<prompt> Human: I moved into a small apartment 1000 sq feet with 3 other roommates last year, this is my first winter living here winter is very cold and snowy where I live. Our January electric heating bill was 500, and our apartment is very small. The building is old and has poor insulation. Keeping that in mind, we have tried to keep the thermostat very low and add some plastic insulation to our windows. Is 500 too much for one month of electric heating? Im not sure how to gauge if this is normal. Does anyone know what I can do to fix this?  <response>: Thats about 7X what we pay for a 1080 square foot apartment. Id call the utility company and ask for what your neighbors are paying and ask if theres anything to check on their end. I suspect theres something wrong with the metering or theres an appliance going nuts. A local library might have a watt meter so you can see if any of your appliances are pulling more energy than they should. 