Power Bill is so high(with one of the two Allen power providers) - What to do? (Point: appointed)

[Allenitis]

I have been paying around $300 everymonth even when I have the AC is switched off...Nothing I do to save the power is working out and I feel $300 is a lot of money to be paid for the power bill. It is a 2 story single family home.

Has anyone faced this before? What did you do to reduce the same?

Any Help I am sure you know will help me

Allenitis.

[Grainraiser]

Try have a bill for $849 for a 2,000sqft home. I would suggest you learn how to read your meter and make sure on under contract for the lowest kilowatt per hour cost.

[lpepping]

How big is your home? What company are you with? How many kw are you using? How much are you paying per kw?

[lh_newbie]

If you aren't using your AC and the rate is still high, I suggest the following process:

1. Take a "baseline reading" - read your meter, wait an hour, then take another reading. This is your KwH "baseline".
2. Shut off alll circuit breakers. Check to see if the meter is still spinning, if you have an older mechanical meter, or wait another hour and check your meter if it's a digital meter. It should read a big fat zero. If not, you have something seriously wrong with the meter or your breaker box. Call the electric company, as these sort of issues could potentially lead to a fire.
3. Turn one circuit breaker on at a time, checking the readings on your meter. If you find a particular breaker that has a lot of usage, shut all the other breakers off and see what still has power. This appliance or device is your culprit, or there is something wrong with that particular leg and you will need to contact an electrician.

Also, $300 is not a measurement of power usage. You'll need to look at KwH usage, as you could have a $300 bill if you used 1,000 KwH and the company is charging you $0.30/KwH - or you could be only charged $0.10/KwH and using 3,000 KwH. There's a huge difference in actual energy usage there, but the price is the same. How many KwH/month are you using?

I've heard of people getting the wrong readings before. You should have an EIN or EID or something like that - it's basically a serial number on your bill. That serial number should match with your meter. If it doesn't, your getting billed for someone else's usage.

Hope these things help you to begin tracing down what the culprit is. Good luck, and let us know what the end result is.

Brian

[loves2read]

my undestand is that there is a base charge for KWH--if you use less than that you don't get a reduction in your bill
and again THE GOVENOR APPOINTS PEOPLE TO THE UTILITY BOARD--if they do not have homeowners interests at heart--the govenor is the person to blame--vote him out of office
contact your legislator to get the utility board members made an elected not appointed post so they ARE responsible to the needs of the people---
there is so much "politicking" done for board appointsments--and lobbying done by big business--that the boards often could care less about the needs of the public...

[lh_newbie]

Originally Posted by loves2read

my undestand is that there is a base charge for KWH--if you use less than that you don't get a reduction in your bill

That is partially correct. As our bills stand today, we have a "customer base charge" - which is essentially the base fee, regardless of usage, for connecting to the grid. We also have a meter-reading fee, which is self explanatory. We then have a usage fee. Today's usage charges are flat. You pay some pre-determined number (about 14 cents) per KwH, multiplied by your KwH usage that month. Of course there are taxes on top of that - but that's the structure. But to the point of Loves2Read - there is a base customer charge, but that number is typically less than $20. The original poster's issue is with a $300 bill. If the base charge is three digits - run, run like the wind!

Since TXU is rolling out new, digital meters, which can determine time of day, I believe it will be just another year or two before we get "peak" usage and "non-peak" usage timeframes implemented and get charged different rates based on time of day. For instance, it may be determined that "peak times" are 9am to 6pm. Peak rates could be 18 cents, whereas off peak could be 10 cents. If you use 1,000 KwH in that month - but 600 of them are during peak and 400 of them are off-peak, then you're paying ($0.18 x 600) + ($0.10 x 400) = $148 usage charges -vs- the old 13.5 cent X 1,000 KwH (or $135) structure. The theory is to encourage people to be more efficient during peak hours, which is what creates the largest strain on the grid - and incidentally drives the most construction of power generating facilities.

I'm certain we are moving toward tiered rates. Only time will tell, but mark my word... (honestly, I think it's a good thing - as it encourages efficiency)

Brian

[FalconheadWest]

$300 is nothing as long as your house is at least 2500 sqft. Have you checked your insulation? Radiant barriers can work numbers. I've had several clients do it and my parents did it. My new house is coming with the Tech shield already in it and that's better than the paint-on kind.

Also, you can call Oncor and they'll send someone out to seal up your house and check the efficiency of it. They can see where air is escaping and things like that, so you don't heat/cool the outdoors.