Pulling out of drive this morning ( got going late so it was light out) and see a strange set of tracks that wonder over to gas meter. This means they don't trust their electronic sender again and/ or changed out again. 6th or 7th time in the last 1.5 years. Jeeze you would think that with 40 cord css on the lot, they just might get the hint. It's not that I do not trust them ( not) But I have seen up ticks in the billing every time I see those tracks. Anyone else notice these type of unnatural occurrences?
Our power Co. is a co-op, and the only time they come out to check the meters is in July for the yearly reading. All they're doing is verifying that the totals for the year match what I report every month.
My service has been replaced 2 time in 2 years. While all my neighbors have remained the same.....Maybe you are on to something....
Not sure they get trained on visual signs of money saving wood burners. Computer says this house should use xxx cubic feet, it it don't , the computer sends out the hounds . Most have no concept of the BTUs in a stack of firewood.
Gas company is the opposite of Joe Blow. Joe sees an few stacks of firewood and thinks you have enough for the rest of your life. Gas company sees the same stacks and thinks you won't make it through the night.
On the right they ain't draining my wallet, but the left side of that computer says it ain't, so they come a sniffin looking for by-passes, altered meters and whatever else. Must have kicked a red flag up when Nov. bill was $5 for actual gas (+ $11 worth of their add ons) $13 for Dec + add ons. Been colder this year due to early snow cover and I kicked the thermostat up a couple notches so I don't freeze a pipe. Eletric going to be higher as I have been plugging truck in over night ( wind chills have been crazy low and getting worse)
Put a timer on the truck. You only need to light it up 2 hours before you start it unless its one of them thar Diesels. Leaving it plugged in all night isn't necessary on a gas engine vehicle. All your doing is making the electric company feel wanted.
Gas company changed my meter several years ago, but that was supposedly regular maintenance. I haven't heard from them otherwise. My usage is normal for hot water in the summer but is obviously very low for the winter. I dowonder why I haven't raised an alert on the fraud check or possibly I have and they did a drive by audit of my woodpile. The meter change guy did tell me stories of catching people with bypassed meters.
When we bought our new house we decided to go on the budget pan for utility bills. The operator said a house our size would cost about $300 a month in the winter for gas, and $300 for electric inn the summer. Our budget bill was $250 a month. I never thought a new house that was 600 sq bigger than my old 1970 house would be that bad. I had a wood stove installed. At the 6 month budget review (in November last year) i over paid by $600. They didn't want to change it because winter was just around the corner. And I just got my stove installed. At the one year review they owed me $1400. My budget bill was lowered to $100 a month. And I haven't paid them in 6 months because of the credit. I'm so glad they scared me into buying a wood stove!
last Oct. I put a back draft damper on the exhaust of the hot water heater( conventional combustion air from inside but forced exhaust, uses plastic pipe for flue) when it wasn't actively heating nasty cold air back draft which I felt had to be cooling it back down ( i was right, cut 50% off gas usage from previous bill) as there is not one OEM . Now I am wondering if I should not do the same fort the NG furnace which is a HE unit also. no standing pilots. Furnace unit is sealed combustion loop unlike the water heater so I have never noticed any back draft there, but was not actively looking at it in that fashion either.
I've thought about something similar when I had an oil boiler in a rental house with FHW. There was no damper in the flue, so while the combustion efficiency was around 80%, when the boiler wasn't firing, heat was still going up the chimney, so the heat loss of the system likely greatly reduced the efficiency of the system overall. Very interesting about the hot water heater.
I believe they do estimations based on reports in the area. We have problems with that here every year. They come out randomly every couple months and check then we either get a small refund or a BIG bill jump on the following bill. It's gotten so bad that I just do the meter read and send it in. It's far more accurate that way.
Bills always come through as actual reading, not on budget plan. Meters out put low power rf signals with consumption data. Electric , Gas & sewer/water are on these systems in my location. System is a drive by, that's why the title of the thread. 40 years ago I got my bills , there were not a 1/2 dozen add on charges listed, could have been paying them but not broken out. Up until I started using wood as primary heat source I never saw anyone or tracks at my meter. In the last 10 years it has become a irregular routine of the utility. Never any tracks to the electric meter and consumption there has also been reduced about as far as possible without turning to off grid sources.
I think we've finally gotten them broken of "anticipated usage" billing. We have received a few 600-800 bills in the past because they didn't bother to come to the meter and based on our neighbours, size of our house, and the regional manager's gambling debts (I'm guessing) they would send us these inflated bills. I would end up on the phone, reading my own meter to them and having them adjust the bill before I would pay. The last time was in March, I think. I had them go back through the entire winter and asked them our peak usage (4 therms in January) and then asked why they would expect such a spike in a warmer month. They had no good answer.
