Electric meter not working ???

JJ Husker

JJ Husker

Donor
So our last couple of electric bills have been virtually $0, I think the wife said one was $1. We run our AC hard this time of year. It’s been 80s-90s for at least the last few months. I finally got around to looking at our meter tonight. It’s not moving at all, pretty sure it’s dead.

My question is, does anybody have any idea what the utility company will do when they finally figure out we’ve been getting free electricity for 2 or 3 months or more? I would expect $300+ per month electricity bills this time of year.  I’d be okay if they want to catch up based on a monthly average over a year. I’ll be a little less receptive if they want to base it on the same months from last year. Any chance they’ll just let it go?

 
JJ Husker said:
So our last couple of electric bills have been virtually $0, I think the wife said one was $1. We run our AC hard this time of year. It’s been 80s-90s for at least the last few months. I finally got around to looking at our meter tonight. It’s not moving at all, pretty sure it’s dead.

My question is, does anybody have any idea what the utility company will do when they finally figure out we’ve been getting free electricity for 2 or 3 months or more? I would expect $300+ per month electricity bills this time of year.  I’d be okay if they want to catch up based on a monthly average over a year. I’ll be a little less receptive if they want to base it on the same months from last year. Any chance they’ll just let it go?
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My guess - or, should I say, what we do - is try to estimate it as fair as we can.  Which would probably be to base it on the same months from the previous couple of years.  I always try to err on the conservative side because there's really no way to prove anything but not sure everyone would take that approach. 

I doubt they completely let it go.  But maybe you're just such a swell guy that they'll look the other way.   ;)

 
We've been on budget for years...one set amount every month year round. Some years it goes up the next year, some years down. I like to have set payments rather than zero in off season and $300 in winter/summer.

 
DevoHusker said:
We've been on budget for years...one set amount every month year round. Some years it goes up the next year, some years down. I like to have set payments rather than zero in off season and $300 in winter/summer.
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I can appreciate that but I prefer to see it as it occurs. How else can I tell my wife she needs to not run the AC so hard in July? If we were on budget we wouldn’t see those peaks and probably wouldn’t think to keep it a degree or two warmer than is perfectly comfortable. (Not that we actually do that  :lol: ) but that’s my theory.

 
Mavric said:
My guess - or, should I say, what we do - is try to estimate it as fair as we can.  Which would probably be to base it on the same months from the previous couple of years.  I always try to err on the conservative side because there's really no way to prove anything but not sure everyone would take that approach. 

I doubt they completely let it go.  But maybe you're just such a swell guy that they'll look the other way.   ;)
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That was kind of my thought. They have no idea how much we really used so any estimating should be at least a little in our favor. And I’m good with that.

Do you have any guess how long it will take them to figure out they’ve been billing us zero?

 
JJ Husker said:
That was kind of my thought. They have no idea how much we really used so any estimating should be at least a little in our favor. And I’m good with that.

Do you have any guess how long it will take them to figure out they’ve been billing us zero?
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No idea on that.  I would have thought they would have caught it after a month of two.  If they haven't caught it now, I'm not sure when or how they'll catch it.

 
Mavric said:
No idea on that.  I would have thought they would have caught it after a month of two.  If they haven't caught it now, I'm not sure when or how they'll catch it.
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Woohoo…..free ‘tricity for life.  :lol:

 
Well, they figured out our meter wasn’t working. Got a normal looking bill today that they must’ve estimated or based on last year. My wife asked me to go see if the meter was working again, checked it and unbeknownst to us they had replaced it with a newer digital model. No more spinning disc. Can’t complain as we did get about 2 months of free electricity.

 
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