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Which state is she in, and who's her electricity provider? If she used 4562 kWh this month and her bill was between $900 - $1360, that means she's paying 19¢-29¢/kWh, which is quite high (but not impossibly so, especially in California or Hawaii): https://www.electricchoice.com/electricity-prices-by-state/ I'd first still do what everyone is suggesting (identifying the actual loads that are using so much power), but on top of that, it might be worth looking at the details of your utility's rate plan and comparing different ones (if they have them), or maybe even a different electricity provider if your state and jurisdiction allow those. (It's usually a case where you end up paying the electric utility for transmission, but someone else for generation... there are a lot of third parties that build out big solar/wind farms and then contract with the utility. But be careful and do your research carefully if you choose to go that route, since many of them are nearly scams that lure you in with an cheap upfront cost and then drastically raise your rate later. But then again, the utility itself can do that too, depending on state laws...) At the end of the day, once you identify the loads, you can better assess what combination of 1) conservation 2) time-of-use shifting or possible rate plan changes 3) insulation & lighting improvements 4) home solar/hydro 5) equipment upgrades to do (in order of least to most out-of-pocket costs). You're using enough power (as in abnormally so, unless you have some commercial/industrial loads on that land, like for ranching/processing/growing operations?) that you shouldn't just blindly throw solar at it without understanding what's using that much power to begin with. The solar should pay itself back regardless, but if you can lower the power draws to begin with and size your array accordingly, you don't have to get as big an array. Oversizing a solar array not only costs more upfront, but may have very limited returns because many jurisdictions cap what the utility pays you for home solar. If it's much greater than your actual usage, basically you just end up providing free (or nearly free) electricity for the grid. If she's usually away from home and there's no unusual loads going on, the house really shouldn't use that much power just idling. Check the circuits, major appliances (heating/cooling/refrigeration/space heating), lights (any old incandescents lying around, especially porch lights etc. that might be left on 24/7? grow lights for weed or other crops?). Hot tub? Heated driveway? Anything having to do with heating/cooling? For any plug-in appliances, you can also get a plug-in power meter (like a "Kill-a-Watt" or similar) to see exactly how much energy they're using over a day. |