They are out to get me.

[BobbyFord]

Chances are the old mechanical meters are worn and inaccurate. No moving parts in the digital RF meters to wear out.

[cowbay]

Wow great thread here on this topic. He same thing happened when they changed the meter out at my yard. My bil
Doubled and it the utility company gave me bs excuses also on how we were using more electric. Meanwhile like woods said we had cut back on our usage. Changed the meter and guess what out bill dropped back to where it was. Took almost a year and I got zip back on the overcharge but at least I stopped the bleeding.

[woods]

Its funny I 'm reading this post by WOODS as called about my bill today.hell l been looking at my bill for a long time and thinking what BS is this.My oct bill was 142.00 than the nov bill 218.83! I did use more electricity as I cut back on things I use.I think the new meters are BS.

I am seeing a lot of this. There are even some lawsuites by folks trying to get them to stop. I guess 90% of the meters were slow. Ya know...if you're gonna rip me off...do it gently, eeeease me into it and I am dumb enough to not really notice. But, I guess if your the supplier of power, you can just go "so, I am stealing from you, whatcha gonna do about it?"

[papabug71]

Dang woods, they're after you. The power co. came in 3 years ago & converted everyone in my neighborhood to underground electric. Part of the deal was, if your home was still on a fuse box, you got converted to a breaker box. My home was still on fuses so I got a nice breaker box & one of the digital meters out of the deal !

Bill is the same as it was when we had the old setup, thank God, & knock wood.

[woods]

Ya know...it would be one thing if my bill just went up and they told me they were raising prices. Sure, I would complain, but when you tell me my power use went UP when I all but stopped using it when compared to last year...well, that just rubs me wrong.

[Madman]

Guys, It's not really "Them power companies" out to get you, but the the impacts on the power system as a whole due to political promises of renewables and removing previously cheap generation sources (ie-coal plants). Bottom line is the price of production is going to go waaaaay up! I work in the power industry on the large scale (power generation and power transmission), and you should see the true impact of "Forcing" renewables onto our system, let alone pissing away $533 Billion on solar companies who aren't worth a squat! Also, the entire "smart grid" thing is a complete CROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[woods]

I blame Hitler.

[sargentrs]

Waaahhhhh! I WISH my bill was what ya'll pay. When I built my house in 2002, and after the first year, I put myself on the flat bill system. It started at around $113/mo. The next year it was 137, then 155, then 170, then 225, etc. I got the new rate last January and it was up to $377/mo! I started checking back on old statements and called 'em. They told me that 4 mos out of the year my usage was between 450-550/mo. I did the math and told them to drop me from the flat bill program. My bill went down as low as 198 and has floated around 250-300 but did hit 400+ in July and as high as $504 in August. This month it's $221 and will go steadily up until it peaks in Feb or March and then go back down again. I'm using the savings to buy aluminum foil to put on all my windows and make my skull cover. Big Brother is watching and man is he sneaky!

[ezernut9mm]

i am already good to go. it also works as an alternative power source.

[binder56jd]

aw, c'mon guys--ya'll know that it is all in humanity's best interest

[Bob]

Something to consider in case some haven't? Where I'm at they don't read the meter every month. Not the gas or electric meters. They say they do every other month but I doubt that too. In the winter before the radio hicky was installed on my gas meter... they didn't check my gas meter if the weather was real bad. They didn't want to trudge around to the back of the house through the drifts to get to the meter. I would've seen the tracks if they'd checked it. The five years that I had my bloodhound he'd let me know EVERY time anybody had been to the house when we were gone. They'll estimate it if they aren't gonna read it. Could be some of the way off bills some of yinz guys are talking about were due to under estimating for a pretty good spell and then when read... BAMM...??

A little tip for any of you living in colder areas... Make sure you heat your basements if you have them. In the winter some folks figure why bother heating the basement if I'm only gonna be down there to do laundry or what not. Your furnace will run maybe twice as much if you don't blow some heat in your basement. The first winter in my current house I forgot to open my basement registers after the AC season and spent something a little over 2,000 for the heating season. Toward the end of the season I realized what I'd done but by then I figured it was close enough to AC season so I left them alone. The following year my gas rate increased by about 25%. Went from about 1.oo per hundred cubic feet (or whatever the measure is they use) to about 1.25 per CCF. That year I strategically opened up my basement registers and not only was my house more comfortable but I spent less for the season even with the higher rate. Average temps were close also from the previous year. The floor above the basement turns into a big heat sink and stores some of the heat. You get to walk around on a warm toasty floor that acts as a big radiator. Furnace won't run nearly as much and not as drafty feeling cause the draft coming up from the basement is warm.

[woods]

They used to check the old job every month. I know this because the gal who read the meter was REALLY good to look at. That kind of thing stays in a guy's memory.

[Donnie]

Woods & all others. They are shoving these smart meters up our a$$........W/O telling us. There is a rather large alert going on in our area now. I got a flyer at MY POST OFFICE..Freaked me out.
GOOGLE "smart meter"---------read a few ---watch the You Tube video.....They are a health haZZard as well as a spy in the sky.....Part of the pat-riot act.........George Orwell

[tmcalavy]

Time to go solar and get off the grid with a battery bank my bros, then you can switch to a low-power tin foil hat like I did...the guys in black helicopters have been watching me for years...I like streaking, it makes them crazy and then they leave.

[woods]

Time to go solar and get off the grid with a battery bank my bros, then you can switch to a low-power tin foil hat like I did...the guys in black helicopters have been watching me for years...I like streaking, it makes them crazy and then they leave.

Yeah, I happen to have a fast running stream on my property with a lot of spare time. Keep it up and I'll be out there building a water wheel.