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Electricity Bill and Meter question


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Ok gang maybe you can help me. My electric bill last month was $46.77 for 10/4-10/31. My bill for 11/1-11/30 is $53.48. But I was gone for 2 weeks in November! How is it more despite no one being home between 11/10-11/24?

They said I used 320 kWhs between 11/1-11/30. (1582-1902 on the meter). I checked my meter this morning and it's at 2003! How, in 6 days, have I used 100 kWHs?

Please help me interpret this. I'm calling my electic company now.

Aaron

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Ok gang maybe you can help me. My electric bill last month was $46.77 for 10/4-10/31. My bill for 11/1-11/30 is $53.48. But I was gone for 2 weeks in November! How is it more despite no one being home between 11/10-11/24?

They said I used 320 kWhs between 11/1-11/30. (1582-1902 on the meter). I checked my meter this morning and it's at 2003! How, in 6 days, have I used 100 kWHs?

Please help me interpret this. I'm calling my electic company now.

Aaron

Is your fride running only intermittend, as it should be, or is it running all the time?

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Electric water heater? Did you leave some lights on while gone, heater set on a low temp?

It has also been known for electric companies to skip checking meters from time to time and guestimate. The idea being they will catch the overage / underage next time around.

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I don't own a television or pay for cable. I unplugged electric space heaters. We have central air and heat. Heat was set to 64• while gone.

I'm completely stumped. I called the company and they said they did an actual check on November 30. Guess I'm stuck with it.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Aaron

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My great grandmother made my mom put tape over the outlets when they got electricity (when my mom was in 8th grade) because she was just sure it was going to leak out and kill them all in their sleep :)

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And yes, electric water heater.

Aaron

Water heaters use a fair bit of power even when you are gone unless you shut them off, I've seen claims as high as 25% of utility bills being the water heater. It is one of the selling points for solar and tankless water heaters. The standard style tanked water heater keeps the water hot 24/7 whether you are using it or not. Still seems odd that your bill would actually increase though. Cold snap when you were home increase heating (assume the central heat is gas so wouldn't add much to the electric bill while you were gone)?

We've found our bill stays pretty regular summer and winter. The gas bill goes up in the winter, down in the summer (gas heat), electric up in the summer, down in the winter (air conditioning).

Edited by Aaronw
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320 kWH in 30 days is not that much electricity. Parasitic losses (clocks, microwaves, etc) could easily explain that. You can ask them to check your meter, ands some power companies will do a free energy audit on your home to help you identify potential "suspects".

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I know 320 is low, but the fact that it's higher than the last billing cycle despite not being home for nearly half the month is what's surprising. I guess it is what it is.

The rates are the same as the previous billing cycle. That was immediately what I thought when I saw the higher bill.

Aaron

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Water heaters use a fair bit of power even when you are gone unless you shut them off, I've seen claims as high as 25% of utility bills being the water heater. It is one of the selling points for solar and tankless water heaters. The standard style tanked water heater keeps the water hot 24/7 whether you are using it or not. Still seems odd that your bill would actually increase though. Cold snap when you were home increase heating (assume the central heat is gas so wouldn't add much to the electric bill while you were gone)?

We've found our bill stays pretty regular summer and winter. The gas bill goes up in the winter, down in the summer (gas heat), electric up in the summer, down in the winter (air conditioning).

Living here in Hawaii the electric rates are sky high. One trick we were told is turn off the water heater at the circuit breaker panel when we aren't needing hot water. It takes a modicum of planning but our bills are actually about half of what they were in Wisconsin. I turn it on for an hour in the evening to do dishes, shut it off when I'm done, and by morning there is still enough warm water for my wife and I to take showers.

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You mentioned you have central air and heat, I assume you mean a heat pump setup? What is your backup heat source in the system? Gas? Electric?

Based on your location and when you were gone I looked up the weather records and noticed that the week of the 17th was fairly cold compared to the rest of the month. Even if you turned the heat down to 64 it may have been cold enough for the auxiliary/backup electric heat to kick in because the heat pump wasn't able to pull enough heat out of the air.

Is this your first winter in the house? If not how does it compare to last year?

I've known several people that have had a shock their first winter when the electric heat kicked in.

To make you feel better this past January at work our power bill went up over $90K in one month because we had boiler trouble and couldn't generate as much power as we normally do so we had to buy more off the grid.

Ken

Edited by kenlilly106
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The blower fan for the furnace will use a couple hundred watts easily when its running, if the heat was running often during the cold snap while you were gone this fan could account for the extra electricity you used.

Another question, you mentioned that you asked the electric company about this bill and they confirmed it was based on an actual meter reading, do you know if the bill from October was an actual reading as well? Maybe it was estimate and lower than it was in reality, making the jump seem larger?

Ken

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electric companies do "guess" at your bill based on your average use, as they do not make the meter walk every month. nobody complains when their bill is 50.00 lower than normal when the company does come out, and realize they have guessed a little high.

your electric company will tell you when they are supposed to read the meter(if all else fails, tell them you want to make sure that you have your dog put up on that day). that way you can check it yourself and see how far off they are.

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The blower fan in the furnace is probably the culprit.

The company said they check every month. I've confirmed both readings as stated on my bill by double checking on my meter. They did not make an error as to how many kWhs were used.

Aaron

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electric companies do "guess" at your bill based on your average use, as they do not make the meter walk every month.

Not necessarily. In my area (DFW) we have "smart meters" that upload the meter info to the electric company. For this privilege we have to pay a surcharge to fund the cost of the smart meter, despite the EC getting rid of all the meter readers and their salaries. Like we're not being screwed enough already...

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