A friendy tip regarding power bills

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BassTek

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 13, 2002
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If you're on estimated billing and you start folding make sure to update the power company with accurate readings monthly. If not this might happen:

powerug3.jpg


My last bill based on actual readings before August was May. Now mind you, this is a combination of me not living in the place full time until May so the estimations were already off, along with AC, and adding 2 folding boxen and a PS3.. so it might not be that bad for you. I'll definitely be entering my meter readings every month from here on it though. :D

 
IcedEmotion said:
If you're on estimated billing and you start folding make sure to update the power company with accurate readings monthly. If not this might happen:

powerug3.jpg


My last bill based on actual readings before August was May. Now mind you, this is a combination of me not living in the place full time until May so the estimations were already off, along with AC, and adding 2 folding boxen and a PS3.. so it might not be that bad for you. I'll definitely be entering my meter readings every month from here on it though. :D

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First, estimated readings should be illegal. Virtually every new electric meter installed over the past few years can send its readings back through the power grid to be used for billing purposes.

Second, the entire structure of the power producing community needs a total overhaul. First we get charged, surcharged and taxed on the production of power. The people who produce the power sell it to the people who bring it to your home. Those people also get to charge, surcharge and of course collect tax from the customer. Add to that fact that the power produced in your local area is often sold to a distribution company many states away while we end up paying higher rates for “transmission” because we get our power from a generator located several states away.

We won’t even start to discuss what happens when the generator that supplies your power suddenly breaks and your transmission and generation costs go through the roof all the while the power company you pay is screaming at government to adjust your rates in an upward direction regardless of the fact they created the original problem.

Sorry for the rant but we are all being screwed over from so many places at the same time I tend to get a bit angry from time to time.;)




 
I'm not sure what OP meant by estimated billing, but our power company offers a deal where they take your previous payments and average them so your bills stay relatively the same each month. They estimate an amount monthly and then true you up at the end of the year. For new service or major changes you give them your estimates. If that is what OP is talking about I think the point is to make sure you account for things like folding.
 
schulzpm said:
I'm not sure what OP meant by estimated billing, but our power company offers a deal where they take your previous payments and average them so your bills stay relatively the same each month. They estimate an amount monthly and then true you up at the end of the year. For new service or major changes you give them your estimates. If that is what OP is talking about I think the point is to make sure you account for things like folding.
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Estimated billing is the power companies way of saying they fired all the meter readers and until something better comes along they estimate your bill based on previous use.

My power company offers what you described as well and I use it because it prevents shocks of a financial nature.

Here in PA the price CAPS put in place on pricing run out next year so our charitable power company PPL is saying we know you can’t afford to pay the bills when the rates go up so feel free to pay us ahead of time and we will pay you 6% interest on your money and in this way we are helping you offset the future higher costs. Naturally that 6% is subject to taxes.;)


 
I'm stuck with a estimate-read-estimate-read/compared to last year agenda. Since I crnaked up the folding effort, I've been nervously awaiting that 'correction'.

Knocks on particle board....
 
schulzpm said:
I'm not sure what OP meant by estimated billing, but our power company offers a deal where they take your previous payments and average them so your bills stay relatively the same each month. They estimate an amount monthly and then true you up at the end of the year. For new service or major changes you give them your estimates. If that is what OP is talking about I think the point is to make sure you account for things like folding.
Click to expand...

Basically what I meant is that some power companies like mine are too cheap/lazy to send a guy out to read meters every month so the billing cycle is actual -> estimated -> estimated -> actual. We have the equalized payment plan as well, but I didn't sign up for it as I would probably be stuck paying even more at the end of the year.

Luckily they give the option to submit your own readings, so I'll be doing that from here on in. I was expecting a large bill eventually so it wasn't really a surprise, but I would like to avoid them in the future.

 
LOL... um that's my avg monthly bill atm, but I do agree estimated bills suck.

 
I just give the power company my meter reading over the internet when they ask for them.
As my account is online its easy.

Luck ............ :D
 
There are also those low life power companies that report your "actual" reading when they are only estimating. I thought I was doing ok, but got jammed with a $550 electric bill 2 months ago. I'll also send them the reading monthly from now on to make sure I don't get any more surprises. 19.5 cents per KWH is just wrong, but they could at least charge for the amount actually used!

 
Being in the USA as I understand the "monthly average thing", which my power company has, it is a program that averages your yearly light bill payments from a previous light bill and gives you a pretty identical bill once a month . Having a fixed light bill allows many people to budget their light bill more accurately into their monthly budgets. IMO it's very important to those of us on fixed incomes (ie SSA, VA, Railroad retirement any type of retirement) to have an idea of what the light bill is going to be. I understand for someone not on a budget or fixed income would opt out of a "monthly average type program" because having a variable income they're more suited to the fluctuations of income and outcome (ie bills) :rolleyes:

Just remember, whether you read your meter yourself, do the math for the cost of watts (which is hard to do sometimes because of different costs, ie summer, winter, weekend, prime time and all the other variables), relay your meter reading directly to the power company or whatever you do, there's no such a thing as a "free ride" (especially in the US financial markets) The power company has many more lawyers, lobbyists and probably more money than you do. ;)

Just my inflated USD $0.02 cents worth (even the new pennies) :rolleyes:

Foldin' and WCGn' for a CURE

 
The average bill thing is often messy even with my own power company. If their math is messed up, I'll do that myself. My way is to try to estimate the monthly cost and factor 10-20% extra for the winter then average it over the year. I disregard the amount on the bill and I pay a fixed amount unless it's just 20$ more to cover it. I also have no choice to do it myself since they need a full year of history to be able to average it and I'm living in a brand new condo since 3 months only.

It's a great advice to take the reading yourself and notify them instead of letting them estimate. It happened to me 1-2 times that they estimated 3 months too low then hit me with a big bill :(

 
I had no idea folks were getting screwed around with there utility's so much.

Reading your own meter's? WTF is that? If I had to do that kinda crap I would be back charging the utility.

We are on the ave. monthly payment plan for our power and natural gas. Have been for 15 years or better. It works out great!
 
My electric bill is billed as an estimate based on previous usage. Any overage has to be paid at the end of the year and I have no clue what happens if I'm overpaid because that hasn't happened yet. However, actual readings are taken and my actual usage is showed on my bill every month.

Thanks to adding 3 quads and a 24/7 video card since this spring, my average has been a bit off especially during the summer when my a/c ran a lot harder than usual. Let's just say I'm way behind on my billing and I know it.

 
I mentioned my power company’s future plans, finish this article and be as amazed as me.

PPL Electric Utilities seeks approval of new pilot time-of-use pricing option

http://www.pplweb.com/

Basically a how to prepay what you can’t afford kind of thing:rolleyes:


 
If that "Time of Use" doc means what it says then I already use that type of system.
I get cheaper power overnight and pay just a little bit more durring the day than normal.
Night rate = 5.706p per kW.h.
Day rate = 11.745 per kW.h
Normal rate = 11.142 per kW.h
So as the night rate is 7 hours overnight, I save a little each day.

You just make sure you run your washine machine, etc on the cheaper power.

Luck ........... :D
 
Tigerbiten said:
If that "Time of Use" doc means what it says then I already use that type of system.
I get cheaper power overnight and pay just a little bit more durring the day than normal.
Night rate = 5.706p per kW.h.
Day rate = 11.745 per kW.h
Normal rate = 11.142 per kW.h
So as the night rate is 7 hours overnight, I save a little each day.

You just make sure you run your washine machine, etc on the cheaper power.

Luck ........... :D
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i never understood that, how do they know what time you used the power at?

i would estimate 90% of the houses down here have regular mechanical meters that just measure use, nothing about what time it was used or anything like that
 
There are new electronic meters which can send back data over power lines. My condo have one ;)

I assume that to participate in the new plan, a electronic meter will be installed to replace the old mechanical meter.

 
Things like this make me love my power company. I pay $0.059 / kwh for up to 1,000kwh and then $0.037 / kwh after 1,000kwh. I get all of my utilities and cable / internet on one bill and rarely go over $300/month. In the winters its usually $185-200, and that's with electric heat.

edit: well June through September I get charged a flat $0.067 / kwh.
 
FLECOM said:
i never understood that, how do they know what time you used the power at?

i would estimate 90% of the houses down here have regular mechanical meters that just measure use, nothing about what time it was used or anything like that
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My meter records power used on two sets of dials controlled by a time switch.
The day setup runs 07:30 -> 00:30
The night setup runs 00:30 -> 07:30
So half an hour after midnight it switchs to recording power used on the set of night dials.
Then in the morning it switches back to recording power used on the day dials.

Luck ............... :D
 
It's never a good sign....

When you power bill, which usually shows up in a #10 envelope, shows up in a 9x12 envelope.
1) Power meter is to be replaced due to 'age'.
2) Corrected power readings.
3) Their alledged read-estimate-read-estiamte scheme was not followed. (Rumored that the meters have not been read for months.)
4) Correction dings you for $600

OUCH - Needless to say, I'm fighting it as well as scaling back on some of the folding. That sucks.

Oh - and they want a rate increase too.
 
oraldlight said:
It's never a good sign....

When you power bill, which usually shows up in a #10 envelope, shows up in a 9x12 envelope.
1) Power meter is to be replaced due to 'age'.
2) Corrected power readings.
3) Their alledged read-estimate-read-estiamte scheme was not followed. (Rumored that the meters have not been read for months.)
4) Correction dings you for $600

OUCH - Needless to say, I'm fighting it as well as scaling back on some of the folding. That sucks.

Oh - and they want a rate increase too.
Click to expand...

Dude, did it really come in a 9x12 envelope :eek::eek:

 
The only thing worse than getting it in a 9x12 envelope is having the wife spot it first! That might be a quick end to folding.
 
Wife got the mail first Friday. What's worse is the grief she just gave me about picking up one of those $70ar 9600's earlier in the week.
 
I just got nailed with a way higher power bill as well this month.

Needless to say, a Kill-A-Watt is on its way, and if my PC shows a higher than desired power usage, then I at least get the new psu that I've been wanting.
 
I WIN!! Well, mostly. Somehow the meter ID# was jacked years ago. While usage is now considered "similar compared to our records", a meter switch is the compromise for me in exchange for them dropping the $573.65 adjustment fee they sought.

Electric bill is back to normal and looks a little lower than I thought it would be with the farm heating up the basement.

Now as for the wife....nevermind...:rolleyes:


 
Tigerbiten said:
My meter records power used on two sets of dials controlled by a time switch.
The day setup runs 07:30 -> 00:30
The night setup runs 00:30 -> 07:30
So half an hour after midnight it switchs to recording power used on the set of night dials.
Then in the morning it switches back to recording power used on the day dials.

Luck ............... :D
Click to expand...

ya but down here with FPL we have old school analog meters, with the spinny wheel and the 5 dials... how could it possibly know the time of day?
 
FLECOM said:
ya but down here with FPL we have old school analog meters, with the spinny wheel and the 5 dials... how could it possibly know the time of day?
Click to expand...

analog meters can have internal timing mechanisms as well. Regardless of how fast that wheel is spinning it's always getting 220v of power at 60Hz.
 
FLECOM said:
ya but down here with FPL we have old school analog meters, with the spinny wheel and the 5 dials... how could it possibly know the time of day?
Click to expand...

I would imagine that if you sign up for the time of day billing they would upgrade your meter.

Estimate/actual billing cycles have been around forever and it's not necessarily screwing you. One month your estimate could be lower so you would actually be holding onto extra money that you owe the power company and collecting interest. I have never really had a problem with except for the first year living in a new place since the estimates factor in the person that lived their before. Either way in the end you true up though. If you don't like it just call in/mail/email a reading into them which I would imagine almost all of them accept.
 
IF you agree to that they do get you a new digital meter.

My father in-law is getting rich....I mean "works" for my local power company. They recently started replacing all of the old mechanical meters with the new digital ones that are read by some "gun" the meter reader carries.

I was pretty upset that they chose not to tell me when my meter was going to be replaced, I called and asked if I could schedule it as well. and of course I never got a response. power companies are gay.

My 2 GTX 280 machine with a E8400 it never pulls more than 400watts from the wall while folding.

I am going to incorporate a GPU into my WHS and HTPC since they are already on all the time. I am thinking 9600/9800GT's since they seem to be the biggest bang for the buck
 
FLECOM said:
ya but down here with FPL we have old school analog meters, with the spinny wheel and the 5 dials... how could it possibly know the time of day?
Click to expand...

I'v just had my old analog meter replaced with a new digital one.
The old analog meter had a electrical/mecanical timeswitch which went with it, that changed the rate you paid.
It had a clockwork part that kepted it turning durring a power cut.

Luck ......... :D
 
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