Are your utility bills going up drastically?

[leftyladyfrommo]

Our neighborhood web site started getting a whole lot of complaints just recently.

People whose highest electric bills never went over $150 are getting bills for $300. A month.

Our water bills are going way up, too. And I bet our gas bills this winter will be way high, too.

And gasoline is up. too.

This is Kansas City, Missouri.

if people are forced to spend hundreds for utilities every month it will startnyo really hurt the overall economy.

[CatMor]

1. I just received my water bill and it really went up.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. Water is gold.

People are nit going yo be able to use 40 gal. for a shower much longer.

[CatMor]

6. I was so surprised because I don't water my lawn even though

It was so hot with no rain. I didn't do anything different yet it went up 40.00.

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. Not many people water lawns where I live. Everything is brown. nt

[shanti]

20. I'm in NorCal

and let my lawn go brown too. Actually, nothing was left but dirt! We have insanely picky city inspectors here who come around and ticket you if you have a brown lawn now. They threatened to ticket me if I didn't "green it up" last October. Said that the drought was "over" and my lawn was to be back to normal within a month. So....my direct neighbor and I (we both got the tickets, no one else did, and there are lots more like ours) went in together and had a gardener come in and do some xeriscaping. He replaced our small yards with shrubs, flowers, small trees, river rock and mulch. He also replaced the sprinklers with a drip system. It looked sad for a few months until spring, when our yards exploded with color! It cost me $2000 that I didn't have, but it had to be done, so it was. Earlier than planned, but still. He even built a new mailbox for a pittance, and I got a lemon tree. Happy camper

The drip system runs twice a day for an hour, and my water bill is around $35 a month.

[Blue_true]

15. I have cut my shower usage to around 5 - 8 gallons.

Took a couple years of provision, but I got to where I can bathe and shampoo with 8 gallons or less. My bath quality is exceptional, I will challenge anyone that showers 100% for a bath to a bacteria swab comparison of any body area.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

17. Just wait until a Canadian water company buys your current water company.

This happened at a home I recently moved from in Spicewood Texas. At over $200 a month, it often exceede my electric bill. And I lived there by myself most of the time. Only one other person on weekends only. And no grass to water. The name of the company is Corix.

[CatMor]

18. Wow that's amazing .....

I live on the border with Canada, right across the river.

[lapfog_1]

3. you have had a hot summer so far?

My summer time electric bills in CA run around $600 a month... and I leave the house at 80 and my bedroom (has it's own AC at 75)... same for my niece that lives with me (she also has her own window AC).

I live in the central valley of CA... and we have had a month of over 100 degree heat now... except for 1 day it only got to 90... and that was due to the amount of smoke from the Sierra forest fires drifting over us and blocking the sun.

I can't imaging anyone living in the Central Valley anymore without AC... you really can't sleep at night when the air temp is over 80 at 4am.

We have changed the planet to the point where it has become essential to produce even more electricity... thus causing us to burn ever more fossil fuels. It is a long term (10 year? 20 year?) no win situation.

[a kennedy]

5. Our electric bill is $5.00.....

We installed solar panels last August.....and our largest bill has been $5.00.

[lapfog_1]

14. if I owned the house... yeah

our neighbors installed like $25k of solar... they expect the system to pay for itself in maybe 12 years... maybe 15. Depends on expected rate increases and, ironically, global warming.

[onecaliberal]

7. I'm here too. Our bill is usually around 600 in the summer as well. Frightened to see what it might

Be this year thank to the record breaking number of 100+ degrees days.

[shanti]

21. Sac here

Last edited Tue Jul 31, 2018, 12:05 AM - Edit history (1)

I'm all electric, and my bill is ~$100 a month in the summer, but my home is less than 1000 sf. Is your house big? $600 is a lot! I also keep it at 80, and my house has a southern exposure and NO trees for shade (neighbors chopped them down during the drought,

[lapfog_1]

24. 2400 sq feet

it is an older house with and old AC system that failed like 3 times last year.

It needs to be replaced.

But nobody around my neighborhood has $100 electric bills in the summer here unless they have a lot of solar installed.

like I said, I rent... so replacing the AC unit with one more efficient is something only the landlord can do.

[dweller]

4. my power bill went down

😳 by 1 cent ... I was impressed with my frugality
but that was a lot less than last year for the same month...

[NickB79]

8. Nope. AC was replaced with a heat pump, and we have a well

The heat pump is damn near magical, keeping my house at 75F for pennies a day in summer and capable of heating my house in winter down to 0F exterior temp.

Propane prices have creeped up, but we'll burn hardly any this winter.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. You are so correct about heat pumps.

We had to replace both A/C units last year, old age got them. Now we have a new heat pump for 1/2 of the house and a new gas heat/electric A/C unit,
for the other half.
Our monthly bills for cooling dropped by 40.00 / 50.00 a month, even in our hot July. The heating bill ( gas) was lower also.

The A/C guy, who I know personally, is excellent. He told me last year that a/c units are going to require a new type of coolant, to meet some EPA
law that Trump hasn't found and erased yet.
The old units cannot run of this newer coolant, something about the way it has to be processed.....

[shanti]

22. When I got my new heat pump

in 2013, I was told it used the new kind of coolant, so I had to buy a new compressor too, as it wouldn't be compatible with the old kind. Is there yet ANOTHER kind of coolant now? My old unit was only 10 years old when I replaced it, and it was $$$!

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. I think we are talking about the same coolant.

the guy said it was a 5 years phase out schedule, I believe, so you could have heard it before I did a couple years later.

I DO remember when we talked about it, he said everyone would have to replace their units eventually, since he and other A/c shops could not get old coolant, the price had gone up relative to the scarcity of it each year.
He told me he had stocked up over the course of the past couple years.
that was one of the reasons I did not mind replacing both units at the same time, they were both pre-1995, and the day of "can't repair" was on the near horizon.
Of course, easier said than done if you don't have the budget to do that. Luckily we did, for a time. The new roof that the insurance company insisted we get pretty much did the budget in.

Getting a solidly built brick 1958 house in a once pricey neighborhood is still more of a plus than a negative, still.
This house barely feels serious windstorms, and it rode out a major direct hit hurricane in 2004, with no significant damage.
But the pipes and wires and etc. do demand upkeep at certain points.

[PoliticAverse]

9. Are people using more killowatt-hours compared to a similar period in prior years?

Or has the rate per killowatt-hour drastically increased?

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. Both.

We got a notice a while back that KCPL was merging with, or buying out, or something, with another company. The merger was supposed to help keep utility prices down.

They raised the prices. But we also had a very hot May and June
and that along with the price increase sent bills sky high.

A $300 electric bill really hurts.

I turned my air off. We are enjoying some really cool weather now. It is like summer is all backwards this year.

[Roland99]

13. Same thing in Orange County, FL

[Blue_true]

16. Mine runs around $80-90 depending on how much I am at home. nt

[jpak]

19. Yes - and it's a Big Deal here in Maine

Class-action lawsuit filed against Central Maine Power

https://www.wmtw.com/article/class-action-lawsuit-to-be-filed-against-central-maine-power/22321365

PORTLAND, Maine —
Several law firms have joined together to file a class-action lawsuit against Central Maine Power.

Over the winter, hundreds of CMP customers complained about large spikes in their bills. Some customers reported their bills doubling or tripling.

A document filed this spring with the Maine Public Utilities Commission said 97,000 Central Maine Power accounts saw year-over-year month or average daily usage increases of more than 50 percent.

New York City-based firm Napoli Shkolnik and Trafton, Matzen, Belleau & Frenette, and Maine-based Lipman & Katz filed the suit Thursday afternoon.

<more>

I smell an Orange Rat.

yup

[sarcasmo]

25. Wisconsin my high utility bill is the winter average $250.00 per month.

[RoadRunner]

26. I don't have air conditioning

So my electric bill is stuck at a little less than $60 per month. Rates went up a little but summertime use is minimal in my house and I cut back a little. I live on a the desert in New Mexico but it’s cool enough at night to provide free AC all day long. If it gets too hot I dangle my feet in the river and sip on a cold beer.

[justgamma]

27. Around here they are installing "Smart meters"

People's bills have been doubling, tripling, and in at least one case went from $200 to $800. The local rep is looking into it. They all seem to have Alliant Energy.