Helco?

[birdmove]

Anyone else getting wildly fluctuating electric bills for the last 3 months? They just hit us with the biggest bill we ever got. Just got it today. There is no way we used 1468 kilowatt hours in a month. We average 650-750 and there is just two living here. We got a much smaller bill than this when we had a work crew staying here for a total of 10 people for 3 1/2 weeks in Oct. of 2011.


Jon in Keaau/HPP

[Hawaii Bound]

Not trying to hijack your thread but these types of posts make me ecstatic that I made the switch over to solar!!

[David M]

Check your meter reading?

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[birdmove]

May I ask what a conversion would cost? I asked a gent I used to see at the Pahoa Village Museum on chess day, and he said his ran $26,000. He probably had his done a year or two back.

Jon in Keaau/HPP

[2liveque]

Solar is not so easy a solution.

I lived off grid for 7 years up N. Kulani/Mountain View area. While it was nice not having a helco bill, the actual utility costs I had was on par or sometimes even MORE than what I now pay for helco. Sunshine is not an infinite resource in east Hawaii. Almost all off-grid units must have some kind of back up power source such as a generator. In doing so, I had to spend money on gasoline. My house was pretty much all propane -- hot water, fridge, stove. So between my gas bill, my propane bill, and upkeep on batteries, cleaning, etc., I find it much more feasible to bring our "off grid practices" to the grid and enjoy a meager helco bill. To the tune of about 150-200 per month for a family of four. Now if we lived in kona or Ka'u, off grid living would take on a different meaning. Abundant sunshine and wind would surely assist an off gridder's checkbook.

[Carey]

Some things can cause surprising electric drain, if you are sure that your meter & the HELCO readings are similar...

If you have a water pump (well or catchment) even a small drip can cause that pump to keep on cycling (of course, that is something you might also hear...but worth a check... also a refrigerator or freezer door that is slightly open or seal is slightly off can breeze through a chunk of electrical change...

Did you change, add or repair any appliance? even changing light bulbs might change your bill (good if you changed to lower wattage, bad if you changed to higher wattage...als you might want to check if you did replace bulbs...some manufacturers have changed their mfg processes & twe have notice a change for the higher in some of our 'standard' choices...)
One reason to go totally off gird: the electric line costs to your location are soo high that it is close to the same or cheaper to installing grid tied

One reason to go rgrid tied is that you are using a huge amount of daytime energy & a grid tied system would cost a PERCENTAGE of your 10 year electric bill

Unfortunately, we have neither of the above, we are on grid & use very little electricity...so little that it really does not make sense to invenst in a system ....yet....and I truly have my heart set on an awesome bifacial system...but the smallest set up is wayyy too much to be justified by anything other than "I want".... haven't yet convinced myself that is a good enough reason...

[hikatz]

Tribune herald (your views section) second letter is about ongoing problems with Helco meter readings.
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections...ber-2.html

When I have questions about a bill, I read the meter, then call Helco 969-0142
ask to speak to Richard, he is very helpful.

http://www.punaweb.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13524&SearchTerms=Helco,meter,reading,mistake

If you can, keep a log of your daily readings of the meter, until you get this problem sorted out!

[nana valley]

This is very curious. About four months ago, my bill went from a monthly average of $82 (never more than $90 and once was $65) over a year or so. Then BAM!...I got a bill for $190!
I figured the bill had been misread and a correction would occur when the meter reader took the next reading. No, the next bill was $90. I am positive the $65 bill and the $190 bill were erroneous.

I like the suggestion to read the meter daily. Also, I read the commentary link and that writer requested a "smart" digital meter. It was interesting that her readings were consistently lower with the new meter. Now I am wondering if there is something bad going on with my aged meter.

Gonna make a call to Helco!

He who hoots with owls at night cannot soar with the eagles in the morning.

[birdmove]

We had a very low bill f3 months ago. It was so low I was sure the meter reader had made a mistake and would catch it next time, and he certainly did, as the next bill was way high. Then the ,most recent was way high.

Jon in Keaau/HPP

[kalakoa]

Note that HELCO sometimes doesn't bother reading the meters, they just "guess". After all, it'll average out over a few months, right?

If you're taking daily readings (excellent idea), try to do it at the same time every day, and use a camera instead of writing it down by hand.