You all know that I like to keep on top of our utility bills. Two years ago my utility company increased our rates. We are coming up on the third year of that increase. Bills just keep going up along with the demand and supply charges. We have seen hikes on average of 23.7% on our electric delivery demand and supply charges and 33.5% on our gas demand and supply charges. Now the company is asking the regulatory agency for another rate increase for residential electric and gas customers that would add an additional $ 30. to our monthly bills. If that gets approved, it will add another $360. a year. The demand keeps going up because of the high heat we had all summer and because so many chip companies have moved into NYS.
Fortunately, it has been cool enough for no A/C the past few of weeks and it is not cold enough to put on the heat. I hope this keeps up for a few more weeks. Usually by now we have the heat on here.
I just got our utility bill around the 19th of the month. It was for 30 days and it was a total of $ 131. 22 for both electric and natural gas. We used 405 kwh’s which is very low for us. We used 4 ccf’s of natural gas which was only for heating water for dishes, cooking in a skillet once in a while on our stovetop, and taking showers.
Last year’s bill for 29 days for the same period was $ 138.85 using 536 kwh’s of electric and 4 ccf’s of natural gas.
It was shocking that this year’s bill was less than last year’s. I attribute that to being aware of what we are using and trying to cut where we can.
I doubt that these increases will ever end. But I continue to try to cut what we can. I have done many, many, things to keep our bills down which I have written about but it seems like a never ending battle.
I will write about anything that we are doing to keep our bill down as I do them. I will add them to our cutting costs list. Feel free to list in comments what you are doing now that it is autumn and winter will be here soon.
The prediction for winter cold and snow this year is horrendous. We are predicted to have anywhere from 9 ft. to 15 ft. of snow depending on where you live in the Buffalo area. I can already see the dollar bills flying out of our wallet. At least we have our snowplow guy all lined up to deal with these snow storms.
We have been caulking around windows again and we are actually thinking about putting some kind of plastic up on a number of windows that leak. Has anyone done that? What have you used?
4 replies on “I Am Frustrated With The Electric and Gas Increases, Are You?”
Hi! Long-time follower – first-time commenter. Love your blog! I, too, live in Western NY (Finger Lakes). I am also concerned about our winter weather outlook and the related utility bills. Our utility bills have risen considerably over the last year or so and are also facing new electric rate increases. We heat with oil so no natural gas but an additional bill we have to pay. We try to conserve where we can. Our municipal water supplier just instituted a minimum quarterly bill amount which we have never had a bill as high as the new minimum amount so what incentive is there to try to conserve water? We are spending this weekend prepping for the cold weather: yearly furnace maintenance/cleaning, adding more caulk to windows, etc. We are both looking to hopefully retire in a couple years and trying to get some home projects done before then. Looking forward to hearing how you and others are prepping for winter and ideas on saving.
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
Welcome to my blog, neighbor. I hear your pain. Both of our utility companies may be owned by Avangrid in Spain. As fast as they get an increase approved, they apply for another one. I think none of our utility companies should be owned by a foreign company due to security issues.
Our water is billed my our town every quarter. We have always had a minimum bill for water and sewer. I try to conserve water to stay under the minimum. But in the quarter for spring and summer we water our lawn and gardens. We get a bill anywhere from $275-$300. What aggravates me is that the water we water with does not go down into the sewers but we still get a bill based on the entire water usage for the sewers. UGH!
I hope you enjoyed your weekend getting ready for the cold weather and got a lot accomplished. We had our furnace tune up a week ago and Hubby is still caulking windows. I am glad the weather is still warm enough to do it.
Congrats on getting prepared to retire. Best thing you can do is get whatever you need now for your home. All of my ideas that I have written about over the years are on this blog. Just search utility companies, or electric and gas. Sorry I don’t know much about oil.
I will continue to do savings tips and there are a lot on here already too.
Hi Precious. One of the reasons the electric bill is going up is all of the data centers going in all over the country. They use a lot of power. Also, our government has been wanting the electric companies to shut down coal fired power plants without having a plan in place going forward for what will take their place. Hubby worked in this industry and has been on the soapbox for our power grid for many years. I am sure your hubby has similar thoughts. It is basically a supply and demand issue. Not enough supply for the demands of the data centers on top of other industrial and residential users.
Hi Chris,
You sure have that right!