Alex Yates

Has anyone else noticed a huge increase in their POWER bill since last year? We leave the central heating on 64F, use electric blankets for sleeping, and use very little electricity otherwise. Nothing has increased in our usage since last year, but our bill literally doubled! This does not include any kind of fuel either. I was kind of braced for that. We have propane driven heat if we want it, but have used it sparingly this year because of increases. So, I was curious how many of you have experienced POWER bill increases? (I just want to see if I have a "Secret of NIMH" problem going on here or if it is a universal thing.)

Tootsall

Afraid it's universal, Alex. Up here where the natural gas that drives those power stations comes "out of the ground" our electricity has jumped from $0.065/kwh to $0.125/kwh (on top of which all of the 'fixed fees' like billing charge, wires charge, pole charge and 'toiletpaper-for-the-office' charge are also added on).

Same thing for natural gas. Last year our company was paying in the range of $5-6 per gigajoule (roughly 1 mm BTU) and this year it's as high as $12 per. (so now we're paying about $3.5 mil A MONTH... good thing we generate our own electric power!)

The whole thing is being driven by many factors including:
1) huge increase in demand for energy from China and Asia
2) uncertainty over availability and pricing (read "speculators") of gasoline (read "Iran", "Venezuela", "Iraq", "hurricanes in the gulf").
3) "energy is energy" so coal has also jumped in price... and it's in greater demand by Asia where it is used in steel production.

Get used to it: Europe is paying twice (at least) what we're paying! Invest in a wood-stove company.

Thank goodness we're having a very warm winter compared with our usual; on the other hand, the situation on pricing isn't going to change any time soon.

jcstites

Its the same here in KY.

I thought our power bill would be almost nothing over xmas break, left the heat on the lowest setting and turned off EVERYTHING.

The bill was actually MORE than usual. Apparently they upped the rates. I am scared to see what it will be this month while we are actually here.

someone

Same, prices went up here in CA as well.

Eclipsehornplayer

Well,

I found the secret Alex but I don't know if you'll like it....

As you know I moved from Michigan to Georgia. I no longer pay for natrual gas as our duplex is entirely electric.

Having said that I realized a huge savings by not have natural gas which my dad tells me as just about crippled him back home near Detroit.

We have a heat pump, don't know what it is but we pay right around $90.00 a month which is just fine by me. This time last year in Michigan I was paying about $220.00 a month combined electric/natural gas.

It also help that as you saw for yourself I'm a big well fed yankee. To me it's not cold down here when it's in the 50's and my co-workers are shivering.

So my secret was to re-locate from a cooler climate to a more tempered one. That probably didn't help you none.

Tootsall

A heat pump is a system that uses recirculating liquid to move heat from one place to another. In a heating application the liquid absorbs heat from down a well where the temperature is usually fairly stable and then causes the liquid to give up that heat in the house, building etc. In summer, it absorbs heat from the building and pumps it back down the well where the heat is reabsorbed by the earth and groundwater.

The electricity used to drive the system is for the compressor and the circulating pump. (In essence it works a lot like a central air-conditioner but since the subterranean temperatures are lower than the air temperature outside your house (in summertime; in winter the subsurface temperatures are higher) it doesn't have to work as hard in summer and it is reversible for winter use).

Now... hook up solar/wind energy to a heat pump and you've really got something! (most of the time, anyway)

Alex Yates

Well, I am not happy we are all paying more, but I am glad to know it is not only me. When the bill came, I couldn't believe it. I really expected much lower. Grrrrrrrr and brrrrrrrrrrr.

Lawler Bb

Same here in Wisconsin. I've got my thermostat set at 60F! It isn't that bad actually, but your horns cool off quick when you set one down to play another.

Tootsall

I just found this article in today's business report. While our home energy prices double, this is what's being said:

"Above-normal winter temperatures in the U.S. have helped moderate demand, soothing a market that had otherwise been jittery becuase 16 percent of daily natural-gas production in the Gulf of Mexico remains shut-in nearly five months after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the region, knocking out platforms, pipelines and processing plants.

"We're just so far below normal on our demand projections that there's just no shortage of natural gas and, in fact, there's a surplus of natural gas. Surprise, surprise," said Ed Silliere, who trades natural-gas futures from the floor of the New York Mercantile"

Mikey

Then why is my gas bill so f*&@%*# high?