Submitted by cd0130735 t3_10r8vi8 in springfieldMO
Hi,
I just moved into a house in Springfield. Its an older house built in 1922 for context. My CU bill for water, electric, gas is upper 200, low 300s. Im a single guy, i didn't think my bill would be that high. Will CU recalibrate the meter box?
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Any feedback is appreciated!
That's what I pay for a 4 person household in an older home. For a single person that seams high
One person uses the same amount of refrigerators as four people, keeps the house the same temperature as four people, pays the same monthly amount for internet as four people. Sure they probably use less water, do a little less laundry, take fewer showers, but depending on the individuals personal conservation efforts and the efficiency of the house itself with weatherproofing and specific appliances one person could easily have a bill close to a four person household, especially accidentally before they really get to know their new house well enough to account for it
This is correct. I live alone and my bill last month was $390.00. Gas home, poor insulation, I don't overextend or abuse my utilities by any means but man the bill can be rough.
It's a smooth $150 in the summer, at least.
One person vs a family of fpur would still use one refrigerator
Plastic covering the windows. Chase drafts with caulk and foam. Good luck. It just gets more expensive every year.
That sounds similar to mine. Only I'm in a newer house. Really, I think your lucky it isn't higher. Compare the usage amounts each month. With the cold we just had and in December it's hard to keep your gas usage down.
Ours was almost 400 this month and we keep our heat at 68. We just had some real fucking cold days. Also, CU is the only run in town, they can butt fuck us all day, and do.
Try living somewhere where there's basically one utility company for most of the state or a huge region. You'll quickly come to appreciate CU
You can’t compare the two because they’re two different situations. Just because that sucks doesn’t make this situation suck ANY less.
Having a monopoly in one city still counts as a monopoly for the purposes of that city’s residents. I had a fun argument with CU several years ago when they told me basically “yes, you turned off all the power breakers in the house, the water, the AC, and all fans and ventilation, but we’re still charging you $180 for that address FOR THE ABILITY to use our services. $180 a month just to BE ABLE TO use utilities. They get away robbery because they can.
meow that sounds about right
Have a friend in Florida, and this summer their utility company has to buy electric from duke electric. Had an almost $600 Bill.
I set my heat to 62, and we just bought an electric blanket. Have a smart thermostat (CU had a deal for those, I think), so when no one is home, I turn it down to 60. After a while, 64 seems warm.
Good idea on the heated blankets!!! Will look into this.
I work from home so I do have to keep it a little higher, but I'm going to look I to a heated blanket for those cold days and it is just me.
My house was built in 1888,1920's modern sheik,and that's about what mine is most months where I'm running the heat/air conditioning. Then about $40-$50 less in those off-peak months.I hope that helps
You can pull past usage and bills for any property served by CU here
thank you
Dealing with this exact issue my friend. I'm used to a CU bill of around $200 in apartment life, but since moving into my house on the north side its been in the lower $400's. I honestly don't know what im gonna do, but they're always really nice and work with their customers on payment plans. Best of luck!
my last residence was a 1100sq ft house built in 1990. it is about 200 a month.
Unless that house was also in Springfield, the comparison is apples and oranges.
Utility prices have shot up in the past two years or so. I remember it starting when they had to do rolling blackouts
Which were caused by a massive winter storm, utilities took massive losses, some in Texas went bankrupt over the costs. Basically we’ve retired so much coal as a region (and country) that when the gas supply got screwed up by freezing wells utilities had to run gas plants far more than expected at gas prices that were exponentially higher than expected.
Combine that with no sunshine for days and wind generation not helping much due to freezing, lack of wind, or grid congestion it was a perfect storm to lead significant change in operations. Except little was done, and we are more at risk today then we were then.
not sure why your down voted but this is correct. and its why we need more nuclear power in the US
its like a monopoly. and internet providers are only a little bit more option.
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Our level pay just went up neqrly $7000 a year, you end up paying the same in the end. They credit your account if you pay too much, and they will both raise your rate to pay anything you would have had to pay otherwise in addition to raising it to reflect their new rates. Had this all explained when I called.
I didn't know this was a thing, I will definitely have to look into it
If it is a rental, ask the landlord if extra insulation was ever added. If the side of the house is old asbestos siding, the only way to add insulation is in the attic.
Do you feel drafts anywhere?
no draft. the comments sound like its par for the course in my neighborhood.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
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We have solar in our 1940s house which covers our electric and our last bill was 266. Gas rates are just kinda high.
Edit** Our thermostat is set at 72 and it's only two of us in a 1400sqft house.
Jumping on the "sounds pretty normal" dogpile, unfortunately.
Sq footage, bedrooms, etc. will absolutely factor into the cost. BUT I just got my bill for the past month. It's up about $100 since December.
There is something about paying for some natural gas reserves that CU had to buy. Idk the details and I'm sure someone else could explain it better than I can.... but my bill spiked over the last month or two. It's almost double what it was this time last year. Bullshit.
you mean that event that's doing the same thing to EU and making gas expensive over there?
I guess. Like I said, Idk all the details. Wasn't trying to make it political...
MY LASTBill was $600, So there's that .
We are still "paying back" all the extra money they had to spend last year in March when we had an extremely cold weather event. That and gas is just fucking expensive.
My house was built in 1885. 3600 sq feet. Newer appliances, dual zone heating/cooling (electric heat pump upstairs manufactured 2021, gas furnace downstairs, installed 2001). Keep the thermostats sort of low (60-65), use space heaters in individual rooms. Our bill last month was $676.
Highly recommend downloading CU’s app and monitoring usage that way. If you have a new meter - which you should - all three utilities update hourly.
Normal, I live in a 120 year old house. You can go on budget billing where the amount is the same every month.
Make sure your furnace filter is changed, your thermostat isn't from the 50's and your furnace has been serviced for optimum use.
Cover your windows in plastic and get some insulated curtains.
Unfortunately thats normal for this time of year in an older house.
My house is an old house and its a rental with a landlord that won't update anything. My bill is usually 200-250 this time of year. My house temp is set to 65. Plastic over my windows help a bit but its always gas thats super expensive.
1951 home, that’s about what mine is. If you don’t want surprise bill amounts you should sign up for their level pay program. It averages out the usage from the year before and then you pay the same amount every month. I’ve had it for two years and it’s made it really simple for budgeting.
Yeah we tend to hover around 250-350 depending on season/weather.
The bill sounds about right for this time of year.
My house is about the same age as yours and our bill is about the same, especially given the cold snaps we’ve had lately.
If you’re going to stay there for a few years, I would highly recommend new doors and windows and updating your insulation. (Wish we had…)
Mine was in that range for my most recent bill. I have a 923 square foot old house. Change your air filters if you have central heat, plastic on the windows, but still going to be high. I was actually excited mine wasn't higher after that deep freeze we had.
Without knowing your breakdown, hard to say. You should probably invest in ceramic/oil radiant heaters, as electricity is currently much cheaper than natural gas (so no gas fireplaces either). Hopefully your wiring has been updated recently. Also, for all I know you’re running a lot of non-LED lightbulbs and old enterprise-grade networking hardware that bottoms out at 600W 24/7.
Mine was 35$....
Donohoed t1_j6ubd68 wrote
That seems pretty reasonable for this time of year for all utilities lumped together. Especially in an older house