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Posted by on January 26, 2007, 4:24 pm
> Years ago my FIL complained to me, after he had complained numerous times to
> the utility company, about his high electric bills thinking that I could
> find the problem. After looking at his electrical setup I couldn't find any
> major problems with either his usage habits or any problem with his
> appliances. There was no drop in his billing after he replace the
> refrigerator, washing machine or trying to conserve energy the best he
> could. The poor guy was just was so fearful about flipping any of his
> appliances on anticipating to be clobbered by the next billing cycle. As
> expected, the high charges continued for a few more months until I realized
> he was charged from the wrong meter. It turn out for many years PG&E
> (Pacific Gas & Electric) was billing him from the wrong meter for usage from
> a much larger apartment even though the correct apartment number was clearly
> painted on the correct main meter panel. You see the larger apartment got
> such a small utility charge for electricity that they didn't care about
> conservation which made it even worse for my FIL.
Good point. I had this happen to me at a condo with nat gas. They
had the meters crossed and I had been getting billed for my neighbors
unit and vis versa. I only found out because apparently they didn't
pay their bill and the gas company shut off the meter, which of course
turned off my gas instead. I wound up getting a credit of several
hundred bucks from the gas company, because my usage had been somewhat
less.
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Posted by CJT on January 26, 2007, 5:54 pm
# Fred # wrote:
> Years ago my FIL complained to me, after he had complained numerous times to
> the utility company, about his high electric bills thinking that I could
> find the problem. After looking at his electrical setup I couldn't find any
> major problems with either his usage habits or any problem with his
> appliances. There was no drop in his billing after he replace the
> refrigerator, washing machine or trying to conserve energy the best he
> could. The poor guy was just was so fearful about flipping any of his
> appliances on anticipating to be clobbered by the next billing cycle. As
> expected, the high charges continued for a few more months until I realized
> he was charged from the wrong meter. It turn out for many years PG&E
> (Pacific Gas & Electric) was billing him from the wrong meter for usage from
> a much larger apartment even though the correct apartment number was clearly
> painted on the correct main meter panel. You see the larger apartment got
> such a small utility charge for electricity that they didn't care about
> conservation which made it even worse for my FIL.
>
>
The meter reading is probably on the bill. The OP could compare the
current reading with his most recent bill and get a good idea whether
he's being charged for the right one.
--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.
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Posted by CJT on January 26, 2007, 5:55 pm
# Fred # wrote:
> Years ago my FIL complained to me, after he had complained numerous times to
> the utility company, about his high electric bills thinking that I could
> find the problem. After looking at his electrical setup I couldn't find any
> major problems with either his usage habits or any problem with his
> appliances. There was no drop in his billing after he replace the
> refrigerator, washing machine or trying to conserve energy the best he
> could. The poor guy was just was so fearful about flipping any of his
> appliances on anticipating to be clobbered by the next billing cycle. As
> expected, the high charges continued for a few more months until I realized
> he was charged from the wrong meter. It turn out for many years PG&E
> (Pacific Gas & Electric) was billing him from the wrong meter for usage from
> a much larger apartment even though the correct apartment number was clearly
> painted on the correct main meter panel. You see the larger apartment got
> such a small utility charge for electricity that they didn't care about
> conservation which made it even worse for my FIL.
>
>
The meter reading is probably on the bill. The OP could compare the
current reading with his most recent bill and get a good idea whether
he's being charged for the right one.
--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.
|
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Posted by jackson on January 26, 2007, 8:22 pm
># Fred # wrote:
>> Years ago my FIL complained to me, after he had complained numerous times
>> to the utility company, about his high electric bills thinking that I
>> could find the problem. After looking at his electrical setup I couldn't
>> find any major problems with either his usage habits or any problem with
>> his appliances. There was no drop in his billing after he replace the
>> refrigerator, washing machine or trying to conserve energy the best he
>> could. The poor guy was just was so fearful about flipping any of his
>> appliances on anticipating to be clobbered by the next billing cycle. As
>> expected, the high charges continued for a few more months until I
>> realized he was charged from the wrong meter. It turn out for many years
>> PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) was billing him from the wrong meter for
>> usage from a much larger apartment even though the correct apartment
>> number was clearly painted on the correct main meter panel. You see the
>> larger apartment got such a small utility charge for electricity that
>> they didn't care about conservation which made it even worse for my FIL.
> The meter reading is probably on the bill. The OP could compare the
> current reading with his most recent bill and get a good idea whether
> he's being charged for the right one.
> --
The actual meter number is probably on the bill to. If it is you can check
to see if it is really your meter.
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Posted by Steve on January 26, 2007, 9:54 pm
> Years ago my FIL complained to me, after he had complained numerous times
> to the utility company, about his high electric bills thinking that I
> could find the problem. After looking at his electrical setup I couldn't
> find any major problems with either his usage habits or any problem with
> his appliances. There was no drop in his billing after he replace the
> refrigerator, washing machine or trying to conserve energy the best he
> could. The poor guy was just was so fearful about flipping any of his
> appliances on anticipating to be clobbered by the next billing cycle. As
> expected, the high charges continued for a few more months until I
> realized he was charged from the wrong meter. It turn out for many years
> PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) was billing him from the wrong meter for
> usage from a much larger apartment even though the correct apartment
> number was clearly painted on the correct main meter panel. You see the
> larger apartment got such a small utility charge for electricity that they
> didn't care about conservation which made it even worse for my FIL.
My wife put me through graduate school in the 80s working as an apartment
manager. The property had electric sub-meters, one per apartment. My wife
issued electric bills each month to be paid with the rent, and the property
owner paid the whole bill.
The sub-meters never added up to the value on the master meter. The property
owner got tired of paying the difference, so he had an electrician check the
system. It turned out that residents had been doing midnight electrical
modifications, wiring themselves into neighbors meters, or partially
bypassing the meters. The cost of repairing this mess was going to be many
thousands of dollars (in 80s dollars), so the owner decided to ignore the
meters and charge based on apartment square footage. This is a common method
in the business.
Most of the residents didn't care, but a few thought the world was ending --
the ones who had been receiving outrageously low bills. I never did get one
lady to understand that she couldn't even run her refrigerator for a month
for the $9.00 she was used to paying, let alone her electric heat.
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> the utility company, about his high electric bills thinking that I could
> find the problem. After looking at his electrical setup I couldn't find any
> major problems with either his usage habits or any problem with his
> appliances. There was no drop in his billing after he replace the
> refrigerator, washing machine or trying to conserve energy the best he
> could. The poor guy was just was so fearful about flipping any of his
> appliances on anticipating to be clobbered by the next billing cycle. As
> expected, the high charges continued for a few more months until I realized
> he was charged from the wrong meter. It turn out for many years PG&E
> (Pacific Gas & Electric) was billing him from the wrong meter for usage from
> a much larger apartment even though the correct apartment number was clearly
> painted on the correct main meter panel. You see the larger apartment got
> such a small utility charge for electricity that they didn't care about
> conservation which made it even worse for my FIL.