My local utility company recently sent me a letter saying that I was one of 10,000 randomly selected customers chosen to receive a "Personalized Home Electricity Report."
The report contains information and analysis about our electricity consumption and includes comparisons to my neighbors' electricity usage. The report also contains tips to make my home more effecient and to help me "make smart choices to reduce [my] electricity use and bills."
When I got this little note in my mailbox, I was excited about it because I thought I would be able to find new ways to save on my electric bill.
And then I read the report. And then I got angry.
According to the report, we use 35 percent more electricity than our neighbors. Now, I don't know who they consider my "neighbors" - probably other randomly selected people - but I can tell you that my actual neighbors are all summer cabin owners, so of course, my consumption will be higher.
We also have a duel fuel hot water heat system. Which means that we use off-peak electricity to heat our house most of the time, and fuel oil at other times. I wonder if that fact is even considered in their comparison with our neighbors' usage.
But what really got me angry was their "Personalized Action Steps:"
Heat water at a reduced rate. I am already on the utility company's program for off-peak water heating - something they could have easily found by looking at my records.
Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs). I just spent the last two years replacing every single light in our home with CFLS. I also claimed all the rebates through my utility company that I could for those bulbs. Once again... they could have checked their records.
Look for the Energy Star label. We don't buy any appliances that don't have the Energy Star label. We replaced our last big energy-sucking appliance last year. And we also got a rebate from our utility company for that. Once again, they need to check their records.
Looks to me like this entire report was a giant waste of energy for them. And since it is a rural electric cooperative - that means they're wasting my money, too.
Tell me something I don't know.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Utility Usage Blues
10 comments:
We got the same letter. I could beleive they would try to shame their customer's into buying less of their product. We also use off peak to heat our house and live in an area with a lot of cabins. I wish we had a choice for power companies. I might be willing to pay more for soem common sense customer service.
Oh, so typical. And scary to think we might not be allowed to sell our home in the future unless we replace all the windows, etc. It would take 20 years to recover the costs associated with replacing all of our windows in our circa 1957 home. As for CFL's, I'm not willing to use them in areas other than the garage and pantry, where the area can be closed off if one breaks. I hear it's quite the health hazard.
Here in Texas the big expense is cooling, the cost of which is completely out of hand. We use natural gas for heating and for our water heater. In the summer we have about a $15 bill for the water heater. Natural gas is much less expensive than electricity for heating.
How do you know if you have another big energy guzzler besides the freezer? Have you tried using a Kill-o-Watt meter to measure kilowatt usage of various home appliances? You may be surprised.
I couldn't figure out why my electric bill was so high until i finally realized it was my dehumidifier, which runs constantly during the summer in my basement. I replaced it with an Energy Star replacement and voila! Energy usage went way down.
@ Dawn - We have used the Kill-a-watt on other appliances... and the majority of our appliances are only a couple of years old (and are Energy Star), so we've found our trouble spots. We've also been trying to watch out for those vampire electronics, too - unplugging things we don't use all that often.
I hear ya! Those suggested steps would also anger me since they are not truly personalized.
Wonder if the reports were something they were required to do by some government agency??
I just wanted to let you know that we also received the same letter and our bill is 35% higher also. We also have a dual fuel hot water heat system and I know for a fact our neighbors do not have that. I was really upset with the letter. But if you have done everything that you can to lower your bill, then what? We have actually had the power company come out to our house to make sure that the usage was correct. And they stated it was correct. But in actually what can I person do? You can't switch electric companies.
I don't understand why a power company letter would make you "angry"? They probably figured they would send one generic letter to 10,000 people rather than the expense of, say, 1,000 personalized letters. I'm guessing it was the wording of the letter (that it wasn't really personalized) that caused the outrage?
@ Sarah - What made me angry was that the whole letter and report were supposed to be "personalized" but wasn't personal at all. To make the recommendations they suggested to me is like preaching to the choir... it's a waste of time and money.... and that is something the company would have known if it had simply looked at my account.
I would have been happier if they had just sent me a generic letter. Pretending to be consumer-focused doesn't win any points with me.
Our utility company (a co-op) is doing the same thing. I was also a little irked at their comparison-even though we were pretty much in the middle. Home sizes vary widely in our neighborhood. While our house isn't huge, some of our neighbors have TINY homes. In addition, our action steps were similar to yours, and we're already doing all of them, too! If it's supposed to be a "personalized" report, I think the effort should be made to create viable suggestions, rather than generic energy-saving advice that can be found anywhere on the website. I totally agree that it's a waste of money.
@Marybeth - They probably used the same software... maybe even considered us neighbors! Unreal!
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