Me too. I have had everything looked at, including the meter, and called to speak with account supervisors multiple times. They assure me my usage is just higher. We did not use AC this year and don’t have electric heat or anything. Something is up - this started in September when I was not even here for a week, and had my water heater on vacation mode with just about everything turned off.

They told me some form letter stuff about using AC and having people home more than previous years. Nope, that is not the case here. 340 to 408 is not a giant jump, but it sounds like you should be lower than last year.

I was also out of state for an entire week in September!

Something doesn’t add up here.

Edit: this would have been late September, going to my October bill which read 405.

So apparently me being out of state an entire month saved me 3kwh. Lol

I could not get anyone there to listen! I mean, usage should be like 1/4 lower if you are away for a week. I only had my fridge and well pump connected that week! I am looking into borrowing a kill-o-watt for the fridge, but I really doubt it’s using that much more than the remainder of the house. It’s Energy Star, as are all of my appliances.

I’m wondering if my landlord’s external lights count towards my usage. If they are I will lose my shit haha

Do you have a panel in your apartment or in basement ?

Yeah it’s in my apartment. Realizing I may need to start flipping breakers off. Thank you!

Find your meter and take a picture and before you leave the house shut the whole thing down except maybe your fridge circuit. Easy peasy

Thanks boss

I’m curious if anyone has any ideas. I’ve had no issues myself. In fact, my October (November bill) usage was over 40% less than last years at only 132 kWh and my gas was barely over the summer baseline. Small 2Br 1 Bath 1100sqft house. Your usage is about what I was using in the summer with at least one window AC on almost all the time.

That’s what I was thinking too. The gas company could be using estimates instead of actually reading the thing.

Single family home here.

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I wonder if anyone audits these companies??? There has got to be some oversight. But this is RI so even that can get fishy.

I called them when my October bill was $200 over what it usually is and the usage was through the roof. At least in my situation, they said that they had been estimating and send someone out to read the meter and I owed them for the actual amount for past years. It then went back down November, but who knows what will come with the new rates.

If you complain long enough they will hook an auxiliary meter up showing the entire scale of what is going on. What times your power is being used and so on. So far and I have seen this discussion many times with great tricks and ideas on why the meter is wrong I can tell you that so far the meter has not been wrong. Its in your house.

They keep approving these rate hikes so i doubt anyone is auditing this company.

It's important to check your bills to see whether your meter reading is actual, or an estimate. If they have trouble reading your meter, or if the person they send (if they even send one) is feeling lazy, they'll just estimate a figure. Every time National Grid estimated mine it was been might higher than actual usage. I haven't seen an estimated reading with RI Energy yet.

Another thing to check on is the number of days on the bill. In my experience at least RI Energy is less consistent at reading meters and some bills may be 27-28 days and some may be 32-33. It'll make the reading seem inflated if one bill was 27 days and the next 33. It's also important to check year to year and adjust accordingly to get an accurate comparison.

This. 100% This.

I had solar installed this summer, but I didn't see any change in my first two bills. At the time I thought that I was just paying for my previous usage before the panels were installed (I have found that my bill is a month or so behind my actual consumption). But then I got a bill that completely overlapped with after the panels were installed and it was so far off that I called RI Energy.

They said the bill was based on an estimate and that they'd send someone to read the meter. Come to find out I had overpaid the bast two bills by several hundred dollars! Between the credit and the solar panels I haven't had to pay my electric bill in months, but it's super shitty that they would have happily kept taking my money unless I had said something.

tl;dr - Read the fine print on your bill. If it says "estimated" give RI Energy a call. They may be ripping you off.

do you have an electric hot water heater?

Check: comparison of number of days on the bill, check the temperatures from the days in question compared to the prior year. The difference between years can be very substantial.

We have actual readings.

Ever since they installed these smart meters or wireless, I’ve had trust issues. I’m installing a energy meter on my side of the panel to figure out what’s what. Of course this winter we will be seeing a rate hike of what 47%? Something crazy like that. It’s totally out of control.

I have a <2 year old hybrid heat pump electric heater. It has continued to be set on the minimum safe level.

If you are not using heating or cooling, though, what makes the weather a factor?

It’s boiling down to not turning my breakers off when I was out of town, along with the small chance i’m paying for some external lighting I shouldn’t be. Either way that’s not RI Energy’s fault.

Edit: forgot to add my A/V setup is on for far too long during the day and night. I’m going to have to cut my TV habit down.

Read the meter yourself and verify that you are being billed properly. Look for the date they read the meter, if it doesn’t say then just read the meter on the first of each month, it should be close enough. If you have a meter that has the spinning disc and not a smart meter, and don’t know how to read it, take a picture of it and look up how to read it online.

Also you can install your own meter inside your circuit breaker box. I have one called emporia energy and it has an app that you can look at your daily or monthly electric usage.

Overall I think it’s ridiculous how much the prices have gone up. I know that’s not the crux of your issue here but still.

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Your local elected official (if competent) can be a really good resource - they usually have offices for things like this

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Same here. Currently in a 500 sqft 1 bedroom apartment, and our usage has been just as high as our previous place, a 1,000sqft 2 bedroom townhome with a basement!

Ever since they switched to RI all sorts of these things started happening. The hard part is it's on us to prove they're ripping us off before they'll even consider reimbursement.

Do you live in a multi unit apartment?

Yes, so the fixtures shouldn’t go to my usage. It wouldn’t make sense, but I’m still paranoid about the lights that are specifically attached to my balcony. I’ll quickly find out when I turn off my breakers tomorrow to test everything out.

Does each unit have its own balcony lights?

40% of your bill could be your demand charges — try to reduce your PEAK usage and you’ll see real savings, but it only takes one mistake and you ruin the billing cycle. we handle this by doing laundry and dishwasher cycles after 11pm, and only using minimal lighting although with LEDs that’s not huge draw. Our bill is down $200 per month by shifting load.

I’m getting so fed up with RI Energy. Why do my paper bills never match the online balance? I can’t figure it out. So I pay the online one and then they tacked on $65 to the next bill because that was the difference between what the paper bill said and what the online said. I can’t figure it out. And also my usage was 100 higher than last year also but I just figured that that bill still had some AC usage on it.

And have had 2 energy audits, the last one a few years ago. We did very, very well, and swapped out the few non-LED fixtures for LEDs.