FYI… Gary Coons wrote: if anyones Hydro bill has increased signifacantly since the install of the Smart Meters, come into my office with your Hydro Bill and speak to Pauline. Office is located across from Overwaitea. I do not know what is being done to fix some of the very high billings the last month. Just passing along what I just heard…
I will be taking mine in, as it jumped 300.00 this month
Took my bill in and looked closely at the details. If hydro bill is much higher, check how many days it’s for, usually about 55-60 days unless on payment plan then it’s monthly billing. Take into consideration that we’ve had a colder than usual past few months and even with gas heat, furnaces are still using power for fans. Christmas lights in December? Check the graph on the left side which indicates the average daily useage going back a year. Has it risen by lots? Comparing previous month’s/year’s statements just on the amount charged might not be an indication of higher useagae as the cost of hydro has increased 2 or 3 times in the past year.
No, I don’t work for BC Hydro, just a p’d off customer like many others.
I don’t have the new meter yet, but my parents bill went up over $100. I checked thier bill and it’s showing double the power useage over last year this time. Looking at their other bills and the useage per month is almost the same for the last couple of years. Change the meter and POW, double the power useage.
I have been checking my bills very closely since the meter was installed and everything seems normal. Is it possible that may be due to the fact I am on equal payment plan? Others on the plan haven’t had any issues either.
I am on equal payments as well and my bills have been normal or even lower…in fact my February bill was 50% lower than last years Feb bill with the old meter.
I’m not on equal payments, and my last bill with the smart meter was actually lower than the same time last year with the older-style meter. Despite the much lower temperatures this year in Terrace, my actual usage was lower.
I wonder if there’s a way to have a user-installable meter alongside the BC Hydro one to measure its accuracy.
I hadn’t got a bill since December and when I phoned them they said my power consumption was way up from previous. They said they were not going to send a bill til they were able to take a new reading. I was finally able to check on my online account. When I looked at the history, it was no different than usual and this past reading was more than half what it was last year. So I don’t know why some peoples are higher than normal and some are lower. I was all worried that my bill was going to be huge.
[quote=“MiG”]I’m not on equal payments, and my last bill with the smart meter was actually lower than the same time last year with the older-style meter. Despite the much lower temperatures this year in Terrace, my actual usage was lower.
I wonder if there’s a way to have a user-installable meter alongside the BC Hydro one to measure its accuracy.[/quote]
powermeterstore.com/p7774/ted_5000.php
badass…
Annual Adjustments.
/thread
[quote=“jesus”]
[quote=“MiG”]
I wonder if there’s a way to have a user-installable meter alongside the BC Hydro one to measure its accuracy.[/quote]
powermeterstore.com/p7774/ted_5000.php
badass…[/quote]
I’m totally gettin’ one of these. Will report back how accurate the smart meter is…
Here’s a video of some students who used that piece of equipment to test their smart meter’s accuracy. Turns out whoever installed the smart meter screwed up. optimumenergy.com/how-to-tes … -accuracy/
[quote=“MiG”]
[quote=“jesus”]
powermeterstore.com/p7774/ted_5000.php
badass…
I’m totally gettin’ one of these. Will report back how accurate the smart meter is…
Here’s a video of some students who used that piece of equipment to test their smart meter’s accuracy. Turns out whoever installed the smart meter screwed up. optimumenergy.com/how-to-tes … -accuracy/[/quote]
Apparently we’ve been visiting the same website. Let me know how it works, I might get one if it works well and we buy a house.
Wow. I might just get one of those meters. They just switched us over to a smart meter today so we’ll see how that goes.
Considering how many stories of bills jumping up I’ve heard over the last couple of weeks, you could make your money back on a meter by just renting it out for a month…lol
We had ours pushed on us in December. Our bill was “about” where it should be for two months of billing. It was colder than ever this winter though, so we expected a little more as our heaters were going 24/7.
Did you know that if you use maybe 6-8 liters of hot water that your hot water burns through energy for about 30 minutes? Toaster, hot water usage, Microwave, Kitchen Stoves and anything that converts energy to heat is deadly. I found all six of my computers and halogen lighting throughout four rooms was almost nothing compared to making a cup of coffee and some toast. Maybe everyone knows that…I hadn’t bothered to notice before…LOL
Don’t forget our wonderful provincial government hasn’t put the brakes on BC Hydro and there is ANOTHER %7 rate hike coming into effect in April. Oh and for those on a tight budget that have unpredictable cash flow, those 12 month payment plans are utter BS. I ended up paying over a hundred dollars last year for “late fees.” Paying every two months we just stock our money away and if we’re late a day or two - no hard no foul - we have a month to pay.
Try sending them this, worked for me, no smart meter on my house…Yet.
Ours went up $50.00 (two months).
But it could be due to external influences.
I’ll complain later if it doesn’t balance out soon.
There isn’t really a point in complaining. What options really do we have for Hydro ? You think people complaining will do anything at all. They will be like so do you want hydro or not.
There isn’t really a point in complaining. What options really do we have for Hydro ? You think people complaining will do anything at all. They will be like so do you want hydro or not.
Since we had the Smart Meter put in our electricity consumption has gone down over 30 percent since the New Year, tho I am very conservative with how much we use, and we have done work on our house. But they with held bills saying that I had higher than normal readings…so go figure.
Is pointless to try and repeal the HST too,Oh wait now,what the
My last two hydro bills have got up more than I’l like, but it seems to me it’s the result of a colder, and longer, than norm winter (for us) combined with the rate increase over the last year.