Everyday Randomness

I took my wonderful friend, Kim’s, advice and called the power company this morning. That didn’t go well at all. They weren’t willing to help me out any. The manager didn’t want to hear it about our efforts to go green, and he basically told me everyone is looking to get a credit on their bill this time of the year.

I said well when I know for a fact I’ve cut down drastically on my electricity usage, but then I’m billed more I feel like I deserve at least an explanation. Our usage is documented on our bill as being lower than the past 3 months and being lower than the same period last year, but we were still charged more.

I asked about keeping up with my own usage by checking my meter each month on the first and last day of my billing cycle, and I was told there’s no way they can tell me what days those are because they aren’t even sure. The billing cycle varies each month. I said okay I know what my usage was on the last day of the billing cycle for the current bill because it says it on the bill. Can you tell me when the meter will be read? Their response was “We don’t know.”

All they could tell me was the cycle will end sometime between 28-35 days whenever their guy can get out to read it. If that’s all the info they can give me then I’m going to count out 28 days and start checking the meter everyday through day 35. That way I’ll have my own numbers to compare to my bill next month.

At least I have absolutely no problem reading the meter on our house. It’s a digital meter from Itron, and since it was replaced in late 2006 with one of the newer models I probably built it and programmed it. It’s one that came out about the time we were having all kinds of problems with meters not programming correctly, and many of them were returned to be reprogrammed at least 2 or 3 times. I had to sign a waiver before they would even install our new meter stating I wouldn’t tamper with it because I know how to tear it down and reprogram it without breaking the seal. It’s a federal crime to do it, so don’t ever try it!

I’ve decided to do my own little self assessment of our power usage because this power bill thing is really bothering me. I know I’ve cut my electricity usage, and I want to prove it. I showed hubby some of those monitor gadgets I found, and we agreed we’re going to buy one. Until I have it I’m going to keep tabs on my power usage on my own. Like today, I slept most of the day because I was sick. Everything in the house was turned off except my computer. The TV was plugged up but not on, and all the lights were turned off. The only other things plugged up in the house were my camera that was charging and my cell phone that was charging. The microwave now stays unplugged when we’re not using it, and I make it a habit to make sure I unplug my coffee maker, straight iron, and hair dryer when I’m not using them.

What’s running right now? My computer, my camera is charging again, my modem, and the light in my office. Everything else in the house is off and unplugged except the night light in the bathroom. You can’t tell me that pulls enough power to jack my power bill up and I need to see to go pee! I forgot I also have a light over the kitchen sink, but we stopped using the actual over the sink light months ago. We replaced it with a battery operated light that sticks to the wall between the two windows. I leave it on at night so I can see where I’m going on the kitchen.

I decided maybe I don’t need to be thinking about the things I’ve cut down on using in the past couple of months. Maybe I should be considering the things I’ve added that need power. Honestly the only thing I’ve added is the digital camera which practically stays on charge all the time, but it’s a 5 volt DC. You can’t tell me that raised my power bill $40!