Electric Bill

[chickenhead]

Been in a new house now for 2 months....first electric bill for the first full month I think had me pegged at around 9kwh per day, came to about $45, about the same as I paid at my old place.

Get a bill today, got me pegged at 43kwh! per day. WTF! I think it would be too hot to stay inside if I was using that kind of juice. 43kwh per day is just insane.

I go outside to check my meter, it's reading like 10,000kwh higher than the bill they just gave me. Holy Christ! And I swear, I'm not growing dope in the garage.

Needless to say I'm calling PG+E tomorrow...anyone ever have an experience like this before?

other than the dishwasher and fridge, its all the same stuff I had before.

[lsbets]

I would jump for joy if I ever had an electric bill below $100. We had a pretty good heat spell in August and early Sep here, so that month's bill was $371. This latest one was $290 and I was overjoyed. Some of my neighbors went over $400. High ceilings may look nice, but when its 100 degrees everyday, its a bitch to keep the house reasonably cool.

[PaceAdvantage]

Chickenhead....only thing I can think of is maybe someone has tapped into your line? It's happened before....

Either that, or you have a faulty meter....

[BillW]

I would jump for joy if I ever had an electric bill below $100. We had a pretty good heat spell in August and early Sep here, so that month's bill was $371. This latest one was $290 and I was overjoyed. Some of my neighbors went over $400. High ceilings may look nice, but when its 100 degrees everyday, its a bitch to keep the house reasonably cool.

I found the cure to the $375 electric bill in Aug/Sep. Spend 2 weeks in Saratoga Spgs. - my bill was $220 :jump:

BTW CH I agree with PA - meter sounds very suspect - get it checked soon. 10,000KWH even @43/day is 225 days at a rate that you say is suspiciously high.

[chickenhead]

I aint paying a nickel until they prove to me that the meter is not faulty. They are pretty basic tho, not a lot to go wrong. They get an earful tomorrow.

[toetoe]

I seriously thought this would be about William Bennett. Sheesh.

[eddie10]

some times the meter reader is to lazy or is in to much of a hurrey, so he makes a guesstimate. It happened to me on a water bill once, I was looking out the window just at the same time he pulled up to read meter he got out of the truck took out his pad and never lifted cover to read meter made note in pad and left.when i read bill it was fifty dollars higher than usual.I went down to office and explained what i had seen him do they totally denied that any of there employees would do that it was illegal.I asked them if they would like to see the video they declined and it never happened again.

[highnote]

Does anyone here have any experience putting together one of those systems that generates electricity that you can sell back to the electric company?

I've read about plugging in a bank of solar cells into an outlet in your house and if you generate enough electricity it can actually cause your meter to spin the backwards.

A friend of mine did a documentary about "Mini-hydro" here in Connecticut. Some guy put in an electric turbine at an old mill and generates a lot of electricity that he sells back to the electric company. He had to sue them in order to get them to buy it, but he finally won.

You could also hook up a windmill, turbine, etc.

My electric bill has been too low to bother with it, but it has almost doubled in the past year. So now it might be worth it to invest the $2,000 for a system that will save me $60 per month. In three years it would pay for itself. Plus I'd love to be the first one on my block generating my own electricity. Let my neighbors try to keep up with this Jones! :D

[highnote]

http://www.prep2003.com/electricity.htm

Interesting way to generate electricity with a lawn mower, car alternator and a battery.

[BillW]

I've read about plugging in a bank of solar cells into an outlet in your house and if you generate enough electricity it can actually cause your meter to spin the backwards.


That would more than likely make your eyeballs spin backward. Plugging a DC source into an AC source certainly wouldn't work. Any coupling back into the power grid would require a power company approved coupler.

[highnote]

That would more than likely make your eyeballs spin backward. Plugging a DC source into an AC source certainly wouldn't work. Any coupling back into the power grid would require a power company approved coupler.

That's right. You'd obviously need a DC to AC inverter plus some other equipment.

I did some research. In Ohio, the Public Utilities Commission calls it Net.metering. You have to register with them to do it.

However, their are renegades out there who produce just enough electricity to meet their needs and don't register. They just plug their self-generated electricity into an AC outlet to lower their bills.

You can buy a small wind generator or solar cells -- or even a mini hydro generator.

[Hosshead]

Does anyone here have any experience putting together one of those systems that generates electricity that you can sell back to the electric company?

Try this: www.homepower.com

[highnote]

Try this: www.homepower.com

Thanks, Hoss.

Just what I was looking for.

[highnote]

Guerilla Solar Manifesto

http://www.homepower.com/magazine/guerrilla.cfm

[highnote]

I did the math...

I pay about 17 cents per hour for the electricity I need for a month. That's up 25% from January. It was only 13 cents an hour 8 months ago. Like everything else related to energy the prices have increased.

I priced a 100 watt solar panel. It costs about 1200 dollars and will generate about 12 kilowatt hours per month. That only saves me about 2 dollars per month. It will take 50 years to amortize the solar panel.

I've read about being able to generate heat for a hot water heater using a wood stove, but that sounds like a pain.

Geothermal is expensive and I'm told it doesn't work too well here in New England -- it's too cold in the winter.

The only other alternative seems like wind power. I live in a crowded neighborhood with no streams nearby for hydro power. My neighbors might not complain too much about a windmill on my garage! :D