally! If you have a large home it could be part of the reason. However, that increase is pretty steep! In general depending on your geographic location, here in Georgia typically April, May and October are the lower months, so if the lower bill was a May bill, you can figure June and definitely July and August to be a good bit higher and sometimes even in to September depending on the billing cycle. A few things you can do to determine or compare your usage is try turning off all your breakers including your main breaker, go out and watch your meter for a full 2 minutes and see if it completely stops? If so, and it should, go back in and flip one breaker at a time and go back out to see the meter...do this for each breaker and realize what the breaker is for and determine where your usage is coming from... sometimes it can be your HVAC system, others times depending your water source can be a pump running all the time due to malfunction or leak, or a waterheater leak can cause extremely high bills. Otherwise, you can take a reading from your meter on a daily basis and see what your average daily usage is and that will give you an idea of what and when you are using each day, also considering the temperature and your routine for that particular day. If not on your bill, you can divide your total monthly kWh's by the number of days in the billing cycle and find your average daily usage for that particular bill to have something to base your current calculations?
Good luck!

Sounds like maybe they didn't come read your meter last month and this month they did and realized they were way off. I had that happen once years ago. I opened mine this morning at it was $300, so I'm happy with that after seeing these numbers!!

that's a huge increase. What do you have your thermastat set at? Set it a little higher during the day and lower it at night if need be. It makes a huge difference with our bill setting it at 73-74 vs at 70-71. Just a thought. I would call the company as suggested below and discuss the bill. Also check the reading on your bill. I think it tells you how many kilowatts (sp) were used. Compare it to your last bill. I feel your pain...really LOL :)

We live in Columbus and have the same problem(not as high as yours) but still for us it is bad. Last summer was not as bad. All I can tell you is hang in and add fans where you can, to cool it down. They have summer rates and winter rates so they get ya comin and going.Make sure the kids don't keep going in andout and make sure the seals around the window s are good. Good luck and hope we have a little cooler weather

We have a 2000 sq ft home and we set the a/c on 82 when we leave in the morning. When we get home we set it to 80 and turn on the ceiling fans. Our home is only 5 years old but I do not now how old your home is but you might want to have your a/c unit checked. I also change the filters every month on the first. My bill last month was $125.00 this month it doubled. We also close the vents to rooms that we do not use often, (example the office, the laundry room, the guest rooms and the walk in closet) I do not see the sense in cooling those rooms. I do not run the dish washer, each person washes their own dish. Our dishwasher seems to run forever.