JEA Bill

[jaxpaxpastor]

HELP!!!!

We moved to Springfield -- N. Pearl Street between 6th & 7th -- in May last year.  Like many properties here, ours is an old (1906) former duplex renovated in 1995 and converted to a two-story single family property of approx 2,500-sq-feet.

Our first JEA bill (July 2010) was $525.  Having moved here from Wisconsin where our monthly utility bill -- electric, gas, water & sewer -- was a budgeted $272/month, we literally freaked upon opening the JEA envelope.

We had JEA come out to do an energy audit, as well as requested proposals from three separate HVAC companies.  All of their recommendations were followed:

We replaced the upper level HVAC unit with a top-of-the-line, high energy-efficient 15 Seer unit.  Also replaced with new energy-efficient appliances: our washer, dryer, refrigerator, and dishwasher.  Insulation was added in the attic and an additional "return" was installed on the second level.

Slowly but surely, our JEA bills dropped to about $215 per month (Sept, Oct & Nov 2010).  Then our current bill arrived: $525 of which $430 was for the electric.  Yikes!

Granted, it's been cold ... and the old windows in this house make it drafty.  But we've kept our thermostats set at 67 degrees and never, ever used the auxiliary heat--just the heat pump.

At this point, we're at a loss of what to do.  We simply cannot afford utility bills of this nature.

Any suggestions, folks?

~Bruce & Russ

[RiversideLoki]

Welcome to the JEA "Conserve more, we'll still charge you the same amount!" routine. I had actually gotten into a situation where I busted them for not reading the meter, and just charging the "average" to us every month. That average happened to be the summer average. Even on months when I didn't have anything on, the bill was the same. It took me months to get that taken care of. JEA's "Energy Audits" are laughable at best.

Have you weather sealed your windows/doors? That helped us a ton. Our old Riverside windows are drafty as all get out.

Another option is getting a survey from an actual ASHRAE certified indoor environmental engineer. HVAC guys pretty much just work on a standard formula which states "Well, you have this much square footage, buy this bigger HVAC unit." But an indoor environmental engineer can actually tell you exactly where all of the problems are. However, I have no earthly idea what something like that would cost.

[stephenc]

I feel ya. My bill in December was $377 then I got January's yesterday, $859!!! I went freakin nuts. I dont know what happened. I kept the heat at 61 all month.

[duvaldude08]

That has already been my fear about moving into springfield. Ive know people in the past that stayed in some of those homes and said their light bill hit over 1,000. There was a REALLY nice apartment I looked at in springfield, but I was too afraid of a possiable high light bill so I stayed away.

Right now I have a huge apartment with washer, dryer, dishwasher, fridge and stove. I run my air like clock work during the summer. I also have a 10 foot high ceiling. My highest bill has been $176.00.

Dont know what to really tell you but good luck

[ricker]

test them.
as an experiment, live like a caveman for an entire billing cycle, couch surf - make alternate living arrangements with friends - for one month.
look at your bill.

[Lunican]

My December JEA bill is $0.1419 per kilowatt-hour. What does everyone else's come out to?

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Days Billed - 31
Current Reading - 82935
Reading Type - Regular
Meter Constant - 1
Consumption - 1670 kwh
Electric Charges $ 196.88
Conservation Charge 0.00
City of Jacksonville Franchise Fee 5.91
Gross Receipts Tax 5.20
Public Service Tax 13.20
TOTAL CURRENT ELECTRIC CHARGES $ 221.19

$.1324 / kwh

Interesting thread.  I wonder where this may lead to?

[chipwich]

JEA needs to be replaced with another company.  Too many overpaid, over-pensioned workers, and seemingly incompetent leadership leads me to believe that we need to start a petition to bring in another utility to buy out JEA and replace them with a new operator.

This may not be the most popular view, but I think it is absolutely necessary.  They have been fleecing Jacksonville for about 3 years now.  They seemed much more reasonably priced before '07.

[Kiva]

HELP!!!!
Granted, it's been cold ... and the old windows in this house make it drafty.  But we've kept our thermostats set at 67 degrees and never, ever used the auxiliary heat--just the heat pump.

Heat pumps work well if the outside temp is above roughly 40 degrees. Once the temp drops into the 30s they often can't keep a house at 67 degrees. So even if you didn't use auxilliary heat, the heating coils in your system (very expensive) probably came on automatically in the night.

[civil42806]

HELP!!!!

We moved to Springfield -- N. Pearl Street between 6th & 7th -- in May last year.  Like many properties here, ours is an old (1906) former duplex renovated in 1995 and converted to a two-story single family property of approx 2,500-sq-feet.

Our first JEA bill (July 2010) was $525.  Having moved here from Wisconsin where our monthly utility bill -- electric, gas, water & sewer -- was a budgeted $272/month, we literally freaked upon opening the JEA envelope.

We had JEA come out to do an energy audit, as well as requested proposals from three separate HVAC companies.  All of their recommendations were followed:

We replaced the upper level HVAC unit with a top-of-the-line, high energy-efficient 15 Seer unit.  Also replaced with new energy-efficient appliances: our washer, dryer, refrigerator, and dishwasher.  Insulation was added in the attic and an additional "return" was installed on the second level.

Slowly but surely, our JEA bills dropped to about $215 per month (Sept, Oct & Nov 2010).  Then our current bill arrived: $525 of which $430 was for the electric.  Yikes!

Granted, it's been cold ... and the old windows in this house make it drafty.  But we've kept our thermostats set at 67 degrees and never, ever used the auxiliary heat--just the heat pump.

At this point, we're at a loss of what to do.  We simply cannot afford utility bills of this nature.

Any suggestions, folks?

~Bruce & Russ

You own an old house, unless you take measures what do you expect.   Have you reinsulated it?  Like previous posters noted, have you block the windows and doors.

[jaxpaxpastor]

Days Billed ~ 33
Reading Type ~ Regular
Meter Constant ~ 1
Consumption ~ 3454 kwh
Electric Charges ~ $401.33
Conservation Charge ~ $7.04
City of Jacksonville Franchise Fee ~ $12.25
Gross Receipts Tax ~ $10.79
Public Service Tax ~ $27.42
Total Current Electric Charges ~ $458.83

Bottom Line = $0.1328 / kwh

[uptowngirl]

Solar is looking more and more affordable, and the joy of giving JEA (the monopoly) the virtual bird...pricele!!!! Hey Springfielders almost all have wells too, so drinking bottled water, that water bill could be close to nothing also!

[spuwho]

JEA needs to be replaced with another company.  Too many overpaid, over-pensioned workers, and seemingly incompetent leadership leads me to believe that we need to start a petition to bring in another utility to buy out JEA and replace them with a new operator.

This may not be the most popular view, but I think it is absolutely necessary.  They have been fleecing Jacksonville for about 3 years now.  They seemed much more reasonably priced before '07.

Actually, JEA is considered a low cost energy provider in the SE overall.

The kWh pricing had been suppressed overall by the previous director for many years and they covered their increased fuel costs by taking it out of reserves. The year before the director retired and was replaced it was determined that JEA's "reserve" was about to be consumed. When leaving, the old director noted that there were no increases under his watch, which was true....but it created a situation where JEA no longer had a reserve and it made them subject to the large variances hitting the energy markets.

This resulted in many price increases over the last few years and can be perceived as the 'fleecing'

I actually researched for a client a way to bring 3rd party gas/power into their campus in Jacksonville. While gas had options for savings over TECO, it was very difficult to find any in base electric w/o resorting to some sort of capital sharing arrangement with an alternative energies firm. Because JEA's rates were already pretty low, it made those plans a 15-20 year proposition, for which the client could not accept.

I might add that checking your kWh usage against current rates in the NE, you will find that they pay significantly higher bills than you do.

Try the Energy Information Administration website and do the compare, it will be educational.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html

JEA's dependencies on coke and NG and soon, LPG, make them subject to the variances of market pricing. Fortunately they do pretty good in negotiating their long term contracts.  Due to their market size however, it is almost impossible for them to take on any large scale projects by themselves. They have to joint venture in any project, especially those that provide the cheapest long term energy source (nuclear or hydro).

[Jumpinjack]

I've been hearing this from most of my neighbors in Riverside. Kiva had the right answer - heat pumps are unable to make up the difference.

Do not, repeat NOT, go to gas from TECO. Their prices will rock you to your socks. High prices and year round service charges. My sister disconnected her gas heat from TECO and is using space heaters in the rooms where they spend time - the living room on during the evening and the bedroom/bathroom at night.

My only other suggestion is floor insulation - drafty off-grade homes make it cold right on your feet. JEA needs to improve their energy audits to account for old houses and severe temps.

[jaxpaxpastor]

Thanks, all, for some extremely good points!

As much as we love our old home(s) here -- and we've lived in historic districts in both Wisconsin and Virginia before relocating to Jacksonville -- some concessions, adjustments, and offsets need to be factored into what's allowed and what isn't in a historic district.  Our homes aren't as energy efficient as most of the newer homes and we can't afford to keep hemorraghing money through inefficient infrastructure.  While we've already done almost everything allowed -- replacing inefficient appliances, adding insulation, etc. -- we are now contemplating replacing some of our old windows that can't be seen from the street (which are the draftiest ones in our home) with new, vinyl ones.  Certainly, we don't want to compromise or take anything away from the look and the charm of our historic district, but there just have to be some allowable offsets to enable us to stay put despite the ever-increasing cost of living here (i.e., utility costs).

@ RiversideLoki: We know our old windows are drafty.  We tried sealing both the windows and doors, but then couldn't open or close them.  We may try to replace the draftiest windows on the sides of the house that cannot be seen from the street.  It appears that additional insulation, first in the attic and then in the open crawl space under the house should be a priority.

@ StephenC:  OMG!!!  $859???  Misery loves company ... but, collectively, we've got to figure out a way out of this costly demon and dilemma. 

@ DuvalDavid:  Something seems out of kilter there, at least as compared to everyone else's experience. 

@ ricker:  A possibility, seeing as we'll be gone for a month later this year.

@ chipwich:  (IMHO) JEA is just another arrogant big city monopoly that's getting away with whatever it can.  Tea Party, anyone?