Why is my electric bill so high?
A diagnostic walk through the causes of a high electricity bill, in the order they are actually worth checking.
Reviewed
First, separate price from usage
A bill is usage multiplied by price. Both move, and they move for completely different reasons, so the first job is to work out which one changed.
Your bill states the kilowatt-hours you used. Compare that number with the same month last year, not with last month — electricity use is strongly seasonal, and comparing January to April tells you nothing.
If the kilowatt-hours are flat but the bill rose, the price changed and no amount of switching things off will fix it. If the kilowatt-hours rose, something in the house is using more.
The four causes that explain most spikes
Heating or cooling working harder. This dominates. A cold snap or heatwave raises the duty cycle of the largest appliance you own, and the bill follows within one cycle.
An electric water heater with a failed thermostat or a leaking tank, which can run almost continuously without any visible symptom.
A new always-on load: a second refrigerator, a freezer in the garage, a hot tub, a pool pump, or an electric vehicle. These change the baseline permanently rather than temporarily.
A rate change. Utilities adjust rates on their own schedule, and the change may not be announced in a way you noticed.
How to confirm it rather than guess
Read the meter at the same time on two consecutive days without changing your behaviour. That gives you a real daily baseline in kilowatt-hours.
Then switch off the suspected appliance for a full day and repeat. The difference is that appliance’s actual consumption, which beats every estimate including the ones on this site.
For anything that cycles, measure across at least 24 hours. A shorter test catches the appliance mid-cycle and gives a misleading answer in either direction.