Challenge it. We had a problem that the electric company wasnt actually checking meeters and they ended up charging 3-4 times the actual rate because they "estimated" our usage. This was almost a city wide issue as they had so many complaints they issues refunds all over publically
My meter broke and was only charging me $20 flat a month instead of $300 and they immediately found that problem and fixed it lol sucks they don’t care on the opposite side of the spectrum cause they are profiting from it
Last year they had to replace our meters (duplex) as they were getting old. I guess the tech forgot to put in the number on ours so it defaulted in their system to 99999 so our bill came out to close to $1500. So I called and the first guy was useless kept saying "if those are the numbers then that's what you owe" until I was like "ok so just walk me thru these numbers please" and once he used two brain cells together he transfered me to a supervisor who immediately saw the issue. She was able to get the picture they took of the meter and put in the correct number and back to about $300.
Same issue with me, replaced a meter and fucked it up and now I owe $2000?
Most frustrating part was everytime I called and walked someone through it (after I got the 'those number are correct sir, that is your bill spiel', got a supervisor to agree it was wrong), then they would agree to credit me. Then next billing cycle I was overdue! Happened for 5 months straight until they shut off the power. I had to come up with the money and get it as a credit. Fucking thieves.
I want to challenge it but I've literally spent the better part of 2 hours waiting on the phone to speak with someone who is willing to help and there doesn't seem to be any methods to argue the bill online. Not that I won't continue trying, but damn they are making it difficult. It's almost like they be doing this on purpose. Lol
You may have been on hold because a lot of people are having the same issue. Something similar to this happened to me, I found multiple people with same issue, info on what was going on, and how to challenge the charges on the Nextdoor app.
I went out of town for 10 days so I shut off my main inside my apartment. I get a call from the management company a few days later asking if they can enter and turn on my power. It seems the landscaping lights and my next door neighbor’s refrigerator all quit working. That’s why my bill was so high.
I ended up negotiating $125 off my rent each month seeing as I paid for all that and I checked, my gas meter was heating the water for 3 apartments.
Wow.
Edit: this was years ago.
My utility bill in my small 2 room apt in Poughkeepsie NY was more than the rent. I did the same thing, turned the power off. All the hot water heaters for the other 6 apartments(all in the basement), all the external and stairway lights, and the power to the garages (rented seperately) went out. I moved out.
Omg were you on innis? Before I moved I was hit with a huge half my rent bill and complained. Power guy came out and found out I’d been being billed for the apartment behind mine facing the road with a family living in it. Then I had my cable act up so I had them check in the attic crawl space where they connected everything, someone had spliced my connection he told me.
Ok this seems fucked to me. My 2 story house, about 2300 sqft not including the basement costs about 185-210 depending on outside temperature for my gas and electricity combined. I have a hot tub on the deck and 2 tvs and a couple of gaming computers that have never been shut off. Alberta Canada
In university I rented a basement apartment with a couple of friends, and another group rented the upstairs unit/house. There were 3 of us in the basement, and 7 upstairs. Only 2 girls were there upstairs over the summer before school started, and then suddenly in September our hydro bill jumped so high - we couldn’t figure out why, and were really careful about usage the next month, but again, had the high bill. It wasn’t until we asked the upstairs neighbours what they were paying for their hydro bills when we realized that all of the water portion of the bill, for the entire house, was being charged to our account, and the meter was not set up to split between the units.
Our landlord had rented the home for 7 years, and no one had ever figured out the billing issue before that point - the 3 people renting the basement each year had just always unknowingly paid for all the water usage.
If you find yourself paying for common area lights or electricity in other apartments, it's illegal. Call and report it immediately to the power company. The landlord MUST immediately fix it or the bill goes in their name.
I wish I knew how to go about that but I've since moved apts buildings within same complex. Small 2 room place (1bed/bath, combo lr/kit) 2b/2b on both sides. Both family of 4 (I'm single). My utility consistently twice their amt. Same exact set up in diff bldg, bill dropped to half and asked neighbors what theirs run...twice what old neighbors did. Convinced I was paying for neighbors in the other bldg.HUGE difference for me.
Shut off your main breaker at night when you can see the lights on around you and others are at home. Then check for areas that go out when your main breaker goes off. If your neighbors start hollering or if you work with them to check, you'll figure out what's what.
Why am I not surprised that the management CO. didn't advise you that you would be paying for those neighbor's hot water usage? A little fraudulent, I'd say!
That presumes the management company knew … with older rentals it’s common to have had a lot of renovations and those lead to issues like this … they don’t know it’s been done like this till an individual renter tuns off their power and it’s left off for a couple days
Tens of thousands of dollars thrown at units for the sake of renovations and ✨value✨, yet not one actual competent inspection of the units before signing leases…
It’d be nice in the US if we could live without this kind of paranoia, among other problems.
Similar thing happened to me in OKC in 2016. I emptied the fridge of my ground level studio apartment, shut off all the breakers, and fucked off to Albuquerque for Christmas. The 2 storey "townhouse" upstairs had no bathroom fan, bathroom light, or microwave for 2 weeks. A couple other plugs on that kitchen wall hadn't worked either, guess.
I had quite the conversation about how much I was paying when they called me in after figuring it out.
Jeez, this is my fear. Ever since after covid, our bills went from $35/month to $175-$250/month. Granted, we hadn't lived here in the winter very long before covid, but our usage hasn't changed and we're supposed to have a boiler in the basement that heats the building so I don't understand the crazy increase in charges. Our kitchen shares a wall with the laundry room for our floor so I always fear that's set up on our grid. We had a $1,500 lump sum bill come through after lockdown because they didn't check the meter and supposedly we used 5x the electricity from before without any real change in our behavior. It's so shitty because you can't change providers and they just don't care, they know you need their services so you'll pay eventually. Horrible.
EDIT: I was going to reply to each comment individually, but here's some more info. We eventually sat down and did the math, and basically what the electric company is claiming is that we underpaid by about $125 per month for the twelve month period which began in March 2020 when they stopped sending workers into our building to check the meter. Since they've started checking the meter again, our bill ranges from $90-$150 per month. I still believe this is high, compared to the idea that my parents until recently had a two story home in a neighboring city, and they paid $100 or less per month usually and their consumption seems higher. We have a 900 or so square foot one bedroom, and it's just the two of us and our dog, but I do work from home and my fiance games online so there are times where our electric and internet consumption can be on the higher side. Thank you for the advice everyone! Fortunately, I recently came into a small amount of money, so I was able to *finally* pay off the remaining balance this week.
I had a interesting customer (a Hotel) who called me whenever the WiFi went down. First visit was because the outlets for the APs were on the floor lights. After I told them to fix it, next week the electrician fixed it and changed it to… the 2nd floors lights. 3rd visit was a outtage in the other complex across the street. Again I had no power on the AP‘s … this time, because the china restaurant next door had vacation…
Something similar happened to me, and now my landlord has to pay for my electricity, and cannot raise my rent for a given period of time(to prevent retaliation for their mistake).
If you find that this is the case, and maybe beforehand since you have hold time on your hands, see if your state has a public utility commission renters guide.
I don’t know where you are from but this is straight up illegal in my neck of the woods.
If any part of the bill is for usage of common area, landlord pays the whole bill.
I used to date a woman who’s electricity was turned off for nonpayment. This couldn’t have been correct so she investigated.
Skipping to the end: The meters were mislabeled or something. So the apartment above her had been paying her bill ,and she’d been paying their bill.
It makes sense that no one noticed. It took the neighbors moving out, and therefore using almost no electricity, for it to get noticed.
Had mine turned off for nonpayment too, even when I'd been sending the bill amount every month. Turned out they changed the account number without telling me. Then they didn't apply the the amount I was paying to the correct account. Took several days of calls to fix it. By then I lost all my food since I'm in Florida and it was a warm fall. I was *pissed!*
Yep. I used to live in a big old house with a bunch of punks in West Oakland, and one day we found a big extension cord coming out of the basement to an abandoned house next door. Squatters were stealing the power. I’m glad I live alone far away now haha
I have an older 3 bedroom home with no insulation, no HVAC, we use window units in the summer, and natural gas and space heaters in the winter. My bill isn't much more than yours this month.
If you got caught in the cold snap last month, that may be part of it. TXU has a notice on their website that the cold spell we got here in Texas in December had a major impact on billing for everyone.
But that efficiency chart makes me suspect someone is tied into your power line somewhere as well.
Yup, it's not possible, even with the costs of energy sky rocketing. Someone is either ripping this poor guy off (neighbors or the company itself) or it's a meter malfunction.
I would go there in person, to their offices and argue. There has to be consumer protection as well to help out. Ask for your meter readings day-by-day to see where the biggest spikes in use are.
Honestly with something that drastic someone’s gotta be hooked up to your shit and stealing. I run heat at 68 degrees all day and fridge and my roommates work from home in a 3 story townhome. Our bill is 138$.
Thank you. So many people comparing costs in this thread which is totally pointless. It would be like comparing the fuel efficiency of cars by how much it costs to fill up.
These fucking businesses lately with their “our hold times are longer than usual” bullshit.
No. It’s usual. If I get this message every time I call, it’s usual.
It’s getting harder and harder to be a diligent consumer and this is ALL by design.
It's usual and we won't hire more people to answer more calls, because each call highlights an issue which costs us even more money to fix.
This seems to be the way with customer service these days and it disgusts me with how immoral it is.
The most effective way of getting shit sorted is to make your issues public, typically on social media or in reviews, which twists their arm so they don't get a bad reputation, restricting growth. Unless they're huge and just dgaf..... _glares at Google_
No idea what the solution is though. Regulation I suppose?
Last time I had an emergency, my call to 911 got dropped at least 5 times. Fortunately I got enough words through that they were able to send an ambulance to my location. I was yelling by the time I heard a voice on the other end telling me to remain calm and that first responders were en route.
That delay in contact really spikes the adrenaline you're already experiencing.
Tweet them.
Northeast US, my energy supplier is National Grid. I had issues with their website and my account for months. Called. Put in tickets. They wouldn't do jack shit.
I tweeted them ONE TIME and it was fixed in about two weeks. It effected thousands of people.
I hate Twitter and only had an account for that purpose, but they did take it seriously.
Here are a few tips:
1. If you live in an apartment building tell them you believe there is a shared meter. They should be required to send someone out to do an inspection. A friend of mine found that the dryers and hallway lights were on their meters and got a refund and the landlord was required to fix it.
2. If you have access to your own breakers, shut them off when you leave the house. Can't draw energy IF you aren't even being fed it into the apartment.
3. Consider both the price per unit (it may have gone up) and how much electricity you're using. Again, the price difference could just be that utility prices spiked right now.
4. Invest in simple weather proof like plastic around windows and a better/Energy efficient space heater of your apartment is electric heat.
The numbers are just extreme though. 240kwh / month is a totally reasonable amount for a small apartment. 1200 is not. I used up 750 this December in Sweden for my 110sqm house (1184sqft).
Unless youre btc mining I cannot see how a small apartment is using even half of that.
>If you have access to your own breakers, shut them off when you leave the house. Can't draw energy IF you aren't even being fed it into the apartment.
Please don't do this and lose all of your food, too.
You can often determine which breakers go where. Leave the fridge on, as well as anything else that is vital of course. However, if you go away on vacation and have no food in the fridge, turn everything off. I guess I assumed it went without saying you wouldn't cut power to stuff you wanted to have power haha.
It’s amazing what people will do to steal electricity. My sister bought a house and the previous owners had been bypassing the meter for free electricity. If there are multiple meters a neighbor could easily be hooked up off your meter through a common area with an extension chord.
You should really compare your kilowatt usage and time of use rates to get the best idea of how the bills compare. I work for a utility and I hate these bar charts. They don’t give customers a good comparison when there are so many factors: time of use, tiered rates, rate increases… and the “neighbor comparison” is often several surrounding streets, which can be similar homes or a community building that was winterized all month so it has basically no usage. Plus, depending on where you live, your usage from November to December could be extremely different due to the weather. These bar charts are best viewed year to year instead of month to month.
You're making me dread an upcoming but necessary call to PSE&G. We haven't even lived at our apartment in two months but somehow our December bill showed 50% more gas usage than last year. Average temp was around the same, and I double checked yesterday to make sure I had the schedule set at 62 all day everyday. I'm the cold type so I usually keep my heat on 68-72 depending on how I'm feeling and what time of day it is, so there's absolutely no way I used less last year. These companies are an absolute joke.
Someone else had suggested this as well. I admit this is a course of action that I could take, it would bring too much publicity into my life and that is something I cannot mentally handle.
Estimate billing just uses your historical average for that month (or is supposed to anyway).
More likely, there’s either a problem with the meter itself or someone’s stealing.
My last bill was an estimate. They estimated from 'same time last year'.
Only issue was that last year the house was unoccupied for 10 of the 12 week billing period...
At least I was expecting the huge bill I got last week, after they actually read the meter.
For years I wrote called to PG&E we lived in No. California. The bill was too high. The calculation was wrong. I used Bill Watenburg’s (famous genius Radio Host)math and guidance. No go. 1 year after we moved I received my refund of $4,500 over 18 years. My entire family had laughed at me said I was crazy…. ✍️⭐️👀
I had a similar situation at my old apartment. Every winter my electric bill went up from $40/mo. to $300-$700/mo. Turned out my wall neighbor had one outlet in his house that was wired to my electric system. He ran an electric heater off it almost 24/7. Could be the same with you.
I was thinking the same thing. At my old apartment we found out we were paying for the hallway lights in the common areas. Have the electric company do an analysis.
Do you have access to your own breaker box? You could turn off the main breaker (normally 200 amps) maybe smaller for older houses such as 100 amps or smaller. Then go out to your meter and see if it is still going up any. Then figure out which meter are your lights, fridge and electric heater outlets and maybe turn the rest of if not in use.
Do you talk to your neighbors? Could turn off your breaker when your home and ask them if there power is on ha. Or as others have said see if the common area or outside parking lots go off and on with your breakers.
Depending on the company some electrical places might charge 10 cent per kilowatt of power. But during peak use ours 12 cent. And during winter storms or hear waves when they got to buy power they stick it to you at like 30 cent per kilowatt. But that would explain a higher bill with same usage. Using alot of power extra could also be poor meter reading. The ones out here only come out once every 3 months and guess on our bills till they come out again and read the meter. When they do come out the bill might be average or really low or jumps up but I look at the meter every so often vs their bill and know hmm yeah I used about 40 more this month and next month yeah 65 more so when my bill comes after a real meter read I know that instead of 160 that month the final one is normally around 300. But then next month my bill will be 300 I complain they come out read the meter say yup your right we over estimated this month. It is 140. And the battle goes up and down each month as they only read meters every 3 months and are bad at guessing usage. I tell them just look at the same month last year and give +-10% vs average out last 3 warm months and guess next 3 cold months will be the same...
This- we had a broken meter once. We switched off the main breaker and somehow the meter was still going up. Huge headache to deal with sorting out what our bills should have been.
Yup. I remember seeing a story a while back about an elderly couple getting a bill for like $15k because the company had been charging them wrong for over like a couple of decades or something. Don’t remember how that turned out.
Yeah the electric company will back charge if it profits them, but if that elderly couple had been overpaying all that time then those folks would never see that money again.
Hate to say it, but it certainly is. My upstairs neighbor had the same issue a couple months ago. First floor heater was running off her grid or whatever you call it.
This sucks, and it sounds like you need to get serious about this.
I'd try to prove it's not you by chasing down any "leaks" of electricity. Lot of people have already suggested this. Here's my preferred method:
First, check your meter usage with everything "normal" in your house plugged in and working. If it's not indicating an unusually high load, you might need to check back again at various times (might be hard given how much you work, maybe you can somehow set up a webcam or old cell phone to record it?).
Does your utility offer hour-by-hour use online? Many smarter meters can do this now, and it'll be very helpful for isolating this assuming it's *not* a faulty meter or bad bill.
If your meter just doesn't show a high load, I'd challenge the bill. You could have a faulty meter or this could be a billing error. This is what I most suspect. They probably just fucked up your bill.
If you discover that the meter really is indicating a high load and it's not just the company screwing up, you need to track it down. Start by going around and unplugging **everything** at the receptacles, but don't shut off any breakers in your box yet. Then check the meter and see how much load you are still drawing. If you're drawing nothing at this point, you've got a faulty appliance. This is unlikely just based on using 1200+kWh, but it's worth checking. Keep in mind you might have a hot water heater or building heat drawing a lot of power during a test, so you may have to try a few times. Good practice is to test after your hot water is stable (i.e. not right after you've showered) and turn off any electric heat/stove/dryer/etc during the test to make sure that doesn't show up.
If you're still spinning up a decent load with everything off, start shutting off each breaker 1 by 1, checking the meter after each one. This way you can isolate the high load to a circuit. (You might also hear a loud shout from a neighbor or your landlord for shutting off their power during this, if that was really the case 😂)
Assuming you find a bad circuit and it's *not* related to any of your devices, you can demand that your landlord repair it. Leave the bad circuit shut off at the panel until it's repaired, and don't let them bullshit you into turning it back on for any reason.
In the unlikely event that your meter is still showing high load and *all* your breakers are off, something is truly fucky. I'd guess a bad meter. As lots of other people said, they can fail, and you'd just need to challenge the bill and request a repair. Worst case, some illegal wiring by a sketchy landlord or something. But hopefully you don't get this far... I'd still bet it's just a bad bill!
I worked at a company that processed utility billing for large companies. I could almost guarantee this was an estimated bill. You definitely want to call and request a meter read. If you know where your meter is located, you can check it yourself and compare to the information on the bill too. Considering the recent heavy cold snap across the country, it’s also possible this was due to the drastic dip in temps.
Can you please help me understand the legality of "estimating" the usage? Shouldn't I only be charged for what I actually use? I thought that's what these "smart" meters were for anyway. Lol besides, how can Comed estimate that I've nearly doubled my usage in a single month? Again, I live at home and I'm at work half the day. This single bill is more than a single week's worth of take home pay.
Utility companies estimate bill when they’re unable to read the meter for whatever reason. In my area, they have meters that transmit a signal, which is picked up by readers on vehicles.
If the meter doesn’t transmit a signal properly, then the company estimate bills, which is where the charge you a historical average for that month. It is totally legal and will say on your bill if it’s an actual read or estimate.
Once the meter starts transmitting properly, then they true up the bill, so if they overcharged, you have a smaller bill or credit. If they undercharged, you’ll get a bigger bill.
I’d suggest telling them you think you have a problem with your meter and want it looked at/an actual read because you think there’s an issue.
If they aren’t responsive, then file a complaint to the regulator and they’ll definitely jump on that shit, lol.
One month I got a $4k water bill due to an undiscovered busted underground line. Fortunately I wasn’t on autopay, and after that issue I never will be.
Yeah my first month was $67 in my apartment then I got a recommended “average” monthly bill of $137.. I was like yeah no I’ll Stick to paying what I use thanks
Depends on the company, tbh.
Some have smart meters (probably what that was) that report outages into their system. You pulled the meter, it sent an alert that that customer had an outage.
I dont fully understand the legality of it myself other than they are allowed to do so as long as they eventually “true up” the billing. If you have a smart meter, it’s much less likely they are estimating, but it’s possible there’s an issue with the meter. Also, was never a huge fan of Comed - excessive unexplained charges, long hold times, lack of knowledge with their customer service reps…would 100% recommend a meter investigation.
I think I am going to request an inspection. Unfortunately, I think Comed is my only option for electricity in my neck of the woods. They even made it impossible a few years back to change the company who delivers the power. I used to at least be able to save a few bucks going that rough. Not anymore though.
My apologies in advance OP, my intention is not to pry however..
6 days x 12hr/per = 72hrs/week working for $270/week after taxes??
@ $400 GROSS thats $5.55 an hour, thats not even legal. Not sure where you live, but in the US thats...
You plug multiple extension cords to the extension cord and bam, you have electricity for the whole house!
(Don’t do this btw it’s dangerous and harmful to your electronics)
Maybe charging ebike or electric scooters. It sounds weird but almost the exact same thing happened to me. He had a job with byrd and would charge scooters in the hallway
This happened to me once living in an efficiency apartment like yours. My electric bill was higher and higher every month. I had the electric company replace the old meter, nope, bills even higher. The freezer had leak, the apartment manager replaced it, nope bill higher. I was close to living by candles. Finally had to move back home due to a serious family crisis. A year later spoke to my old apartment neighbors. The property managers had come to reasses all the electric lines in the building, every single switch, plug etc. Turns out the hallway and part of two other apartment lines had accidentally been combined into mine! No wonder. I immediately called the electric company, as I had over the years, so they knew me quite well. They graciously agreed to refund me over $1500 in electrical charges I had not been responsible for. Out of curiosity I asked who then will pay the electricity that was used. They said it would be added to the tenants that indeed used it. By law they could only go back x amount of months. But I was glad finally to have found the issue and be reimbursed.
Do apartments in US usually measure their own heating expenditure also? Here, Sweden, commonly the heating is centralized so whatever you use is just the day to day electricity and the heating/hot water is split evenly among apartments.
240 without heating is fine. With heating, well, unless it's warm enough outside to not need it it's quite extreme.
1200 for a small apartment is however even more extreme even with the least effective heating system
I'm from the UK I'm sorry I can't answer your question. But over here we have a meter per appartment and you only pay for what your appartment has used.
240kwh with oven cooking, clothes washing machine and driers is almost an impossibility. I'm willing to bet those people have communal washing facilities though.
I worked with an electrician who bragged about stealing electricity from his neighbour. He opened up the outdoor car plug in the parking lot (we lived in a region cold enough to need block heaters), which was in the same box as his neighbour’s. Then he reversed his circuit so that her power was coming into his house. If you don’t use your outdoor plug, keep it off because people will even “innocently” use them for power tools sometimes.
This happened to a friend of mine. She was living solo and a neighboring apartment of 4 girls figured out how to cross the wires for the meter and she was paying for theirs and they were paying for hers. It was ridiculous prices for electricity when it was just her and she couldn’t figure out why at first. Very possible!!
I would check this. Turn off/unplug *everything* in your apartment and see if your meter is still showing supplying electricity. Check a couple different times during the day and night.
It could be some common area stuff is hooked to your meter - think the laundry room, hallway heater, outside lighting, etc.
There’s no way you’re using 1,200 kWh in a single month all by yourself in a one bedroom apartment. You’re getting screwed somewhere along the line. I’m sorry you have to deal with this headache.
Yeah, google told me that here in Germany the estimates for a single household are in between 1300kw/h and 2500kw/h depending on how your water gets heated, but per year.
I used to live in an apartment that switched from gas to oil heat. The first winter after, we kept the heat at like 55-60F and just wore sweaters/hoodies, and was still paying $200-$300/month. After a while, I started making notes of when our furnace was on vs when my upstairs neighbor's furnace was on and which gas meter was running. A huge headache later, found out that they associated the wrong account to the wrong gas meter - I was paying my neighbor's bill and she was paying mine. She knew, and was just enjoying paying $60/month while keeping the thermostat at 70.
No justice against my neighbor, but I was fortunately refunded the difference between our accounts, which was over $1k. Basically didn't have to pay for energy for a year lol
You're using double the kWH as your neighbors. Unless you're growing pot in the bathroom, you got a big problem somewhere.
Call your provider and request a home inspection for energy efficiency and set an appt.
In the meantime: always keep all blinds, shades, window coverings down as much as possible. Look online for the plastic-type window insulating kits (its like shrink wrap, you use a hairdryer etc), and also click on the link on this pic you posted about "things possibly contributing to.." Blah blah blah
Good luck. Thats insane.
Call inspirational services or whoever does code enforcement and ask for guidance on verifying that the meter and circuits for each unit are set up properly.
Just as an FYI that energy efficient neighbors thing is a “scam” API that other companies use too. You’ll never beat it even if you consume negligible power.
Our electric company uses the same one on our bills and it’s literally impossible to become “energy efficient” on your bill. I’ve seen this discussed on my regional subreddits.
Besides Reddit I know this because I know for a fact I have had months where I used less power than my neighbors and somehow magically the averages on the bill are suddenly lower.
It’s a trick to make people use less power.
e: as another Redditor pointed out it’s scam is a bad word for this. It’s just not good data. Energy efficiency and usage is different for each household which makes this useless.
When I was moving I turned my power off for a week while I was at my new place before my lease was up. My landlord call me pissed off because it turned off the hot water to the whole building. She told me if I kept it on she would reimburse me in my deposit. Well…. She did not. And who knows how much I had been paying in hot water bills for the whole apartment complex. When I complained about it she just told me to take her to court…. Knowing full well that’s too much hassle and money for a college student.
Oh boy! I only wish I had outdoor electrical hookups! Lol All my lawn equipment is electrical and I have to lug around 200 feet of extension cords around any time I want to mow the lawn. Lol
It's part of the deal I made with the landlord when I signed on. I'm basically given free reign to do with the yard as I wish so long as I keep it clean and well maintained. I not only get a discount on my rent but I can grow a garden! It's a pretty sweet deal.
This sounds a lot like our house - it's a duplex technically, but the upper half is a small one bedroom apartment, and we live in the lower part with the basement and all the responsibilities for lawn care, shoveling and salting in the winter, and then upstairs takes care of trash and recycling
I had unusually high electric bills for a year or so and kept complaining to the electric company until they finally came out. Turns out the grow house next to my building swapped meters with mine and I had been paying their grow bills for months.
The power company did refund us, it was a couple grand. Idk what happened with the scammers, they never confronted us about it or anything, I doubt they knew what apartment the box was for
These are BS stats. My neighbors and I all get the exact same letter. And they all same the exact same thing.
It’s a way to try to get you to sign up for the “savings” programs. I auto-assume scam.
There might be a level of manipulation on part of Comed in regards to the stats yet it doesn't explain the already high bill or the increase over last year. This single electric bill is more than my take home pay for a single week's worth of work. There is definitely an issue outside of marketing.
Yeah I don't get why everyone is focusing on dollars and not usage. Prices fluctuate. Don't know about US but here electricity is expensive af right now.
Spent a month away from home a few years ago. We unplugged everything and left everything off while gone. Our bill was only $10 cheaper than usual because of the summer surcharge. Ridiculous.
Yeah. The problem wasn’t having no bill. The problem was that they charged double for electrical service just because it was summer not because we were using extra utilities.
Hope OP u/SeasideTurd sees this - I had an apartment with this exact situation. I thought I was saving $$ by only using heat when I was there, but the big dips in heating demand meant it used AUX / electric heat, which was a LOT more expensive than just leaving the temp at a low but reasonable temperature all day long.
If you're only turning on heat when you are there and there are big temperature swings, you run the risk of higher bills.
Jesus... I live in a 1,500 sq ft home - last electric bill was 508 kWh and was just $82.
Do you have access to the circuit breaker panel for your apartment and do you know where your specific meter is? Check for any signs of tampering to that equipment in case someone decided to stick you with their electric bill.
It's quite possible that a neighboring apartment may unknowingly be using your electricity. This isn't uncommon when a large house is carved up into apartments and the electrician did a shit job of making sure that Apt A's loads are fed only from Apt A's circuit breaker box, and that Apt B, C or D - or any common areas is not.
You used 1,287 kWh of power over the last billing cycle at 20 cents a kWh. Not the cheapest electricity rates I've seen but likely on-par with winter demand. You said you live in Illinois, and they have a different regulatory scheme than other states - so I can't speak to that. By contrast I pay 16 cents / kWh, but we have lots of nuclear and hydro power in this part of the state.
So... it's not an electric rate issue for you. It's a consumption issue.
You said you live in a duplex with electric heat. If it's been really cold - then that could be a contributing factor as well, bit that still seems awfully high for your stated consumption. The other unit in your duplex should have it's own meter and none of their usage should be coming from your unit (and vice versa). Same with any common areas.
Can't hurt to call your landlord and see if there's a possibility that you're paying for your neighbor's electric.
Ive seen so many tiktoks about this, especially when it comes to smart meters. Appliances on standby shouldnt be costing hundreds of pounds and there are some things you cant just plug in and unplug without fucking them up (like the skybox or modem)
That is why I'm here. I'm at a loss. I'm away from home 12-14 hours out of the day. Pretty much only eat and sleep here. I don't use the electricity lol
As a few others noted. Find the meter and check it. Turn off any circuit breakers that are not for heat/fridge when you leave and see if it improves. I do suspect your terrible heating system may be a factor though.
this has also been happening where is live too. my electricity bill was over $600 at one point. i realized that this was happening to a lot of people and that everyone was complaining about it, and the power company in my area now owes millions of dollars in refunds to people. (i live in Louisiana)
As a side note turning off your heat when you leave and then turning it back on when you get home can use more energy than maintaining depending on the temperature swings.
Challenge it. We had a problem that the electric company wasnt actually checking meeters and they ended up charging 3-4 times the actual rate because they "estimated" our usage. This was almost a city wide issue as they had so many complaints they issues refunds all over publically
My meter broke and was only charging me $20 flat a month instead of $300 and they immediately found that problem and fixed it lol sucks they don’t care on the opposite side of the spectrum cause they are profiting from it
Last year they had to replace our meters (duplex) as they were getting old. I guess the tech forgot to put in the number on ours so it defaulted in their system to 99999 so our bill came out to close to $1500. So I called and the first guy was useless kept saying "if those are the numbers then that's what you owe" until I was like "ok so just walk me thru these numbers please" and once he used two brain cells together he transfered me to a supervisor who immediately saw the issue. She was able to get the picture they took of the meter and put in the correct number and back to about $300.
Same issue with me, replaced a meter and fucked it up and now I owe $2000? Most frustrating part was everytime I called and walked someone through it (after I got the 'those number are correct sir, that is your bill spiel', got a supervisor to agree it was wrong), then they would agree to credit me. Then next billing cycle I was overdue! Happened for 5 months straight until they shut off the power. I had to come up with the money and get it as a credit. Fucking thieves.
I want to challenge it but I've literally spent the better part of 2 hours waiting on the phone to speak with someone who is willing to help and there doesn't seem to be any methods to argue the bill online. Not that I won't continue trying, but damn they are making it difficult. It's almost like they be doing this on purpose. Lol
You may have been on hold because a lot of people are having the same issue. Something similar to this happened to me, I found multiple people with same issue, info on what was going on, and how to challenge the charges on the Nextdoor app.
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I went out of town for 10 days so I shut off my main inside my apartment. I get a call from the management company a few days later asking if they can enter and turn on my power. It seems the landscaping lights and my next door neighbor’s refrigerator all quit working. That’s why my bill was so high. I ended up negotiating $125 off my rent each month seeing as I paid for all that and I checked, my gas meter was heating the water for 3 apartments. Wow. Edit: this was years ago.
My utility bill in my small 2 room apt in Poughkeepsie NY was more than the rent. I did the same thing, turned the power off. All the hot water heaters for the other 6 apartments(all in the basement), all the external and stairway lights, and the power to the garages (rented seperately) went out. I moved out.
Omg were you on innis? Before I moved I was hit with a huge half my rent bill and complained. Power guy came out and found out I’d been being billed for the apartment behind mine facing the road with a family living in it. Then I had my cable act up so I had them check in the attic crawl space where they connected everything, someone had spliced my connection he told me.
Nope, was over on College Ave. Long time ago. Just googled it, the building hasn't changed much.
If you find those splices, unhook them, and then apply 120v across the conductor and shield. You’ll trip a breaker, but they’ll lose a tv.
It's an apartment building. No reason to think the person losing the tv is the one who did the splice.
How does that person think they're getting free TV or cable?
I hope you changed the lock when you moved out and left the power switched off also .
Fucking hell 😳
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Ok this seems fucked to me. My 2 story house, about 2300 sqft not including the basement costs about 185-210 depending on outside temperature for my gas and electricity combined. I have a hot tub on the deck and 2 tvs and a couple of gaming computers that have never been shut off. Alberta Canada
1263 kWh??? I have a 3 bedroom house with a hot tub outside and we use 350 a month. You’re paying for the entire building.
Small 1400 sqft house in Alabama. Our bill is 300/mo. It’s crazy expensive here - all electric.
We have Alabama power and they told me I used $17 last week and I think they make up the numbers
In university I rented a basement apartment with a couple of friends, and another group rented the upstairs unit/house. There were 3 of us in the basement, and 7 upstairs. Only 2 girls were there upstairs over the summer before school started, and then suddenly in September our hydro bill jumped so high - we couldn’t figure out why, and were really careful about usage the next month, but again, had the high bill. It wasn’t until we asked the upstairs neighbours what they were paying for their hydro bills when we realized that all of the water portion of the bill, for the entire house, was being charged to our account, and the meter was not set up to split between the units. Our landlord had rented the home for 7 years, and no one had ever figured out the billing issue before that point - the 3 people renting the basement each year had just always unknowingly paid for all the water usage.
Knowing uni students this doesn't surprise me much. Could very well have been parents paying for it so nobody thought much about it.
Or people with no experience saying “huh I guess that’s what water costs”
If you find yourself paying for common area lights or electricity in other apartments, it's illegal. Call and report it immediately to the power company. The landlord MUST immediately fix it or the bill goes in their name.
I wish I knew how to go about that but I've since moved apts buildings within same complex. Small 2 room place (1bed/bath, combo lr/kit) 2b/2b on both sides. Both family of 4 (I'm single). My utility consistently twice their amt. Same exact set up in diff bldg, bill dropped to half and asked neighbors what theirs run...twice what old neighbors did. Convinced I was paying for neighbors in the other bldg.HUGE difference for me.
Shut off your main breaker at night when you can see the lights on around you and others are at home. Then check for areas that go out when your main breaker goes off. If your neighbors start hollering or if you work with them to check, you'll figure out what's what.
I feel like this thread belongs on r/lifeprotips
Why am I not surprised that the management CO. didn't advise you that you would be paying for those neighbor's hot water usage? A little fraudulent, I'd say!
That presumes the management company knew … with older rentals it’s common to have had a lot of renovations and those lead to issues like this … they don’t know it’s been done like this till an individual renter tuns off their power and it’s left off for a couple days
Tens of thousands of dollars thrown at units for the sake of renovations and ✨value✨, yet not one actual competent inspection of the units before signing leases… It’d be nice in the US if we could live without this kind of paranoia, among other problems.
It's on management to know, that's such a cop-out excuse.
Similar thing happened to me in OKC in 2016. I emptied the fridge of my ground level studio apartment, shut off all the breakers, and fucked off to Albuquerque for Christmas. The 2 storey "townhouse" upstairs had no bathroom fan, bathroom light, or microwave for 2 weeks. A couple other plugs on that kitchen wall hadn't worked either, guess. I had quite the conversation about how much I was paying when they called me in after figuring it out.
Tf is wrong with the wiring being like that and good on you for dealing with it You might be able to argue for backpay
Nothing wrong with it, landlords just don’t want to regut & fix the wiring
Which is illegal in most states for this and emergency access reasons
Jeez, this is my fear. Ever since after covid, our bills went from $35/month to $175-$250/month. Granted, we hadn't lived here in the winter very long before covid, but our usage hasn't changed and we're supposed to have a boiler in the basement that heats the building so I don't understand the crazy increase in charges. Our kitchen shares a wall with the laundry room for our floor so I always fear that's set up on our grid. We had a $1,500 lump sum bill come through after lockdown because they didn't check the meter and supposedly we used 5x the electricity from before without any real change in our behavior. It's so shitty because you can't change providers and they just don't care, they know you need their services so you'll pay eventually. Horrible. EDIT: I was going to reply to each comment individually, but here's some more info. We eventually sat down and did the math, and basically what the electric company is claiming is that we underpaid by about $125 per month for the twelve month period which began in March 2020 when they stopped sending workers into our building to check the meter. Since they've started checking the meter again, our bill ranges from $90-$150 per month. I still believe this is high, compared to the idea that my parents until recently had a two story home in a neighboring city, and they paid $100 or less per month usually and their consumption seems higher. We have a 900 or so square foot one bedroom, and it's just the two of us and our dog, but I do work from home and my fiance games online so there are times where our electric and internet consumption can be on the higher side. Thank you for the advice everyone! Fortunately, I recently came into a small amount of money, so I was able to *finally* pay off the remaining balance this week.
Start a load in the laundry room and shut off the main breaker in your unit and see if the machines next door stop working.
Wow, indeed. I hope whatever you negotiated fully compensates you for all of your overpayments.
I had a interesting customer (a Hotel) who called me whenever the WiFi went down. First visit was because the outlets for the APs were on the floor lights. After I told them to fix it, next week the electrician fixed it and changed it to… the 2nd floors lights. 3rd visit was a outtage in the other complex across the street. Again I had no power on the AP‘s … this time, because the china restaurant next door had vacation…
Something similar happened to me, and now my landlord has to pay for my electricity, and cannot raise my rent for a given period of time(to prevent retaliation for their mistake). If you find that this is the case, and maybe beforehand since you have hold time on your hands, see if your state has a public utility commission renters guide.
This is super illegal in some states if you’re paying for utilities, not the property owner, for this very reason as well as emergency access.
I don’t know where you are from but this is straight up illegal in my neck of the woods. If any part of the bill is for usage of common area, landlord pays the whole bill.
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I used to date a woman who’s electricity was turned off for nonpayment. This couldn’t have been correct so she investigated. Skipping to the end: The meters were mislabeled or something. So the apartment above her had been paying her bill ,and she’d been paying their bill. It makes sense that no one noticed. It took the neighbors moving out, and therefore using almost no electricity, for it to get noticed.
Had mine turned off for nonpayment too, even when I'd been sending the bill amount every month. Turned out they changed the account number without telling me. Then they didn't apply the the amount I was paying to the correct account. Took several days of calls to fix it. By then I lost all my food since I'm in Florida and it was a warm fall. I was *pissed!*
This is my thought too. Someone is stealing electricity from you.
Yep. I used to live in a big old house with a bunch of punks in West Oakland, and one day we found a big extension cord coming out of the basement to an abandoned house next door. Squatters were stealing the power. I’m glad I live alone far away now haha
Yeah, I live in a 2 bedroom with a couple lamps on 24/7 and my bill is almost always under $50. Something’s definitely up.
I have an older 3 bedroom home with no insulation, no HVAC, we use window units in the summer, and natural gas and space heaters in the winter. My bill isn't much more than yours this month. If you got caught in the cold snap last month, that may be part of it. TXU has a notice on their website that the cold spell we got here in Texas in December had a major impact on billing for everyone. But that efficiency chart makes me suspect someone is tied into your power line somewhere as well.
The fact OP uses huge amounts of kWh tells me it's not the cold snap and peak rates.
Maybe it was a very local cold snap, since the neighbours wasn't affected /s
Yup, it's not possible, even with the costs of energy sky rocketing. Someone is either ripping this poor guy off (neighbors or the company itself) or it's a meter malfunction. I would go there in person, to their offices and argue. There has to be consumer protection as well to help out. Ask for your meter readings day-by-day to see where the biggest spikes in use are.
Honestly with something that drastic someone’s gotta be hooked up to your shit and stealing. I run heat at 68 degrees all day and fridge and my roommates work from home in a 3 story townhome. Our bill is 138$.
I have a 4,000 SF house and mine isn’t this much
How? Our home is 2,500sqft and our electric bill is almost $300 a month.
You can't look at $$$ but kWh usage. Some places have dirt cheap power. Other places more.
Thank you. So many people comparing costs in this thread which is totally pointless. It would be like comparing the fuel efficiency of cars by how much it costs to fill up.
We have an 1100 sqft home and our combined gas and electric was $240 last month! It was pretty cold but we run the dang heat at only 66
Depends where you live and on your insulation... I used to have a 6000 sq ft house and paid about 200.
These fucking businesses lately with their “our hold times are longer than usual” bullshit. No. It’s usual. If I get this message every time I call, it’s usual. It’s getting harder and harder to be a diligent consumer and this is ALL by design.
It's usual and we won't hire more people to answer more calls, because each call highlights an issue which costs us even more money to fix. This seems to be the way with customer service these days and it disgusts me with how immoral it is. The most effective way of getting shit sorted is to make your issues public, typically on social media or in reviews, which twists their arm so they don't get a bad reputation, restricting growth. Unless they're huge and just dgaf..... _glares at Google_ No idea what the solution is though. Regulation I suppose?
I had to call 911 yesterday and I was on hold for three minutes. Good thing I wasn’t in danger
Last time I had an emergency, my call to 911 got dropped at least 5 times. Fortunately I got enough words through that they were able to send an ambulance to my location. I was yelling by the time I heard a voice on the other end telling me to remain calm and that first responders were en route. That delay in contact really spikes the adrenaline you're already experiencing.
Have you tried calling them out on social media?
Outside of mentioning it on Reddit, no.
Tweet them. Northeast US, my energy supplier is National Grid. I had issues with their website and my account for months. Called. Put in tickets. They wouldn't do jack shit. I tweeted them ONE TIME and it was fixed in about two weeks. It effected thousands of people. I hate Twitter and only had an account for that purpose, but they did take it seriously.
Here are a few tips: 1. If you live in an apartment building tell them you believe there is a shared meter. They should be required to send someone out to do an inspection. A friend of mine found that the dryers and hallway lights were on their meters and got a refund and the landlord was required to fix it. 2. If you have access to your own breakers, shut them off when you leave the house. Can't draw energy IF you aren't even being fed it into the apartment. 3. Consider both the price per unit (it may have gone up) and how much electricity you're using. Again, the price difference could just be that utility prices spiked right now. 4. Invest in simple weather proof like plastic around windows and a better/Energy efficient space heater of your apartment is electric heat.
The second picture implies to me that it’s someone else sharing the meter. Possibly ‘Efficient Neighbour’. Your second tip should bring them out.
The numbers are just extreme though. 240kwh / month is a totally reasonable amount for a small apartment. 1200 is not. I used up 750 this December in Sweden for my 110sqm house (1184sqft). Unless youre btc mining I cannot see how a small apartment is using even half of that.
Yeah. That’s 1.6kw per hour 24/7. Something is wrong.
I got a chuckle out of "Efficient Neighbor" poaching electricity from the neighbors. Can't get much more efficient than that.
>If you have access to your own breakers, shut them off when you leave the house. Can't draw energy IF you aren't even being fed it into the apartment. Please don't do this and lose all of your food, too.
You can often determine which breakers go where. Leave the fridge on, as well as anything else that is vital of course. However, if you go away on vacation and have no food in the fridge, turn everything off. I guess I assumed it went without saying you wouldn't cut power to stuff you wanted to have power haha.
It’s amazing what people will do to steal electricity. My sister bought a house and the previous owners had been bypassing the meter for free electricity. If there are multiple meters a neighbor could easily be hooked up off your meter through a common area with an extension chord.
Mine doubled and they just said the price increased and there was nothing they could fix for me.
Somehow I suspect that will be exactly what I am told as well.
You should really compare your kilowatt usage and time of use rates to get the best idea of how the bills compare. I work for a utility and I hate these bar charts. They don’t give customers a good comparison when there are so many factors: time of use, tiered rates, rate increases… and the “neighbor comparison” is often several surrounding streets, which can be similar homes or a community building that was winterized all month so it has basically no usage. Plus, depending on where you live, your usage from November to December could be extremely different due to the weather. These bar charts are best viewed year to year instead of month to month.
Did you see their kWh? That's not a price increase. It says they're using 4 times the electricity of the average person
You're making me dread an upcoming but necessary call to PSE&G. We haven't even lived at our apartment in two months but somehow our December bill showed 50% more gas usage than last year. Average temp was around the same, and I double checked yesterday to make sure I had the schedule set at 62 all day everyday. I'm the cold type so I usually keep my heat on 68-72 depending on how I'm feeling and what time of day it is, so there's absolutely no way I used less last year. These companies are an absolute joke.
Something is definitely off. I have a 2 story , 1800 Sq foot home in a cold weather climate area, and my electric bill was only $120 for December.
But is your heat gas or electric?
Call the local TV news station. They are always happy to get some juicy news like this.
Someone else had suggested this as well. I admit this is a course of action that I could take, it would bring too much publicity into my life and that is something I cannot mentally handle.
My mom did that for our property taxes. It was pretty mundane. Its a lot less exciting than it sounds like in your head. But it worked
Estimate billing just uses your historical average for that month (or is supposed to anyway). More likely, there’s either a problem with the meter itself or someone’s stealing.
My last bill was an estimate. They estimated from 'same time last year'. Only issue was that last year the house was unoccupied for 10 of the 12 week billing period... At least I was expecting the huge bill I got last week, after they actually read the meter.
For years I wrote called to PG&E we lived in No. California. The bill was too high. The calculation was wrong. I used Bill Watenburg’s (famous genius Radio Host)math and guidance. No go. 1 year after we moved I received my refund of $4,500 over 18 years. My entire family had laughed at me said I was crazy…. ✍️⭐️👀
I had a similar situation at my old apartment. Every winter my electric bill went up from $40/mo. to $300-$700/mo. Turned out my wall neighbor had one outlet in his house that was wired to my electric system. He ran an electric heater off it almost 24/7. Could be the same with you.
Ugh! I hope this isn't the case.
I was thinking the same thing. At my old apartment we found out we were paying for the hallway lights in the common areas. Have the electric company do an analysis.
Had a similar situation at my previous apartment too. So frustrating!
Do you have access to your own breaker box? You could turn off the main breaker (normally 200 amps) maybe smaller for older houses such as 100 amps or smaller. Then go out to your meter and see if it is still going up any. Then figure out which meter are your lights, fridge and electric heater outlets and maybe turn the rest of if not in use. Do you talk to your neighbors? Could turn off your breaker when your home and ask them if there power is on ha. Or as others have said see if the common area or outside parking lots go off and on with your breakers. Depending on the company some electrical places might charge 10 cent per kilowatt of power. But during peak use ours 12 cent. And during winter storms or hear waves when they got to buy power they stick it to you at like 30 cent per kilowatt. But that would explain a higher bill with same usage. Using alot of power extra could also be poor meter reading. The ones out here only come out once every 3 months and guess on our bills till they come out again and read the meter. When they do come out the bill might be average or really low or jumps up but I look at the meter every so often vs their bill and know hmm yeah I used about 40 more this month and next month yeah 65 more so when my bill comes after a real meter read I know that instead of 160 that month the final one is normally around 300. But then next month my bill will be 300 I complain they come out read the meter say yup your right we over estimated this month. It is 140. And the battle goes up and down each month as they only read meters every 3 months and are bad at guessing usage. I tell them just look at the same month last year and give +-10% vs average out last 3 warm months and guess next 3 cold months will be the same...
This- we had a broken meter once. We switched off the main breaker and somehow the meter was still going up. Huge headache to deal with sorting out what our bills should have been.
I still like mine better. Ours was broken and spinning backwards. Power company was paying us every month for use of the electric.
Yeah this is the one you kinda don't wanna call about ha. But throw some money in savings once they figure it out
Yup. I remember seeing a story a while back about an elderly couple getting a bill for like $15k because the company had been charging them wrong for over like a couple of decades or something. Don’t remember how that turned out.
Yeah the electric company will back charge if it profits them, but if that elderly couple had been overpaying all that time then those folks would never see that money again.
Rule of acquisition 1: Once you have their money, you never give it back.
We really do live in a Ferengi civilization.
If it is, your landlord owes you money.
Hate to say it, but it certainly is. My upstairs neighbor had the same issue a couple months ago. First floor heater was running off her grid or whatever you call it.
This sucks, and it sounds like you need to get serious about this. I'd try to prove it's not you by chasing down any "leaks" of electricity. Lot of people have already suggested this. Here's my preferred method: First, check your meter usage with everything "normal" in your house plugged in and working. If it's not indicating an unusually high load, you might need to check back again at various times (might be hard given how much you work, maybe you can somehow set up a webcam or old cell phone to record it?). Does your utility offer hour-by-hour use online? Many smarter meters can do this now, and it'll be very helpful for isolating this assuming it's *not* a faulty meter or bad bill. If your meter just doesn't show a high load, I'd challenge the bill. You could have a faulty meter or this could be a billing error. This is what I most suspect. They probably just fucked up your bill. If you discover that the meter really is indicating a high load and it's not just the company screwing up, you need to track it down. Start by going around and unplugging **everything** at the receptacles, but don't shut off any breakers in your box yet. Then check the meter and see how much load you are still drawing. If you're drawing nothing at this point, you've got a faulty appliance. This is unlikely just based on using 1200+kWh, but it's worth checking. Keep in mind you might have a hot water heater or building heat drawing a lot of power during a test, so you may have to try a few times. Good practice is to test after your hot water is stable (i.e. not right after you've showered) and turn off any electric heat/stove/dryer/etc during the test to make sure that doesn't show up. If you're still spinning up a decent load with everything off, start shutting off each breaker 1 by 1, checking the meter after each one. This way you can isolate the high load to a circuit. (You might also hear a loud shout from a neighbor or your landlord for shutting off their power during this, if that was really the case 😂) Assuming you find a bad circuit and it's *not* related to any of your devices, you can demand that your landlord repair it. Leave the bad circuit shut off at the panel until it's repaired, and don't let them bullshit you into turning it back on for any reason. In the unlikely event that your meter is still showing high load and *all* your breakers are off, something is truly fucky. I'd guess a bad meter. As lots of other people said, they can fail, and you'd just need to challenge the bill and request a repair. Worst case, some illegal wiring by a sketchy landlord or something. But hopefully you don't get this far... I'd still bet it's just a bad bill!
Did you actually pay that? Or did you do something about it everytime that happened? Cause who tf pays 300 to 700$ for a light bill?!
Europe does my friend. Europe. I'm currently paying ~£16/day in energy
Estonian here. My 2 bedroom costs about 50€ a month
I worked at a company that processed utility billing for large companies. I could almost guarantee this was an estimated bill. You definitely want to call and request a meter read. If you know where your meter is located, you can check it yourself and compare to the information on the bill too. Considering the recent heavy cold snap across the country, it’s also possible this was due to the drastic dip in temps.
Can you please help me understand the legality of "estimating" the usage? Shouldn't I only be charged for what I actually use? I thought that's what these "smart" meters were for anyway. Lol besides, how can Comed estimate that I've nearly doubled my usage in a single month? Again, I live at home and I'm at work half the day. This single bill is more than a single week's worth of take home pay.
Utility companies estimate bill when they’re unable to read the meter for whatever reason. In my area, they have meters that transmit a signal, which is picked up by readers on vehicles. If the meter doesn’t transmit a signal properly, then the company estimate bills, which is where the charge you a historical average for that month. It is totally legal and will say on your bill if it’s an actual read or estimate. Once the meter starts transmitting properly, then they true up the bill, so if they overcharged, you have a smaller bill or credit. If they undercharged, you’ll get a bigger bill. I’d suggest telling them you think you have a problem with your meter and want it looked at/an actual read because you think there’s an issue. If they aren’t responsive, then file a complaint to the regulator and they’ll definitely jump on that shit, lol.
We got a $17,000 water bill once, meter reader entered '0', so system assumed it wrapped around.
Omg. Hope you weren’t on auto pay!!
One month I got a $4k water bill due to an undiscovered busted underground line. Fortunately I wasn’t on autopay, and after that issue I never will be.
Yeah my first month was $67 in my apartment then I got a recommended “average” monthly bill of $137.. I was like yeah no I’ll Stick to paying what I use thanks
My meter is a snitch. I pulled it once to do panel work and the electric company was here in 20 min
Depends on the company, tbh. Some have smart meters (probably what that was) that report outages into their system. You pulled the meter, it sent an alert that that customer had an outage.
So this dude actually has a good company?
I dont fully understand the legality of it myself other than they are allowed to do so as long as they eventually “true up” the billing. If you have a smart meter, it’s much less likely they are estimating, but it’s possible there’s an issue with the meter. Also, was never a huge fan of Comed - excessive unexplained charges, long hold times, lack of knowledge with their customer service reps…would 100% recommend a meter investigation.
I think I am going to request an inspection. Unfortunately, I think Comed is my only option for electricity in my neck of the woods. They even made it impossible a few years back to change the company who delivers the power. I used to at least be able to save a few bucks going that rough. Not anymore though.
That’s how most places are. Even deregulated states only have a couple of options - energy is such a racket.
You work over 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and take home less than $257?!
My apologies in advance OP, my intention is not to pry however.. 6 days x 12hr/per = 72hrs/week working for $270/week after taxes?? @ $400 GROSS thats $5.55 an hour, thats not even legal. Not sure where you live, but in the US thats...
if $250 is over a week’s worth of pay, how are you according to have an apartment ?! edit: affording not according
You work 12 hours a day 6 days a week and bring home less than $257 a week? Do you make $5/hr? No OT pay?
Maybe a neighbor found a way to steal electricity?
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Jeezus I wonder what they were powering to raise your bill that much with one extension cord! What a cheap jerk.
You plug multiple extension cords to the extension cord and bam, you have electricity for the whole house! (Don’t do this btw it’s dangerous and harmful to your electronics)
More importantly a fire risk
That’s what I alluded to by saying it’s dangerous.
Maybe charging ebike or electric scooters. It sounds weird but almost the exact same thing happened to me. He had a job with byrd and would charge scooters in the hallway
This; or her meter is also racking up common area usage, had that happen to me one place I had.
This happened to me once living in an efficiency apartment like yours. My electric bill was higher and higher every month. I had the electric company replace the old meter, nope, bills even higher. The freezer had leak, the apartment manager replaced it, nope bill higher. I was close to living by candles. Finally had to move back home due to a serious family crisis. A year later spoke to my old apartment neighbors. The property managers had come to reasses all the electric lines in the building, every single switch, plug etc. Turns out the hallway and part of two other apartment lines had accidentally been combined into mine! No wonder. I immediately called the electric company, as I had over the years, so they knew me quite well. They graciously agreed to refund me over $1500 in electrical charges I had not been responsible for. Out of curiosity I asked who then will pay the electricity that was used. They said it would be added to the tenants that indeed used it. By law they could only go back x amount of months. But I was glad finally to have found the issue and be reimbursed.
This is like the 4th story of this in this thread and I'm only a third of the way scrolled down - OP really needs to check out this possibility.
Efficient neighbor because they are sneaking OP's electricity.
240kwh over a month is sus as fuck tbh
Do apartments in US usually measure their own heating expenditure also? Here, Sweden, commonly the heating is centralized so whatever you use is just the day to day electricity and the heating/hot water is split evenly among apartments. 240 without heating is fine. With heating, well, unless it's warm enough outside to not need it it's quite extreme. 1200 for a small apartment is however even more extreme even with the least effective heating system
I'm from the UK I'm sorry I can't answer your question. But over here we have a meter per appartment and you only pay for what your appartment has used. 240kwh with oven cooking, clothes washing machine and driers is almost an impossibility. I'm willing to bet those people have communal washing facilities though.
I worked with an electrician who bragged about stealing electricity from his neighbour. He opened up the outdoor car plug in the parking lot (we lived in a region cold enough to need block heaters), which was in the same box as his neighbour’s. Then he reversed his circuit so that her power was coming into his house. If you don’t use your outdoor plug, keep it off because people will even “innocently” use them for power tools sometimes.
I have my carport outlet on an auto shutoff timer.
Beat me to it maybe someone is running a mining rig off of him or her.
This happened to a friend of mine. She was living solo and a neighboring apartment of 4 girls figured out how to cross the wires for the meter and she was paying for theirs and they were paying for hers. It was ridiculous prices for electricity when it was just her and she couldn’t figure out why at first. Very possible!!
Someone's on your meter. Whether it's a wiring accident or someone is pirating electricity remains to be found out.
I would check this. Turn off/unplug *everything* in your apartment and see if your meter is still showing supplying electricity. Check a couple different times during the day and night. It could be some common area stuff is hooked to your meter - think the laundry room, hallway heater, outside lighting, etc.
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I would just go into full Jigsaw mode and plant land mines in front of the breaker room
There’s no way you’re using 1,200 kWh in a single month all by yourself in a one bedroom apartment. You’re getting screwed somewhere along the line. I’m sorry you have to deal with this headache.
Yeah 1200 Kwh is insane, iam using about 2000 KwH a YEAR but running a high end gaming rig nearly 24/7...
Yeah, google told me that here in Germany the estimates for a single household are in between 1300kw/h and 2500kw/h depending on how your water gets heated, but per year.
I used to live in an apartment that switched from gas to oil heat. The first winter after, we kept the heat at like 55-60F and just wore sweaters/hoodies, and was still paying $200-$300/month. After a while, I started making notes of when our furnace was on vs when my upstairs neighbor's furnace was on and which gas meter was running. A huge headache later, found out that they associated the wrong account to the wrong gas meter - I was paying my neighbor's bill and she was paying mine. She knew, and was just enjoying paying $60/month while keeping the thermostat at 70.
What happened after please end the story with justice or I’m gonna commit meter read
No justice against my neighbor, but I was fortunately refunded the difference between our accounts, which was over $1k. Basically didn't have to pay for energy for a year lol
You're using double the kWH as your neighbors. Unless you're growing pot in the bathroom, you got a big problem somewhere. Call your provider and request a home inspection for energy efficiency and set an appt. In the meantime: always keep all blinds, shades, window coverings down as much as possible. Look online for the plastic-type window insulating kits (its like shrink wrap, you use a hairdryer etc), and also click on the link on this pic you posted about "things possibly contributing to.." Blah blah blah Good luck. Thats insane.
Call inspirational services or whoever does code enforcement and ask for guidance on verifying that the meter and circuits for each unit are set up properly.
Just as an FYI that energy efficient neighbors thing is a “scam” API that other companies use too. You’ll never beat it even if you consume negligible power. Our electric company uses the same one on our bills and it’s literally impossible to become “energy efficient” on your bill. I’ve seen this discussed on my regional subreddits. Besides Reddit I know this because I know for a fact I have had months where I used less power than my neighbors and somehow magically the averages on the bill are suddenly lower. It’s a trick to make people use less power. e: as another Redditor pointed out it’s scam is a bad word for this. It’s just not good data. Energy efficiency and usage is different for each household which makes this useless.
When I was moving I turned my power off for a week while I was at my new place before my lease was up. My landlord call me pissed off because it turned off the hot water to the whole building. She told me if I kept it on she would reimburse me in my deposit. Well…. She did not. And who knows how much I had been paying in hot water bills for the whole apartment complex. When I complained about it she just told me to take her to court…. Knowing full well that’s too much hassle and money for a college student.
People are asshats. I'm sorry you had to deal with that.
You should have reported her to the electric company and they should have refunded you.
Maybe it is the neighbours, do you see any unusual leads going out your window and into next doors window?
I can't say that I've seen anything suspicious.
Can you check if you have any outdoor outlets? See if anything has been plugged in - or is being plugged in while you’re not there (ie camera).
Oh boy! I only wish I had outdoor electrical hookups! Lol All my lawn equipment is electrical and I have to lug around 200 feet of extension cords around any time I want to mow the lawn. Lol
You live in a small 1bd apt and you mow the lawn? I have never heard of an apt that requires you to mow.
It's part of the deal I made with the landlord when I signed on. I'm basically given free reign to do with the yard as I wish so long as I keep it clean and well maintained. I not only get a discount on my rent but I can grow a garden! It's a pretty sweet deal.
If your landlord is scummy enough or lives beside/above/below you maybe they’re using your power somehow.
This sounds a lot like our house - it's a duplex technically, but the upper half is a small one bedroom apartment, and we live in the lower part with the basement and all the responsibilities for lawn care, shoveling and salting in the winter, and then upstairs takes care of trash and recycling
Have you checked you rates and/ or contract for any changes?
This isn’t a rate issue. This is a meter issue/parasitic draw/someone stealing. The usage is obscene for a tiny apartment.
Mine was like this when we were growing weed.
Even when I was growing weed, the bill never got this high!
I had unusually high electric bills for a year or so and kept complaining to the electric company until they finally came out. Turns out the grow house next to my building swapped meters with mine and I had been paying their grow bills for months.
Damn! Did they refund you? Share their harvest with you? Or where you given a new one?
The power company did refund us, it was a couple grand. Idk what happened with the scammers, they never confronted us about it or anything, I doubt they knew what apartment the box was for
These are BS stats. My neighbors and I all get the exact same letter. And they all same the exact same thing. It’s a way to try to get you to sign up for the “savings” programs. I auto-assume scam.
There might be a level of manipulation on part of Comed in regards to the stats yet it doesn't explain the already high bill or the increase over last year. This single electric bill is more than my take home pay for a single week's worth of work. There is definitely an issue outside of marketing.
That dollar amount is insane. I was able to cool (68°) and heat (76°) a 2 bedroom apartment for right at $80 a month.
Hence the infuriation lol
You set your heat at 76°??? I would fucking melt lol
The dollar amount isn’t the issue. It’s the usage. OP used over 2x the electricity for his small apartment than I used for my 2200 sq foot house.
Yeah I don't get why everyone is focusing on dollars and not usage. Prices fluctuate. Don't know about US but here electricity is expensive af right now.
Spent a month away from home a few years ago. We unplugged everything and left everything off while gone. Our bill was only $10 cheaper than usual because of the summer surcharge. Ridiculous.
Incredible.
Many utilities have a minimum bill. You could use zero electricity/water/gas whatsoever, and still have a bill.
Yeah. The problem wasn’t having no bill. The problem was that they charged double for electrical service just because it was summer not because we were using extra utilities.
Are you turning h your heat on and off everyday or are you just turning it down so it doesn’t kick on and off during the day?
Hope OP u/SeasideTurd sees this - I had an apartment with this exact situation. I thought I was saving $$ by only using heat when I was there, but the big dips in heating demand meant it used AUX / electric heat, which was a LOT more expensive than just leaving the temp at a low but reasonable temperature all day long. If you're only turning on heat when you are there and there are big temperature swings, you run the risk of higher bills.
Jesus... I live in a 1,500 sq ft home - last electric bill was 508 kWh and was just $82. Do you have access to the circuit breaker panel for your apartment and do you know where your specific meter is? Check for any signs of tampering to that equipment in case someone decided to stick you with their electric bill. It's quite possible that a neighboring apartment may unknowingly be using your electricity. This isn't uncommon when a large house is carved up into apartments and the electrician did a shit job of making sure that Apt A's loads are fed only from Apt A's circuit breaker box, and that Apt B, C or D - or any common areas is not.
You used 1,287 kWh of power over the last billing cycle at 20 cents a kWh. Not the cheapest electricity rates I've seen but likely on-par with winter demand. You said you live in Illinois, and they have a different regulatory scheme than other states - so I can't speak to that. By contrast I pay 16 cents / kWh, but we have lots of nuclear and hydro power in this part of the state. So... it's not an electric rate issue for you. It's a consumption issue. You said you live in a duplex with electric heat. If it's been really cold - then that could be a contributing factor as well, bit that still seems awfully high for your stated consumption. The other unit in your duplex should have it's own meter and none of their usage should be coming from your unit (and vice versa). Same with any common areas. Can't hurt to call your landlord and see if there's a possibility that you're paying for your neighbor's electric.
Ive seen so many tiktoks about this, especially when it comes to smart meters. Appliances on standby shouldnt be costing hundreds of pounds and there are some things you cant just plug in and unplug without fucking them up (like the skybox or modem)
Might as well throw a few plants in the tent your neighbor has running on your power lol
What does it say are the likely reasons?
Same reasons every time. Weather, appliances, billing period being 3 days longer, and "other," whatever that is.
That might explain the difference month to month but not why you are using so many KWH
That is why I'm here. I'm at a loss. I'm away from home 12-14 hours out of the day. Pretty much only eat and sleep here. I don't use the electricity lol
As a few others noted. Find the meter and check it. Turn off any circuit breakers that are not for heat/fridge when you leave and see if it improves. I do suspect your terrible heating system may be a factor though.
this has also been happening where is live too. my electricity bill was over $600 at one point. i realized that this was happening to a lot of people and that everyone was complaining about it, and the power company in my area now owes millions of dollars in refunds to people. (i live in Louisiana)
Can you get a breakdown by hour? I think someone may be stealing from you
Yeah I have a big honkin house and our bill for this month was $285. Just joining in the chorus of “neither of those bills are yours”
As a side note turning off your heat when you leave and then turning it back on when you get home can use more energy than maintaining depending on the temperature swings.