NJ electricity prices

[antiriad 10]

My wife overhead some other moms while waiting to pick up our kid from school complaining about the electricity prices skyrocketing in NJ due to covid usage since everybody works from home.

We have solar panels with Net mettering and we don't see any off grid usuage intil Nov-Dec time when solar production decreases. We usually pay about 5$ per month for the meter. We also might pay about 50$ total in the winter due to lower solar production.

Did the prices really change that much? Any thoughts?

[Krdshrk 3,877]

I've been home and working from home - using multiple computers, AC, Fans, etc... 

Yeah - my electricity usage has gone up since last year... I'm paying about 30% more

[10X 3,296]

I need to see if our KWH rate has changed over the last year.   We did get a residential bill a month ago for $600, nearly double what we were expecting, but it was based on an estimated reading, and our actual meter reading at the time was quite a bit lower.  I just haven't done the math to see what the bill should have been.  The actual reading will be taken this month, at which point we should be back to a real number for the two month period.

Update:  Just got this month's bill, based on an actual meter reading.  $98.  So the average over the two months was about what we were expecting; no idea why their estimate was so screwed up last month.  

[Sniper 6,372]

2 hours ago, Krdshrk said:

I've been home and working from home - using multiple computers, AC, Fans, etc... 

Yeah - my electricity usage has gone up since last year... I'm paying about 30% more

A lot of people haven't taken this into account. Between all the electronics and additional A/C being run, it all adds up.

Plus, I've seen people complaining about their water/sewer bills too. But guess what, if you're not in in school or at work all day, guess how much water you use for all those toilet flushes, meals, etc at home?

[Mr.Stu 1,913]

I'm 6 months into my first year with solar. I had been hoping to have a little more in the electricity bank but with the lock-in I've been running my A/C a lot more over the summer. I'm down to just over 400kWh banked and production is falling this time of year. I hope I don't have too many months of having to spend more than the $2.92 connection fee over the winter.

[Sota 1,191]

I just had a $540 electric bill cross my bank account.  I'm assuming they did an estimated reading recently and it was high.

It's either that, or we're burning electrons WAY worse than I thought!

We also did have a decently warm summer.

[antiriad 10]

1 hour ago, Mr.Stu said:

I'm 6 months into my first year with solar. I had been hoping to have a little more in the electricity bank but with the lock-in I've been running my A/C a lot more over the summer. I'm down to just over 400kWh banked and production is falling this time of year. I hope I don't have too many months of having to spend more than the $2.92 connection fee over the winter.

2.92 with PSEG for the meter? That is almost 1/2 for the same fee for me. Usually the best thing you can do is to reset your anniversary month to March. This is something you can only do 1 time. March is the first months that production starts to go up. That way you have more KW banked before Winter.

[Mr.Stu 1,913]

1 hour ago, antiriad said:

2.92 with PSEG for the meter? That is almost 1/2 for the same fee for me. Usually the best thing you can do is to reset your anniversary month to March. This is something you can only do 1 time. March is the first months that production starts to go up. That way you have more KW banked before Winter.

I'm with JCP&L for my sins.

My system was activated in March so I'll see what it does up until then. I can still change it on the second year if I don't change it this year is my understanding.

It didn't help that my central A/C crapped out for the hottest month and I had to rely on window units - not as efficient.

[JackDaWack 2,895]

This time of year you want to check your meter and manually put in the reading. They have a habit of estimating when the season changes to keep the bill up, when they know ussage drops significantly. 

They did it to us 3 year in a row, Oct and , Nov. Told us they used last year to help estimate, but last year was also an estimate... im gonna manually submit the meter reading this year cause I don't trust them... they come around all summer long when it reads high.. 

[antiriad 10]

45 minutes ago, Mr.Stu said:

I'm with JCP&L for my sins.

My system was activated in March so I'll see what it does up until then. I can still change it on the second year if I don't change it this year is my understanding.

It didn't help that my central A/C crapped out for the hottest month and I had to rely on window units - not as efficient.

If you started in March then keep it. This is the best time to start the metering. Read FAQ at 

https://www.njrcleanenergyventures.com/residential-solar/customer-faqs.aspx

As far as the anniversary month it can only be changed one time only.

 

 

 

[Ulfhednar15@ 19]

My July bill was roughly double my average bill, then August was back to normal.  Could be covid related or that we were home more and used the ac a lot more.

[raz-0 1,259]

I'm paying a lot more, but not double. And it's because of working from home and having to cool my attic office. 

I'm going to guess rates are going to go up in general at some point because it's not like they are powering down the office buildings in general, which means we are probably burning more electricity than they estimated and bid for. 

[raz-0 1,259]

17 hours ago, Sniper said:

A lot of people haven't taken this into account. Between all the electronics and additional A/C being run, it all adds up.

Plus, I've seen people complaining about their water/sewer bills too. But guess what, if you're not in in school or at work all day, guess how much water you use for all those toilet flushes, meals, etc at home?

How many dumps can you take? 

I guess if you live someplace where the billing schedule for usage is horrible. Or you have decided to spend the lock down become a lawn guy and have been watering your lawn to death or something. Or bought a pool and filled it from the hose. 

My electricity has gone up from cooling places I wouldn't cool during the day. Gas is up a teeny bit, but that's because summer was usually full of bills where they charge me their minimum amount rather than what I actually use. This year I'm actually using a couple bucks over the minimum with all the extra cooking at home. Sewer and water? I pay the minimum now, and always have. I don't really like lawns and don't feel the need to run sprinklers 3 hours a day or whatever people do to wind up going past the flat rate allocation around here. I know in other places in NJ, the water rates are much nastier. 

Also I don't know what people do, but they are wasteful a hell with energy. It's why I don't do equal pay plans any more. I got tired of moving into a place and being billed like I crank the thermostat up to 95 in the winter and open the windows, and then cool to 60 in the summer. 

And as a data point, I don't think it is the utilities. First year I moved into this house, I kept my attic office cooled 24-7 and got whacked with a $500+ bill even with no kid and both of us out at work all day. This year I'm running an extra window unit compared to then for the kid's room, and everyone is home, so there's no turning the temp up a bit during the day and I only got hit for $425 in august. And this is with a house built in 1931-ish. 

[NJSigfan 218]

I just looked and we’re up about 30% since the lock downs hit.  I’m not sure if it’s because we’re home more or because we added a portable AC to help cool the upper floor.  Probably both, but either way we are paying more.

i’ll know more in about 30 days as milder temps roll in.  Last few nights have been AC off with windows open.   Woke this morning to the house at 64 degree

[raz-0 1,259]

Just now, NJSigfan said:

I just looked and we’re up about 30% since the lock downs hit.  I’m not sure if it’s because we’re home more or because we added a portable AC to help cool the upper floor.  Probably both, but either way we are paying more.

Depends on the size of your bill. But portable ACs suck for efficiency and until recently the numbers on them were a lie, so odds are you weren't sized right for the space being cooled. My portable AC in my attic office is costing me about $80 a month. I believe that is as low as it is because I figured out the numbers are a lie and bought a bigger unit better matched to the job than last go round. That one cost me about $100 a month to run. But I wasn't running it in April, and my electricity was only up about 5%. 

[Sniper 6,372]

28 minutes ago, raz-0 said:

How many dumps can you take? 

That's the only place people use water at home?

Does anyone go to the gym before work and shower there in the AM instead of at home?

How about making multiple meals during the day at home? Kids home from school?

People were doing tons of landscaping during the lockdowns to keep busy.

People were cleaning their houses and cars too...

But yeah.... taking dumps...

 

[raz-0 1,259]

3 hours ago, Sniper said:

That's the only place people use water at home?

Does anyone go to the gym before work and shower there in the AM instead of at home?

How about making multiple meals during the day at home? Kids home from school?

People were doing tons of landscaping during the lockdowns to keep busy.

People were cleaning their houses and cars too...

But yeah.... taking dumps...

 

I like your selective reading. It fuels your inherent assholishness well.  YOU are the one who mentioned dumps as a contributing factor. So I threw it back at you because it's funny. And followed it up within two sentences saying unless you decided to become a lawn guy during lockdown (i.e landscaping) or buying a small pool and being stupid enough to fill it from the hose. 

Showering at home vs the gym. Lets say you did that 7 days a week and went from 5 minute gym showering  to 20 minute showers. But you stuck to using a single government approved 2.5gpm shower head. That's 350 gallons a week. Lets say I have a household of 7 people doing that. A totally bullshit number for your gym scenario. For me that's about a whopping $32 a month assuming I'm using up the base water allocation I'm forced to purchase whether I use it or not. (my rate is ~$25 per 1000 cuft, I know others have much worse rates).  Realistically, with say a household of 4 and the equivalent of 1 parent can afford to do the gym thing a day and it's a household with 6 day a week jobs and you shower at the gym like home and do the national average of 8.5 minutes using a single 2.5gpm shower head. You are looking at using up. That's a whoppiong 127.5 more gallons a week. 1000 cuft of water is 7480.52 gallons. Or a bit less than 2% of ONE billing unit. The most egregious place I can find rates for is $75.70 for 1000cu ft, those home showers are $1.70 a month. If both parents did it 6 days a week, it's $3.40. If a household of 4 does it it's $6.80. I presume you can multiply. 

IF you gave up the gyms 1.5gph shit heads to come home to your regualtion skirting 64 shower head shower and hang out in it for 30 minutes a day, well...

 

To I have 3 gallon toilets. to get me billed for an extra unit, a whopping ~$25, I'd have to shit at home an extra 831 times a month. That's 27.7 shits a day. My co-worker with a household of 9, that's 3 extra flushes a day by everyone. Feasible. But he'd also have to bitch about a whopping $100 a year to go with it. Your average houshold of 4? You need to see a doctor. Bad. 

You can wash a car well in less than 30 gallons without working too hard. You aren't washing your house every day, and the pros seem to do it with between 250-500 gallons of water. Lets say 500. At 500, I spent $25 to power wah my house EVERY OTHER FUCKING DAY. 

In short, people aren't bitching about hidden costs. They decided to spend money to do something and don't like the price because when it was shaped like water it didn't look like money to them. 

You litterally just said WARGHARBLE you are stupid because landscaping!!! While I had in fact said landscaping within two sentences of where you decided to throw a childish fit to prove you are smart. 

You aint stupid, a lot of things you say are well researched, but you put a lot of effort into coming off stupid. You might have a lot more enjoyable conversations if you didn't start them off with "fuck you I'm the smartest guy in the room" whil slipping on a banana peel. 

I engage with you because you are occasionally insightful, but this schtick is fucking hilarious. It's liek the keystone cops of pontificating. 

[Sniper 6,372]

1 hour ago, raz-0 said:

I like your selective reading. It fuels your inherent assholishness well.  YOU are the one who mentioned dumps as a contributing factor. So I threw it back at you because it's funny.

OK, let's talk about selective reading. I'll repost what I said above:

On 9/18/2020 at 3:54 PM, Sniper said:

But guess what, if you're not in in school or at work all day, guess how much water you use for all those toilet flushes, meals, etc at home?

Any idea what "etc"  includes??

I'll wait....  Hint, it's not just toilets...

But you just posted a AVB level, short novel, because of.... wait for it... "selective reading"...  LOL

1 hour ago, raz-0 said:

but you put a lot of effort into coming off stupid.

"Coming off stupid"... you're well on your way.

In many towns, the sewer bill will equal the water bill, so for every gallon of water that comes out of the pipes, even to water your champion roses, you're getting billed for sewer treatment, which doubles the bill.

But you already knew that, because you're Einstein... right?

1 hour ago, raz-0 said:

In short, people aren't bitching about hidden costs. They decided to spend money to do something and don't like the price because when it was shaped like water it didn't look like money to them. 

Wait, I take the Einstein title back, because you really are clueless. The people bitching about their electric and water/sewer bills are clueless why they are double. These must be friends of yours, you know, the "birds of a feather" saying...