r/bayarea • u/Prestigious-Hour6707 • 5d ago

YOOO PG&E WTF Work & Housing

800sq foot apartment. 2 people. Are. You. Kidding. Me.

Called PG&E to tell them they made a mistake. They said “hmm no it looks like the meter is working fine. Nothing we can do, that’s the price.”

No appliance change. No lifestyle changes. And even if we had, how the F*CKK could a 1bd apartment create a $630 bill?? Also yes, the previous bill. On me for not checking our auto payments. Just assumed they wouldn’t be more than $120….!? Dumb assumption on my part

I hate PG&E.

^I know it’s a hostile statement. But I think we can all agree an exception can be made for PG&E…

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u/AgitatedDoughnut23 5d ago

This month ours came in at 589…. And that was after turning all the heat down to 62, from the previous month which was around 350….. how can you turn shit off and things get more expensive????

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u/Prestigious-Hour6707 5d ago

DUDE THIS!!! We have electric wall heaters. Turned that shit OFF as soon as we saw last month’s bill and haven’t turned them on since. Been freezing our asses off for over a month for more money? I.am.so.con.fused.and.pissed.off

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u/Clit_C0mmander San Jose 5d ago

I'm single guy living in a 1 bedroom apartment, I work 3-4 days per week and I'm gone 14hrs during those days and my bill came out to $240

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u/nut_hoarder 4d ago

How much time you're gone is literally irrelevant unless you have smart thermostats which turn off while you're not home

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u/thxmeatcat 4d ago

What do you mean it’s easy to turn off before you leave for work. I turn it off for bed time and turn back on once the morning has warmed up a bit

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u/tejota 5d ago

You said you didn’t see last month’s bill because it was on autopay

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u/rabbitwonker 5d ago

You’re confused that resistive electric heating costs a lot more than the free heating you had last year? Ok…

If you want productive advice: look into heat pumps; those effectively raise the efficiency from 100% to like 400%+.

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u/smiling_corvidae 5d ago

how does that even work?

on another note, it is true that everything is 100% efficient in winter when you want heat. gotta find some crypto to mine or something? :p

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u/rabbitwonker 5d ago

Because it uses the electricity to move heat energy from the air outside to inside, rather than just being directly used as heat itself.

Air conditioners do the same thing, of course, in reverse; we just don’t usually make that kind of comparison, because, well, there’s no cooling equivalent to the direct heating methods. 😁

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u/smiling_corvidae 5d ago

ooooh cool that makes sense. i'm just imagining a simple system that turns on & off opportunistically?

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u/rabbitwonker 5d ago

Yeah, a, uh, thermostat would be what you’re thinking of 😁

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u/eng2016a 5d ago

You can't install heat pumps as a renter

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u/rabbitwonker 5d ago

Yeah, that’s a good point, unfortunately, since it would require a hole in the outer wall somewhere. Landlord probably picked resistive heating over heat pumps out of cheapness in the first place.

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u/rabbitwonker 5d ago

Oh, actually there do seem to be window-mount units that might actually be allowed, since it shouldn’t require touching the walls at all. With the apartment being relatively small, it could work for OP. I’m seeing units for ~$500 (searched “window mount heat pump”), so the payback could be just a couple months.

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u/eng2016a 5d ago

Those units aren't very efficient compared to proper heat pumps, so they probably won't see much advantage.

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u/rabbitwonker 4d ago

Supposedly there are ones that can up to a COP of 4 these days. Though those would probably be the expensive ones (like $5k).

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u/GenuinelyBeingNice 5d ago

Have you insulated your place, even if a little?

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u/blankenstaff 5d ago

I'm sorry you're confused, but you don't have to stay confused. You could use your brain and make effort and figure out what's happening. Or you could not and stay confused. Whatever.

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u/H8des707 4d ago

Electric heaters use a lot of electricity….

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u/Big-Profit-1612 4d ago

resistive elective heating is very expensive.

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u/JeanLucTheCat 5d ago edited 4d ago

These electric wall heaters are incredibly cost inefficient. We switched to Infrared heaters (Heat Storm) and noticed a massive difference in cost. Also, being 'smart' we have the heat changed based on occupancy and schedule. A ceiling fan in the rotating the proper direction will help circulate and dissipate the heated air.

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u/jungleryder 5d ago

Actually electric wall heaters are 100% efficient, the most of any type of heater. They convert 100% of the energy into heat. Maybe the word you're looking for is "cost effective", not efficiency.