Did us Torontonians just got a hydro hike?

February 3, 2006 10:24 AM

Did us Torontonians just got a hydro hike?

My hydro bill in December came to $490. Last year, the same bill (for the same meter period - Oct/Nov) was $200. Other times the bill comes to around $120. So the $490 was quite the shock.

It's a one-bedroom apartment, say, roughly 400 square feet, with small appliances, and our own water heater.

I didn't get a new appliance. There wasn't any new electrical stuff added during this period. I do, however, live in a VERY, VERY old apartment, and my unit is right next to the laundry room (which has its own hydro meter). So unless we just got a hydro hike, we might have some cross-wiring going on.

The thing is, how do I find out?

posted by Sallysings to law & government (8 comments total)

Your bill should be broken down so that the cost = kilowatt-hours * cost/kilowatt-hours. If you compare those numbers, you should be able to figure out whether they raised the cost or whether your usage went up.
posted by smackfu at 10:44 AM on February 3, 2006

If there was a price hike, you can see that by comparing the December bill with the previous bill, right? I can't see any utility basically doubling prices, so there must be something else going on.

Check with your landlord to see if any wiring has been changed, and definitely call Toronto Hydro.
posted by rosemere at 10:48 AM on February 3, 2006

Sort of unrelated: I don't know if you qualified, but did you get your government rebate/credit on this bill? But yeah, check kwh usage vs last year - not just the cost.
posted by jikel_morten at 10:48 AM on February 3, 2006

That happened to me earlier this year, btw, so I called and they discovered an error and adjusted the bill. It does happen...
posted by jikel_morten at 10:50 AM on February 3, 2006

There was a hike announced, but that seems out of whack with it. I'm also not sure sure if it's actually been implemented, or is only upcoming. Something about an adjustment for previous underbilling.

Check your bill to make sure nothing is in error.
posted by generichuman at 10:50 AM on February 3, 2006

Check particularly if they haven't used an "estimated" reading instead of a real one. Sometimes Hydro will do stuff like this if they haven't had a real meter reading recently. In any case, I'd call the billing office and figure out what's going on.
posted by bonehead at 10:56 AM on February 3, 2006

Yeah... I was going to say - have you been on estimated billing? It's possible to get *totally* screwed if you're on an estimated bill for ages, and then they finally do a reading.
posted by antifuse at 4:42 AM on February 4, 2006

Yikes. I checked the last 3 bills - yup. Estimated billing.

Thanks guys! I don't think I can talk myself out of this one. Although it'd be nice if they warned me. :p
posted by Sallysings at 1:47 PM on February 6, 2006