Have your utility bills risen since COVID-19? And have they risen high enough to impact your financial situation?
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No… No change in my utility bills at all… But it does makes sense that many others will likely answer “Yes”, as many are staying at home for work and school…
My job has always been a work at home job (even pre-pandemic), so my electric usage has not changed as a result of COVID-19. Looking forward to see other replies…
My utility stayed the same and I worked at home during lockdown but now I go in every other day. The use of the computer didn’t really impact because instead of randomly having electronics on all day before Covid, I was able to turn them on and off only when needed while I was home.
I’ve definitely seen differences with both my wife and I working from home. The culprits are coming from everywhere, as we’re just home a lot more. The water heater in particular has gone up, as we’ve been running the dishwasher a lot more frequently (3 meals/day at home versus 1!) and handwashing high-use stuff rather than dealing with the laundromat. We’re already 100kWh over last year with the water heater, and over a month left of 2020!
Total usage last year – 4910kWh / $1,218
Total usage this year (so far) – 4604kWh / $1,142
We are definitely poised to exceed last year. 
Same here, since March, my Electricity bill has gone up. This is due to using computers at home (myself and the kids, for school), AC or Heat running for longer, and lights in the rooms as well. Good thing I switched all lights to LEDs a couple of years back. On the plus side, no need to drive to work, and that saves me a good 2 hours/day for preparation and driving. Not spending as much on gas. Though, kids’ discipline at home needs to improve, whether the windows are wide open while the AC is running, and other ‘misdemeanors’. Another negative, is that my work hours have stretched noticeably. We’re all home and confined (avoid going out), so, the only/easy recourse is to work extra hours and send emails at 11:00 pm. I have a friend who works at Oracle, and she mentioned Management there is looking into compensating employees for the higher utility bills.
Yes, Six people at home. Maybe 20% more cost than last year.
The Dishwasher was used 6-7 times a week is now used 8-10 times a week.
Pre-Covid19 the A/C would turn off during the week because my wife didn’t trigger the “someone at home” sensor. This Summer it was running all day long.
Pre-Covid19, only one of us would be home during the day. During Covid19 we have everyone home. Two working and two remote learning.
We added a small 8’ pool to our tiny backyard because the kids didn’t have Summer camp(where they swam twice a day). I ran the small pool pump about an hour a day, but only for two months.
For me right now, it’s hard to say. I installed my monitor in March, so Sense has no idea what my “non-COVID” home data looks like. That being said, I definitely have seen an increase compared to what my utility bill looked like around this time last year.
Total usage this year (March to now): 3,470 kWh / $808
July was rough.
I installed mine in February, so ditto. However, I have my computer and monitor from the office on an HS300 and from June til now (mid-Nov) the computer has used $35 and the monitor $5. Is $40 a huge difference? No. But the AC was on the entire summer, so the geofencing I have setup didn’t come in to play. Dishwasher has definitely gotten more use, but my dishwasher has only used $4 in electricity since June.
I only installed Sense recently so I have no sense data.
My usage as billed has actually gone down substantially since Covid hit for numerous reasons.
Using the Grill and smoker a lot more than the microwave and stove.
Kid isn’t doing her hair every day before classes.
Wife has been working as normal (essential sales).
I’ve continued working from home (workshop).
However with nothing else going on in the state NY and most everything closed or at lease severely restricted, we have spent a LOT more time camping in our 5th wheel at a small private campground with about a dozen other seasonal campers.
Our usage has actually gone down because of working from home and not driving our EV 50 miles a day. Here is the annual number where you can clearly see the change from Jan/Feb into March.!
However summer usage is higher because we ran the AC all day versus having a thermostat change automatically. Screenshot_20201115-090406|250x500
Yes! Significantly…it’s why we just installed a Sense.
I am teaching from my home (adjunct professor) and have lights, audio, monitors etc. hooked up several hours each day, while my kids are on electronics for their schooling.
We also had a couple huge jumps in KW usage over the summer that we weren’t able to determine why (no pool, no hot tub, only one AC running a couple hours a day).
Yes for me too, I had a noticeable rise in electric bill this year too. Sense has only been installed last month so I don’t have hard data, but for sure it’s been more. Two of us working from home everyday (as opposed to none before) using computers 8+ hours/day, higher usage definitely on multiple appliances like microwave, toaster oven, coffee maker, house heating and cooling, and lighting to name a few.
However the increase on electricity was offset by the decrease in gas usage, what we saved in gas from commuting everyday we spent on electricity for all those things, so the overall expenses kind of remained balanced.
