I never had anything like this happen, but my first apartment after college did have a wiring problem that made my electric bill sky high the first winter after I moved in. I noticed once it got cold enough to turn the heat on, the apartment got super, super dry and the static electricity was ridiculous. I just though, “Well, it’s an older apartment. Maybe that’s it.” Then, a month later, I got my electric bill. Holy shit, that was kind of high. Again, though, I thought…older apartment. Then one day when I was walking to my car, I noticed the outdoor air conditioning unit outside my apartment was running. I though, “Huh. I didn’t realize I had a heat pump. I would have thought that would be more efficient.” Over the next few days, this kept gnawing at me. Finally, I thought, “I wonder if the thermostat is miswired. If it’s wired for heat pump, and it’s not a heat pump, then I’m running the AC and the electric heat at the same time. That would explain the super dry air and the electric bill.” So I opened up the thermostat, and that’s exactly what was wrong. I have no idea how long it had been like that. If I hadn’t been an engineer working in the HVAC industry, I might not have figured it out. It might have been like that for years. I never told the complex. I just fixed it myself, and had no problems after that.
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