Since last season I replaced an old refrigerator with an energy efficient one. I also added, one of those free standing vent to the outside frigidaire 9,000 BTU air condtioners.
I almost passed out when I got my new bill. It shows electrical usage 4 times as high as the previous summer with a electric charge increase from about $180 to $431 dollars. Meter was reread , since every other month is estmated & reading is accurate. I questioned a possbile defective meter, but was told that if anything the meter runs slow, and I should get an electrician in to test each appliances energy consumpstion. I spoke to an electrician frined who said this was difficult to do & also cost prohibitive. Is there anything I can do myself to test the appliances? Is it possible that this one applaince could consumeso much electricity. MY electric company says this summer was warmer than last, but everyone I talk to seems to agree with me that it is exactly the opposite. I can supply the exact model number of the unit if it helps. Is it possible that there is something wrong/defective with the unit that is causing such a massive current drain?
Please also see my other question posted right before this one in electrical on a GFI circuit breaker that just started to malfunction! "GFI Circuit breaker malfunction"
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/electrical-lighting/gfi-circuit-breaker-malfunction-257808.html
Is it possible the 2 separate items are in some way related?
Other question is posted under the same sn inquiring quest.
The air conditioneer is NOT on the GFI circuit breaker circuit!

I'm not positive I calculated correctly but 9,000 btu's equal 2.636 KW per hour
That's 2,636 watts or like 26ea 100watt light bulbs burning, about 25 cents per hour
Average in U.S. per kwh is 0.0986 dollars per kwhr.
Running 12 hours per day (for this estimate)
12 x 2.636 x 0.0986 equals $ 3.12 per day
x 30 for 30 days/mo. = $ 93.56 for a/c running for 1/2 day all month.
I might be wrong. Check BTU to watt conversion.

Here is a conversion site. There are others.
Amperes, Volts, Watts, Horsepower, BTUs (http://www.thesolarguide.com/energy-intro/amperes-volts-watts.aspx)

That's not quite right smearcase. You can calculate your wattage use of "x" BTU air conditioner by dividing the btu's by the seasonal energy efficiency rating (SEER) that will be on the appliance. In Canada, where I'm from its called the Energuide rating. Or something like that? Anyway, if you have a 9000 BTU air conditioner and it has a rating of 10, then you are using 900 watts. And that is max power under normal conditions per hour. So you can calculate how much you use by finding how often you have it on and weather it is going full blast or not for that time. If that air conditioner used 2,636 watts, the breaker would flip as soon as you turned it on, as most outlets in the home are rated for 15 amps, which roughly translates into about 1500 watts.

But to help with the original question, I'd recommend getting a watt hour meter. They are plugged inline so you can see how much power your devices are using. Check out Kill A Watt P4400 (http://www.smarthome.com/9034.html) for the Kill-A-Watt. Which begs the question why an electrician would say that it is difficult and expensive to check power usage?

But don't be surprised to find that adding even a single room air conditioner will increase your power bill. You might not have a problem at all, it could be that you are just using more power. But the Kill-A-Watt will tell you for sure.

Ironically, my electric bill has been double the past couple months and NOTHING at home has changed. No new appliaces, and I didn't run the air this summer-- just open windows and ceiling fans.

Did electric rates go up. Ours went up like 50% last year. Utility increase.

Watch out for sump pumps being on continuously.