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?
