Electric bill shocker...

[ruadisneyfan2]

Today when I opened my electric bill, I was shocked, to say the least, at the price increase since the previous month. Last month I paid $82.34 and this month my bill is $215.09 That is one big increase! Ouch! Anyway, I can't think what I've done differently to cause such an increase. In fact, we were on vacation for one week during the past month. When we go on vacation we unplug almost all electronics. I was actually thinking my bill would be less. The only thing I can think of is our air conditioner. We've been running it a lot lately because of the heat and humidity, but I don't think it's running anymore now than the previous month. We usually keep our AC at 78 degrees, if that makes a difference. Can anyone think of any reason my electric bill would be so high? How can I possibly lower it for next month?

On a positive note, my gas bill is only $24 for the month. I guess the two bills will kind of balance the budget out.

Sorry, I didn't read through all the posts but ours (w/gas combined) was $420. I think the gas portion was around $30. Last month's was around $200.
Wanna trade?
I think the only way to cut it down drastically is to go without AC which I would never be able to do. (Lots of dh's family can and does.)
I'd pay double to not be sweating like a pig.

fwiw, we have a small rancher. 3br, 2 bath, LR, DR, EIK, no basement.

 

[MoniqueU]

I just paid my recent bill. We pay 18 cents a KWH. We have 2 acs and a pool pump. It inclueds7 trash pick up. We have a 3300 square foot house and it was 674. We felt we got off lucky. One of our bills last year was over 1000 bucks. So listening to people in shock or complaing about a 200 dollar electric bill is unreal to me. Be grateful that is all it is. It is hotter then hell where we live. we don't have much say in the matter.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Wow I guess I'll stay in the Kansas City area as far as electric bills go. Does no one else's electric and gas companies offer an even payment plan for the year? I have just browsed through the posts here and didn't see that mentioned? I have no idea what we pay per KW, but for a 1200 sq. ft house we pay $80 each for gas and electric every month. Sure we use less of one and more of another depending on the season, but it evens out. This is why we are charged around the same amount every month. It sure makes budgeting for these costs very easy. At the end of every year the companies average the actual cost for each month and adjust our even payment for the next year. We are always given a 3 month notice of any price increase on the even payment plan. The humidity here is crazy, usually around 80-90% or higher in the summer months. We have had a heat index over 105 for the past few weeks. Even in the winter the humidity ranges between 60-75%. They don't call us the "armpit" of the midwest for nothing. We keep the thermostat around 80 in the summer and around 68 in the winter.

Seriously how do you deal with hundreds even thousand dollar utility bills? Our bill comes every month and we know exactly what we'll be paying, this year it's $80 each. Thanks to a hot summer and a cold winter I am expecting an increase for next year, but nothing more than $20 a month or so. I could not imagine trying to budget for an extra couple of hundred dollars depending on whatever whim the head of the utility board had. I might not have any nice scenery outside of my door but trees, concrete and suburbs, we might not have beaches or mountains to play in, but by golly we know what our utility bills will be and it seems at $80 a month is beyond a steal!

Oh now I see just a few posts up the PP is on the level pay plan. To the OP you may want to call your utility companies and see if they offer this service. I don't think it is well advertised, but if they do offer it then being able to budget your costs is SO much easier!

We have a similar plan but I'm not comfortable with it. Here's why. Our gas meter is inside in our laundry room. Each bill states when the meter reader will come the next month. Of course we're at work every time so they usually estimate. If it goes 4 months with no actual reading, they will allow me to make a Sat appt for a meter reading. My estimates are usually overestimated so when they finally do read it, my next bill is significantly lower. Like $100-150 less than avg. I'm afraid they barely know my true usage so to estimate payments on estimated readings, I don't know that I'll ever pay what I truly use.
Luckily, my next door neighbor (who we house/cat sit for each other while on vacay) has a key to our house and is now retired so she lets him in when he comes to her house. Still many times they're not home either and I can't expect them to sit around waiting for the guy.
If I felt more comfortable about the accuracy of my monthly payments now, I'd feel better to go on the budget plan.

 

[Swimalie]

We have the option of the "averaging" payments here as well but I don't like the option since I feel they can over estimate. I'd rather just pay what I use each month. My meters are outside and the only month they have ever estimated was the time we had 3 feet of snow. I don't budget since I have the money. I just pay what I actually use. I would rather control what I pay. If it's a cooler time (like now I have the windows open and the AC might not even come on today and has barely been on this week) then my bill will go down. My highest electric bill was last month and it was $181. That is about my highest gas bill as well.

 

[Steve BWV'99]

I live in the Sacramento area and all we have is PG$E and boy can they take it to you since you have no other choice. We have been fortunate that this has been a mild summer, usually my electric bills can run $300-400, but they have been in the $200 range which is very good for us. We live in a 10 year old home, 2500sq ft 2 story with a dual zone AC. We do have a pool and the pumps runs 2-3 hours a night

What stinks about PG$E is thier teir billing system. Anything over 396kwh a month it goes from 12 cents/kwh to 13.5 then to .29 . There is no way to be under 400 kwh a month in this house lol.

We usually average around 1500 Kwh/month in the summer but we are getting better on getting under that number. Last month we were at 919 Kwh compared to last year at 1700, weather had alot to do with that and also we feel our AC isnt the most effecient in the world and its only 10 years old.

So for August we averaging 28.7Kwh/day and paying 16.5 cents/Kwh, ugh. But our bill was $173 and that included gas which is VERY good for us.

 

[Jey12]

In my area the meter readers do a "sweep". Meaning our meters have electronic transmitters and all the readers do is drive by slowly with a sweeper type of thing on their vehicle and they get an instant reading. I never feel our utility companies overestimate, of course they never underestimate either. Darn the luck. As long as they can drive down the road they can get an accurate reading. The only time we have to be home is when they do a yearly leak check for the gas. That is only because the meter is in the backyard and we are listed as a home with dogs.

I understand wanting to pay exactly what you owe every month. For me personally it brings peace of mind to be able to budget accurately for what I'm going to be paying every month throughout the year.

 

[sasywtch]

We were just switched to "Smart Meters" and my bill went way up. PG&E says it's more accurate then the traditional meters. Any one else get these and notice that the numbers on the meters do not go back to 0?

Raising hand here. We got one of the new PG&E for gas and one new one for SMUD (electricity) and I got an additional bill for $400 each that they said I had underpaid for 3 years according to this new meter.

 

[Swimalie]

In my area the meter readers do a "sweep". Meaning our meters have electronic transmitters and all the readers do is drive by slowly with a sweeper type of thing on their vehicle and they get an instant reading. I never feel our utility companies overestimate, of course they never underestimate either. Darn the luck. As long as they can drive down the road they can get an accurate reading. The only time we have to be home is when they do a yearly leak check for the gas. That is only because the meter is in the backyard and we are listed as a home with dogs.

I understand wanting to pay exactly what you owe every month. For me personally it brings peace of mind to be able to budget accurately for what I'm going to be paying every month throughout the year.

Ours is the same drive by system. When we had 3 feet of snow, they didn't even bother to drive by. They couldn't get down some roads! That was the only month they estimated in our 4 years here.

 

[Disfamoffour]

I haven't read the entire thread but since the OP is in PA like I am, her electrictiy rate cap probably expired. In 1997 PA set a limit on the rate electric companies could charge customers and themajority of them expired this year so the electric companies are raising rates to make up for lost time. There's not much to do except either lower consumption or adjust your budget. You can shop around for other suppliers but in our area the rates are almost identical for every company.

 

[nordkin]

We were just switched to "Smart Meters" and my bill went way up. PG&E says it's more accurate then the traditional meters. Any one else get these and notice that the numbers on the meters do not go back to 0?

I am a Metering Supervisor for a major electric company on the east coast that also has smart meters and they are more accurate because they are more sensitive than the old analog meters. Electric meters are cumulative so they do not go back to zero. To determine your usage you subtract last month's reading from this month's reading. If you are talking about the demand portion not going back to zero, any solid state meter will not go back to zero if you are using any electricity at all at the time the demand is reset. I doesn't really matter because the demand is registered at the highest amount used for the time period your utility is on. We are on 30 minute intervals, so as an example if this 30 minutes I use 7 KWH and the next 30 minutes I use 6 KWH the reading would remain at 7 KWH. The demand is not cumulative.

 

[nordkin]

Ours is the same drive by system. When we had 3 feet of snow, they didn't even bother to drive by. They couldn't get down some roads! That was the only month they estimated in our 4 years here.

I am the Meter Supervisor in Northern Virginia for Dominion and the we only missed two days of reading the AMR meters, what drive by meters are called, all year. You must have been one of the people in the two cycles we didn't read. Although we have four wheel drive, we put the safety of our employees first, so if the roads are not safe to drive we don't go out. I am proud to say we read 99.96% of our meters evry month. There will always be some that we have access issues for or there is something wrong with the meter that will not allow us to read it. Believe me we exchange those that have a problem as quickly as we can so the customer can get an accurate bill. We hate to estimate readings.

 

[Swimalie]

I am the Meter Supervisor in Northern Virginia for Dominion and the we only missed two days of reading the AMR meters, what drive by meters are called, all year. You must have been one of the people in the two cycles we didn't read. Although we have four wheel drive, we put the safety of our employees first, so if the roads are not safe to drive we don't go out. I am proud to say we read 99.96% of our meters evry month. There will always be some that we have access issues for or there is something wrong with the meter that will not allow us to read it. Believe me we exchange those that have a problem as quickly as we can so the customer can get an accurate bill. We hate to estimate readings.

It didn't bother me at all to have it estimated. I realize safety comes first. Our street is quite a hill and thanks to our rude neighbors, the plows could only get through 1 lane and then it froze over when those neighbors shoveled their car's snow from their car which was parked in the street, back in to the street and it froze over again. No one could get out for days thanks to those neighbors. Washington Gas estimated as well.

 

[happygirl]

Next month our electricity is going up by 13%

 

[pixiedustaholic]

Didn't read through all of the other posts but check your hot water heater. If it has a leak, this could explain the big jump.

 

[kdault]

My electric bill usually runs $50 in winter $90 in summer,
a/c, pool pump, & underground sprinkling, so don't think $90 was bad.
Send a heat wave and wow, June $190, July $204 can't wait for August

 

[Muushka]

Ours was $90 for August. A lot better than the July one!

 

[TxSpice]

Just an fyi for the fellow Houstonians. We were with Gexa for the past 3 years and they were pretty good for a while, especially after the high rates we were paying in our apartment where we lived when we first lived here while our home was being built. Our contract was up in January, Gexa rates were about 11.2 cents, when I read about Brilliant on a local board and locked in with them in January for 12 months at 8.9 cents!