<prompt> Human: My wife and are in a new place after we got married in June. Hadnt noticed anything off about my bills until last month. I live in Va and December was our first cold month. I called the power company to ask if this was some sort of mistake ok their part since they have been doing work on the electric lines recently. She said that the average for this time of year is 260-310!!! Its unreal. After she convinced me it wasnt on their end I tried to figure it out. A small part is the insulation here kinda sucks the owner did it themselves and its lackluster. I dont feel like complaining or requesting it to be redone because the owners are good people and I think its only a small part of the problem. The problem I believe is the owners have the water heater in the furnace room which is a small rom off the back of the house that you cant access from inside. Meaning its working overtime to stay hot in the cold shed. I guess what Im asking is there any tips to help bring down the amount of energy the water heater is using?TL;DR: Water heater is in shed off the house and has no insulation or way to heat it. Any tips to make it use less energy? Assistant: you say electric bill, it the water heater electric? or is your electric and gas combined?what about the heat, what type of heating does the home have?all I can think to say is to insulate that room off the back of the house.Human: Its all electric. The house has a wood burning stove for heat that I try and use as much as possible which is another reason I was so shocked by the bill. The power company says the water heater is around 18 of most people bill. This months bill was 166 so I was able to knock t down but Ive had the heat off for a week. And the appliances are all fairly new. Thats why its so confusing.  <response>: 266 for electric hot water and electric heat in winter doesnt sound too out of line to me. What temperature were you keeping the house? 