Gas & electric bills in ABQ (apartment, how much, house)

[desert sun]

I just got my bill in for my 1 bedroom apt and it was $120, I've never had a bill nowhere as high in the summer months, just last month it was $50 cheaper, I called PNM and she said it was cause of the rate increase and that next month it will probably be more.

Anyone else experience something like this lately?

[rybert]

What's your Kw/hr rate?

Swamp cooler?

[lisdol]

Yeah, I was wondering that too. Out here in CNMEC territory, we pay about 13 cents/kwh and a $16.00 service charge ea month. I see $120 bills rarely, and we have almost 1800 sq ft. and I do about 10 loads of laundry ea week (and dry about 7-8 of them in the dryer).

What is your kwh usage ea month? Ours was under 500 this past month. Is something wrong with your cooling unit or another appliance making it use a lot of energy?

How much did they raise their rates?

[mortimer]

desert sun worries about the utility bill:

IF people post about their bills in $$$ but have nothing about how much they are using in kWh or therms or CCFs how will anyone know if the problem is consumption or rates?

If your use was flat and your bill went up by 71.4% then you have something to whine about.
You can't do anything but whine about it, however and figure out how to use less.

If your use went up by 50% then you can start to solve the problem by figuring out why you are using so much more. For a one-bedroom apartment, a bill like $120 indicates that a window is being left open or there is a hole in the wall or something like that.

PNM rates have jumped around 30% for natural gas. No clue what the NG portion of the $120 was.

Previously, PNM had two tiers, now there are three.
For a bill of $120, you are well into the third tier, but your second tier rate also went up quite a bit.

The first 200 kWh are billed at the lowest rate. The next 550 kWh are billed at a higher rate.
Above 750 kWh you get much higher rates.

For electricity, the 2nd tier kWh rate went from 8.20 cents/kWh to 9.07 cents.
That's an increase of 10.5%.

For the 3rd tier that is 11.19 cents which is above the 2nd tier of 9.07 cents.
That's an increase of 23.4% over the 2nd tier.

Also, this month's 3rd tier of 11.19 cents is 36.4% above last month's 2nd tier.
It's 41.9% over the rates from 12 months ago.

No clue what the kWh portion of the $120 was.

If your bill went from $70 to $120 it's because you used a lot more electricity or natural gas and it's being wasted.
If you were living in the same place a year ago, you should be able to compare bills for the usage (not cost) back then.
Year-to-year same-month usage does not vary much, but variations between months within a given year vary a lot.

[desert sun]

the bill says it was 847 kWh used for elec.

We just moved into this 1 br apt 2 months ago from a 3br house and this is our 2nd bill, the first one was $70 for gas & elec. plus $50 hook-up fees which made it $120 and this months was $120 but without the hook-up fees.

It surprised me cause I've never had a bill over $80 before in the summer months-EVER, and I dont even have a washer & dryer and I dont run the air conditioner very often and I dont do anything differently than I have in previous years.

[mortimer]

desert sun reported:

> ... bill says it was 847 kWh used for elec.

That's huge.

My neighbor uses refrigerated air and their use was 985 kWh. (cost = $106.47). My neighbor lives in a 2400 sq ft 3-bedroom house. She runs the a/c 24x7.

If you have a refrigerated air system and you have low coolant levels, the system (compressor) will run far more of the time than it would otherwise.

As a tenant, you have a right to a fully-functioning cooling/heating system. Your landlord should be willing and able to have you bring a service technician out to look at your heat pump or air conditioner (really the same thing).

Note that this cost is *ZERO* for the landlord because if they let the system run out of coolant, the cost of service goes from $100 or so to $thousands$.

Also, if the condenser has smashed-up cooling fins, it's going to also run far more inefficiently.

I'm not saying this is your problem. You might have lots of gaps in/around your windows, doors, etc. (*) It could be a combination of many things. The bottom line is that for the use you described, you shouldn't be much above 200 kWh. Look on your bill to see what that would have cost you for only 200 kWh. My bill for 350 kWh was $34.81.

(*) If you have gaps, you'll only feel it in the winter time when your bill for natural gas will be something like $400/month.
Ouch! Ouch! and DoubleOuch!

[lisdol]

Does PNM do energy audits? If they do, it might be worth doing. Like mortimer said, that is a HUGE amount for the size of your unit.

[yukon]

Do you have a swamp cooler or refrigerated A/C? I have a 2 bedroom and run the swamp cooler a lot (and even leave the door open at times) plus wash multiple loads of clothes weekly, my last two bills were around $65 (gas + electric).

[desert sun]

I think its central air, but I use a small fan more than the A/C

[rybert]

Yeah... we're paying .12 kw/hr here in Houston... last month was $112... A/C was on 24/7. You've been had! lol Seriously though... get it checked-out.