High Energy Bills
The bill is a symptom. Run time is the cause.
An HVAC system costs money in proportion to how long it runs. So the useful question is not why the bill is high, it is why the system is running as much as it is.
That question has answers, and they are measurable. Most of them have nothing to do with the efficiency rating on the equipment.
What drives run time up
A system delivering less capacity than it should has to run longer to do the same work. Low airflow does this. So does a charge condition, a dirty coil, or a restriction that has developed gradually enough that nobody noticed the change.
Conditioned air lost before it reaches a room is paid for and never used. Duct leakage into an attic or crawlspace is the clearest example, and it is invisible.
A room that cannot hold temperature pulls the whole system. If the thermostat is fighting one bad room, the rest of the house is being overconditioned to serve it.
Equipment fighting itself also shows up here. Short cycling, backup heat coming on when it should not, or a heat pump running on auxiliary heat far more than conditions call for.
The auxiliary heat problem specifically
On a heat pump, electric backup heat costs substantially more to run than the heat pump itself. A system calling for backup heat when it does not need to will produce a winter bill that looks like a different house.
This is common, it is diagnosable, and the cause is usually a control setting, a defrost issue, or a capacity shortfall the backup heat is quietly covering for.
What we do
Measure what the system is actually delivering, find what is limiting it, and identify what is driving run time. The report tells you which findings affect the bill and roughly how much of the problem each one represents.
We do not promise a percentage of savings. Anyone who does before measuring is selling something.
What to bring
If you have a year of utility bills, or access to them online, they help. Seasonal shape tells us more than a single high month does.
Common questions
Common questions
- Will a new high efficiency system fix my bill?
- It will help if the equipment is the limiting factor. If the problem is distribution or a control setting, you will have paid for new equipment and kept the problem.
- How much can I expect to save?
- We will not give you a number before measuring, and we will be cautious about it after. Savings estimates are the most abused number in this industry.
- My bill doubled this winter. Is something broken?
- Possibly, and auxiliary heat behavior is the first thing to check on a heat pump. A sudden change usually has a specific cause.
- Is my thermostat setting the problem?
- It is a factor, but a properly performing system at a reasonable setpoint should not produce a surprising bill. The surprise is the thing worth investigating.