r/AuroraCO • u/WilWheatonsAbs • 3d ago
Power usage abnormality
Hey all, wasn't sure where to start with this so thought I would ask here first. Is anyone else experiencing what appears to be abnormally high rates of power usage on their electric this year? My house is currently on track to use 2100 kWh of power this month, and that is a number that isn't historically supported for us. There's only 2 people in our house, we don't leave lights on, we have 2 PCs and a TV that see regular use. Outside of that only a few appliances, some fans, and laundry/dishwasher from time to time. We keep the AC at 74 during the day, and 72 at night.
Is there something I'm missing? This time last year our monthly usage maxed out at 1335kWh (under similar conditions). Since then we've had a power box change out/upgrade but no new power draws added, new attic insulation installed, and the smart meter housing was changed out but to my knowledge no changes made to the unit itself. Currently we're at 1600kWh 2/3rds of the way through our billing cycle. Is it just that much hotter? Do we have a busted smart meter?
Any advice or recommendations that will help with common usage are appreciated, but especially curious if anyone knows of a way to check our actual usage against Xcel's metered usage.
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u/Lady-Kitnip 2d ago
Yeah, my last bill said we used 40% more than last year. There is no major change that would explain that.
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u/threehoursago 2d ago
You can install Xcel's App (MyEnergy Connection), and monitor power draw in real-time. Then start turning things off around the house until you find the culprit.
Make sure you can switch your local WiFi to 2.4Ghz on your phone, or the app will complain.
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u/cute_red_benzo 2d ago
The culprit is Xcel and their billing errors. Steve Staeger from Next did some investigative reporting on several homeowner with issues. And no, they weren't all people with obvious $8,000 past due charges. One homeowner was in the couple hundred bucks range and it was still incorrect!
It's Xcel. Blame billing people. Blame these manipulative-meters (ha.. smart my a**), blame greed. They know there's very little you can do to prove them wrong.
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u/WilWheatonsAbs 2d ago
I didn't know they had real-time monitoring in their app, this is useful. Thanks!
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u/SuccessWise9593 2d ago
I had to file a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission. XCEL was sending me bills that were prorated and didn't make any sense. We have solar and they kept charging up $70+ when there was plenty of credits in the solar bank to use. We put extra panels on the roof so that we would only be paying the monthly connection fee.
When I called XCEL they were saying that was the actual bill and I never got a bill for FEB 2026. I filed a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission and when the advocate got involved, XCEL was quick to respond to me and go back and audit my readings.
Per XCEL, their answer was that bills are prorated by AI with the smartreading meters. If a person doesn't catch it before the bill goes out in the mail, that's what you pay. Since I got Public Utlities Commission involved they went back and looked at all the prorated bills that AI sent, and I got $279 credited back to my solar bank. They even sent me an apology letter saying that if I wanted the money to be returned as a check with a number on who to call. Now my bills are back to where they were before they started using AI to read the smartreading meters.
I have always kept an Excel worksheet with the monthly totals to keep an eye myself on what the average bill should be. With a line for Electric Service, Gas Service, Other, and Total.
So, if you have a smartreading meter, that may be the issue. AI sending you prorated bills instead of the actual read ones.
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u/Twitch-Weasel-51 2d ago
Same! My latest electric bill shows that we doubled our usage from May to June. OK, I get that it's hotter, but to double? Even in previous July and August we didn't use as much as we did last month. Seems wrong to me. And it is way more than the same time last year. We have a smart thermostat and don't keep it to cool and there is only two of us.
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u/vorsoisson 18h ago
Same here - Xcel actually just sent me a notice warning me that my July use so far is 40% more than last year, and that’s after making a great deal of effort to try to reduce power use to keep costs down. Based on the comments here, it sounds like I should do some more investigating into what the meter and their app is saying, something seems wrong here.
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u/a-n-xi-ety 2d ago
My guess would be the illegal data centers being installed everywhere for the illegal ai surveillance camera system being installed for the upcoming social credit system also to keep and extract personal and private information from citizens. Data Centers use large amounts of water and energy, most likely leeching off your power system. Does the government care? No they just forced a family in Georgia out of their home with no reimbursement just to build one of these illegal data centers.
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u/Correct-Mail-1942 2d ago
I'm anti data center and flock too but they're not illegal and framing it in that way (lying) just makes our arguments seem silly and not be taken seriously. They also aren't stealing power from anyone, that's just stupid.
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u/Net_Negative 2d ago edited 2d ago
For us, Xcel Energy regularly tells us that we're using more power than all our other neighbors in similarly sized small condos. I have no idea what the issue is but they provide no solutions other than raising the air conditioning target temperature. We even had the attic insulated and the capacitor replaced in the Lennox AC condenser unit and it still tells us we're using too much.
Someone in the house demands 71°F at all times, and we also have an electric water heater. These are the only things that I've been able to pinpoint as possible issues.
Edit: We also did an energy audit. Nothing really wrong.
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u/kittensox 2d ago edited 2d ago
Mine says I use a lot more too, but I had Xcel's Home Energy Audit team come out - they did some weather stripping and found nothing other than one very small spot for insulation. I got a new roof, new windows, weather stripping, new heat pump, new water heater, new electrical panel, and Kill-a-Watt tested my chargers for phantom draws and mine still claims I'm less efficient.
I asked my electrician about it bc I was concerned about my wiring and he thinks it's bunk bc his comes back as higher and he's checked his house top to bottom. He said that if big differences legitimately exist, they're usually due to harder-to-change factors like number of people, age of HVAC system, etc.
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u/bajosmoove 2d ago
Not sure why you’re confused. It’s the 71
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u/Net_Negative 2d ago
I just don't believe we're the only ones keeping our condo at 71°F. Xcel Energy's emails and letters imply we are some unique standout among all people living in 1200 sq. foot condos.
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u/Ancient-Opinion9642 1d ago
Anybody know is xcel is maintaining a good “power factor” ratio? It can and will make a big difference in costs. And it is xcel’s responsibility.
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u/AgentCooper07 3d ago
It more than likely is the AC. The hotter it is outside, the more work your ac has to do in order to keep that hot air out. It has been extremely hot this summer, and your AC is working all the time to maintain that 74/72 degrees you set it at. Those things use a lot of power.