Last year in the summer during a nasty hot weather streak near the 100s Fahrenheit, we had a bill that reached $276 for one month...that was all AC units on full bore, and lights on etc. Pretty bad, but no where near Dora M...wow.
I live in the tropics and last year's summer, we also had the highest electricity bill ever. It reached $309 US dollars (converted). We had 3 rooms in full blast airconditioning and 2 refrigerators on. We also had our fans set to the highest to distribute the cool air around the room.
My highest electric bill was $280. Definitely not as high as other bills I have read about but considering that at the time I traveled for work about 4 days a week and always made sure to shut the air off when I wasn't at my apartment it seemed absurd. I like in an apartment building that bills us for utilities so when I tried to get some information about this bill I struck out. I paid it but was so angry because I definitely think I got ripped off.
My Highest electric bill was about $300 for a small 1 bedroom apt in NYC. I couldn't believe the costs as I had services in the past at other apartments. I came to find out my landlord was a slumlord and had other tenants mooching off my electric.
A friend of mine had a bill for around $350 and she even had the flat bill thing the power company offered. She knows the wiring was bad in her apartment and the landlord didn't do anything about it. Also she knows that the hvac was extremely outdated. The landlord didn't do much about that either. I hope she's able to move somewhere else.
My electricity bill is about $350 right now, I think that is about the highest it has been, at least for a while. It might be that high because it is the current bill plus part of another bill. I have paperless billing, so I kind of don't check how much my bills are per month, I just make payment arrangements, and pay it off, especially in the winter. In the summer, my bill runs about 40 dollars a month, which is great.
I just got my highest utility bill ever a couple of days ago. I about fell out of my chair. My utility bill combines both electric and gas. It was $310. I don't know why it was so expensive. Yes, we had a very cold month, but last winter was very cold also and it wasn't nearly that expensive. I am wondering if they raised the rates or something. I need to do some investigating. Scary.
LOL! this sounds like me! $50-$60 is just about where I am, I'm not saying that I watch ever dollar and I make sure not to use more than $50-$60 worth of electricity per month but this is the amount in dollars that I use and that I try to stick with, For all the persons with a bill of $200 and over, what's happening? Is the A/C always on?
My gas bills have rarely ever been high, in places I've lived where I even had a gas bill - some of my apartments were all electric, and some even had boiler cooling/heating so I didn't have to pay extra to heat or cool the place at all. My electric bill on the other hand, gets rather high in the summer months because I run my air conditioner on full blast for several months straight. I cannot function in hot weather, I hate it, and I'm miserable in the summer months without AC. That said, I don't think my electric bill ever went above $200 on a given month. That's still rather high though for a one or two bedroom apartment. My gas bill is usually under $30 a month, and it might go as high as perhaps $50 in the winter months, but that's it. The apartments I've lived in were always rather warm even if I didn't have the heat turned on at all, since I was getting so much residual heat from the building itself. The hallways were always heated well, for example, and that heat would seep into my apartment. I didn't have to worry about the pipes getting frozen either because all my neighbors were running their heat too. Plus, any time I ran the dishwasher or oven, or even just the lights and lamps throughout my apartment would all give off heat and keep the place warm.
I would encourage anyone to call their utility company if their bill seems excessively high. I called about my $310 bill and the representative had me go out and read my meter. Turns out there WAS an error. I'm getting a $92 refund. Whoever came out and read my meter transposed the last two numbers on the meter. I've been living here for 13 years and this is the first time they made a mistake so I guess I'll forgive them!
