Using the same kwh every month?

[The motor guy]

What are the chances of having the same kwh electric bill every month for 3 months in a row. It's between 1500-1600kwh for the past three months and I just find it odd ever since my utility provider got bought out. It hasn't really been that cold either. They jacked up my kwh rate when they changed over even though I was locked in for a year, now it seems like since I made them go back to the original amount it's like they make up for it bad upping the amount of kwh's because I've never used that much power per month except one month last year when it was 20 degrees all January.

 

[John_K]

Are they estimating the bill? I have had these kind of issues with utilities when they estimate instead of getting a meter reading.

 

[PandaBear]

Do you guys have smart meter in Houston?

 

[Rand]

Go read your electric meter. Report back.

 

[Fitter30]

It must be from all the snow that you been havingðŸ»

 

[MNgopher]

What, exactly does your electric meter say and how does it compare to what is on your bill. Pretty easy to check...

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted by motor_oil_madman
What are the chances of having the same kwh electric bill every month for 3 months in a row. It's between 1500-1600kwh for the past three months and I just find it odd ever since my utility provider got bought out. It hasn't really been that cold either. They jacked up my kwh rate when they changed over even though I was locked in for a year, now it seems like since I made them go back to the original amount it's like they make up for it bad upping the amount of kwh's because I've never used that much power per month except one month last year when it was 20 degrees all January.


I had the exact same kwh usage for two months in a row at my DE house. I called them and they said everything looked fine. And this was the meter they can read from the central office.

I also had a bad meter reading on a meter at the church I belong to. The middle of the summer should have been about a $50 bill and it was hundreds. They will (should) pick it up in the next meter reading especially if the new reading is less than prior reading.

I am looking towards Fusion generated power where electricity is free.

 

[rekit]

Smart meters-yep. I have a plan that credits me $85 back every month if i use 1001 kw or more. Crazy. Put in insulation, LED's, Efficient AC, ect to save and now they pay me to use more. But I'll play the game. 3 BR all electric septic water well and wife that likes long hot showers....$40-$50/ month. If it's mild i have to practice my welding skills to hit 1001kw... LOL

But I was checking mine and after seeing 0.2 to 0.7 kw per 15 minutes, I see 3.8 kw in 15 minutes..[censored] is that? There's no way. So I took a picture of the report and will be watching them.

 

[rekit]

On a side note be careful paying bills. Several times I have read where someone misplaced a decimal and typed like 2500 instead of 250 bucks and the utility co kept it, saying it would just credit the acct. Poor person-had a bunch of NSF charges on other bills-too bad.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted by Donald
I am looking towards Fusion generated power where electricity is free.


It will never be free. R&D, risk, insurance, interest on the loan, etc. Hydro power will be more free than that, but it is still not free.

 

[Alfred_B]

It's an estimate, they will true up at some point in the future

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by Alfred_B
It's an estimate, they will true up at some point in the future

The bill will say it's an estimated reading too

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by PandaBear
Originally Posted by Donald
I am looking towards Fusion generated power where electricity is free.


It will never be free. R&D, risk, insurance, interest on the loan, etc. Hydro power will be more free than that, but it is still not free.


I think he was kidding based on the old saying that nuclear power would be too cheap to meter. I think the ITER project in Europe is supposed to cost $22 billion and that doesn't even produce power, it's just supposed to be a test bed. It's supposed to be fully operational by 2035 so it's going to be a long wait til we have fusion power stations.

 

[PandaBear]

I know he was kidding, just couldn't resist on the "free energy" thing.

I think the closest would be Iceland's electricity and how those aluminum refinery, data center, bit coin mining, etc moved over there. People will find ways to use them all up directly (data center) or indirectly (aluminum refinery), which is always a good thing.

I would love to see safe, food grade flow battery developed one day, to ship and store energy around the world like we do with oil and gas.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by PandaBear
I would love to see safe, food grade flow battery developed one day, to ship and store energy around the world like we do with oil and gas.


I don't think you'll ever get the energy density to make that worth while. The way you ship energy around today is through the grid but the grid only goes so far due to line losses. I suppose you could always microwave the energy into space and relay it down to another spot on earth. That's how solar satellites would work, they'd microwave the energy back to earth. They're not cost effective yet though. But I think it'd just be cheaper to build a plant where the power is needed.

 

[Vern_in_IL]

Our Bill we fill out the paper and the meter numbers, you can fudge them, but once a year they come out and read it. So you can say you used 1kwh this month and just forward the rest to the next month!