re: Help - power bill has gotten out of control

quote:

---

When comparing month to month in past years, this is usually the culprit. It could also be a corrective billing thing with estimated vs actual.

You really need to look for trends vs individual spikes. If you installed the unit in Feb, how’d the past 3-4 months compare?

---

I did look at this - I've been consistently higher since it warmed up outside.

The only thing that should be affecting your power bill is the COP (efficiency) of the unit, and your insulation of the house. Tonnage only will affect how long the unit has to run to reach the set temp. It may be the case that the old unit never actually could reach the set temp while you were away during the day mid summer, and ran constantly until outside temps calmed down every day. If that is still true for your current unit, you went from 4 ton to 5 ton, which is 20% more power usage. Additionally, check to make sure you don't have any leaks in your ductwork. That would essentially cause your AC to run way less efficiently.

quote:

---

We were assured this would actually be more efficient since it wouldn't have to run as much to keep the house cool.

---

How often your unit cycles has nothing to do with efficiency. It does affect the longevity of your unit though, and the major design factor here is to avoid short-cycling your unit. A properly designed system will run almost constantly during the hot part of the year. (meaning it is the smallest tonnage that is able to keep your house at the desired temp)

Again, power consumption is related to efficiency of the unit and insulation. This assumes you didn't change the heat load of your house in some way (remove shading trees, paint the house black, etc)

If your AC was replaced due to master not getting air, that's an air handler issue, so I'm assuming it was replaced with a larger one. This means ductwork was affected by the new install, I would check for leaks (efficiency). An infrared camera works well in this type of application.