anyone know about power bills real good? is this possible

[skirrby]

ok power bill came in today, and my jaw hit the floor when i saw the bill. we(my roomates and i) havent made any large electrical changes at all,, my tank pulls the most out of anything lol,, and i havent changed anything with that. and our bill this month was 4x that of our normal bill... i live in a 1200 sq. foot apartment,, i just dont see how it would be possible to have a 433 dollar bill. when our normal bill even when having the ac going 27/7 was like 110 or so. could this be a error... the only change we made was picking up 2 floor fans from wal-mart that are only 25w each. i doubt this would have more than doubled out kw hour usage? anyone got any advice.. could they have made a mistake? maybe our meter is messed up? any help would be apreciated.

 

[nyyankeees]

I would definitely call them and explain this is just not possible. Maybe the meter was misread. I think they jus subtract your meter reading from this month from what it said last month then multiply the difference by a per kw rate, whatever that rate is. So if a number was reported wrong by the meter reader your whole bill would be screwed up. They should notice it's a problem when they pull your account up when you call, that it jumped up so high. I'd keep at this till they fix it even if you have to get nasty. Good luck, let us know what happens.

 

[reefnut]

I agree, a similar thing happened to us a while back and it turned out that the person checking the meter misread it...

 

[kendall]

That's almost as horrifying as getting a $350 cell phone bill !!! Makes you want to throw up...At least you can split some of it out...You have me nervous with that one now...I have chillers going, AC's, fans and everthing to keep my 3rd floor apartment cool...
If your not using the AC more it could be an error...The AC I would think, would be the only thing that could jump a bill that much in a month...That or they jacked the electricity on you...Utlities are increasing pretty fast so I wouldn't rule that out...The combination of them increasing your electricity costs and maybe running the AC a little more might have did it...

 

[skirrby]

well we have always ran the ac on 70 and it has always ran close to 24 hours a day all the time,, no changes have been made, and we did check the cost of the electric per kw hour, and it has not changed

 

[tangman99]

Last month was very hot and I know we had record power consumption here in Jacksonville, but that is a lot of power for an apartment. My last month electric bill was like $200.00 and that is cooling a 3300 sq ft 2 story home with 2 large air handlers. It was about $25 higher than normal.

 

[nyyankeees]

Tang, you're in Jax? I live in St. Mary's GA. Hi neighbor, LOL.

 

[clarkiiboi]

It's happened to me, but I am on the budget plan. If you miss a payment or get behind the power company makes you pay the whole amount you really owe to catch you up to a zero balance. Depending on how far you are into the year it could be anywhere from $100 or $400+. Maybe that is a possibility. If it is dont hesitate to call them, usually they can reverse it and put you back on the budget plan without paying the huge bill. Wait too long and you'll owe it all. Reguardless I would give them a call ASAP, see what they have to say. Good luck.

 

[tangman99]

Originally Posted by NYyankeees
Tang, you're in Jax? I live in St. Mary's GA. Hi neighbor, LOL.

Hi!

 

[dory36]

Our May electric bill was $143. June's was $310! My husband said it must be the MH lights that caused it to jump so high. :notsure: Ummm, no, I think it's because the a/c is set at 72 degrees both upstairs and downstairs all day and night!

 

[oceana]

our here in stpete FL jumped from 130's to 219 in june. the norm for our year is about 160 average. thats both tanks ac andtons of electrical equipment running nearly all day everyday

 

[chypriss]

Our power bill went up alot compaired to what it was...only reason for that is the frig was going out and we had to turn the cold all the way up for it to even keep the food cold, now with new frig it should go down....ohh wait I got my PC's in....I wonder how bad its going to be now.

 

[nemo lover]

My electric is always at a steady 200.00.
Skirrby Who is your power provider? Call them, and tell them their has been a mistake to come read your meter over. If you have FPL, and if you were late last month sometimes they will bill you for a month in advance. I guess it there way of getting their loot.
Also Just by changing your heating element in your water heater. Changing your shower faucets from high flow, to a medium or even a slow flow will save you about ten to twenty percent off your electric bill. Also I'm not 110% on this but was told instead of turning your ac off when you leave your house, Turn the termostat up to about 80. I guess turning an ac on and off burns alot more electricity, than this way.
good luck!

 

[stang66200]

My power bill never breaks 30 bucks . . . you have to love the cool California ocean breeze :happy:

 

[f1shman]

Do MH and PC lights raise it a lot? Also off-topic but how long would you recommend I keep each on a day? And do the lunar lights stay on all night? (or everytime the PC or MH arent on)

 

[ericp2311]

My power bill was almost $300 for just this last month!!

I live on in a third floor apartment in St. Louis, Misery with no shade trees nearby. We get morning sun from the east, sun all day from the south, and evening sun through the western windows. It's a real oven in this place!
We've covered all of out windows with tinfoil to keep the sun out.
Honestly, there hasn't even been the slighest breeze here in like, three months.
I miss Washington!
Eric

 

[treystang]

The price of power went up from the main provider in texas last month. it was only supposed to be 10% but our bill went up 25%

 

[nw2sltfsh]

Originally Posted by Ericp2311
My power bill was almost $300 for just this last month!!

We've covered all of out windows with tinfoil to keep the sun out.
Eric

Does that work? I would have thought that would be like a baked potatoe effect and trap heat in? Very ingenius solution though

 

[treystang]

Originally Posted by NW2SLTFSH
Does that work? I would have thought that would be like a baked potatoe effect and trap heat in? Very ingenius solution though
If the tinfoil is on the outside part of the window it works. I dont know about the inside.

 

[oceana]

It works yes but as you can guess its not very attractive to say the least.
best bet is to go buy some Solar Shield at home depot. Its window tint for your house.
looks great and works great!!