Hydro

[Roper]

Sharon - I think your hydro bill is probably accurate to the amount you are using. We all know hydro costs have had excessive increases. Especially in peak times. I have had bills @ $300 a month and now they are about $90 a month. I'm single and not a big hydro user if I pay attention. Not using my air conditioning. How many fridges do you have? Freezers? Air conditioning? Dehumidifier? Pool? Hot tub? Its hard to keep hydro costs down.

[Sharon]

Thanks. I'll get the meter checked. It won't do any harm.

[skeeter1]

You guys are making me feel good, single, small house no dishwasher, no dryer, all lighting LED. $60.00/month.

[BIG MAC]

Sharon, not sure how many fridges and freezers you have but anything with a motor or compressor will cost you money to run, another tip is to put a power bar on your computer and tv and shut the power bar off every night. Sharon, not sure if you keep past years bills but the only thing you can control on your hydro bill is Kwh used per day, Somewhere on your hydro bill is should show this, check your previous years bills with your present day bills and see if they have gone up or down, obviously you want them to go down. think I have mentioned this before but at our small 2 bedroom house the only lights that aren't LED or CPL bulbs is our bathroom, and of course those lights aren't on very much. you somehow have to get your KWH used per day down and that effects the rest of the garbage on your hydro bill. Hope this has helped.

[fratri]

We got a 2400 sq ft home. My wife, son and myself and we are home for the summer and our bills usually never top $120 a month mark.... is your water bill on the same bill as your hydro? Ours was up until a few years ago now they are separate....
$340 for a month of hydro, is way too much, something is wrong with the service, like the others have said, call hydro and get your meter checked.

[Fisherman]

Sharon, not sure if you keep past years bills but the only thing you can control on your hydro bill is Kwh used per day, Somewhere on your hydro bill is should show this, check your previous years bills with your present day bills and see if they have gone up or down, obviously you want them to go down.

You can check your bills on line up to two years back if I'm not mistaken. We keep the paper bills for 2 years and checking them, we're within 1-2kwh of daily use per month. Only during last winter did it go up a bit, the furnace was running a tad more.

[northernontario]

It can be useful to check the online tools if you're with HydroOne. My mother in law had a big fight with Hydro as she was very picky about only using hydro during off-peak hours, but the bills kept racking up. Multiple calls to say something was wrong with the meter, and multiple answers of "These new meters can't be wrong".

The final straw was a "planned outage"... she knew power would be off for a set time; 11am to 4pm type deal. 10:59am the power went out, 4:02pm the power went back on... essentially bang on the time advertised. Wait a day, hop on the website, and wouldn't you know it, they were reportedly using hydro at 1pm. That 5hr window of outage was reported at the wrong time.

She got on the phone with HydroOne and had to fight with them to make them understand what was happening... they finally replaced/recalibrated the meter to match the correct time (an error they claimed couldn't possibly happen and that they also claimed they had checked). Reimbursed her like $50 for the incorrectly billed time.

Imagine always waiting until 7:30pm to do your laundry/dishes/etc... and being dinged for the high-demand usage rates because your meter was wrong!

I had an outage at my place a few weeks back... first thing I did was hop online and check that it was reported accurately for time!


Call your local Library and ask if they have a kill-a-watt meter for loan. Our libraries up here in Sudbury have one you can borrow. Plug in appliances or power strips, track the hydro used for as long as it's plugged in. I paid hydro in an apartment where the landlord supplied the fridge... dang thing never shut off... calculated usage with that meter and figured I'd pay off a new fridge in 2 years with the reduced hydro consumption.

Chest freezers are generally VERY efficient; my freezer is from the late '70s or early 80's... it would take 15+ years to pay off a newer freezer based on their advertised hydro consumption rates. As long as your freezer isn't running constantly, don't worry about it. Standup freezers are worse, since you lose all that cool air when you open the door.

Investigate that kill-a-watt meter. http://www.amazon.ca/P3-Internationa.../dp/B000RGF29Q

[marcus]

The local library loans out hydro use meters. You simply plug them into the outlet, then you plug the appliance into the meter. Borrow a couple of these, and they will help you determine how much electricity some of your appliances are using.

[terrym]

Imagine how nice it will be to deal with Hydro when they have no oversight from the Ombudsman? Not that Hydro is important. WE all have woodlots we could log for firewood right? That Witch will live on a gold plated pension and couldn't give a rat's rear what happens to rate payers.

[Deerslayer99]

ROFLMBo No that's my neighbor , not me.
(When his father was on holidays last week, the kid sold his father's car. Police looking for the kid now.)

I will get my meter checked. Thanks.

Maybe the kid is tapping into your hydro for there grow op.......just saying lol