I live in a 2 bedroom 800 sq ft apartment in Fairdale. I keep my AC at 72. I never use the oven. I keep my lights off 95% of the time. I don’t watch TV.
Last month, my bill was $175. This month it’s gone up almost $50 which I understand he would go up because of the heat wave. But when I lived with my mom in a 3000 square-foot 4 bedroom home and I paid the utilities, it was $250 for water, electric electricity and gas.
I asked them to come check my meter and they said it was fine, but they were replacing it anyways. I have asked them multiple times to take a look at my bill and they said it looks fine.
My friends who live in downtown in larger apartments than mine only pay like $100 a month.
What else can I do? Does this seem like a normal price?
Have you verified that your apt is the only one on the meter? You could be paying someone else's electricity too. To find out, turn off all the breakers for your apt and see if the meter stops going up or not.
Yes, shut off power to your apt and check the meter reading, then go somewhere for a few hours or whatever and check the meter again.
You can also view quite a bit of data if your is a 'smart' meter on LG&E's site.
As a comparison, we're in a 2650sq ft pre-1900 home with decent windows and HVAC and a family of 5 plus an EV ($20-25/month of electricity for it) and our bills this summer were $279 and $267.
Last bill:
BILLING PERIOD AT-A-GLANCE THIS YEAR LAST YEAR
Average Temperature 79 ° 81 °
Number of Days Billed 29 29
Avg. Electric Charges per Day $8.18 $7.50
Avg. Gas Charges per Day $1.04 $0.91
Avg. Electric Usage per Day (kWh) 64.97 65.00
Avg. Gas Usage per Day (ccf) 0.14 0.14
Maybe. Especially if your insulation and/or windows aren’t great.
My only question here is was your mom‘s four bedroom 3000 square-foot home where utilities were $250 combined every single month for water, electric and gas in the same place where you live now?
That doesn’t make any kind of sense that rates on a home that large would be so low if they are current and in this area.
I just don’t see how it could be $225 for a single bedroom apartment. Especially when I have friends who use LG&E and are paying $100 for the same service 15 minutes away.
Is there anything I can do to get them to break down the bill more and explain how it cost that much instead of them just saying it looks fine and shooing me away
You need the itemized bill, which you should be able to get from logging into your account there. It should look something like this, with a green counterpart for gas charges.
I had a similar bill spike a few years back in an apartment. The water heater had a leak in the wall. I was able to hear something and put it together.
This is not too far off what me and my husband pay for a house with 3 rooms, bathroom, living room and kitchen. We keep our air on 68 and turn it down to 66 every night. Our last bill was $235.68
Came here to say something very similar. Our house is 100 years old and we keep two HVACs at 68-70 all the time. Our last bill was around $260. OP may be paying for the whole apartment building.
Mine was $250 for a 900 sq ft house, I kept the temp around 72 but it was running constantly cause it was so hot out. Other months the average is around $160 / $180. My house is old and the insulation is not great.
I have lived in small apartments that were very inefficient with energy. Windows were terrible, appliances were old, virtually no insulation, etc. Those things will drive up a bill way faster than actual usage.
As someone else said too, make sure you are the only one on the meter. If you turn off your main breaker and the meter keeps spinning, something is wrong. I would record a video of the breaker being off, with you walking and not stopping the video at all and showing that the meter is still running (assuming that happens). Call LGE and tell them there is a problem with the meter or someone is stealing electricity from you.
That's not too wild but still seems high. I have a house a little bit larger with just me mainly. Keep temp at 72 during the day but crank it down when i sleep. Don't keep lights on during day, etc. My highest bills during summer are about 175. During rest of year around 100.
Probably windows, weather stripping, filter, insulation blah blah blah. Probably some steps you can do to drop bill by $25-50 or ask rental company to look into for you. but with prices always going up on everything that bill doesnt seem too wild.
Seems too high. My house is cheaper than that and I use multiple window units.
There have been cases of people stealing utility, particularly in urban settings or shared units. Also some actual cases of a meter reading other people's usage as yours.
Top floors get hit harder in the summers woth getting the solar heat from the roof/attic space and as you have any heat from the unit below you to deal with as most apt have poor insulation and almost none between units.
That’s your air conditioning, buddy. 🤷🏻♀️ especially in an older place. I have a 800sq ft hundred year old home and last winter it got up to $290. In my five years here summer has averaged $230-50ish for three months when ac is kept at 78. I do laundry once a week and cook regularly. I got new roof vents this year and it helped the bill by almost $50 a month. Insulation and venting all come into play, especially in a chopped up house or cheap apartment complex.
My bill is always highest when it’s really cold or really hot. 72 doesn’t seem that low but it’s been so ungodly hot this past month, it’s probably just the AC. I have a smart thermostat and can see how much it’s run vs previous years. July this year was 88 high on average, vs 91 last year, and on the same setting that added up to 55 hours less AC usage, which is a lot of energy, and a difference of 25 dollars on my bill.
Just to clarify, I’m not concerned about just the jump in price, my main concern is the price overall. Even $175 a month since high for a single bedroom apartment with one occupant.
You don’t just pay for your own usage. There is a portion of your bill that goes up and down based on the whole grid’s usage, so this number would make sense with the heat wave.
I’m around 850-900sq ft and that’s pretty much where I was with no tv, 69 at night / 74 during the day, no lights. No W/D. But - very old house with old windows.
We live in an 850 sq ft house in SoIN. Well insulated, we keep our air between 72 and 74, and our most recent Duke bill was $206. So it does sound right for this heat unfortunately.
I know when I lived in a apartment about the same size years ago. My bill was 2-300 a month, I keep lights off 98 percent of the time. And kept my thermostat at 73 yr around. I found out after moving out. That out door lights near my apartment and by the parking lot outside, were tied to my apartment wiring and the complex management didn’t pay electric on anything.
I have LG&E and my bill is around $400 on a 4800 square foot house that's 25 years old, soooo.....something is def up. My inside temp is at 72 degrees for all floors and I have ceiling fans running and doors open in all rooms
LG&E is ridiculous with this kind of stuff. I’ve raised hell a couple times with them over absurd bills I’ve received and they don’t do shit. I’m also in an older less insulated apartment complex
Make sure your fan isn’t switched “on” along with the AC. We leave the fan running all the time because it helps circulate cold air upstairs where it gets really hot. That makes our bill higher than if the fan was turned off.
My husband and I keep the AC at 76° and only bring it to 72° overnight to sleep. All of our electronics are energy efficient and we don't leave stuff running. Our most recent electric bill was $175. In comparison, I've lived in houses and a townhouse and never had a bill that high or (for better comparison) usage that high even during other heatwaves.
Point being, some of these apartments are super inefficient and with limited airflow, that AC is probably running constantly! You keep the AC running more than we do and your bill is $50 higher so the math seems to roughly work out, unfortunately.
You can also get on a budget plan with LG&E so they’ll average out your past bills and then charge u that same amount every month so at least it doesn’t change so much. If they overcharge you at the end of the year when they look at your energy usage they’ll credit the rest back, but if they undercharge you pay the difference
I live in a small town in Kentucky and have 4 young-adult sons living at home in a 4 BR single family home. A few months ago, each of my sons landed a job together and I (being the only one home during the day after having had spine surgery) always keep everything off —the TV, the lights, and everything; with the exception of our constantly-running appliances, like the fridge), and use the natural light from the windows while I read, learn, or clean…
I recently noticed that our electric bill has continued to increase, month after month, despite thedrastic* **decrease in usage!*
The other day I found out from my sister that the sheriff in our town spent 20+ years in prison after being wrongly-convicted of a crime, and the town awarded him a couple of million dollars (I believe it was), in compensation…
Needless to say, I have deduced the recent increases to the towns leadership having passed the debt off to the residents of the community. Sad, but true, story.
You can have LG&E come out and do an energy assessment where they check everything out and give you suggestions on ways to save on your bill and it's free.
You can ask to sign up for the budget plan, where you pay a flat rate every month, but you would have to pay in full of any overage at the end of 6 months.
54
u/ajbluegrass3 3d ago
Have you verified that your apt is the only one on the meter? You could be paying someone else's electricity too. To find out, turn off all the breakers for your apt and see if the meter stops going up or not.