monitoring power usage

[atuel]

With my electric bill skyrocketing lately, I've been wanting to know where I'm using power. I can guess at the usual suspects (heat pump, water heater, etc), but my bill was farily high to start with before it skyrocketed, so I wanted to be more precise. Do you know of or have used any monitoring device that can monitor individual circuits.

I found a couple such as http://ecatalog.squared.com/catalog/174/html/sections/04/17404015.html but they are all around $2000.

I can buy some fairly cheap devices such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001 that can monitor at individual plugs but these seem to be limited to only 120V and the major current users in my house are likely the 220V heat pumps, water heater, stove, and dryer.

Any products out there which can monitor power usage for less up front money?

[Billy_Bob]

Well what are you going to do about it once you learn that something is using a lot of electricity?

With some things, you can't do anything because you need that thing.

With others, you can turn it off when not in use or reduce your use of that thing.

So instead of monitoring your electric usage and spending money on this, why not spend that money on energy saving appliances, compact fluorescent bulbs, and power strips (to switch stuff off) instead?

Basically cut back everywhere you can.

Around here we had a 13% electric rate increase last spring. People have not noticed this until the last few months.

Things you can do...

Basically there is no one thing which will greatly reduce your electric bill. These are many little things which add up. So first learn arithmetic...

25 cents + 25 cents + 25 cents + 25 cents = $1. One dollar a day times 30 days in a month = $30!

So look for those things which will save you 25 cents. There are lots of them!

A couple of times I've seen compact fluorescent bulbs on sale and subsidized by the local electric company for $1 each. I bought two bags full! Every bulb I can replace is CFL now.

Don't use the dishwasher, wash dishes by hand.

An electric water heater can be 30% of an electric bill. Get a water heater timer and run it only 3 days a week in the mornings. Take showers only 3 days a week - weekdays. Then it will be off the rest of the day and you will have warm residual water instead of hot. (These have a button on them to bypass the timer if you need an extra shower.) Install a valve on the shower head. Turn off the water when you are soaping up. Then back on to rinse.

Get an Energy Star front loading washing machine. Wash with cold water.

Get a new Energy Star refrigerator and window air conditioners if your existing are older units.

Turn the heating down and wear sweaters. Heat just the bedrooms at night (baseboard electric) and turn the house heating way down.

Install Energy Star double pane gas filled windows - use heavy curtains.

Install as much additional insulation as you can, especially in attic.

Close off unused rooms.

Seal all air leaks. Check around doors. Install weather stripping and new bottom threshold if needed.

Then basically anything electrical these days is "always on" and always using electricity. EVERYTHING! Get a bunch of power strips (which do not have a light in the switch) and plug these things in. Turn them off when not in use. This includes microwave, TV, stereo, coffee maker, computer equipment, garage door opener, etc.

Phones will work when not plugged in (except cordless). I only have my answering machine phone plugged in. All the others are unplugged and still work fine. Dial numbers instead of using speed dial.

Place all chargers for cell phones, etc. in one area on a power strip. Turn off when not needed.

For entertainment system, get about 4 power strips (or more) and place them side by side up high where you can reach them. Use one for playstation, one for DVD, one for stereo, and one as the main and for TV. Then turn on only what you need at the time. If just TV and cable box, then just those on. (Might want to leave cable box on all the time as it takes time to download all the info.)

Leave the stuff plugged in and on like the cable box if needed, just turn off with a power strip everything which is not needed.

Same with computer. Place printer on power strip and have off when not in use. Have a main power strip which turns off everything when not in use. (Again these things are always "on" and using a little electricity.)

Do you have an outside GFCI outlet on its own circuit? GFCI's always use a little electricity. Turn off the breaker if this will not be used all winter.

More tips...
http://www.energystar.gov

Hot water heater timer...
http://www.drillspot.com/products/122495/Intermatic_EH40_Mechanical_Digital_Water_Heater_Ti mer

[GabeS]

What???? Have you lost your mind???? Shower three days a week???? Turn off shower during soaping????? Buy all new appliances???? That right there would take centuries to break even on the few dollars you're going to save a month. Why not just walk around in the dark?? That will save you 10 bucks a month. Your post had some good points but I think it was a little extreme.

[Billy_Bob]

Well sorry, it is no longer the American dream. It is now the American nightmare. Need to lower your standard of living if you want to cut back on expenses.

[atuel]

Well what are you going to do about it once you learn that something is using a lot of electricity?

With some things, you can't do anything because you need that thing.

With others, you can turn it off when not in use or reduce your use of that thing.

So instead of monitoring your electric usage and spending money on this, why not spend that money on energy saving appliances, compact fluorescent bulbs, and power strips (to switch stuff off) instead?

Basically cut back everywhere you can.

Around here we had a 13% electric rate increase last spring. People have not noticed this until the last few months.

Things you can do...

Basically there is no one thing which will greatly reduce your electric bill. These are many little things which add up. So first learn arithmetic...

25 cents + 25 cents + 25 cents + 25 cents = $1. One dollar a day times 30 days in a month = $30!

So look for those things which will save you 25 cents. There are lots of them!

A couple of times I've seen compact fluorescent bulbs on sale and subsidized by the local electric company for $1 each. I bought two bags full! Every bulb I can replace is CFL now.

Don't use the dishwasher, wash dishes by hand.

An electric water heater can be 30% of an electric bill. Get a water heater timer and run it only 3 days a week in the mornings. Take showers only 3 days a week - weekdays. Then it will be off the rest of the day and you will have warm residual water instead of hot. (These have a button on them to bypass the timer if you need an extra shower.) Install a valve on the shower head. Turn off the water when you are soaping up. Then back on to rinse.

Get an Energy Star front loading washing machine. Wash with cold water.

Get a new Energy Star refrigerator and window air conditioners if your existing are older units.

Turn the heating down and wear sweaters. Heat just the bedrooms at night (baseboard electric) and turn the house heating way down.

Install Energy Star double pane gas filled windows - use heavy curtains.

Install as much additional insulation as you can, especially in attic.

Close off unused rooms.

Seal all air leaks. Check around doors. Install weather stripping and new bottom threshold if needed.

Then basically anything electrical these days is "always on" and always using electricity. EVERYTHING! Get a bunch of power strips (which do not have a light in the switch) and plug these things in. Turn them off when not in use. This includes microwave, TV, stereo, coffee maker, computer equipment, garage door opener, etc.

Phones will work when not plugged in (except cordless). I only have my answering machine phone plugged in. All the others are unplugged and still work fine. Dial numbers instead of using speed dial.

Place all chargers for cell phones, etc. in one area on a power strip. Turn off when not needed.

For entertainment system, get about 4 power strips (or more) and place them side by side up high where you can reach them. Use one for playstation, one for DVD, one for stereo, and one as the main and for TV. Then turn on only what you need at the time. If just TV and cable box, then just those on. (Might want to leave cable box on all the time as it takes time to download all the info.)

Leave the stuff plugged in and on like the cable box if needed, just turn off with a power strip everything which is not needed.

Same with computer. Place printer on power strip and have off when not in use. Have a main power strip which turns off everything when not in use. (Again these things are always "on" and using a little electricity.)

Do you have an outside GFCI outlet on its own circuit? GFCI's always use a little electricity. Turn off the breaker if this will not be used all winter.

More tips...
http://www.energystar.gov

Hot water heater timer...
http://www.drillspot.com/products/122495/Intermatic_EH40_Mechanical_Digital_Water_Heater_Ti mer


I'd plan on fixing the issue... my bill is easily 3X what it should be for this house during this time of year.


I already have a ton of CFLs

I've been using a wood burning stove to heat my house in the colder days, so the heat shouldnt even be running that much and we already have the temp turned down significantly. I also live in North Carolina, so its not even that cold most of the time as we've had our windows open during the day for the past month or so already.

My washer/dryer are already energy star rated and I've made sure the dryer vent is clear. I believe the dishwasher probably is as well as it is onloy a year or so old.

I already have programmable thermostats.

So a lot of the little things we've already done over the past several months (only owned the place since August) and have still seen huge increases in our bill. I'm at the point where I'm thinking of taking more drastic action.

Computers, TVs,

The house was built in the 80s so it does not have the most energy efficient of everything.

1) It has a pair of heat pumps that look to be quite old.
2) The insulation in the attic could use some improvement but is not horrible.
3) The water heater is newer but probalby not the most efficient.
4) Fridge is a farily good whirlpool model

I've only been in the place for a few months, but the computers, tvs/etc, washer/dryer are all the same as my old place where the bill was a small fraction of what is is now. The fridge, stove, water heater, and heat pumps all came with the place and I'm not sure of their efficiency or if they are working as efficient as they should be.

I already have my utility company coming out to inspect the meter for a failure, but probably unlikely it is this.

What I have left to improve will all be in the more major category, so I'm looking to prove what is drawing the power. If its the heat pumps with the little we've been running them, I'll completely replace them. If its the water heater, same deal and it'll get replaced. With my bill as high as it is, any of these including full professional install would be paid for in jsut a few months.

However, I dont want to just go around replacing major appliances if they are not the problem. I need to find a way to prove they are the problem. It'd be nice to have a monitor like the one I pasted in above to track everything, but I'd settle for for a handful of monitors I can put on my 220V major appliances.

[codeone]

What is the sq ft of this house compared to your old one?

[chris8796]

I have been debating getting this (http://www.theenergydetective.com/what/features.html) for a while. If you add the software it looks to be pretty handy power monitor with the ability to do load profiles of major appliances. It runs a little under $200 if you get the software.

[atuel]

What is the sq ft of this house compared to your old one?

Its about 30% more sq ft in the new place. New place is insulated better and has better windows as well.

[atuel]

I have been debating getting this (http://www.theenergydetective.com/what/features.html) for a while. If you add the software it looks to be pretty handy power monitor with the ability to do load profiles of major appliances. It runs a little under $200 if you get the software.

I did see that, but it only allows you to have one device per panel. I'd want to simultaneously monitor several devices over the period of a month.

1) heat pumps (mine are fed via a single breaker to a sub panel outside and then have 2 other breakers for the heat exchangers)
2) water heater


Also, for the price of buying 2-3 of these, you can almost manage to get the full blown unit that monitors all branch circuits.

[chris8796]

The software is suppose to allow you to do large appliances loads w/o multiple meters. For example, when a large appliance kicks on it and uses approximately the same amount high amperage each time, the software can assign that to a specific appliance. A sudden 20 amp change is the water heater (going on or off), a 23 amp change is the dryer, 15 amp change is the heat pump, etc... I don't know how well it actually works, but that is the idea.

[atuel]

The software is suppose to allow you to do large appliances loads w/o multiple meters. For example, when a large appliance kicks on it and uses approximately the same amount high amperage each time, the software can assign that to a specific appliance. A sudden 20 amp change is the water heater (going on or off), a 23 amp change is the dryer, 15 amp change is the heat pump, etc... I don't know how well it actually works, but that is the idea.

Hmm.... bet that doesnt work all that well. Maybe you can tell the difference between a few things but I cant imagine from simple current/voltage drops they can correctly classify everything.

I found this one as well that the adverstising says $80 per port, which I'm sure is a maximum configuration, but I cant find anyone to sell it.

http://www.trendpoint.com/EnerSure.html

This guy http://www.kondra.com/circuit/circuit.html put one in his place using an earlier version of this software and a similar board made by veris. He didnt mention price, but this is the sort of detail that I'd really like.

[jadnashua]

If the heat pumps aren't working properly, they'll turn on the resistance heaters, and your bills WILL go up. Generally, they come on either if they run longer than a certain time and/or when the outside temperature drops below a certain value (often around 35-40 degrees). Some thermostats will trigger them if the needed increase in temperature is above a certain value. You may find that setback thermostats with heat pumps end up using more electricity because it needs to run the resistance heaters than if it ran longer maintaining with the compressor only, rather than recovering the temperature.

What kind of heat did you have in the old place? Assuming your WH is electric, they're essentially 100% efficient. The only thing newer ones tend to do is add more insulation. Another thing to look at is your water meter...make sure nobody is running any water and then look at the meter to see if it is registering anything. You could have a hot water leak in the slab and not notice it. You'd be heating lots of water.

Do you have a well? If you do and the storage tank's bladder is bad or the foot valve is bad, it may not be able to maintain proper volume in the tank and the pump would run longer. This could be a 1hp or more motor, and that could easily cost $2-3 or more per day.

A refrigerator can be a huge energy user...I know when I replaced my old one, the new one was both 40% larger and that my electric bill went down about 25%. Do the dollar bill test on the door gasket seals to see if they're working (basically see how easy it is to pull it out when the door is closed).

[jimbo]

I believe the messiah in Washington has declared that any one who want to be a carbon guzzling pig can go right ahead, but be ready to pay.

I didn't vote for the idiots, so don't blame me!

[atuel]

If the heat pumps aren't working properly, they'll turn on the resistance heaters, and your bills WILL go up. Generally, they come on either if they run longer than a certain time and/or when the outside temperature drops below a certain value (often around 35-40 degrees). Some thermostats will trigger them if the needed increase in temperature is above a certain value. You may find that setback thermostats with heat pumps end up using more electricity because it needs to run the resistance heaters than if it ran longer maintaining with the compressor only, rather than recovering the temperature.

What kind of heat did you have in the old place? Assuming your WH is electric, they're essentially 100% efficient. The only thing newer ones tend to do is add more insulation. Another thing to look at is your water meter...make sure nobody is running any water and then look at the meter to see if it is registering anything. You could have a hot water leak in the slab and not notice it. You'd be heating lots of water.

Do you have a well? If you do and the storage tank's bladder is bad or the foot valve is bad, it may not be able to maintain proper volume in the tank and the pump would run longer. This could be a 1hp or more motor, and that could easily cost $2-3 or more per day.

A refrigerator can be a huge energy user...I know when I replaced my old one, the new one was both 40% larger and that my electric bill went down about 25%. Do the dollar bill test on the door gasket seals to see if they're working (basically see how easy it is to pull it out when the door is closed).

The old place had gas all around. I've only ever had gas before this current place and this is the first heat pump I or anyone else i know has had. I have tried leaving it at a current temp and doing the set back thing, but nothing noticible in terms of reducing the bill.

The fridge is fine seal wise at lease... this is one of the easy things I've already checked.

No well.

Water consumption has been normal for a two person household. At least a month ago when i turned it off to do some work, it was not running when nothing in the house was running.


My suspect is most likely the water heater or heat pumps. This place is on a crawl space which some genius ran all the water pipes through it rather than through the walls where its warm. We did notice that in the recent cold weather we've had that it takes a very long time before the very cold water turned warm/hot (20-30 feet of 1/2" CPVC).

With the heat pumps, since I and no one I know has ever owned one, its a bit of a learning experience, but they do never seem to be very warm and they do seem to run longer than I'd think they should. The one for upstairs woke us up one one clicking loudly on and off but I've not seen it do it since then. Only problem is that in the past month when out bill has been the highest, we did not have the heat on most of the time since its been around 70 degrees much of the month.


So we have our suspects, but no telling if maybe the fridge or washer/dryer/dishwasher are malfunctioning. Rather than guess and start calling people out to look at things, since they all seem to manage to find something wheter it actually is the problem or not, I'd like a way to definitely tell whats using all my power. For all I know, I've just been doing more laundry or too much vaccuming or maybe I left my playstation on for a week or something without noticing it. Thats why I'd like to have a power monitor to tell me what I'm doing wrong vs this guess and wait until next month. I've been doing this for a few months now and if its something that is failing or somethign I'm doing wrong, I could have corrected it and paid for the cost of the monitoring equipment.

[codeone]

One thing I would consider is finding a reputable hvac person check your heat pump systems out. Making sure the freon is where it should be, make sure the inside and outside coils are clean. Also change your filters regularly. Having your system maint. once a year will help with the overall longivity.
If the coils are dirty or clogged and/or the freon is low it will cause the heat strips to come on and drive your electric bill up. Also remember your not paying for gas to heat with. In your old house with gas did you take this into account?

Just some things to consider.

[Scuba_Dave]

How high is high?
Our bill is between $200-$375
Depends upon if the hot tub is on, pool pump, Christmas display up

I use a KillAwatt meter to check stuff
My old TV, DVD & cable box use 20w while "off"
Old windows are R1, new windows are R2
I replaced mine due to the hollow places on both sides of windows that held the weights
Replaced our 18 cu ft fridge with a 26 cu ft fridge & power use is 10% less
But we needed a bigger fridge
Dehumidifiers use a lot of power
As does an AC, heat pump

[atuel]

One thing I would consider is finding a reputable hvac person check your heat pump systems out. Making sure the freon is where it should be, make sure the inside and outside coils are clean. Also change your filters regularly. Having your system maint. once a year will help with the overall longivity.
If the coils are dirty or clogged and/or the freon is low it will cause the heat strips to come on and drive your electric bill up. Also remember your not paying for gas to heat with. In your old house with gas did you take this into account?

Just some things to consider.

So the cooling mode did not drive up my electric back in August/September/November, so unless it was a recent thing, freon should be fine. Filters are changed about once a month.

In my old place, yes, I took gas into account... here we basically have all in one utilities so it all comes on one bill making it easy to look at. I could handle some difference to account for difference in efficiencies of gas vs electric, but not a more than 3X difference like i'm seeing now.

[codeone]

So the cooling mode did not drive up my electric back in August/September/November, so unless it was a recent thing, freon should be fine. Filters are changed about once a month.
.

One thing that could drive your bill up during Dec./Jan./Feb. is if your unit is not operating properly and the back up heat strips come on. They are electric strips very costly. If your units are older they may not be as efficient as the newer ones and the strips may be coming on more than they should. Would still have them checked. What county are you in in NC?

[atuel]

How high is high?
Our bill is between $200-$375
Depends upon if the hot tub is on, pool pump, Christmas display up

I use a KillAwatt meter to check stuff
My old TV, DVD & cable box use 20w while "off"
Old windows are R1, new windows are R2
I replaced mine due to the hollow places on both sides of windows that held the weights
Replaced our 18 cu ft fridge with a 26 cu ft fridge & power use is 10% less
But we needed a bigger fridge
Dehumidifiers use a lot of power
As does an AC, heat pump

Ours is over $600 this month.... It was around $200 the end of summer with the A/C and everything else the same.

no hot tub, no pool, no dehumidifiers. Only thing out of the ordinary is a server I run... 8 single-core processors with external 14 bay RAID, so its farily large, but it also ran in the old place exactly as is.

$150 was normal in my old place for similar times of the month where we're not really heating or cooling any. My thermostat in the old place kept track of how many hours it was running the A/C so in the middle of July, I found it was running for about 20 hours ever day and it was still only $350.

[atuel]

One thing that could drive your bill up during Dec./Jan./Feb. is if your unit is not operating properly and the back up heat strips come on. They are electric strips very costly. If your units are older they may not be as efficient as the newer ones and the strips may be coming on more than they should. Would still have them checked. What county are you in in NC?

I'm on the Wake/Johnston county line. Any way to tell if the heat strips are coming on? I've actually had my upstairs heat pump turned completley off for at least the last few weeks. My downstairs one was turned on, though was set to 68.

The system is fairly old and shows it... wouldnt be suprised if it was nearly original to the house from the mid 80s. The exterior piece says Carrier Tech 2000 SS on the top of it and best guess I can find is its cerca 1993. I have two of these... Downstairs unit is connected to a Carrier 2 zone WeatherMaker as well.

Fridge is Whirlpool ED2FHEXNQ00 . Doesnt seem to have a series name that I can tell.... this came with the new place so I dont have much info on it.

Washer/Dryer are Whirlpool Duet from about mid 2003. These are the same as from my old place

Dishwasher is a Kitchen Aid Whisper quiet ultra - KVDS24SE. Again, this came with the place so dont know much about it.

Fridge and Dishwasher appear to be farily new, though I'm not sure of their efficiency. The washer/dryer we did pay a bit extra for these because they are more efficient, but they're 6 years old now.

[Bill Arden]

I started with a clamp on amp meter, then got a kill-o-watt meter.

The small clamp on unit that chris8796 suggested could be installed on a feeder circuit. There are other unit like that.

The main reason for monitoring power is to properly prioritize improvements and to discover problems.

Some examples of maintenance issues:
1. Refrigerators draw more power when the coils get dirty.
2. Air source Heat pumps shut down when the outside gets dirty.
3. Gas water heaters use more gas when they are filled with sludge.

My local power utility has a neat web site that shows how much power I use each day along with the outdoor temperature. Since I have two meters it shows heating and regular power separately.

[Billy_Bob]

Look for a manufacture date on the refrigerator. If it is more than 7 years old, a new model will save electricity.

For a heat pump, the new Carrier Infinity says 19 SEER rating...
http://www.residential.carrier.com/products/acheatpumps/heatpumps/infinity.shtml

And if replacing a heat pump with a new high efficiency unit, also replace the inside air handler / coils as these work hand in hand to provide the most efficiency. They do all sorts of trickery with the electricity and motors to gain the highest efficiency.

If you can get natural gas, the new furnaces are so efficient, they use PVC for an exhaust pipe instead of the metal chimney!

[atuel]

So no natural gas at the house now, though I've wondered about this since I prefer to cook on a gas stove

Any idea which of the various types of home heat is the most efficient these days? Gas? Electric? HeatPump?


I did some more investigating including staying home today to monitor it over a day where it's sort of cold outside. The downstairs unit ran all day after I turned it back on. It wasnt even cold inside.

This two zone thing I have has a LED on it to indicate when emergency heat kicks in and it comes on right away. I also found the manual for this tucked up in the closet its actually does have electric controlled dampers that I dont think are opening reliably. At one point, it was running an I had next to no air flow out of any of the vents. I've never understood why this was a two zone anyway since both zones are on the first floor with the upstairs having its own heat pump.

I'll have to crawl into the crawl space and check on the dampers... probably just lock them open and kill the crappy 2 zone thing. The manual says it doesnt even listen to the thermostat and will only allow 1 change every 15 minutes and it prevents me from using the unit with the fan only on to help spread heat from my wood/coal burning stove.

[codeone]

I'm on the Wake/Johnston county line. Any way to tell if the heat strips are coming on? I've actually had my upstairs heat pump turned completley off for at least the last few weeks. My downstairs one was turned on, though was set to 68.

The system is fairly old and shows it... wouldnt be suprised if it was nearly original to the house from the mid 80s. The exterior piece says Carrier Tech 2000 SS on the top of it and best guess I can find is its cerca 1993. I have two of these... Downstairs unit is connected to a Carrier 2 zone WeatherMaker as well.


It could be the reversing valves are sticking which would cause your hp to not come on and only the strips to come on prematurely. Also HP's do not work well past 32 deg. and the strips would come on.
You could turn you unit to where they would be calling for heat and go out and watch to see if the compressors come on and stay on. Also on you thermostat there should be an indicator if the emergency strips come on. Each unit is a little different.
Still suggest you have someone check/service them to be sure. Be sure and get a repetuable company.

[atuel]

It could be the reversing valves are sticking which would cause your hp to not come on and only the strips to come on prematurely. Also HP's do not work well past 32 deg. and the strips would come on.
You could turn you unit to where they would be calling for heat and go out and watch to see if the compressors come on and stay on. Also on you thermostat there should be an indicator if the emergency strips come on. Each unit is a little different.
Still suggest you have someone check/service them to be sure. Be sure and get a repetuable company.


Yeah, I found the emergency indicator... I have this stupid 2-zone deal that is actually controlling it. It says the emergency strips come on all the time right away (its 50 degrees outside today when I checked this). The compressors are also running. And since I posted before, I'm pretty sure the air dampers that go with the 2-zone thing are not opening properly.

Since this 2-zone thing is not needed for this house, I'm just going to bypass it and go back to a single zone.


BTW, I'd still want to be able to monitor so I can cut this off quicker next time rather than spend a couple months paying high bills like this.

[codeone]

Yeah, I found the emergency indicator... I have this stupid 2-zone deal that is actually controlling it. It says the emergency strips come on all the time right away (its 50 degrees outside today when I checked this). The compressors are also running. And since I posted before, I'm pretty sure the air dampers that go with the 2-zone thing are not opening properly.



Sounds like you may have solved you major cause of your high bills. At least if you can get this corrected you should see a major drop in your winter bill. Hope so. Take care.
Mel

[atuel]

Yeah... now I just have to crawl under my house to open the dampers permanently.


I'd still want to be able to monitor. I'm guessing no one has a solution for less than the $2000 that can monitor circuit by circuit. This is the second time it would have saved me big time... lost a fridge full of food cause my fridge start relay died. Seeing the drop in energy usage would have alerted me to go check it out.

[codeone]

You still may have a relay sticking in your unit. I'm not sure the dampers closed would cause the strips to come on like that all the time.

[Billy_Bob]

If you have a woodstove, you may be able to use that and turn off the heat pump for 24 hours - and read your electric meter. Then turn on heat pump and read your electric meter again.

So far as the cost, electric bills are very complex as to charges. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to look at your total kilowatt hours used each month and divide by the number of days on the bill to come up with a daily usage.

Then experiment around with turning off what you can for 24 hour periods and see how much this reduces your use.

You do have a meter, just learn how to read it and experiment with one thing at a time.

How to read an electric meter...
http://pacificpower.apogee.net/res/refrmtr.asp

More on electric meter reading...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=electric+meter+reading&aq=f&oq=

Kilowatt hour explained...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt-hour

Watt explained...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt

[alternety]

For refrigerators you can buy temperature alarms.

I just read through this post for the first time. I believe you have been told several times what you problem is likely to be. You confirmed this with the indicators on the thermostat.

Your heat pump is malfunctioning. You do not need a current monitor for the biggest probable load. Look at the rating on the fans and compressor of the heat pump. Look at the KW rating of the backup (emergency) heating coils.

When you thermostat says the heat pump is running (and you can hear the compressor and the indoor and outdoor fans, this is the power you are using. Whenever the emergency heat light is on you are ALSO using that amount of power. Together they should dwarf any other load in the house except maybe an electric range together with an electric water heater. If the water heater was running all the time you would have opened the TPR and you would see water/steam running out all the time.You would have unbearably hot water and steam in the hot water faucets. Not a likely scenario. You would notice leaving on the range (or electric clothes dryer).

It is unlikely to be the dampers. If the resistance heat in the pump is on, the pump electronics thinks it is not producing enough heat (or maybe a frozen coil). If the dampers area problem, I would expect the heat to build up in the air handler and not keep the resistive heat on. It could be a sensor or electronics problem; but given the age I suspect the heat pump is just broke.

Get a heat pump person in.