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Old 01-18-2011, 01:39 PM
 
7 posts, read 13,034 times
Reputation: 15

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Hi Everyone. My husband and I moved to Norwalk in October. We have a condo (1220 sq feet). For the month of December our electric bill through CL&P was $430...yes, $430! We both work during the day, the laundry is done once a week, dishwasher rarely used and we have the energy efficient bulbs in all fixtures. We've been trying to regulate our thermostat to keep the house warm, and maybe that's part of the problem as we're not familiar with how high/low the temperature should be during the day and night. We previously were renters so this is all new to us as homeowners. CL&P basically said too bad and referred to a ctenergyinfo.com to pick our own supplier.

Just wanted to know if anyone has experience with other suppliers and can recommend one that might put some money back in our pockets. I've read mixed things about the various suppliers and before making a switch I was hoping to get some information from the consumers.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
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Old 01-18-2011, 01:50 PM
 
5,064 posts, read 15,829,752 times
Reputation: 3571
Do you have electric heat? That can be quite expensive. But then again, we have oil and it's costing us close to $400 a month to heat our house now. We do use Viridian for our electricity though, and since the switch we've been saving $30 or more a month on our electricity bill.
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Old 01-18-2011, 02:01 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
34,634 posts, read 56,360,262 times
Reputation: 11145
You should not set your thermostat below 55 when you are not there. Otherwise if the power goes out your house will not be warm enough to keep your pipes from freezing. Also, turn down your thermostat at night before you go to bed and keep the temp lower when you are there. these little things will help. Jay
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Old 01-18-2011, 02:15 PM
 
Location: North Western NJ
6,591 posts, read 24,769,932 times
Reputation: 9680
i will say...welcome to CT...

our electric bill was $400 this past month (not bad compared to yours considering our house is twice the size), but all our heat is pellet stoves other than my room, which is electric...were pretty energy consious, everythings on electric thermostats and kept as low as possible without freezing us all (we keep the house in the 64 range), we unplug tvs and computers when not in use, all energy saving lightbulbs, we run laundry as little as possible and only during off peak times...and our house is well insualted with brand new last spring energy star windows throughout...
but it doesnt it seem to matter, our use goes down and down and our bills go up and up...

and all the electric folks tell us is "your meters working fine" and "the rates whent up" and now theres something about an additional 4% being added to electric bills, i swear well all be using oil lamps and huddling round wood burning stoves in no time...

my favorit part is looking at the electric bill and seeing how much the "delivery fee" is...yup, for electric lol

oil is going up, coal and wood prices have gone up this year, pellets are about same as theyve been for the past few years ut we buy early and in bulk on those, and with gas prices going up at the pump everythings just going to keep getting more and more expensive.
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Old 01-18-2011, 02:17 PM
 
Location: U.S.
3,970 posts, read 6,525,729 times
Reputation: 4128
If thats your heating source too, I actually don't think thats horrible. our last electric bill was almost 200 dollars (x-mas) and our last heating bill (gas) was just over $200 so not that far off from yours. Our house is bigger, but our thermostats lower to 60 degrees when we are not here and at night.
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Old 01-18-2011, 04:15 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
5,104 posts, read 4,777,257 times
Reputation: 3636
As far as I know, CL&P, yankee gas, and\or CNG do not offer off peak discounts for consumption. If this has changed I'm not aware of it. A long time ago, when CL&P did discount rates for off peak use they published those rates on the back of our electric bills. I'm not familiar with United Illuminating, so maybe they discount rates.

Actually, I heard that CL&P wants to start charging variable rates for consumption. On peak would be higher of course, and off peak lower. Altho, if this became reality the different rates would probably cancel each other out at the end of the month, so we wouldn't see any savings anyway.
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Old 01-18-2011, 05:26 PM
 
Location: TX
174 posts, read 637,325 times
Reputation: 81
We just experienced the same thing, unfortunately. Our bill jumped from $170 in November to $320 in December . CL&P said it was because our electric heat (being that it is blown air) is VERY VERY inefficient, and the thermostat is the very old slider type (not digital). Our apartment is 2 floors and about 700sq ft.

I'm guessing you also have electric heat, and the additional square footage (700 vs 1200), leads me to believe you're in the same boat we are - an inefficient heating appliance.

We've started supplementing the blown air with an oil-filled electric space heater that we can use near us to be warm enough while keeping the thermostat down. I really hope it helps, but sadly won't know until the next bill comes
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Old 01-18-2011, 05:51 PM
 
Location: Middlesex
1,350 posts, read 2,670,783 times
Reputation: 1462
it's been my experience that heat in the Winter costs more than AC in the Summer. this has been the case every place i've been for (at least) the last 5-6 years.
this is my situation and how i've tried to cut down on usage.. i use white noise at night because it helps me sleep. in the bedroom i have a space heater/fan - i run the fan in the Summer and the heat in the Winter. for the last couple of Winters, i've run the space heater during the night in conjunction with the apartments central heat. cost me a mint (the same is not true however in the Summer when i run the fan in conjunction with the AC - costs less overall). to try and cut down, i turn off the central heat at bedtime and only run the space heater overnight. sure the rest of the apartment is a like an igloo in the morning but at that time i both turn the central back on and the space heater off and it really doesn't take long for the rest of the apartment to warm up. i also turn down the thermostat to below what i normally would so it will turn on and off intermittently throughout the day and therefore not run constantly. i do the same with my space heater at night so it is also intermittent. i should see the fruits of my labor on this upcoming bill. can't imagine it will be as much or more than previous years - at least i hope not.
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Old 01-18-2011, 06:53 PM
 
1,294 posts, read 2,598,948 times
Reputation: 943
For what it's worth, we "know a guy" who works in HVAC who says the optimal setting is 62, all the time. Otherwise, you will use just as much energy to reheat your house when you get home as you save by turning it down low when you leave. Don't forget it is more than just the air you are heating, but all of the materials in your house, including floors, walls, furniture, etc. -- anything that isn't sealed off with insulation.

Also, wear as much wool as you can and avoid cotton in Winter.
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Old 01-18-2011, 07:11 PM
 
Location: North Western NJ
6,591 posts, read 24,769,932 times
Reputation: 9680
absolutly agree with this, we found it cost us more to turn off the heat when we wernt around then try to heat up the house when we were home than it did to just keep a constant 64 degrees...
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