Shock and Awe at My Energy Bill

I have been sharing my journey reducing my energy bill and up until now I have been proud to say I have reduced my monthly usage.  Well, let me eat some crow.  A new bill came in that is almost double last months bill!  I just got off the phone with three nice customer service representatives from my local power company.  Here is what I learned.

1. The rates did go up on January 1rst.
2. My usage jumped from 441 KWHS to 876.75
3. I am charged one rate up to 600 KWHS and a higher rate after that.
4. My average daily useage jumps around quite a bit.  I am sure that occurs on days I do not use any electric heat and heat with wood.
5. There are not any free programs in my area to do energy audits.

I told them I have unpluged everything possible to avoid phamtom use.  I use the appliances at night.  They said that will not cut down my bill but helps with overall peak useage which should help the power company keep rates down.  Obviously, I must be the only one doing that!  I heat only two rooms and keep two rooms blocked off when not needed.

I have not used the wood stove every day.  Sad to admit but I have been some what lazy since I began to live alone and do not relish getting wood when it is pouring out.  I have moved a pile of wood nearer to the house and put it well under cover.  Guess I will have to suck it up and make hauling wood a fun and rewarding excercise..ya right!  For double the bill I will use it more often.  We did have a cold spell here and that is when I turned on the heat.  Wrongo in the congo.  That is when I should have fired up the wood stove.  There also has been a burn ban ongoing and woodstoves are only to be used if they are the only source of heat.  Well, I guess when the smoke Natzi comes to the door I will have to lower my muffler, take off my gloves and show him my electric bill.

They did have one suggestion I had not heard before.  They suggested I shut of the breakers for the rooms I am not heating.  It will involve checking to see if the electric baseboards have seperate breakers in those rooms.  I am sure those rooms are not getting any heat because I have thermometers in all the rooms that I check for kicks once in a while.  If the rooms were warm in any way it would be noticed.

I called a few friends and everyone was shocked by this month's bill.  We are all going to have to suck it up and put on another layer of clothing and get out another afgan.  Oh, by the way, I got one of those snuggie things for Christmas last year and it didn't work well for me.  The quality of the fleece is very poor and it was not as warm as an actual piece of good quality polar fleece.  Yes, the design is cleaver but the darn thing was not warm enough for me even with Mister T laying in my lap.

I am off to haul in some wood and turn off the electric heat!