[jadejazzkayla]

good afternoon.

i'm looking for a forum to discuss my electric bill. i live in a 2 br 900 sf home.

my bill nov 21 thru dec 24 is $253.82. that is 1,353 kwh.

we have oil heat, but we do not use it as we heat with a wood stove.
we have electric hot water (50 gallon tank 4 years old).

[Leilani Vasquez]

That seems unbelievably high. Have you called the electric company? Haven they done a reading lately?

[andthentherewere3]

That's really high. That's about what our bill was for December, but we had Christmas lights on our tree and on a few shrubs outside. Also, my 19 year old son was home from college, and kept his computer on a lot, as well as an electric heater in his room. Not to mention the lights in his room on all night, as he's up all night, and sleeps all day..... A typical month for us in the winter is more like $200.00 a month. Every year the electric bill goes up a little. We have three bedroom, 7 room, 1600 square foot ranch-style home, with oil-fired hot water and oil heat. It does vary somewhat by location and electric company, and we have CL &P.

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by jadejazzkayla

good afternoon.

i'm looking for a forum to discuss my electric bill. i live in a 2 br 900 sf home.

my bill nov 21 thru dec 24 is $253.82. that is 1,353 kwh.

we have oil heat, but we do not use it as we heat with a wood stove.
we have electric hot water (50 gallon tank 4 years old).

Check to see if it's actual vs. estimated. Also check to see if it's an adjustment.

I've heard of instances where a consumer had estimated bills for almost a year. Then the individual received one whopper of an adjustment. The utility company complained that they couldn't get to the meter to read it!

[jadejazzkayla]

thank you for responding. i feel so all alone with this.

i have high electric bills. much higher than my friends and neighbors. i called clp. they asked about my house and lifestyle and appliances and said that my bills seemed to be in line with others.

if i am reading my bill correctly, all my readings are actual meter readings from a live person.

i purchased a "kill-a-watt" which you plug into the wall then plug something into it to measure your usage, like my fridge and i haven't found a culprit, if there is one.

i have had an electrician come to check the house. he found nothing. he charged me $300.

here is my usage lately.


date......... kwh..dd.use/.... $.......... temp
...........................per
...........................day
12/24/2008 1353 33 41.00 $253.82 32.8
11/21/2008 45.4 29 40.41 $221.87 45.4
10/23/2008 1075 31 34.68 $204.76 54.91
09/22/2008 1075 32 33.59 $204.74 65.9
08/21/2008 8152 43 33.96 $155.85 70.3
07/28/2008 1239 34 36.44 $231.86 74.2
06/24/2008 9883 32 9.94 $180.62 66.2
05/22/2008 6822 32 9.65 $125.77 54.4
04/29/2008 1120 35 32.00 $201.82 49.5
03/25/2008 1045 27 38.70 $189.31 37.1
02/27/2008 1461 35 41.74 $257.82 30.9
01/23/2008 1278 33 38.73 $224.18 32.8
12/21/2007 1112 30 37.07 $198.74 32.2


please ask any questions you would like.


edit: i tried to edit the chart for spacing but i couldn't. sorry for the jumble.

[vvolin]

I have a 4500 sf home and my electric bill oscillates between $150 to $200. I wonder why yours is so high. We also warm up our home with a wood burning stove, and we add gas heating in the morning before getting up. Out water heater is probably about 70 gallons, which is much bigger than we were used to in FL and seems like an overkill for the four of us.

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by vvolin

I have a 4500 sf home and my electric bill oscillates between $150 to $200. I wonder why yours is so high. We also warm up our home with a wood burning stove, and we add gas heating in the morning before getting up. Out water heater is probably about 70 gallons, which is much bigger than we were used to in FL and seems like an overkill for the four of us.

Hmmm...a 4500 sf house. I pray for the day that I receive an electric bill as low as $200. Last month, mine dropped to $269 for the first time in four years. It's typically $300 during the winter months without central air and $400 - $700 with central air.

My house is 3000 sf with two adults and five dogs. It's a two-box Colonial (main box plus additional box for family room) with an additional 400+ square feet over the 3-car garage.

[heather121]

I rent a 5 room apartment and my last CL&P bill was double that of the previous month, and it showed my kwh usage in Dec. 08 was twice the kwh from Dec. 07. I think it's ridiculous, I have no idea what could have possibly doubled my usage for the same month 1 year apart, and caused my bill to double in less than one month.

Last month we switched to Public Power & Utility (they have commercials on TV often...the website is ILoweredMyElectricBill.com), and they guarantee a rate of at least 5% less than CL&P. I think currently their rate is 10-11% lower. We are so sick of CL&P that switching was a no-brainer for us...with an electric bill that high it would probably be worth it for you to look into PP&U.

[Snowman27]

As an electrician I can guarantee 2 things here. 1. That electrician ripped you off & 2. Your bill is way to high! It should be around $170 at least.


I would charge only $50 to come check out your actual current that you draw. You can actually buy the tool yourself for $75 but nyou have to open the panel up and get to the main feeders.

Even just 1 baseboard heater would make the bill that high. How about a toe kick heater usually in kitchens? Or a bathroom heat fan?

I had a 2BR condo 1100 sq ft and the bill was $425 in winter $200 in summer. But we had electric heat.

CL&P will be raising their rates so you need to get down to bottom of this. Check the meter number..maybe they're reading the wrong meter?

Also another note: before using my desktop here at my house my electric bill was $120. Started using laptop and now its $90. Desktops kill u too.

[vvolin]

Originally Posted by Rich Lee

Hmmm...a 4500 sf house. I pray for the day that I receive an electric bill as low as $200. Last month, mine dropped to $269 for the first time in four years. It's typically $300 during the winter months without central air and $400 - $700 with central air.

My house is 3000 sf with two adults and five dogs. It's a two-box Colonial (main box plus additional box for family room) with an additional 400+ square feet over the 3-car garage.

Maybe I should have mentioned that it is a geothermal house. That helps keep everything low. Besides, last summer, which was our first one in CT, we never turned the central air on: coming from FL, it seemed such a waste, and we did not even feel we needed it apart from 3 days in July.
V