Outrageous electric bill help

[old_tony]

Look for long extension cords running from your outdoor outlets back to neighbor's grow house.

Fixed!

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.

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

 

[MacDaddy]

Call and find out of they did an actual reading or an estimate. Last year I got a bill that was close to $1000, more than double the usual bill. Turns out if they can't read the meter, they estimate. Took me a couple months to work it out, but finally resolved it.

Jeebus, how big is your house?

We live in a 1-BR house and last month's bill was $350. Most of that was due, I think, to the auxiliary heat kicking on all the time. We've since bought an electric fireplace which allows us to keep the heat lower and, for the most part, has prevented the auxiliary from kicking on. But I'm avoiding the mailbox this week.

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.

 

[trifectarich]

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.

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

 

[BTExpress]

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

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.

 

[Pancamo]

See if you can buy your electric straight from a distributor at fixed rates? I am locked into lower rates than my electric and gas company were providing when I shopped for a distributor. The billing comes from the same providers I had previously. The company just buys the electric from a company I chose instead.

 

[WildBillyCrazyCat]

Our house is 1,550 square feet. We live in the Midwest. In the winter, our bill can be as high as $320. It's a three-month span. But generally, we pay about $150 per month at other times of the year.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

We got a new furnace and replaced the weather stripping around the doors and windows and are saving about $90 a month and that's on a pretty big (3000+ square feet) house. $200 a month is normal for us now. It used to be brutal.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

See if you can buy your electric straight from a distributor at fixed rates? I am locked into lower rates than my electric and gas company were providing when I shopped for a distributor. The billing comes from the same providers I had previously. The company just buys the electric from a company I chose instead.

I would second this and also see if you can get an energy audit. The utility usually does it for free. We had it done when we bought the house. Had to put in more insulation in the attic, replace the windows and front door. But we heat the house with natural gas, so I paid more for electricity in my old apartment than I do my house.