Utility Bills Question-please help (Roy, Cedar City: mortgage, appliances, credit)

[sugarbunny]

Hello everyone,

I live in Southern California and I purchased a home in Roy,UT a few months ago. The home is new and almost 4,000 sq feet total. The home is unoccupied and vacant.

I get the utility bills sent to my house in Los Angeles.

I am really shocked at how high the bills are for gas(Questar) and electric(Rocky Mountain Power).

I wanted to ask you all if you think these charges are normal for a vacant home where no one uses ANYTHING and there are no appliances except a microwave and 2 refrigerators. The only thing that is on is the furnace for the programmable thermostat. No water or lights are used.

Gas- Questar- January bill is $160, December bill was $125, November bill was $70

Electric-Rocky Mountain Power- February bill is $93 for 1,109 kwh used. The January bill was $63---My house in Los Angeles which includes 4 people, the tv, computer, appliances are constantly used every day and the average kwh used are 280/month and the bill is under $40.

Is this normal or am I being seriously overcharged? I mean if my electric bill is almost $100 and my gas is $150 and no one lives there, how do people who actually use those services pay then?

My sister lives in Clinton, UT which is 1 mile from my Roy home and her bills are less than mine and with the same company BUT she lives there and uses everything!

Any advice or comments, please let me know if this is normal which i highly doubt.

[SergeantL]

Originally Posted by sugarbunny

Hello everyone,

I live in Southern California and I purchased a home in Roy,UT a few months ago. The home is new and almost 4,000 sq feet total. The home is unoccupied and vacant.

Unless you have left the heat and the lights on, there seems to be something strange occurring here. You need to contact the utility companies involved.

[sugarbunny]

I called them today and for the gas, the first thing they told me was "Do you know how cold it is right here?". I dont understand why it's so much money when the only thing using something is the furnace for the programmable thermostat which is programmed at 55 degrees at all times in order to prevent pipes from freezing.

For the electric company, i called them and even talked to the supervisor and they gave me every excuse in the book. When I told them that my sister from Clinton pays $30 for electric and we have the same company, they told me that my house is bigger. Well, my house is twice the size (hers is 2,000 sq ft and mine is 4k), but if you were to double the size of the house then in that case the bill should be $60 but they live there and use power!!

Theyre supposedly going to send someone out there to check if there is something wrong with the meter.

How can a furnace use 1,109 kwh for 1 month?


What do you guys pay right now for the electric and gas bill?

I would understand being charged $93 for electric and $160 for gas when people live there but there is no one there and no appliances.


Also, is it really necessary to have the heater on to prevent pipes from freezing even though i cancelled my water services?

Thanks in advance.

[coolcats]

Your sister's charges are in line with mine, and I also live in my house full time. I would say something is amiss with your bill. I know many utilities will provide free energy audits. Perhaps give that a try?

[sugarbunny]

coolcats- Thanks for the reply. Do you know how many kwh are mentioned on your bill? I just want to know how much kwh people around the area typically use and how much they pay. I highly doubt someone uses over 1,000 kwh much less if no one is there!

[coolcats]

Originally Posted by sugarbunny

coolcats- Thanks for the reply. Do you know how many kwh are mentioned on your bill? I just want to know how much kwh people around the area typically use and how much they pay. I highly doubt someone uses over 1,000 kwh much less if no one is there!

I just looked up my bill. We used 90 kwh in the last 29 days. That seems really low, but that's what we were billed for. The whole bill came to $23, but $14 of that was for trash pickup. We have a gas furnace. Gas last month was $125. We keep our house at 72 during the day, and 65 at night. Hope that gives you an idea.

[Elder_Shawn]

I don't have gas...haha that sounds funny....we just have electricity (furnace, AC, Water Heater, etc) and our bill is close to $120 in the winter and $60 in the summer. We obtained a new AC system in the summer and it make a HUGE difference in power consumption. My furnace (62 F Day 72 F Home 62F Night) and water heater on the other hand tend to eat power like a mo-fo! I don't have my bill in front of me to show how much power we use. My wife is addicted to leaving the lights on though. I turn off 75% of the lights in the house constantly.

[mariewendan]

Well, I about died when I saw my bills this month too! Our house is 2400 sq.ft. and our gas bill was $140 and Electric was $110. Back home in Colorado (1900 sq.ft.)- the highest our gas bill ever got was $60 , but Electric was the same. hmmm... I simply paid the bill and figured it was because the house is 500 sq. ft. bigger and it's been freezing cold day and night (literately freezing all the time)....you'll have to re-post if you figure out you've been billed incorrectly.

[ScottDaMan]

Wow. I moved here from SoCal and found the rates much cheaper. LOL. My last bill here in Cedar City (same gas company), 4200 sq ft house, house kept at 67 during the day and 62 at night, and mine was $160. I used to spend $200/month for gas in my 1700sq ft house due to the old furnace.

There's something wrong if you are keeping yours at 55 degrees constantly. Did someone leave a window open? A door? You have to have some sort of draft from the outside to cause your heater to run that much with a 55 degree setting.

Regarding pipes freezing, if your water is turned off and you made sure there is no water pressure in the lines (run a faucet to clear), you shouldn't have a problem. Cracked/ruptured water lines are caused from freezing pressurized water. This is why they tell you to leave a trickle of water running in one sink during negative degree temps, the running water brings warmer water from outside and keeps the lines from freezing. In your case, if your lines are clear and your main line coming into the basement (before the cut-off) is wrapped properly, you should only need to keep the area where the water main comes into the house above freezing. Often times, your utility closet where the water heaters are, can also be where the main comes into the house. If that's the case, just heat that section of the house and close the vents elsewhere.

[mountainfaith]

OK, you guys are making me totally jealous of how low your heat bills are!! Amen for that! With the very high cost of housing, we sure need the rest of the cost of living to stay low, so we can have a life outside our mortgage payment. I'm sure your 'natural' gas vs. our propane is a big help on the bills.

We only have propane in the area I live, so just to be able to afford our heat, we have to do a budget payment for 10 mths. to spread it out more. So, we're paying for our heat in the 'unheating' months even. Otherwise it's way too expensive. So, realizing our heat bill is spread out thru most of the year to make it affordable and we still our paying $185 per mth. Ahh. So, here's the clincher - that's $1,850 for HEAT. ahh. And I don't turn it on til I it's really needed. Most of fall we don't need it, except November can be pretty chilly. You can see why the budget payment thing is the only way to go for us. We're in the Midwest, but when those arctic fronts come down - youch! You guys sure are getting hit with that now from the looks of your temps for awhile.

Our electric was lower during the 'mild' months. Yeah! $60's. Then, with this cold spell, our last one went to about $90.

Thank God we had 15-20 degrees ABOVE NORMAL weather much of this winter. So, it's been super mild this year and boy are we enjoying that. We're gonna be AHEAD on our budget payment, and have a credit maybe. That's something new. WOOHOOO!! Tho' I just noticed that the weather forecast shows below freezing for most of the next 10 days. brrr. What a difference from all that super mild weather we had so long. Hope it clears out of here fast.

Do you guys ever get those way above normal, mild winters? Hoping so. Except I do love the snow, too! (Just not on the roads ) And I know you need the snow for the water table, so that's worth the cold weather for that. As long as those arctic type cold weather spells you're in now, stay more rare.