Comments on: Very High Electric Bill

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:07:46 +0000

After being fed up with the bills we moved the entire bedroom set up into the living room (where the thermostat is) closed all the doors to the rest of the apartment and put towels under the doors to block drafts. We have a small electric fireplace in the living room so we lowered the thermostat and use the heater. Because the place is now so consolidated it doesn’t take much for the electric fireplace to really warm up the room so we can turn it off mostly during the day. I spoke to the property manager who – at first – seemed extremely sympathetic and she (along with many others) stated that Piedmont Electric is notoriously 50% higher than some others in the area like Duke electric. I told her that we’re planning on leaving because of the heat and she swore someone would be here on Monday (Valentines day) to look into the matter (for the FOURTH time). He showed up mid-day Tuesday put in a new thermostat and said:

He put in THREE work orders for our apartment for new thermostats and the property manager (you know, that oh so sympathetic one) repeatedly DENIED the request during the coldest time of the year we were here every time. She knowingly allowed us to live with faulty heat in 20 degree nights. Only after the temps are now reaching in the 60s during the day did she authorize a USED thermostat replacement. He went on to say that she has money left in the budget and is PURPOSEFULLY not using it just so she looks good in corporate’s eyes who only see the numbers and is knowingly ignoring the needs of the tenants who need repairs. The maintenance man said even he’s planning on leaving the place by the end of the year.

If you look up landlord tenant laws there are requirements, by law, that they must provide a safe living environment. Check out http://www.legalaidnc.org/public/learn/publications/brochures/BROCHURE_Landlord-TenantLaw_LANC-Greensboro.pdf as they break it down into the plain English you need to understand your rights and you can always give them a call. Other than hearing other complains on this site I’ve yet to see a single offer of advise on any of the boards.

Good luck

Also want to add – after we moved everything and sealed everything off we are now using an “AVERAGE” of $5.50 per day of power instead of the $219/mth we had before. You can monitor your usage at myusage.com and plug in your electric company, your account number, and such and it will show you the daily usage and costs.

By: jolene

jolene — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:38:44 +0000

(I just moved from NY to NC for the cheaper living. I got a 2 bdrm 952sqft home. I’m an environmentalist so I try to keep everything to an absolute minimum anyway. I don’t turn on any lights until the sun goes down and even then I only turn on one light AS NEEDED. I run a laptop during the day that usually stays plugged in. I don’t use the TV (it’s not even connected) and I cook 1 meal a day and it’s a quick meal not a full blown dinner. I keep the heat set at 68 but it makes the apartment as cold as 55 sometimes. The bill last month was $191!!!! FOR WHAT? When I called the electric company they said “well, the bill was $117 for the month prior to you moving there so it’s not that big of an increase.” I said hold on – there was NO ONE living here and the circuit breakers were off when I moved in and you were still charging $117 a month for electric? When I came to look at the apartment in oct the thermostat was completely off and the place was an ice box. How are they getting away with this? There has to be some type of recourse – I’m living with the heat set even lower to a 60 degree mark and now the apartment will drop almost to the 40s and 50s all the time and the stupid thing keeps running. I’ve asked the complex to come look at it FOUR TIMES to no avail. I’m walking around the house with thermal socks, slippers, thermal underwear upper and lower, sweet pants, long shirts, and sometimes even a robe on top of that because it’s so cold all the time but I’m afraid to go higher with the heat because we can’t afford a $200+ monthly electric bill. I’m at the point where I’m going to buy a mini space heater and an electric blanket and turn off the heat gauge all together since it’s so cold anyway, why pay for the thing to be constantly running. )

Hi my name is jolene and i have the same problem and the more i investigate the house i just moved in to you can tell the house has been on fire before the beams in the crawl space/attic are all charred and the is no insulation any wheres and my heat constantly runs my bill was 649.00 and 504.00 we froze for a month to get it down that much and i dont think its fair as a tenant with for little children to have to live like this?? so i guess i was wondering did you find any help? thanks jolene

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:38:46 +0000

I just moved from NY to NC for the cheaper living. I got a 2 bdrm 952sqft home. I’m an environmentalist so I try to keep everything to an absolute minimum anyway. I don’t turn on any lights until the sun goes down and even then I only turn on one light AS NEEDED. I run a laptop during the day that usually stays plugged in. I don’t use the TV (it’s not even connected) and I cook 1 meal a day and it’s a quick meal not a full blown dinner. I keep the heat set at 68 but it makes the apartment as cold as 55 sometimes. The bill last month was $191!!!! FOR WHAT? When I called the electric company they said “well, the bill was $117 for the month prior to you moving there so it’s not that big of an increase.” I said hold on – there was NO ONE living here and the circuit breakers were off when I moved in and you were still charging $117 a month for electric? When I came to look at the apartment in oct the thermostat was completely off and the place was an ice box. How are they getting away with this? There has to be some type of recourse – I’m living with the heat set even lower to a 60 degree mark and now the apartment will drop almost to the 40s and 50s all the time and the stupid thing keeps running. I’ve asked the complex to come look at it FOUR TIMES to no avail. I’m walking around the house with thermal socks, slippers, thermal underwear upper and lower, sweet pants, long shirts, and sometimes even a robe on top of that because it’s so cold all the time but I’m afraid to go higher with the heat because we can’t afford a $200+ monthly electric bill. I’m at the point where I’m going to buy a mini space heater and an electric blanket and turn off the heat gauge all together since it’s so cold anyway, why pay for the thing to be constantly running.

Please any help would be appreciated.

By: skeeta

skeeta — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:11:14 +0000

I moved to elizabeth city nc, my rent is 525.00 a month and my electric bill is 400.00 a month. this is crazy i dont why my electric is so high i lived in a 2 bedroom apartment. so i waited on a another bill the following month the same for that month too. something has to be wrong with their electric company. Its the same way with other homeowners and rental tenants,something really needs to be done here. how can your rent be much as your electric bill, i feel something needs to be done, someone is getting over.i feel for everyone thats going through this, i hope one day that this problem will be resolve.maybe the federal gov needs to step in on these issues.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:23:05 +0000

Hello, I feel your pain. I’m in the exact same situation but my bill is$280/mo. If you get an answer, can you please let me know! I would greatly appreciate any information.