Outrageous electricity bills - Calgary

[Albertan22]

Originally Posted by es355lucille

Does anyone know if Epcor has a plan the same as Enmax? Right now I am paying ~11.65 cents per kWh with Epcor. I will have to check out Enmax as well..... thats a good savings! Thanks 24storm! Brad & Sharon.

Be careful with the locked in rate plans. I know a few people who have signed up for them and their bills actually went up significantly. They tend to charge less for electricity, but get you on all the extra fees (which aren't locked in). If you look back through this thread you'll see that a lot of people on those plans are paying more in administration fees than electricity, which isn't the case with my Epcor bill

[my2rotties]

My house is over 3000sf. I have a well/septic tank so my bill is strictly for power alone. There are two of us and we do not use the entire house and have lights on all the time. I do have to turn stuff off after hubby all the time though.

I have the following

3x 250 halides
6x 65w compact florescent
2 700 Korilla power heads
1 Korilla 500 power head
Aqua medic skimmer t5000
A really crappy Blue line 100 pump 250w(month old and shot)replacing with better since its consumption is 390w don't buy on they suck

500w heater (hardly runs only at night when halides are off)
250w heater (water storage only runs to keep water at temperature)
36" Tek lights (over fuge)
36w turbo twist UV
Deltech phosban reactor

[Jay180reef]

Okay I'm really just whining...upon closer examination, my household used 1400kWh at 8 cents for a total of $113. The Reef Central calculator told me I'm using $70 worth of electricity for the reef. I can live with that.

The criminal part of the bill is the Easymax fees:
$8 Administration charge
$19 distribution charge
$19 Trans access Defer Acct Rider ??????
$22 Local access fees

plus 3 other small fees

[Delphinus]

Yup, I hear you. My utilities are in that ballpark too, but I have 4 reef tanks and a freshwater tank. I'm cutting back though, I'm hoping there will be a slight reduction, but it's as you say, the electrical portion is really just a small component. All the other fees are a complete joke. I like how they are individual line items as if they are optional. "Oh I don't want that, so I'll opt out of the trans access defer rider for this month."

[Jay180reef]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Yup, I hear you. My utilities are in that ballpark too, but I have 4 reef tanks and a freshwater tank. I'm cutting back though, I'm hoping there will be a slight reduction, but it's as you say, the electrical portion is really just a small component. All the other fees are a complete joke. I like how they are individual line items as if they are optional. "Oh I don't want that, so I'll opt out of the trans access defer rider for this month."

SO frustrating, on the whole utilities bill I counted 18 random charges.

[Jay180reef]

The funniest part of it all is my water bill was only $11 (without random fees)

[my2rotties]

In my thread someone mentioned that that my rate could be estimated. Well that was the case fr January and I am paying what I used in reality total for two months. The estimate was much lower I guess then usual. The gas and power people come give my pups cookies when they come and when I think abut it, I did not see them in January.

My distribution charge is $40.70 and transmission charge $31.13 for that billing month. Geez I thought Enmax was criminal when I lived in Calgary. I'm going to call and whine to Epcor anyways, it won't hurt...

[i have crabs]

i used 1558kwh in january i switched to enmax this morning for the 8cents and it should save me $30-40 per month
fyi computers use alot of power also so start turning them off when your not using them for a while if possible
also pluging in your car overnight costs about 50cents so get a timer if you plug it in often

[Jay180reef]

Originally Posted by i have crabs

i used 1558kwh in january i switched to enmax this morning for the 8cents and it should save me $30-40 per month
fyi computers use alot of power also so start turning them off when your not using them for a while if possible
also pluging in your car overnight costs about 50cents so get a timer if you plug it in often

That's a good point, I remember when I built my computer I put in a 500W ultra quiet power source...definitely need to do some investigating with the Kill A Watt.

[globaldesigns]

tell me about it, last months bill was $700