I Got My Last Electric Bill A Few Days Ago & It Was $207, Haven’t Had A Bill This High Since 2011 When We Had A Record-Setting Heat Wave…

@CestManan I lived in a 900 square foot house and would only use the small a/c in the bedroom and was satisfied with my bill back then. There was a large a/c in the living room that used a lot of electricity and I only used it if someone came over and that wasn’t often. It drew so much power it made the ceiling light flicker when I turned it on. I spent a lot of time in my bedroom on the weekends after it got hot, would cook in the kitchen with sweat on my face and take my food into the bedroom and eat, read books, watch tv etc.

@cherokeepatti that sounds pretty much how I do things now. I think my house that I stay in is somewhere between 800 and 900 square feet. And 156 of that is my bedroom.

@CestManan I wouldn’t mind living in a well designed tiny house to save on bills

@Coletracer Seems like I am $50 higher this month than last year.

@Virgo79 yeah right. But his name is Pedo Peter now and don’t you forget it.

@cherokeepatti ive saw that a few times😂
From the sound of things it fits.

@Beatbox34 same. I have a problem even now with heat where I can get heat exhaustion. I have passed out when standing in a garage with two women who were both older than me about 45 years ago and went blind one time while cooking when I had no a/c. I sweat my minerals out and didn’t know I needed to buy potassium and magnesium, got really weak in the summer and I was in my 20’s. I take minerals every day or my heart will flutter and drink dill pickle juice for the salt. I believe adrenal issues are the reason that I need more salt at my age. Doctors tell older people to use less salt but that is not good for me.

@cherokeepatti I am so sorry. The heat is actually much worse for the body and I know how it messes me up.

Have you tried salt with less sodium? My mother takes that since she can't take regular salt.

@Beatbox34 I take potassium every day but I need regular salt. That less salt stuff has potassium in it.

@Carissimi tiny homes look even more appealing today. If they are designed right and have enough storage space they are much easier to heat and cool. Unlike mobile homes which are made with flimsy materials a tiny home would not lose much energy.

I couldn’t live in a tiny home. I don’t have enough space as it is, but at least I can work out at home. I need at least enough space to work out, and have my weights and exercise equipment. You can’t do that in a tiny home. Some look really nice though. @cherokeepatti

@Carissimi I could do it, but would need a good storage shed out back or a cargo container to put extra things in for when I need them later.

@nedkelly You got cheap rates then it seems. How large is your home if you don’t mind saying. Mine is on the smaller side, I think 1385 square feet which doesn’t include the sun room (which is not air conditioned or heated)….

@cherokeepatti I just did the conversion and it is 2800 square feet

@nedkelly wow

@Longpatrol I live in Oklahoma we have oil wells and natural gas is a by product of oil wells, they used to burn off a lot of it rather than capture it. Shouldn’t be this high but they passed the rate increase.

@SooperSarah I will get a rash if It is over 75

@summersmiles what can I do? I haven't turn my AC a lot. Running the water cooler and keep the lights off. Yeah.....

@FreestyleArt wow that's crazy

@FreestyleArt water cooler would create mold around here and it feels sticky when someone uses one. I can’t stand that musty smell right before the mold blooms either.

@MrBrownstone no attic fan, I have some small fans and ceiling fans but they don’t take the humidity out.

@cherokeepatti Have you tried a dehumidifier?

@MrBrownstone I have a dehumidifier. The thing about them is that they generate so much heat that it will raise the temperature in any room you put them in. So it won’t help reduce the electric bill at all. We had them in the dorm, the Coordinator bought 27of them for the girl’s building and put them in all of the hallways and the lounges. They collected so much water the tanks had to be emptied twice a day in warm weather. And it got even hotter in the building even with the a/c going full blast. The building had been remodeled and new walls built and somehow it caused the building to collect moisture inside. We had a mold problem in the building even with the humidifiers, had to change out all the ceiling tiles on the 2nd floor the year I retired due to mold being underneath them.

@MrBrownstone It’s a smart meter, not an old fashioned slot machine

@MrBrownstone Years ago it was possible to flip a meter over and make it run backwards. You had the problem of the seal to deal with but if you had a solution to that.....

A man I worked with claimed his brother did that when he was home on the weekend and would flip it back before he left for work Monday. One weekend he got drunk and forgot to flip it back over and got caught.

@robb65 I got accused of doing that in the summer of 1980. Not by the electric company but the meter reader who had gone to high school with my husband. He told my sister-in-law that we had been stealing electricity. It was a smaller rural electric company and we were in a record-setting heat wave with 100F. Temps every single day for about 3 months. My mother-in-law called and asked me if we had been reversing the meter. I told her no, the bill was going up every damn month. They had us read the meter when we sent in the bill to pay. I think they sent the meter reader out to make sure we sent the right reading in. We did not even have an air conditioner and were suffering in the heat. Had small window water cooler and a box fan to cool down with. I got so upset I felt like my stomach was on fire. When my husband came in I told him what happened and he called the electric company at midnight, there was someone on duty and gave the a drunk cussing and told them we were called electric thieves. I imagine we were one of the few homes that didn’t even have any air conditioning. That week I heard the meter reader got fired and I wonder why.

@cherokeepatti arizona, we have never had a 400.00 electric bill b4 that year. Been here 18 years

@ronisme1 How is your water situation?

@cherokeepatti no problems

@MarineBob Is that any of their damned business if you have solar panels? Are they actually trying to do that? Like they have money invested in your panels or what?

@ScarletWitch The other company is worse because it is a rural company, I don’t think we can change in this area anyway, it’s wired for this neighborhood.

@cherokeepatti We are in a really weird area in that the little hole in the road where I live was a "town" back in the 20's (but began to dry up by the 30's) so it had electricity before the surrounding "rural" area did. Now it's off the beaten path and it's hard to imagine this was ever a town and the surrounding "rural" area is now more built up. So the surrounding area gets its power through what was once known as the "REA" while we get our power from "Alabama Power" which mostly supplies power to towns.

@TheLordOfHell I need to or I’ll break out in skin rashes and they are not fun to deal with. I can sweat while sleeping if the thermostat is not set low enough.

@Stereoguy That’s the time of day that our electric company wants us to cut back. I am retired now and usually inside the house. And the birds will get hot if I turned it up too warm for them.