Does this look like an Electric Co. conspiracy ?

[DdBob]

Not to go all conspiracy theory guy on you but something smells fishy....I signed up for Budget billing in July of 2022 for my electric. I'm sure ya'll has the BB option where you live but if not it's where they average you a bill so that you pay the same every month. Well I did it in July 2022 because my previous AC unit was on the Fritz so I was using the evap cooler instead because even though they suck during the monsoon season they work great in May and June but they are kinda fiddly and need constant checking and maintenance.
so my landlord got a new AC unit instralled July 2022 and I went on BB. They used me previous year for the average so it was extremely low...64 dollars a month for the first 6 months...then they reviewed after that and of course with AC useage it was higher so they charged me 85 per month which was fine. generally from July through the October Bill it probably averages 140 a month and the rest of the year it's like average of 40 dollars. ( June might be 85 dollars).
Ok so if you are still following I called them and asked "how often do you guys review" and they told me "about every 6 months or so". Well it stayed 85 until yesterday and I got a letter in the mail from them ( so keep in mind last time they reviewed was probably Febuary 2023....almost a year ago) and now they want 116 per month *spits* keep in mind that apx. 6 months out of the year the regular bill averages 40 a month. then about 2 months out of the year it's around 90 a month and July through October it's in the upper 180's.
Well they kicker is last year I had the highest KWH usage ( and bill) for 4 months straight....( this is where the conspiracy comes in) and it happened to be whilst i was on their 'budget billing" program which they said would review every 6 months and it didn't, it turned out to be 1 year review. I think it's to their advantage. I'm thinking they can probably manipulate the readings because even though we were hotter than the previous year I don't think it was THAT MUCH hotter to almost double my KWH from Aug22 to AUG23 and I kept it at the same exact setting and it was only a 1 year old unit.....hmmmm


*edit* I based my average of 180's off previous years using AC with the old unit) For the comparison below the year I initially went on BB the average during the summer for the WHOLE summer was below 150...then in 2023 whilst on BB it jumped to an average of maybe 180
have a look and in particular look at the increase bill and KWH especially JUly and August comparison


*edit2* so needless to say I called them and told them to Shove it and I'll just deal with four months of big bills and breathe easy the rest of the year

 

[Bob411]

Have you changed the filter?

 

[dodgechargerfan]

DJ Morgan just wants you to pick a song, Brenda.

 

[Andrew Sak]

The electric company gets kickbacks to fuck people into going solar. I made that up. Something is going on though. My rates seemed to have more than doubled the past 2 years. I don't have a graph to prove that.

 

[PaulD70]

looks like your electric usage has gone up. Warmer temperatures may be only part of the story. Are you setting your thermostat cooler? Or your AC may be going out.

Years ago my ac had a refrigerant leak. I only noticed it when the ac ran for hours but wasn’t cooling. So the compressor and fan are running—drawing energy—but not working or ever turning off. When I looked at the prior year’s use in the summer, I was dramatically higher than any year prior or since. So before it completely failed it was running long and consuming extra energy.

I don’t think budget billing is to blame, but it definitely doesn’t help because it makes your bill a lagging indicator of your usage if you only look at the dollars and not the kilowatt-hours.

 

[DdBob]

looks like your electric usage has gone up. Warmer temperatures may be only part of the story. Are you setting your thermostat cooler? Or your AC may be going out.

Years ago my ac had a refrigerant leak. I only noticed it when the ac ran for hours but wasn’t cooling. So the compressor and fan are running—drawing energy—but not working or ever turning off. When I looked at the prior year’s use in the summer, I was dramatically higher than any year prior or since. So before it completely failed it was running long and consuming extra energy.

I don’t think budget billing is to blame, but it definitely doesn’t help because it makes your bill a lagging indicator of your usage if you only look at the dollars and not the kilowatt-hours.

I set it the same as the year before which was 84 degrees ( remember this is Tucson so 84 when you work outside all day is still cool). My landlord just had a new AC unit installed in 2022 so ;ast year it was only the second year...toatally new unit. That's why i think it fishy.

Here's what I found for 2022 vs 2023...the average mean temperature and then the July temperature. As you can see the July chart shows that we were 4 degrees warmer for the monthly mean but we did have triple digit highs every single day of the month. But hot is hot. I've lived in this same house since 2005.
I just don't see how my usage increased by almost 700 kwh in August ( august woulda been the4 July bill) I went from apx. 850 to 1400. My previous AC did the same thing back in 2019 as yours did....had a leak. I noticed it wasn't cooling good and realised that it happened after my landlord had the roof redone ( She hired a crew that wasn't Licensed I assume as they had no company branding, just a bunch of hispanic dudes ) so they just kinda moved the ac unit around I believe without evacuating and recharging. At that time I said screw it and got the evap cooler running ( most older homes here had evap and AC) so I ran that till 2022 when it stopped working due to a wiring issue and no power goung up to the outlet. The AC un it she got installed was from a reputable installer.
Finally I'm a creature of habit so my day to day routine does not differ much and definitely didn't from 2022 to 2023.

Other than the .8 degree daily mean differential from 2022 to 2023 below and the July mean differential of 4.2 there was no difference.

 

[Knox in Box]

Bono even said he can't say why or what for.

 

[PaulD70]

My first ac leak was on a 3 year old unit. Coil replaced under warranty and new one leaked 2-3 years later. Very frustrating.

Don’t underestimate the effect of 0.8 to 4 deg temp differential. The load in your ac is largely proportionate to the temp differential between outside and inside. So usually you have 92 - 84 = 8. But on average you had 8.8 and in July you had 12. That’s 10 to 50% higher load. Realistically, that’s worst case, since not all ac load is driven by air temp. A bit less than half might be solar gain, which isn’t really affected my air temp. Still, air temp alone plays a huge role. Also, did you say the ac was replaced just before usage increased? That could contribute as well. While the new ac should be more efficient than the old, it’s slightly possible something changed during installation—a larger ac, larger fan, or a commissioning problem.