As for the billing, you can look at your bill online for your consumption rates, you can double check the numbers on your meter based on what is on your bill, to make sure that is accurate.
But between the fuel surcharge increase, and the consumption increase (AC is the largest cause) having a bill double during the summer months isn't out of this world.
You may want to consider having your insulation, or windows updated, or a smart thermostat.
And welcome to being an entergy customer, those storm fees are approved by the state for all customers so a company that makes billions of profit a year, push the cost of repairing their infrastructure directly to the consumer.
"...those storm fees are approved by the state for all customers so a company that makes billions of profit a year, push the cost of repairing their infrastructure directly to the consumer."
Well so long as there's a good explanation. I'd hate for the CEO to not get their bonus /s
My personal favorite is they put this fee on us for basically every storm, but won't do anything to protect the infrastructure from potential damage. Creating underground service corridors are pretty much standard in much of the world, which shields the infrastructure from weather related issues.
but why make an investment when we can levee another fee, that we can higher the subs out to fix and make 20% off.
Most new developments bury their cables now. The problem is all the legacy infrastructure that would have to be buried. Who pays for that, since it's incredibly expensive? Also, the problem is not the above ground power lines, per se, most of the time. It's trees and tree limbs that are not being maintained by property owners that get blown over or off during high winds. When we lived in the DC area, Northern Virginia had enough of the power outages and cut down all tree/limbs that could affect power lines. It had a huge improvement on power reliability. Maryland didn't. And they continued to suffer every time a storm hit.
We will have to agree to disagree, as the responsibility to maintain trees along an easement squarely falls on the shoulders of the utility company, and when you pester the service commission enough they will come and do that maintenance. It is not a property owners responsibility to maintain trees such that they do not interfere or cause damage to a utility, that is unless the utility company wants to start paying for those easements.
In addition to that, above ground utilities are vulnerable to high winds, and the utility company allowing their poles to age out and become weak is a serious problem in a storm prone region.
Most of the world that still uses above ground utilities use concrete poles that have a near 100 year life span are much more resistant to damage during storm. and typically place the utility lines above the tree lines.
As for who would pay for them to change out their legacy infrastructure, they should, at their own expense, they are a regulated monopoly they made $2.4 billion profit last year. They don't need a storm rider, nor should it be anyone but their own efforts to upgrade the infrastructure.
Seems odd that you would even ask who would pay for that.
Maybe. We have DEMCO, which is a not-for profit cooperative. I think the tree issue, I'll split with you. If it's own servitude property, maybe the parish or electric company. If it's on private land and threatening a power line, then the owner. I just know that once they were taken down in NOVA, we had very few outages after that.
In some state's that may be the case, but in Louisiana the utility company is responsible for this on public or private property. If a power line crosses your property, above or below ground, you have a utility easement that allows them access to those lines, and they are responsible for maintaining them. If you have any questions about it you can contact the service commission. They are ultimately the ones over see this.
We've had a smart thermostat for several years now, but we still weren't seeing much of an improvement in electricity usage. So in March 2023, we substantially increased the attic insulation, changed from a large gas water heater to a tankless on-demand gas water heater (far less heat in the attic because of this), added radiant barriers in the attic around the garage to keep that heat from spreading everywhere, installed heat-blocking curtains on all windows, began using a dehumidifier, installed temperature gauges in all rooms of the house, changed out attic vents, and even installed a monitor on our circuit breaker so we could accurately gauge our electricity consumption and reduce it by targeting circuits that were known to consume more. Entergy was also put on notice about the monitoring because my spouse caught a large discrepancy between what the monitor said we were using and what Entergy's meter said. Entergy issued an adjustment, and since then, our monitoring system has been more or less to what the meter claims is usage.
Yet our current electric bill is still double what it was last year. Wonder what our bill would have been if we had not taken all those measures to reduce consumption?
I'm going to have to take a look at the bill later, but I'm willing to bet that what we're paying per kWh is far more than what we were paying a year ago. Add in a few more because-we-can-charge-you-for-absolutely-nothing fees from Entergy, and that's probably the explanation.
Hell this is almost a how to guide on what to do, good job!
> began using a dehumidifier
IMO Unless you have a commercial grade Dehumidifier, this is a waste. Your HVAC unit is 10x the dehumidifier of anything you get for common usage. You aren't wasting much power, but you aren't helping yourself there either. If your home unit doesn't keep your house roughly at 60%~ then you likely need the unit serviced.
I'm sure you did this too, but really cleaning the coils on your outside unit, and switching the unit for inverter based unit (only if it is time to replace the old unit,) That and shading your outside unit, (as long as it doesn't restrict air flow, or allow more vegetation into the unit)
Can really save some cash.
AS for your consumption and billing, the bill if nothing else is actually pretty good at breaking down cost. and providing monthly and yearly comparisons.
That's probably accurate, but when I was a 9-month LSU employee making <$40K/ year & getting no checks from May until September, not having to pay the biggest bills during my unemployed months was a godsend.
I checked the kwh for last year vs how much I paid. Yes, level billing ends up adding a couple (more like three) dollars to each bill…so about $40/ year, but it’s worth it to know how much your bill will be each month beforehand. One man’s opinion 🤷🏻♂️
Mine went up a bit, but has hovered around $200 after it nearly doubled for everyone a bit after the 2021 hurricane, and I live in a small 2bedroom townhouse 😭
BUT my AC recently stopped working and when I realized what was wrong, it was that the unit itself was a newer version that has ANOTHER filter you have to change out, and I hadn’t changed it since I moved in 4 years ago…so I expect it’ll lower a bit next month!
So I’d check that! If you don’t have the extra filter, I’d take a look at the “coil” in there which pretty much every model has to see if it’s super dirty or clogged
Mine always almost double or so in summer months for no reason. I’m using window units which run the same temps all year round, just about. I mean I’ll flip to heat when it’s really cold. But that’s why Entergy wants people to do “normalized” billing so it’s the same rate all year round. But who knows if that is in customer’s favor.
Surely you can comprehend that it's going to cost more when the outside is 30° hotter than what you want the inside to be rather than springtime when the inside and outside temps are close to the same.
Mine went up $12. I also love alone and I'm not home half the time. And when I leave, I adjust the AC so it's not kicking on and off all day. Rarely leave any lights on when I am home.
I moved from Baton Rouge a few years ago and had move to Florida. I have Duke Energy and this exact thing just happened here too. It went from roughly $230 a month to $410 this month. We've had it jump roughly 15-20% before - but never almost 50%. The energy lobby in this country is so corrupt, that if they dug into them thoroughly, I'm sure it would be worse than some of the mafia stories we've heard over the years.
[Edit]
Nevermind I read this wrong, thought you moved to Baton Rouge, god only knows what happening in Florida.
[/Edit]
There was no major increase to cost of energy this month (fuel adjustment/surcharge)
They don't get to just randomly charge you whatever they want, if your bill doubled, then there is likely an issue, either they didn't read your meter right, or someone is wasting power, an increase in usage or stealing power from you.
you should really look at
https://myentergyadvisor.entergy.com/myenergy/usage-history
It will show your usage, compare it to last year, and plot it against temperatures.
Your bill also breaks down your cost of power very specifically.
The storm restoration fee is just a bullshit charge they add to penalize everybody for living in a hurricane zone.
our state government approved that fee, everything on our bills is there because our own politicians allowed them to add it.
[удалено]
No, but my homeowner's insurance did.
Mine doubled almost to the exact penny
Car insurance did
As for the billing, you can look at your bill online for your consumption rates, you can double check the numbers on your meter based on what is on your bill, to make sure that is accurate. But between the fuel surcharge increase, and the consumption increase (AC is the largest cause) having a bill double during the summer months isn't out of this world. You may want to consider having your insulation, or windows updated, or a smart thermostat. And welcome to being an entergy customer, those storm fees are approved by the state for all customers so a company that makes billions of profit a year, push the cost of repairing their infrastructure directly to the consumer.
"...those storm fees are approved by the state for all customers so a company that makes billions of profit a year, push the cost of repairing their infrastructure directly to the consumer." Well so long as there's a good explanation. I'd hate for the CEO to not get their bonus /s
My personal favorite is they put this fee on us for basically every storm, but won't do anything to protect the infrastructure from potential damage. Creating underground service corridors are pretty much standard in much of the world, which shields the infrastructure from weather related issues. but why make an investment when we can levee another fee, that we can higher the subs out to fix and make 20% off.
Most new developments bury their cables now. The problem is all the legacy infrastructure that would have to be buried. Who pays for that, since it's incredibly expensive? Also, the problem is not the above ground power lines, per se, most of the time. It's trees and tree limbs that are not being maintained by property owners that get blown over or off during high winds. When we lived in the DC area, Northern Virginia had enough of the power outages and cut down all tree/limbs that could affect power lines. It had a huge improvement on power reliability. Maryland didn't. And they continued to suffer every time a storm hit.
We will have to agree to disagree, as the responsibility to maintain trees along an easement squarely falls on the shoulders of the utility company, and when you pester the service commission enough they will come and do that maintenance. It is not a property owners responsibility to maintain trees such that they do not interfere or cause damage to a utility, that is unless the utility company wants to start paying for those easements. In addition to that, above ground utilities are vulnerable to high winds, and the utility company allowing their poles to age out and become weak is a serious problem in a storm prone region. Most of the world that still uses above ground utilities use concrete poles that have a near 100 year life span are much more resistant to damage during storm. and typically place the utility lines above the tree lines. As for who would pay for them to change out their legacy infrastructure, they should, at their own expense, they are a regulated monopoly they made $2.4 billion profit last year. They don't need a storm rider, nor should it be anyone but their own efforts to upgrade the infrastructure. Seems odd that you would even ask who would pay for that.
Maybe. We have DEMCO, which is a not-for profit cooperative. I think the tree issue, I'll split with you. If it's own servitude property, maybe the parish or electric company. If it's on private land and threatening a power line, then the owner. I just know that once they were taken down in NOVA, we had very few outages after that.
In some state's that may be the case, but in Louisiana the utility company is responsible for this on public or private property. If a power line crosses your property, above or below ground, you have a utility easement that allows them access to those lines, and they are responsible for maintaining them. If you have any questions about it you can contact the service commission. They are ultimately the ones over see this.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ETR/entergy/gross-profit Gross profit of $8Billion+.
I was specifically talking about Louisiana ONLY, hard to believe anyone one is making 2.4 billion in our state isn't it?
Yea, its amazing how Entergy never “shares” when they have money making years, but oh yes, we share in their “losses!!”
Privatized gains, socialized losses. Don't you just love this place.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ETR/entergy/gross-profit They have not had losses in a long time.
We've had a smart thermostat for several years now, but we still weren't seeing much of an improvement in electricity usage. So in March 2023, we substantially increased the attic insulation, changed from a large gas water heater to a tankless on-demand gas water heater (far less heat in the attic because of this), added radiant barriers in the attic around the garage to keep that heat from spreading everywhere, installed heat-blocking curtains on all windows, began using a dehumidifier, installed temperature gauges in all rooms of the house, changed out attic vents, and even installed a monitor on our circuit breaker so we could accurately gauge our electricity consumption and reduce it by targeting circuits that were known to consume more. Entergy was also put on notice about the monitoring because my spouse caught a large discrepancy between what the monitor said we were using and what Entergy's meter said. Entergy issued an adjustment, and since then, our monitoring system has been more or less to what the meter claims is usage. Yet our current electric bill is still double what it was last year. Wonder what our bill would have been if we had not taken all those measures to reduce consumption? I'm going to have to take a look at the bill later, but I'm willing to bet that what we're paying per kWh is far more than what we were paying a year ago. Add in a few more because-we-can-charge-you-for-absolutely-nothing fees from Entergy, and that's probably the explanation.
Hell this is almost a how to guide on what to do, good job! > began using a dehumidifier IMO Unless you have a commercial grade Dehumidifier, this is a waste. Your HVAC unit is 10x the dehumidifier of anything you get for common usage. You aren't wasting much power, but you aren't helping yourself there either. If your home unit doesn't keep your house roughly at 60%~ then you likely need the unit serviced. I'm sure you did this too, but really cleaning the coils on your outside unit, and switching the unit for inverter based unit (only if it is time to replace the old unit,) That and shading your outside unit, (as long as it doesn't restrict air flow, or allow more vegetation into the unit) Can really save some cash. AS for your consumption and billing, the bill if nothing else is actually pretty good at breaking down cost. and providing monthly and yearly comparisons.
Oversized HVAC can makes house humid.
That’s why I’m so floored, it says my usage was 2x. Not just the dollar amount.
Well depending on your place, it is completely reasonable. If you have an old AC unit, and poor insulation. you can easily double your usage.
Do level billing. Mine only fluctuates 10-15% in the summer
Level billing is a scam. Pay for what you use each month.
That's probably accurate, but when I was a 9-month LSU employee making <$40K/ year & getting no checks from May until September, not having to pay the biggest bills during my unemployed months was a godsend.
I checked the kwh for last year vs how much I paid. Yes, level billing ends up adding a couple (more like three) dollars to each bill…so about $40/ year, but it’s worth it to know how much your bill will be each month beforehand. One man’s opinion 🤷🏻♂️
That’s great. I’m not giving Entergy a penny more than what I owe.
👍🏼
I agree!
added solar years ago. My bill went down 85%. And stayed down. Paid for itself in 9-10 years
Mine went up a bit, but has hovered around $200 after it nearly doubled for everyone a bit after the 2021 hurricane, and I live in a small 2bedroom townhouse 😭 BUT my AC recently stopped working and when I realized what was wrong, it was that the unit itself was a newer version that has ANOTHER filter you have to change out, and I hadn’t changed it since I moved in 4 years ago…so I expect it’ll lower a bit next month! So I’d check that! If you don’t have the extra filter, I’d take a look at the “coil” in there which pretty much every model has to see if it’s super dirty or clogged
Mine always almost double or so in summer months for no reason. I’m using window units which run the same temps all year round, just about. I mean I’ll flip to heat when it’s really cold. But that’s why Entergy wants people to do “normalized” billing so it’s the same rate all year round. But who knows if that is in customer’s favor.
I’m under no illusion I’m getting a better deal through levelized billing but I like not having sticker shock in August.
Surely you can comprehend that it's going to cost more when the outside is 30° hotter than what you want the inside to be rather than springtime when the inside and outside temps are close to the same.
If it's Entergy that wants to do it, I have a strong guess as to if it would benefit the customer.
Mine went up $12. I also love alone and I'm not home half the time. And when I leave, I adjust the AC so it's not kicking on and off all day. Rarely leave any lights on when I am home.
Unfortunately yes. :(
I moved from Baton Rouge a few years ago and had move to Florida. I have Duke Energy and this exact thing just happened here too. It went from roughly $230 a month to $410 this month. We've had it jump roughly 15-20% before - but never almost 50%. The energy lobby in this country is so corrupt, that if they dug into them thoroughly, I'm sure it would be worse than some of the mafia stories we've heard over the years.
[Edit] Nevermind I read this wrong, thought you moved to Baton Rouge, god only knows what happening in Florida. [/Edit] There was no major increase to cost of energy this month (fuel adjustment/surcharge) They don't get to just randomly charge you whatever they want, if your bill doubled, then there is likely an issue, either they didn't read your meter right, or someone is wasting power, an increase in usage or stealing power from you. you should really look at https://myentergyadvisor.entergy.com/myenergy/usage-history It will show your usage, compare it to last year, and plot it against temperatures. Your bill also breaks down your cost of power very specifically.
Mine went up 60%. If you have the Entergy app you can see usage daily, weekly and monthly. July and August are always terrible for us.
Mines been $500 or more a month.