Why is my bill this high?
Check the Energy Usage chart on your
bill. Is your use higher than last month? Higher than the same month last year?
Then compare degree-days for the same periods. If the number was positive and
higher, it was colder and you may have used more energy heating. A higher
negative number means it was hotter and air-conditioning may have run more.
There are many possible answers but home appliances account for most home energy
use today. To check out how much your appliances use and cost to run, click on
the "Home
Appliance Calculator".
How can I save energy and money on my bill?
Start by focusing on your largest energy users in the home – anything that heats or cools including your heating system, hot water heater, refrigerator – these are the largest energy users and having them cleaned and operating at their best can save the most. Next, eliminate the extra users for the winter and summer seasons, especially anything that heats or cools such as the spare refrigerator in the garage, the dehumidifier in the basement, and the filled hot tub and tropical fish tank. All add significant costs to your bill. We encourage any residential customer to call our toll-free Energy Hotline (888-772-4242) for more advice and assistance. Click on "Energy Hotline Info" to learn more.
Can my meter be wrong?
That’s very unlikely. But occasionally meter’s fail and when they do, the dial slows down, as most mechanical devices do when they age. This leads to a slightly lower usage recording – not higher. When we check a meter, we must remove it and replace it with a newer meter that may be more accurate.
Why is my neighbor's bill lower than mine?
If all charges on both bills are due strictly to energy use, than your neighbor is using less energy. The difference in the total bill is related to actual use. Houses are different. Lifestyles are different. This can make neighbors’ bills very different. To check out how much a variety of appliances cost to run, click on the "Home Appliance Calculator".
Can you tell me how much energy my home should be using based on its size?
There is no good rule of thumb that works for all customers. The size of the house is only a small part of the equation. The type and variety of appliances in the home, the heating system capacity, the number of people and their habits all contribute to the “typical bill”. But, in order to compare the effects of our rates with other surrounding utilities, we use the 500 kilowatt-hour average bill that has been in use for decades. (To see how this typical bill compares to other utilities around us, click on our "bill comparison".) Today, most homes average at least 750 kilowatt-hours per month.
Does my energy cost more at different times of the day?
You are charged the same amount for the energy you use throughout the day. But, like all utilities, MG&E buys this energy at different prices, with the highest costs for “peak use” which happens generally in the early afternoon on hot days and at the dinner hour on cold days. If everyone can cut down on energy use at these peak times, then we all pay less and everyone’s bills can go down.
Will I save energy if I buy a newer appliance?
Most
new appliances meet higher efficiency standards than years ago so you should
save energy – especially if you don’t add a lot of features that you didn’t have
before. Replacing an aging refrigerator that is constantly running will save
more energy than replacing an old dishwasher that is used only occasionally. To
check out the way to compare appliances and the Energy Star rating from the
Federal Government, click on the Energy Star
link.
Will turning back the thermostate during the day actually save much money?
Yes, most people can easily save energy by setting the thermostat to 68 degrees when you’re awake and at home, and lowering it when you’re asleep or away. You can cut your bill as much as 1% for each degree you lower the thermostat if the setback period is eight hours long, but even four hours can make a difference. Most modern heating systems bring the temperature back up quickly.
How much should I charge my teenager for using her blow-dryer for a half-hour every morning?
Most hand-held blow-dryers today use 1200 watts which means that if left on one hour, they would use 1.2 kilowatt-hours. One half hour use would equal six tenths of a kilowatt-hour. Our average residential customer typically pays 14.2 cents per kilowatt-hour so multiplying by .6 would mean the half-hour use costs about 8.5 cents or roughly $2.55 per month. Check out the operating costs of your other household appliances on our "Home Appliance Calculator".
How does oil compare to gas for the cost of heating?
Using our current typical gas bills of May, 2008, residential customers pay the heating equivalent of $2.50 per gallon of oil. (the BTU content of 1.38 ccf = 1 gallon of oil)
Natural gas prices usually rise when oil prices rise so it's important to consider that fact. Both fuels react to market conditions. However, we try to keep our gas rates stable using dedicated funds instead of raising fuel charges whenever the market jumps. One thing is guaranteed: this comparison will change!
How do I convert to Natural Gas heat?
Contact our gas division at (508) 947-1535 to determine if natural gas is available in your area.
If you already have gas service or service is available on your street, a natural gas conversion burner might be a lower-cost option than a new furnace provided your existing heating system operates well. A department technician will need to inspect your heating system to confirm this. If needed, we will install up to 150 feet of gas service line from the street to your home free of charge. Each additional foot of service beyond 150 feet will be billed at $2.00 per foot.
Our service technician will inform you of any charges and requirements needed to proceed with installing a natural gas conversion burner to your heating system. However, the initial cost is usually a fraction of the cost of an entire new furnace.
Call to make an appointment today.
Why aren't you dropping your fuel charges on my electric and natural gas bills?
Customers are asking: Prices for gasoline and oil are dropping like a stone. They've gone much lower since the September Wall Street crisis. Now I can fill my tank for half of what I did this summer and oil prices have dropped dramatically too. Why haven't your fuel charges dropped like that?
Because ... We don't buy our electric and natural gas supplies as needed in the open market where prices are low right now. We buy our supplies ahead and fix the price which means sometimes our prices are higher but most of the time lower than market costs.
Buying electricity and natural gas is not exactly like buying gasoline. We commit to buying our electric and natural gas supplies at least one season ahead so we don't risk the price spikes of the open market in order to keep our rates stable. We bought this winter's supplies before the September financial crisis because we didn't know that prices would drop so rapidly and we need to be sure that we have the right supply for our customers.
For years, our costs were lower than most by strategically fixing the price ahead of the season and, of course, no one complained. When prices were very high for the first half of 2008, we absorbed the extra fuel costs before we raised our fuel charge. We actually took in much less in revenue than we paid in fuel charges for this entire year. For all of 2008, our electric rates were stable and, on average, 4 cents below NStar. We will continue to strategically fix our power supply costs to keep our rates stable and competitive. Right now, our rates are lower than surrounding investor-owned utilities like NStar.
Bottom Line: We can't lower the fuel charge until we start using new supplies in the coming season. How quickly our funds are replenished and prices come down depends on customer use and power and natural gas market pricing. We'll know more in the spring.
Is the Amish Mantle and Miracle Heater too good to be true?
Customers are asking ... The ads say this beautiful heater that's made right here in America actually saves a lot in heating costs. At the standard heat setting, it costs only 8 cents per hour to run and if I run it all the time, won't that be just $60 per month? That costs a lot less than I pay in natural gas (or oil). And, right now, there's a special deal to get the heater for free if I buy the mantle that makes it look so good. But only if I act fast. Should I do this to save money heating my home?
No, because ... It is just a supplemental heater - really just an electric space heater, even if it is a really good looking one - and that's a really, really expensive way to heat your home.
Using the Miracle Heater in the Amish Mantle will cost you a lot extra on your electric bill. The heater insert is a space heater with heating coils that make a flame appearance and a blower that blows the heat into the room. It runs at 1500 watts at the high setting - just like the average electric blower-style space heaters you can get for much less money in a local hardware store. At 1500 watts, using this heater all day every day would use 1.5 kilowatt hours each hour for 36 kilowatt hours per day equaling 1,080 kilowatt hours per month. Our average cost per residential kilowatt hour is 16.7 cents so use of a single heater could cost as high as $180 per month.
If that still sounds low to you - considering that you could cut back onyour central heat (oil or gas) - for the average 2500 square foot home, you would need six of these heaters in the typical northeast home for the right btu level to equal the warmth of your central furnace.
Bottom Line: If you have to ask if it's too good to be true, it probably is. This claim has all the earmarks of a bad deal - buy the mantle, get the heater free ... only an impossible 8 cents per hour ... act fast! They don't want you to think! So we're glad you asked.
What's the cost to run the EdenPURE Quartz Spaceheater or any others for that matter?
Short Answer: You'll pay 21.3 cents per hour it runs, but will you keep the other rooms cold?
Our residential customers pay an average of 16.7 cents per kilowatt hour. According to their specifications, they use 12800 watts per hour (that's 1.28 kilowatt hours for every hour). If the heater runs eight hours while you are home, in one room, that can equal 10.2 kilowatt hours per day or $1.70 per day. In one month, that can add $51 to your electric bill.
For more information on this and other space heaters' energy use, click on SpaceHeaters Document below.
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view PDF
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Why is my January 09 Bill so much higher this month than last month or last year?
We've encountered the perfect storm:
Stormy December days interefered with our meter reading and so this bill reflects more days between readings - on average 35 days instead of the ususal 30. That's 22% more.
And those extra days were alot colder - this month was 29% colder than last month. So our customers used more electricity and alot more natural gas. Check the history box on your bill to see the Average Usage per day to compare it to the same month last year and it should be somewhat higher due to the cold weather.
The final blow was the increased Purchase Power and Purchase Gas Adjustments - increased last year due to ever-rising costs to buy power on the spot market through the ISO-NE. Some of this was clearly due to fuel costs but some was also seemed unreasonable to us and we are appealing to our congressmen for change in the New England power market. You can help by clicking on our Fair Electric Rates campaign announcement below.
To review the math resulting from the effects of our "perfect storm" click on the document below.
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Fair Electric Rates Campaign
Today is: March 11, 2010
