Please advise if this is a risk indicator or not

Hi,

I live in an apartment with about 40 units in the building.

My electric bill is $30-45 depending on the season if I'm running the AC much.

I get an electric bill in the mail for $165, and I wasn't even growing atm because I was contstructing a new set up. So I call them and they told me they installed a new meter and that it was just an estimate. Well, one thing I forgot to ask was "why?". Why did they install a new meter in a building that's only about 6 years old? Should I be alarmed?

lol. everyone in ca gets a new one. They are called smart meters, so that the electric comapny can just do the monthly checks from the home office and people can always just go look at it and see what it says, it is digital or something. No big deal. Mine is the same way and I am 180 and things with a 600 and a 400 and an airconditioner.

I can't see it because it's in a locked room, not outside. I just wasn't sure if I should worry or not, got a kid and shit, don't want to be like the fuckers in the movies.

I'd be more concerned with why the electric company's estimate is so high compared to your actual past usage.

doobnVA said:

I'd be more concerned with why the electric company's estimate is so high compared to your actual past usage.

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Probably based on a familys av use in a place that size, not on his past use.

Illegal Smile said:

Probably based on a familys av use in a place that size, not on his past use.

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Could be. When we had our electric hooked up they charged us a $500 deposit that was based on the previous tenant's highest month of use. When the lady at the electric company quoted that figure I nearly died, and I tried to reason with her telling her the previous tenants were a family roughly twice the size of ours that would obviously use more electricity. She didn't care, and they charged us the $500 anyway.

I've had troubles in the past with the electric company's "estimates" of my electrical usage. It seems when they estimate, they just make up a number that has nothing to do with your past usage (even though that information is very easily available to just about anyone).

Once I had a potted plant sitting near the meter, waiting to be planted, and the meter reader person claimed they couldn't access the meter to read it because I had planted a tree in front of it. It was actually a very small forsythia bush in a one gallon container, and it was OFF TO THE SIDE of the meter, not in the way at all. That "estimate" was nearly triple what my electric bill normally is. I didn't pay it, but I did take a photo of the "tree" that was supposedly blocking the meter and took it to the electric co office with copies of all my previous bills and demanded that they come out and read the actual meter before I would pay anything.

The electric company really pisses me off most of the time. I can't recall a pleasant interaction with them in my lifetime thus far. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get our $500 deposit back at the end of the year. It seems they always find some reason not to refund it.

Punk said:

Hi,

I live in an apartment with about 40 units in the building.

My electric bill is $30-45 depending on the season if I'm running the AC much.

I get an electric bill in the mail for $165, and I wasn't even growing atm because I was contstructing a new set up. So I call them and they told me they installed a new meter and that it was just an estimate. Well, one thing I forgot to ask was "why?". Why did they install a new meter in a building that's only about 6 years old? Should I be alarmed?

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It's called the Obamameter

He promised to tax energy (cap and trade) just as McCain did, but he has also vowed to bankrupt the coal industry. Over 50% of our electricity comes from coal. Welcome to the promised land lol