What is your average con ed bill?

Mine used to be about $60 for a floor-thru apartment (about 900 sq. ft) for one person, probably "average" usage - 2 computers, tv, etc. In the summer, about $100. I tend to use fans until I can't stand the heat, then I switch to AC. This was up until 2 1/2 years ago, when I moved into an apartment which has electric included, so I don't see the bill any more.

If you think it's too high, are you sure that other common areas (hallway lights, etc) aren't freeloading on your meter? Has it spiked recently? are you getting true readings or estimates?

ConEd adjusted it as soon as they got a meter reading.

The guy told me they change the estimated reading once they've had three readings in a row, either from their agent or by you sending it in on the scheduled day. The meter reader guy said there's some law about them having to pay interest if they are holding your $$, so they send you a check as soon as the real usage is figured out.

"Even lamps plugged in but not in use use energy" is NOT true... sorry. A lamp has a switch. When the switch is off, there is no energy flowing through the lamp.

This would be the same as saying "even an empty socket uses energy."

The only things that drain energy while *not* in use are things that have stand-by (like TVs and fancy stereos -- to avoid the whole "heating up" thing) and the so-called "vampires" like phone chargers and the like. Most of these (unfortunately) don't include an internal switch and continue to draw energy even if there is nothing being charged. This is why folks suggest using a power strip -- easy to switch off these "vampires" without having to unplug them.

Scarlett. Yes. That's what I'm saying.

If you can break the circuit, there is no flow of electricity. If there is no flow of electricity, there is no energy usage.

If the device always has an open circuit (like the TRANSFORMER of a cell phone plug), then there is the flow of electricity and energy usage.

On a similar vein;

I have a 2-bedroom and the usage has always been between 40 and 60 therms per month. But in December, it suddenly shot up to 196 therms, FOUR TIMES my historic usage. I checked -- it was an actual reading. I was doing nothing differently than I ever had. I called my super to check things out -- by this time, I'd also gotten my January bill, which was also high (180 therms). My super found nothing wrong, and nothing that could explain the spike in usage. He also called in a guy to look at the boiler -- he didn't find anything wrong either.

But, the guy that fixed the boiler said that maybe the meter ITSELF was on the fritz, and suggested I call Con Ed to get it replaced. I did -- and we got the bill for February. They measured us one week on the old meter and three weeks on the new; one week on the old was more than half the amount of what three weeks on the new meter was.

So this tells me that my usage didn't actually REALLY spike, it was just the meter itself that went screwy.

So -- whom do I call to get a reimbursement for that insanely over-charged bill I got back in December?

$60 a month, but it's about $30 each for actualy electricity and delivery charges.

get one of those vampire power using stopper deelys

mine's about 40-50 a month for a 700sq duplex. In my old apartment, something must have been wrong with the meter because our bills were always around $16 a month. Even in the summer when we had 2 ACs running quite often. Crazy, but I never complained ;-)

mine's about $75 (when the AC isn't in). it used to be about $20 bucks higher till i replaces all the lights with fluorescents and started unplugging most things.

2 bed floor through, about 800sq, dishwasher/wd, one person and one cat.