Electricity bills rise after Con Ed installs new meter?

After having relatively stable electricity costs for 6 years, this past year our electricity bills have risen 50%. About a year ago, Con Ed switched the meters on our home to new ones that can be read remotely…. so, with the new meters, we have much higher costs. Con Ed says they have no idea what’s causing the increase in costs but that “maybe the old meter” wasn’t accurate. Has anyone else had this problem — or do you know of some independent means of testing a meter? (not counting just taking Con Ed’s word for it)

carrie m

in Utilities 12 years and 1 month ago

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Bklnite | 12 years and 1 month ago

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I would suggest looking at the usage (kWh) and meter readings on the bills, not just the total bill amount, Not to minimize anyone’s problems w/ ConEd and automated meters, but I notice that with no change in my  meter (I mostly phone in  meter readings) the bill went up by about 25% per Kwh usage between the last 2 bills.

mcll | 12 years and 1 month ago

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We just had out meter changed and notice a 60% increase in our next bill. We will definitely be calling con ed But I dont know what that will do . Anyone else out there in a similar spot ?We should’ve just left well enough alone

cate | 12 years and 1 month ago

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If memory serves, we had this problem three years ago, and ConEd took a look and replaced the new meter reader.

Goatcrapp | 12 years and 1 month ago

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pig – with your case, since it involved an upgrade in physical wiring (from the street, correct?), did you pay separately for that?  If not, then the increased cost was them capitolizing the cost into your bill, split up over x amount of time.   Also – you’re put into a different price tier if you’re commercial or rental… so if the upgrade in service was also to put you in another category, that could be it as well.  i pay more per kJ in my three meter house, than i do in a 1 family (also in brooklyn and both served by con-ed, not a third party provider)

Goatcrapp | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Consult an electrician – you can have them feed a digital meter off your box to make sure it matches the claimed uses by con-ed When they first installed the radio meters in my parents house, their monthly bill went through the roof,  in  1 year, they paid over 10k for electric, while in previous years, they would pay about 3500 total (including hot summers with lots of AC usage). My parents (older) just paid the bills, not thinking of it, until it became too much to budget for.  I don’t make it a habit of asking about my parents bills, but what clued me in was during a visit, all the lights were off, they weren’t watching TV, and they were making excuse after excuse about not wanting to turn on the A/C.  They finally spilled the beans, and i was livid. Calls to Conned… i mean con-ed, were useless. No matter how many times we fought with them, they insisted it had to be something that changed with our use, or an appliance with a failing motor/compressor, etc.  Usage was no different, in fact it was cut back significant;y, from my parents living in fear of the bills, and we had all the major appliances and a/c unit (it was central a/c) checked, and they were fine.   As luck would have it, a family vacation allowed us to turn the electricity off at the breaker completely, for two weeks.  When we returned, and after demanding the day to day use numbers, they claimed normal day to day usage during that 2 week period.    We got an electrician in, and a lawyer, and many headaches later, my parents were reimbursed for over a year’s worth of improper charges, as well as expenses.   We never DID get an answer, but it was definitely to do with the radio meter.  Either they were reading/combining someone else’s meter due to interference (not likely, given that they are on discreet frequencies) or they screwed up and simply had us on the wrong account.  The meter itself could have been faulty, who knows. With my own home, when they tried to make me convert, I told them to stuff it.   I’ll send in the readings as needed, and allow access to the cellar if they wish.

pigthree | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Don’t have an answer, but I did an upgrade to 200 amp service with the new type meter and my useage went up considerably.