How much is your light bill..?

#1

Holy shit...

As some of you know, I moved into a new house earlier this month...Moving is expensive as shit, but I can't say that I saw this one coming...

Check this out...

From 02/01/2007 - 02/13/2007
Meter Read - 2012 (how ironic)
Charge - $151.74

WTF..? We turned on the lights on the 1st, but didn't move into the house until the 4th, more like the 5th...You know I called the electric company irate, that's a little over a week and a half...This is a new house, the filter is clean and the thermostat at a moderate range...When I called, the dude was like the energy company suggests that the heat be on 66 degrees..! I'm like dude, the shit is on 70 now and I'm wearing a throw around the house..!

Someone is going to come out and reread the meter, but at this rate, they would be trying to charge us $300, and that shit is just not going to happen...I talked to a neighbor, and his light bill was $20 less than mine, and his bill was for a full cycle...

** end rant, lol **

How much is your light bill this month..?

#2

Mine was $250 this month but last month they did an "adjustment" and it was $450!!! The assholes hadn't been coming out to read the meter and were just estimating my usage. After 6 months of guessing they finally decided to get it right.

#3

Dude, I would probably shit myself over a $250 light bill, but I would have probably made a personal appearance over one that was $450...Fucking ballistic..!

#4

Do you have electric heat? That is the killer! I keep my electric heat down low on the first floor and use a keroseen heater when we are down stairs. Even at that my bills in winter run in the $300-$350 range.

Make sure they are doing physical reads of your meter. Some times they guess based on prior usage. Tell them that you are new to the house so they can't base usage on the previous owner so they need to bring their buts out there every month.

#5

DAMN! I think my hightest has been $55. My water is only $38 per month.

#6

Gsus..! Highlander where do you live..?

luv, do yall even have to use heat where you live..? I'm tripping, because the weather here is fairly moderate, its a sunny 64 degrees today...We had about a week of weather where it got chilly, other than that, the damn heat doesn't even come on...

#7

QUOTE(œbermensch @ Feb 25 2007, 05:24 PM) Gsus..! Highlander where do you live..?
LOL!

The Poconos in PA. I got 4" of snow last night and still made it to work today (not that I wanted to). I also have a 6 bedroom house with a full basement.

This picture was taken when I bought the house. I have since replaced the black deck with a much larger one and paited all the black trim burgandy.

#8

Dude, an average of $300 or more...? Man, that hurts my checkbook just thinking about it...! I start shit when my light bill starts heading into the $150-$200 range...Before I got my new house, we lived in a tight as gnat ass 2 bedroom apartment, and they would routinely send $170 light bills that way...When I build a house, it will be solar powered, I can promise you...The power company can kiss my ass...

#9

Summer runs about $150-$200. I also heat with my electric which is why it goes up so much. I had a propane furnace, but that big ass 500 gallon tank in the back that you see would send me into finacial ruin every time I had to refill the thing. Now I use a keroseen heater and the electric.

#10

I work for a power generation and marketing company working on the transparency of our rates and federal filings, and I can explain a little bit about this.

1. Offset. In an energy crisis, everyone gets to help pay for the people who can't afford their bills. If you have the low income assistance, someone else is paying for your electricity when they pay their own bill. I get gouged as well. This is recovered through the Federal Energy Crisis, and the impact of restoring Katrina will be stretched out over 2006 and 2007. The snow in the midwest will impact it further, but we won't have actual number until July.

2. Meter true-up. When you get billed, you get billed on enstimate usage, a low estimate. They true-up every bill every two years, and cycle through them. Plain and simple, there are not enough technicians to go look at every meter all the time. No one could afford enough of them, their health costs and risks, or equipment, or hire enough supervisors to make sure they weren't just faking it.

3. Peak and off peak. Ty, you get a bigger bill because you are active in both activity peaks, because you work at home. Look at your local usage cycles and see when it says power is most expensive. Several midwest plants that feed energy to the co-ops in mississippi were off cycle, and they had to buy energy off of auxillary "peaker" plants that run when grid demand is high or scarce.

4. Mississippi has no ISO, Independent Service Provider that everyone has to pass their energy through. Entergy is as close as it gets, and that is in Louisiana. Co-operatives run the Gulf energy grid for the most part, and they get lee-way bigger companies don't because no one else has the structure in place to provide power to so many rural customers. They basically get to post rates important to their overall strategy, and not as much regulation.

2. Power prices are getting higher. Here (below) is a comparative analysis on retail and consumer electrical costs for the last ten years. If it is any consolation the price trend should return to the drop in a few years.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricit ... ile7_4.xls

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and yes, even my power bill is about 60 bucks too high.

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one thing to consider is that your new neighbor who had a full cycle probably has income assistance (more common in the south) and is getting an estimated price. Yuo are probably getting a real meter read, and some tacked on admin charges. Less chance of a extreme true-up in the future, even if your bill is higher right now.