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October 16, 2009
ConEd newbie bill question
I saw a similar post on this topic but it didn't quite address my question - so here goes:
I just moved to Park Slope from MN last month and received our first ConEd bill. We live in a smaller 1BR studio and my jaw hit the floor when I opened up and read the bill was for $129.13. OUCH. $32 was from our last bill which is fine. But $100 for one month of electricity seems a bit ridiculos to me. We're very conscientious of turning lights off and things like that. Before calling them to ask about it I'd like to get some input from people on the user end who may have experienced the same issue/concern.
Here's the breakdown of the bill for this month:
Previous month's charges = $31.72.
Supply charges = $39.13. That's fine... I understand that part. Now onto the good stuff:
Delivery Charges = $50.91 (Basic service charge: $14.65 + Delivery 356 kWh @8.88624¢/kWh $31.55)
Can someone explain in plain English what the delivery charge is all about - am I going to be paying this extra $45 every month? Does that seem wrong or is this one of those many "Welcome to NY!" surprises?
Comments
Welcome to New York
Posted by: newsouthsloper at October 16, 2009 1:22 PM
There's a long story that goes with this, but the simple answer is, yes, you will be paying a delivery charge every month. In NY, you can choose your electricity supplier. If you don't choose one, ConEd just sells you power that they buy at cost. If you feel like choosing a different one, here's a list: http://www3.dps.state.ny.us/e/esco6.nsf/Web4?SearchView&SearchOrder=4&Query=[ServesType]=Electric+Residential+AND+[Territory]=1001
Posted by: slopenick at October 16, 2009 1:36 PM
is your heat electric?
Posted by: bowl of dicks at October 16, 2009 1:41 PM
seems a bit high for a studio, but not exorbitant. Sorry. The one thing to check is if the bill is actual (meter reading) or estimated. If the previous tenants left all their appliances and lights on, it would be easy to run a bill that high. They could just be estimating usage from historical data for your unit.
Our electric bills for our 1 bedroom averaged over $100 in the summer, when we ran our A/C. In the winter they were lower. But if you have electric heat and/or cooktop, your bill would probably be higher than ours. We used gas for cooking, so it was lower.
Posted by: brooklynstyle at October 16, 2009 1:54 PM
Your charges are NOT typical. As others have mentioned, unless you're using an electric stove, baseboard heating, electric dryer, extraordinary AC, etc., the welcome to NY part may be that someone else is on your account. Otherwise, the kWh usage looks excessive, unless a remnant of the previous tenant or, maybe, renovation. Charges from a recent bill for one apartment in our building look like this - Supply charges:
Supply @ 11.0000¢/kWh
Merchant function charge: less than $1
GRT & other tax surcharges: less than $1
Delivery charges:
Basic service charge: $14.65
Delivery charge @ 8.7286¢/kWh (i.e. $8.73 for 100 kWh)
SBC/RPS charge @ .28577¢/kWh
Temporary NYS surcharge @ .3714¢/kWh
GRT and other tax surcharges: a little more than $1
Posted by: vinca at October 16, 2009 2:00 PM
Simply put, the supply is the actual gas you use, delivery is Nat'l Gas fee for the use of their infrastructure. You will always have that breakdown of charges. It does sound high to me too.
Posted by: Arkady at October 16, 2009 2:03 PM
Since you cannot do anything about that breakdown of charges, it's irrelevant. What is relevant is 356kWh for a small apt (is it a 1-bed or a studio anyway?) which is high unless you have electic heat. My triplex with a Unix server running 24/7 is about 340.
Posted by: cmu at October 16, 2009 2:15 PM
Thanks so much for the responses. I should clarify that this is strictly for electricity - the cooking gas is all we pay for and we get that through Ntl. Grid. Just received that today too and thankfully that one was only $20 for the month. THAT'S more like it.
As far as our electric usage, it's mainly just TV, laptop, and lights in whatever room we're in. Heat is covered by the landlord; I made sure of that prior to moving in after paying $200/mo for heat in the winters back in Mpls.
So it looks like I should give my friends at ConEd a call. Unfortunately that's the last thing I feel like doing right now so I'll put it on Monday's to-do list!
Thanks again for the input.
Posted by: micycle at October 16, 2009 2:49 PM
bill should say whether ACT - actual reading or EST - estimated.
Yes, it is too high and estimated rather than actual reading could be the reason. Maybe in summer if running a/c would cost that. but not without a/c.
Posted by: Petebklyn at October 16, 2009 3:11 PM
$100 for a one-bedroom is about right, even if the aprtment is empty all day most days.
Posted by: BH76 at October 16, 2009 6:36 PM
That is very high if you were not using air conditioning. But if you were using air conditioning in part of September, since it was still warm, that is not out of the question. We pay about $45 to $50 for a one family house during the winter, and that is with a washing machine. Another thing that could be is that Con Edison does not turn off electricity when someone moves out of the apartment, so any extra use between the old tenant and the new tenant is probably on your bill.
Posted by: Bklyn born at October 16, 2009 8:38 PM
Welcome to NY!!! I'm from MN, too. There are actually a lot of us out here and sometime next spring I'm going to try to recruit a bunch of us for a cocktail party at our place in Stuyvesant Heights.
Good luck.
Posted by: bedstuytownhouse at October 18, 2009 5:57 PM
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