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Outrageous electric bill help

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by bigpern23, Feb 10, 2011.

  1. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    Fixed!
     
  2. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    SmartMeters were installed in our neighborhood a few months ago.

    December electric bill was $240, about $90 higher than any previous bill since I had this house built in 1996.

    January's was back to normal . . . $64.

    I did read somewhere that heating takes about 3 times as much energy as cooling.
     
  3. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Might seem silly, but it could be a simple answer since the bill is twice the normal amount ... did they bill you for two months? Could be an accounting error or maybe they were late reading the meter one month and tried to pull a 2-for-1.
     
  4. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    If you've been there for one year, your first bill was for February, which only has 28 days. You're probably looking at a January bill for 31 days. Plus, January is often colder than February. Plus, a lot of power companies have increased rates since last year. You also might have been setting the temperature for warmer than last year. A few degrees can make a big difference. The home also might have developed some leaks or maybe you forgot to close the storm windows. If you ask, the power company will tell what was charged for the same time period last year. Even if you weren't living there at the time.
     
  5. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I know TwoGloves is joking (not sure about o_t), but this is actually a plausible explanation. I've read stories from quite a few places about foreclosed homes that are either rented out or squatted, and pot dealers set up shop there for a couple of months to get through a cycle or two and then move on while the house is completely trashed. One thing the growers do is steal neighbors' electricity because a massive spike in one house's electrical bill sets off red flags that prompt the power company to call the cops.
     
  6. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    Yep. But grow lights running 24 hours a day uses up a lot more than $200 of electricity.
     
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Right but in this scenario they would be siphoning it from several neighbors in addition to generators and whatnot.

    Plausible but far-fetched. Power company fuck-up is still the leader in the clubhouse.
     
  8. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    BigPern, what 21 says is absolutely correct. You should definitely fight that bill. My parents have a huge garage that isn't heated, and it has no electricity, but it started showing up on their property record. The electric company started including that square footage in their "estimate", making the bill jump up an obscene amount.

    For my current place, my roommate protested after our bill jumped by $40 one month. They took some cash off after actually coming out and doing a reading.
     
  9. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    I was only half-joking. I've seen stories about such incidents.
     
  10. MacDaddy

    MacDaddy Active Member

    I'm feeling a lot better about our utility bills. Our house is about 2,800 square feet and we rarely have a combined gas and electric bill over $200.
     
  11. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    $64 for one month? Holy )(*&%! At that rate I'd have every outlet in the house in use 24/7.
     
  12. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    It's South Florida in the winter. After December's debacle of a bill (I forgot to turn the heating off before I left for Europe, and there were a few days in the high 30s and low 40s), I turned the heating completely off for all of January.

    One winter month a few years ago I had a bill under $40.

    Lights and TVs and things like that don't matter much. Heating and cooling is everything. If neither of those are used, your bill should be very low.
     
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