Coronado's Most Read Newspaper & Community Website

Has Your Gas & Electric Bill More Than Doubled? Mine Has...

Our SDG&E Monthly Bill:

September to October: $55

October to November: $95

November 19 - December 21: $252 (165% increase over previous month. 358% increase since September.)

We were very surprised to see the increase in our bill over the last few months. Specifically over the last 30 days since we were out of town for 7 days over Thanksgiving week. That means we more than doubled our bill even though we were in our home for only 75% of the month.

So, I decided to call SDG&E...

I spoke with a customer service agent for about 15 minutes and they gave me the following potential reasons for the increase:

1. Holiday light usage (probably not, we had one tiny strand and we unplugged it each night - 3% increase for this)

2. Added appliances or more electronics (nope, nothing added during that time)

3. More loads of laundry to get ready for the holidays (nope, we don't have special 'dirty' holiday clothes to be washed)

4. More dishes due to holiday company (nope, family came into town on Dec. 25th)

5. Lights and heating left on when we left for Thanksgiving (nope, I'm type A and tripled checked those on the way out)

6. Daylight Savings Time change (DST was on Nov. 7th, so I'll give them a 10% increase for this)

7. Temperature Change (yes, it's been colder and we run the heater more often - 20% increase for this one)

8. Doing laundry or running dishwasher at peak times (nope, we do a good job running these after 9pm)

The only thing that really stuck out to me on our call was that the customer service agent told me that rates increase for peak vs. off-peak periods and that costs go up once you reach certain levels of usage. They didn't do a great job explaining tiered rates, but I found a good explanation here.

Since we did run more loads of dishes and we had to wash our 'holiday clothes', my next bill should break $350. Normally I would chalk these types of costs to the 'Coronado Tax', but this is getting ridiculous. For those of you that don't know what the 'Coronado Tax' is, it's when you pay 'higher' prices for certain things on the island (gas, groceries, etc.) - we also call it the 'Sunshine and Beach Tax' - yes, it's worth paying.

Am I alone? Is your bill starting to increase drastically? What do you do to keep SDG&E bills in check?

SDG&G Tips to Save Energy & Money

Tags: community

0 members like this

Comment by Rachael on January 7, 2011 at 10:45pm: Holy moly. Yes, Steve, we are right there with you. I went through your list, and we have the same situation. Nothing has changed for us, and as a matter of fact, we were GONE for two weeks. Yikes. Ours was $300. Are you kidding me?? Thanks so much for looking into this - you saved Matt and I a call. More time for Angry Birds :)

Comment by Chris Searles on January 9, 2011 at 8:13pm: Our went up 100% in Nov. and 40% in Dec... I usually go below $100 except Dec - Feb... I wonder if the new smart meters will cost us more money - mine was installed last week.

Comment by Lynnda Shepherd on January 10, 2011 at 12:25pm: Ours doubled this last go 'round.. Course we had everyone over for Thanksgiving and our daughter was home from college.. Then in December we DID put up outside lights, run the heater WAY more than usual AND our daughter was home for winter break. I am thinking our next bill might actually make me pass out.

Comment by Aleene Sexton Queen on January 10, 2011 at 3:21pm: Steve, thanks for looking into this. We've been turning off any appliance not being used at the time and still our bill was in the high $300 without outsideChristmas lights!! Smart meter installed last week ... hmmm, do you think that will help?

Comment by Kevin Queen on January 18, 2011 at 4:52pm: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41143614 Hey Steve, Just saw this today in the San Diego section. It's nice to know the same utility that promotes saving electricity is raising their rates, and well, because we saved electricity and they didn't make enough money this year because people conserved, now they're going to raise the rates again. Something is wrong with a system that allows SDG&E to charge you for use with a tiered system to make you save electricity and then allows them to raise rates because you saved electricity. What a great concept, and contract and a total win-win situation for SDG&E and no one else involved. Kinda make me want to turn every light and television on in my house for 24 hours a day because I'll end up paying anyway!!

Comment by eCoronado on January 18, 2011 at 4:59pm: Thanks Kevin, yes, we saw that too. Something is out of sorts to say the least. Thanks for your timely comment.