Have you ever actually looked at your electric bill?
 

I was paying the electric bill for the studio this weekend and glanced down the list of itemized charges... check this out:

Basic service charge
Delivery service charge
Environmental benefits surcharge
Federal environmental improvement surcharge
Competition rules compliance charge
System benefits charge
Power supply adjustment
Metering
Meter reading
Billing
Generation of electricity on-peak
Generation of electricity off-peak
Transmission and ancillary services
Transmission cost adjustment
Interim rate surcharge
Regulatory assessment
Franchise fee

Of the actual bill, only 25% is the direct cost of my electricity used... the other 75% is all fees and taxes!

gangsterism at its finest

here we now pay our hydro to some company in the usa

so we make the hydro here...they sell it to us....

gangsters

Man I am lucky in that aspect..

Last bill was 197$ and that was for 2 months.

ya, about 500 a month :(

ugg I wish lol. 243.00 for last months bill.

yeah the dollar amount is a whole other matter... i was just stunned at the countless line items that really add up

as for monthly cost, my house electric bill is about $500-600 per month and the studio is about $200-300

Damn, I thought we had it tough out here in the midwest but its nothing like that. Bullshit prob makes up 10 percent of the bill.


btw Easton lemme know if you come across anymore models. ;)

Holy shit. LOL. My house electric bill is ~125/mo :1orglaugh

and I gots everything electric including heat/air/dryer.

You guys pay rediculous prices, just thing how much more money you would make without all the extra costs. :\

its just about every company that does this. take a look at your cell phone bill too. i think i pay over $50 in fees every month just for my cell.

i think as consumers, we should be able to charge them fees too, like "annoyance fee" and "i dont like how much my bill is fee" :2 cents:

Yea, what is with all the ass rape charges. You should look at you water bill too. :mad:

We were just talking about this last week when we saw our bill. We are on the energy savings plan with APS and our bill stays the same all year long, until they access our usage at the end of the yearly period.

We have always done well and our bill never went up over the years. Well, a few months ago we purchased all Pella windows, our electric usage dropped severely and bam, Fucking APS jacked our bill and charged us 50 bucks more a month. When we called, they told us they have the right to access our usage at any time and not annually.
Well, they jacked our ass....so much for trying to save energy.
APS is the biggest bunch of fucking crooks :321GFY:321GFY

sure thing, i'll email you pics of the next girl that will be of interest to you :pimp

as for our cost, that's because we have to run all 3 A/C units all the time from May-Sept to battle the insane heat

until someone has visited Phoenix in August they don't understand :)

just sent you pics of Janet Mason and Bailey Brooks :thumbsup

Are they refrigerative or evaporative coolers? (I think you call them swamp coolers)

I've become interested in more passive cooling lately... next summer (it's winter here) I'm going to experiment with regularly misting the roof tiles with water. The idea is that the mist evaporating - almost instantaneously - cools the tiles, dissipating heat from the roof space and therefore cooling the house. It won't drop the temperature to anywhere near "chilly" but it means the refrigerative (and noisy/expensive) A/C unit doesn't need to work as hard.

Great idea, except they charge for water usage here and for sewer that is tied to the water bill.

Plus add local taxes not listed above for all three bills.

There is the thought of a rain barrel system, they'd tax for that too. Plus cost recovery would be years.

What really gets me is the surcharge for not using enough gas or electricity. No matter what you're gonna pay.

I don't think Easton would survive living with a swamp cooler.

We are going to have a metal roof put on this year. They do not hold the heat like asphalt singles and they will last longer than the 30 year shingles that really only survive 10 years max in this AZ heat.
Then we are going to start on Solor panels. It's time to put the electric company out of our monthly bills.

My average electric bill is $40/mo. I went through my history and the biggest bill I had was like $72. Was a hot August I guess.

That's impressively low. You must have a pretty tight sealed house and be fairly energy conscious.

You still have the "pay for x% sewage discharge when it's actually evaporated into the atmosphere" issue with swamp coolers. I'd say the water usage with the roof spray system would be similar or less than a swamp cooler. The controller has various sensors to figure out the right amount to spray: just enough so that there's ALMOST beading and a dribble of water running down the tiles. If it's working properly then no misted water ever ends up going down your drainpipe. OTOH, a swamp cooler needs to flush or bleed its sump regularly to prevent buildup of mineral deposits.

That's ridiculous... :disgust

"I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that." - Thomas Edison

Woah! That is one sweet electric bill you have. Ours is 250.00 a month

My hydro-electric portion of my energy bill = $63/mo, including $2.50 for GST, no other fees or surcharges.

lol

I guess that's the difference when you live in a province that produces a massive surplus of electricity and sells it to the U.S.

Mine is crazy.. get power and gas on one the same bill..

Basic Charge $5.94
Energy Charge @ $.084772 Per KWH
Energy Charge @ $.102581 Per KWH
Electric Conservation Program Charge @ $.003137 Per KWH
Power Cost Adjustment @ $.000000 Per KWH
Energy Exchange Credit @ $.009135CR Per KWH
Wind Power Production Credit @ $.001684CR Per KWH
Effect Of City Tax

combined monthly bill runs anywhere from $550 in the summer to $1000 in the winter.

That's cuz you live in Phoenix, Easton. Put some solar panels on the roof and charge them for the juice you put back in the grid =)

If I was living in a more semi rural area I'd have a wind generator up by now. Solar is silent and virtually maintenance free (apart from the batteries) but it has high capital costs.

I have 7 computers that stay on 24/7, it would be cool to convert them to DC power supplies and run everything off batteries and renewable energy :) or at least supplement mains with some renewable energy...

Smart move :thumbsup

We are going to start with the Solor for the Hot water tank which will be a great savings...then on the the rest of the house. Hopefully we will have the entire house run off of Solor before too long.

I see you live in AZ too. :winkwink:

My electric bill is approximately $45/month right now. We reinsulated the whole house, have brand new windows throughout, and haven't had to run the air yet even in 90+ degree weather. This is with 2 people home all day, TV on, 3 PCs running constantly, and an electric stove.

Yes.

It is $300.00 every month (winter) and I am like WTF every time.
:disgust

Huge argument about the taxes here on water and sewer. Even if you have a vacant lot, you pay cause of run off during a rain.... Those with water barrels get zero break, ponds are no help either. It is called greed. There is always a new program to fund...

No doubt theres so many fees I don`t even know what the heck they`re for.

I'm in quebec, we have cheap nationalised electricity here. Like 1/5 the price of some of you in the USA.

My last bill was almost 1.5k for 2 months thought... huge loft in the winter can get expensive.

what he said..
it's a no-brainer