jstreet

So I just got my June electric bill and was FLOORED.

Backstory:

Our first full month of electricity was 919kWh of usage in April (no air conditioning). I was leaving my computers on 24/7, washing clothes in warm water, leaving lights on, etc. Never had paid an electric bill in the past since all utilities were always included.

We got that bill and had some sticker shock at $81.70, so seeing as how summer was coming up, we tried to be better... laundry with cold water, turn the lights off, etc. Next month, May, was marginally better -- we figured our changes were offset because we turned on the airco and set it to 72. Bill in May was for 871kWh.

We wanted to do even better, so we consciously made sure to turn off the air/co before going to work every day, and I finally relented and for the first time in my life, turned off my computer when I wasn't at home or wasn't using it.

Just got the June bill -- we thought we'd have saved even more -- but it was for 1294 freaking kWh!!! Almost a 50% increase from May and over $120 in price!

How does this happen? I feel like we must have been scammed or a mistake somehow was made. We have a one bedroom apartment with central air -- can anyone commiserate? What is your kWh usage?

I want to call up the electric company but what do you even say? "Oh gee, I really think this is too much!". Short of measuring every time we use electricity (and guestimating on the kWh usage of the air/co and hot water heater since we can't access them) are there any tips from anyone? I don't know how we can further reduce usage. The bills from April and May around $75 were already tough to take, but $120 is completely outrageous.

--bummed in VA

Cubsfan

Looking at the bill for my house (19xx square feet, central AC, computers on all the time, no careful attention paid toward turning things off), it looks like from the start of last year to the start of this year I ranged from 421kWh to 738kWh. Yours seems quite hight compared to this.

sizemic1

Keep in mind, the utility companies typically don't actually read your meter every month. They usually read it every other month and "predict" what your usage will be on the off months. Overages or underages(?) are adjusted on your next bill. Why use cold water when washing? Is your waterheater electric? If it's hot out, it doesn't take much energy to keep the water warm anyway.

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mcs328

Didn't the rate hike kick in also? I'm with you Ben except I don't turn the AC off because I have a four legged friend who would suffer. I unplugged my extra dorm size fridge. Still my $80 usual high during the summer jumped to $130!! I can only imagine it going higher.

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jstreet

Hmm, didn't know that. Still a bit odd they'd estimate an increase of 50% when we actually decreased our usage as far as I know.

Just one of those things. People always told me to do it when possible to save energy and when paying the bill it becomes relevant. My clothes look the same so I figured eh why not, the washing machine defaults to it anyway.

jstreet

It went up for me from 5.59 cents (Oct-May pricing) to 6.92 cents (June-Sep) but it does not explain the 50% jump in kWh. I keep asking what could we have done to get that significant of an increase???

I mean the fact we went DOWN from April to May and in May air/co WAS on and in April it wasn't -- and then all of a sudden this 50% increase -- it just feels so arbitrary. I mean it would be one thing if we got like a 90" TV or a plug-in vehicle we hooked up or something, but we haven't changed a thing in the positive direction.

Why do you think yours went up so much - the A/C? Maybe it is on more than I'm noticing.

Houdini

I've had the same problem. Granted, my apartment is pretty old and the insulation sucks, but around this time of year I get $100+ bills. The actual energy usage may be, say, $60, but the "Fuel Adjustment Factor" is often higher and is added. Say it's $64. So, even though I've used only $60 of electricity, Entergy scams me for $124.

I tried calling them once to see WTF a "fuel adjustment factor" is. Nobody knew. At all. So I climbed the ladder even more, and finally found out that it somehow subsidizes the cost of heating oil in the Northeast during the winter.

But fuel adjustment factor? We're on a predominantly nuclear grid here in NOLA. El cheapo wattage. If only the Yanks in the Northeast were gouged in the WINTER to pay for my A/C in the summer (seriously, you don't wanna be inside long if the temp is 102, even with fans), things would seem fair. Or how about this novel idea. We PAY for what we USE!

kimchicowboy

hey ben, let me know if you find out anything. i've yet to see my electric bill. but my roommate and i only have laptops, use the ceiling fans in our rooms most of the time, and just normal use lights with the A/C every now and then.

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johnnymk

If they estimated your usage wrong, why don't you just look at the meter and see how it compares to the reading on the bill?

jstreet

I might ask my apartment building if we can do that.

I'm not quite sure how it works, because I live in a relatively large apartment complex; there seems to be an "electric meter room" on every floor and I am betting it's just a wall of meters for all the apartments.

A friend from a few metro stops down said my bill is looking suspiciously high; he said apparently the local power company takes the average of previous months and years and projects out the cost, so maybe we're getting jacked because the previous tenant or the building in general isn't conserving energy.

Dunno if they're open today but I'm going to give them a call and see what they say -- and maybe try to talk to the leasing office as well, who suggested to naive Ben Williams when he was toying over getting his first all-utilities-NOT-included apartment that the electric bill would be MUCH lower.

Will do, fellow VA-er.

:nods: I'd be a liar if I said my economic opinions hadn't moderated as more and more bills come in my name. Heck, I just saw Al Gore's movie and wanted to switch to the local green power options but it's twice the price -- $120 is too high too stomach and $240 is WAY too high. Sorry environment, but my paycheck ain't all that.


Happy Fourth all.

mcs328

Holy hell. My electric bill this month is $168!!!

InfiniteNothing

Hi Ben, buy a kill-a-watt and find out what the draw is. Maybe you have a bad fridge or something. Also, maybe someone is leeching off you. Play with your circuit breakers and watch the meter to see what's up.

kimchicowboy

i got my bill. for the first 2.5 weeks of june (we moved in on the 2nd week), we used 147 kWh.

thus, we were billed $16.27! hahaha

we used A/C occassionally. otherwise, the only other electricity-grubbing appliances are the fridge and microwave. my roommate and i both have laptops and he has a 20" crt tv he hardly uses.

sizemic1

Heh..just recieved mine for 6/2/06 - 7/4/06.
Running in a 900 sq.ft condo, AC set at 72 from 5pm - 8am and 76 from 8am-5pm during the week. 72 all day sat and sun. 470kWh = $45. I didn't even go over my baseline usage

jstreet

Man, I feel like I'm getting scammed. What say you, mcs?

I called the electric company and they said it had in fact been an in-person meter reading; the apartment building confirmed that they meter apartments individually, not an average of the floor or building as a whole divvied by #apartments. The electric company did say the readying was for 35 days versus previous months where it was 29 or 30, but that would only explain a 21% increase - mine was a 50% kWh increase.

Anyway... I was all like "NFW am I going to pay that unless someone offers me an explanation". Her explanation was "Well, it's been hot outside lately" but our apt gets no direct light through windows and often when we turn on the A/C switch the air doesn't even come on b/c the apartment is still under the set temp. I really don't think it's the A/C, also because it was on in May with no big increase.

Anyway... I whined so much the company said alright we'll retract the bill and take another look, so we'll see I guess. They said it could take up to 30 days for their "investigation" and I bet it just means my bill in 30 days will be $240 instead of $120.

DarkFury

Heh... I hope you never end up buying an older house in this case. When I first moved into mine (it is all electric and this was before I installed new windows and a new heating/cooling system) my electric bills were like $165 in the summer and $250 in the winter (Heating elements draw more power than A/C coils).

I got my home improvements in and now my summer bills are like $125 and my winter bills are like $185.

BTW... my house is only like 1600 square feet, so it's not really that big compared to the bills it generated.

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RoniMan

i don't want to thread hijack or anything. but how badly does a computer eat up electricity if it's on, but it's in hibernate mode?

sizemic1

How old is your house? My old house was built in 1942. It had NO insulation in the walls or attic. I had that spray in cellulose stuff put in the attic and walls and it made a HUGE difference in keeping the place cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

DarkFury

My house is now 30 years old... built in 1976

It had some insulation in the roof and generally passed the insulation inspection (it's a brick house, so that somewhat helps with the insulation) the last time I had an energy audit.

My big thing was cracks around the door jambs and the metal framed windows that I had when I first bought it 9 years ago. I tried my best to get those taken care of quickly... and it saved me about 30% of the previous cost, but still, electricity is pretty expensive (especially when more than one person is in the house.)

Also in my case you have to consider... I have 9 aquariums that stay "on" 100% of the time (I turn the lights off... but the filters and pumps keep running) also I have my PC automatically turn itself on every night at 4:00 a.m. to do it's scheduled incremental backups... so that eats a little power too (I shut it off before I go to work in the morning).

Other than that, it's only the heating/cooling, hot water, kitchen appliances, and washer/dryer that really kick my bill up as I've put "energy efficient" light bulbs in just about every light socket in my house.

jstreet

Hibernate means it's actually powered off -- did you mean standby? Standby uses only a fraction... I'm not sure how much.

mcs328

It must be a scam. I know they increased the rate but it should not double my bill. I have a top floor condo with 922 square feet. I keep my temp at 74 degrees. I have to look at my bill because I think the scam comes in with the billing days. If there's a base usage at a discount and then a big increase for overage, the increase in days would mean that there's more time for overage to occur at the increased rate. You know what I'm saying??

I'll also check out how they read my meter...either my unit or building divided by units.

guiseppewv

There is a good chance that it is not a scam. You said yourself that the bill should have gone up 21% just b/c the billing period was longer. Now take into account that May was pretty cool and June was pretty hot I can see your power consumption going up. I would try to look at my own meter though. I try to check mine out at least every other month just to make sure things are on the up and up.

mcs328

I pay my bill online and get an email saying how much it is. I just got the snail mail bill yesterday and it had an insert with the new rate. The new rate is almost twice as the old rate.

I guess I need to turn the thermostat up and look for other ways to keep the bill down.

pashan13

Hi,
I'm new here, but I found this friend when I googled high electric bill and broken air conditioners. I usually pay between $55 - $65 a month for my electric (I live on the 4th floor of an apartment). Last month my bill was $189! Immediately a red flag up only becuase in November of 2005 I received a bill triple my usual amount. When I called in to dispute it, the meter was reread and correct to my usual amount. The thing that ticked me off was that it was indicated as an actual reading, but in fact was not.

The same thing happened again this month, only now my bill is for $250! Unbelievable! There is no way! When I called the electric company, they told me to ask the complex to check the status of the air conditioner. I called and found out that the maintenance actually does not maintain at all, they should be called repairmen then right? They told me the only way they would look into was if I called that something broke, how in the world am I supposed to know that my air conditioner is broke if I can't get to it?

Anyway, they are coming out tomorrow and if it is in fact broke (someone else told me the pipes could be frozen causing it to work overtime) that the complex would work out someting with me to get the bill paid.

I'll let ya know what happens, but I would suggest going through the complex, the electric company had no sympathy for my predicament.

jstreet

Yep, I'm pretty convinced they f---ked up. Just got my new bill:

April: 919 kWh (for 30 days)
May: 871 kWh (for 29 days)
June: 1249 kWh (for 35 days)
July: 887 kWh (for 32 days)

Hmmm, which one of these doesn't seem to belong...

We didn't change a damn thing in July because we were so pissed our changes in June led to a 50% higher bill. If anything, we've probably used more energy. I will give credit to the electric company... they've still suspended payment on the June bill pending "investigation"... now I bet they're really scratching their heads.

guiseppewv

April and June might be actual measurements whereas May and July could be estimates. Just a guess.

kimchicowboy

my bill for july came out to $36, up from $15 in june.

jstreet

I don't understand how yours is so low. What size apartment do you have? Do they make you pay for air/co or is it included?

jstreet

They're making me pay for the whole ****ing thing. Not unexpected in the least, but still -- I guess I was hoping they had some sort of collosal ****up they were going to account for.

I am absolutely and totally conviced at this point that there was a mistake made - a coworker just told me that his HOUSE less than a mile from me averages b/w 700-900kWh.

Not to mention, let's take a peek at this:




Hmm, one line has an almost perfect relationship and one has a totally non-existent relationship to the data points.

I called the leasing agent of my building. If all the electric company's relevant readings are meter readings (they said they are, and they've already come out another time to verify) then either the electric company is lying or my apartment building is lying/made a mistake.

I first want to see the meter myself and see if it's anywhere close to the quoted number on the bill -- then I want the management company to explain to me exactly how meters are connected to the individual apartments. I also want to know how the water heater works and if it can be turned down. I'm even thinking about asking my neighbor next to me what his bills are like - maybe I am sharing his connection or something.

sizemic1

For the month of july with the record heat, my bill shot up from $45 to $53!! Sorry ben, just having a little fun at your expense

I would definately find out what your neighbors bills are like. You meter should be tied directly into your main breaker box and no one elses. I would say it's pretty unlikely that another tenant is wheezing your juice.

In the end, it's all about how efficient your AC runs and how well insulated your place is. My place is brand new with loads of insulation, and double paned windows which face south. No direct sunlight beating down on any of my walls.