Pacific Gas and Electric customers bristle at rate hikes (San Diego: apartment, appliances)

[AnythingOutdoors]

From the Bay Area News Group: “They need to be on the hook for it”: PG&E customers bristle at rate hikes to fund maintenance

The money to pay for fire liability and upgrades has to come from somewhere. IMO execs and shareholders should be first in line, not ratepayers.

The following is indeed shocking:

A year ago, Kristof Tigyi paid $120 to PG&E for heat and electricity for his one-bedroom apartment in Santa Cruz. This month, he was shocked to find that his bill had more than doubled — to $338.

“I’ve been here for 10 years, and I’ve never paid close to this much,” he said. “I know I’m not the only one who’s upset.”

This has to be an error, right? $338 for a one-bedroom apartment in a climate that doesn't really get below freezing is appalling. For comparison our January electric + gas bill here in Boise was $230 for our 3200 sq ft house. We leave the thermostat at 70F and temperatures got down to near 0F for a few days.

So is this an outlier, or are others seeing something similar?

[stablegenius]

Originally Posted by AnythingOutdoors

This has to be an error, right? $338 for a one-bedroom apartment in a climate that doesn't really get below freezing is appalling. For comparison our January electric + gas bill here in Boise was $230 for our 3200 sq ft house. We leave the thermostat at 70F and temperatures got down to near 0F for a few days.

So is this an outlier, or are others seeing something similar?

I just took a look at our SDGE bill recently. Looks like we've been averaging $200/month gas and electricity combined. It's a 1400 sf home. Just my wife, me and our dog. We don't use heat all year round and we don't have AC. We're only five miles from the coast as the crow flies. Weather is mild compared to places further inland. Last summer, we didn't even run the portable AC units. We do seem to leave a lot of lights on, but I can't imagine that's what's causing our bill to be so high. Just adding this for frame of reference. That still seems high for a one bedroom.

[dsb1067]

Our last PG&E bill was over $800 for our main residence. We do have a pool that runs all year...I'd like to fill it in with dirt and make a putting green out of it.

[FlySD]

Originally Posted by AnythingOutdoors

From the Bay Area News Group: “They need to be on the hook for it”: PG&E customers bristle at rate hikes to fund maintenance

The money to pay for fire liability and upgrades has to come from somewhere. IMO execs and shareholders should be first in line, not ratepayers.

The following is indeed shocking:



This has to be an error, right? $338 for a one-bedroom apartment in a climate that doesn't really get below freezing is appalling. For comparison our January electric + gas bill here in Boise was $230 for our 3200 sq ft house. We leave the thermostat at 70F and temperatures got down to near 0F for a few days.

So is this an outlier, or are others seeing something similar?

Hard to say without investigating - there could be other reasons other than energy costs or errors for this. The furnace might be malfunctioning drawing way more gas than necessary. Or a small gas leak somewhere outside which adds up over time. That said energy costs have gone up a lot in recent times.

[FlySD]

Originally Posted by stablegenius

I just took a look at our SDGE bill recently. Looks like we've been averaging $200/month gas and electricity combined. It's a 1400 sf home. Just my wife, me and our dog. We don't use heat all year round and we don't have AC. We're only five miles from the coast as the crow flies. Weather is mild compared to places further inland. Last summer, we didn't even run the portable AC units. We do seem to leave a lot of lights on, but I can't imagine that's what's causing our bill to be so high. Just adding this for frame of reference. That still seems high for a one bedroom.

You can get one of those Killawatt meters and investigate if something is drawing more current that it should. You should be able to do some rough calcs and use that with the electricity rates to see if it makes sense. For gas you can clock the gas meter while your gas appliances are running and check if the gas consumption is in line with what you expect.

[AnythingOutdoors]

Originally Posted by dsb1067

Our last PG&E bill was over $800 for our main residence. We do have a pool that runs all year...I'd like to fill it in with dirt and make a putting green out of it.

Is that normal, which would mean paying PG&E nearly $10,000/year? If a lot of that's from the pool then yeah, I would fill that in ASAP, or maybe get solar panels/heaters.

[AnythingOutdoors]

Originally Posted by stablegenius

I just took a look at our SDGE bill recently. Looks like we've been averaging $200/month gas and electricity combined. It's a 1400 sf home. Just my wife, me and our dog. We don't use heat all year round and we don't have AC. We're only five miles from the coast as the crow flies. Weather is mild compared to places further inland. Last summer, we didn't even run the portable AC units. We do seem to leave a lot of lights on, but I can't imagine that's what's causing our bill to be so high. Just adding this for frame of reference. That still seems high for a one bedroom.

$200 isn't too bad, though still seems high for being in a mild year-round climate. Lights, assuming they're LED, shouldn't use very much electricity.

[Axxlrod]

PGE customers feeling what San Diego customers been feeling for years.

[dsb1067]

Originally Posted by AnythingOutdoors

Is that normal, which would mean paying PG&E nearly $10,000/year? If a lot of that's from the pool then yeah, I would fill that in ASAP, or maybe get solar panels/heaters.

Unfortunately that's pretty normal for us. Most of the usage is electricity, not much gas use. We have a gas range and gas water heater. The pool is already solar heated, so it's just the filter pump running. Just the two of us in the house, so not sure where else we're wasting electricity.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Axxlrod

PGE customers feeling what San Diego customers been feeling for years.

This except "customer" really isn't the proper word. Let's try hostage.