The St. Augustine South electric bill, read line by line
Most calls from St. Augustine South start with the power bill, not the thermostat. Here is what a 1960s block ranch is usually spending it on.
The statement arrives
An FPL bill for a July billing cycle lands in a St. Augustine South mailbox. The house is a 1,500-square-foot concrete-block ranch from 1964, on the unincorporated grid of streets that runs between US 1 and the Matanzas River south of the city line. Nothing has changed inside. The thermostat is where it has always been. The bill is up by a third over the same month a few years ago, and the rate increase explains only part of it.
We get that call several times a week in summer, and the diagnosis is usually one of a short list of things that this particular housing stock does as it ages.
Where the money goes in a block ranch
Ductwork in the attic, original or close to it. St. Augustine South was built out mostly between the Eisenhower years and the late seventies, and the central systems added then or soon after put the indoor unit in a hall closet or garage and the duct in a low, hot attic. Fifty years later the joints have pulled apart at the boots, the insulation has flattened, and a share of every cooling dollar is going into the attic. We measure it rather than guess: a duct leakage test tells you what fraction of the air is escaping.
Electric strip heat. Many of these houses still heat with electric resistance elements inside the indoor cabinet. On the four or five frost nights a year that is tolerable; across a cool December and January it is the most expensive heat in Florida.
A compressor working harder every year. A 2006 condenser on a 1964 house is pulling more amps than it did when it was new. Dirty coils, a weak capacitor and a slow refrigerant leak each add a little, and the bill adds them up.
Oak shade, both ways. The big oaks that make these streets pleasant also drop leaves and pollen into condensers and keep roofs damp. The shade helps a little on the cooling load; the debris hurts more.
Oversizing. Replacements over the decades were often sized by nameplate rather than calculation. An oversized unit cools fast, cycles often, never dries the air, and costs more to run than a correctly sized one.
Our order of operations
- Test before quoting. Duct leakage, static pressure, refrigerant charge, amperage at the compressor and blower, and a look at the strip heat. Twenty minutes of measurement separates a duct problem from an equipment problem.
- Fix the cheap thing first. Sealing and re-insulating a duct system, or replacing the worst runs, often returns more per dollar than any equipment change in these houses.
- Then the equipment conversation. If the system is past about fifteen years, the numbers for a correctly sized heat pump go next to the repair, with the FPL high-efficiency rebate shown as a line item. Low monthly financing is available on new systems; we never quote a lender or rate on this site.
- Place it for the lot. River-side streets near the Matanzas take brackish water on big tides and took worse in Matthew and Irma. Equipment there goes on a stand, and the coil gets a coating.
The neighborhood, briefly
St. Augustine South is county, not city: St. Johns County Utility water, FPL power, no HOA, a grid of modest ranches that has started to turn over to younger owners who renovate rather than rebuild. A renovation is the right moment to redo ducts, because the ceilings are already open. We tell every contractor who asks.
From Palm Coast, up US 1
Cook’s reaches St. Augustine South in about 33 minutes straight up US 1 from the Cook’s lot on Fairmont Lane, Palm Coast. The dispatcher never goes home, the invoice carries no clock, and a bill-driven visit starts with measurements rather than a sales pitch.
St. Augustine South owners ask about the bill
How much of a summer bill is actually the air conditioner in a house like this?
In a block ranch with electric heat strips and an older system, cooling is commonly half or more of the summer bill. That’s why a duct leak or a tired compressor shows up on the statement before it shows up anywhere else.
Does FPL's free energy survey actually find anything?
It finds the big envelope items: attic insulation depth, obvious duct problems, old windows. It won’t test refrigerant charge or measure duct leakage. Take the free survey, then have the system itself checked.
The house is on the river side and the yard floods with a big tide. Does that affect the bill?
Not the bill, but it affects the equipment. A condenser that has stood in brackish water loses efficiency as the coil corrodes and the electricals degrade, and that does eventually show up as higher amperage and a higher statement.
Would a heat pump cut the winter part?
Yes. Many of these houses heat with electric strips, which cost several times what a heat pump costs per degree. Most owners who replace an old straight-cool system here go to a heat pump for that reason alone.
St. Augustine South, from US 1 to the river
Duct testing, repairs and the replacements that pay for themselves on the bill.