Electric Anger

Hi T----,

Please forgive me if this is long - it's been quite a struggle.

I received my first electric bill in early February. The bill, which covered only 16 days, was for $107 and claimed that I had used over 1400 kilowatt-hours of electricity. When I spoke with F--e upstairs about her bill, she told me that it was only $40 for the same period. I checked the usage calculator on Duke Energy's website (which allows you to imput your kinds of appliance, type of heater, square footage, etc) and it indicated that I should have used about 1200 kilowatt-hours for the full 31 day month of January, based on temperatures.

At this point, I called Ed to explain the problem. He did not answer, and he never responded to my message. I also called the power company, and they told me that they would check the meter next time, but could do nothing more.

Around the time of the next meter read, early last week, I started checking Duke's site. I misread the numbers, thinking it said that I had used about 3200 kilowatt-hours in February. I read it incorrectly - I just recieved my bill, and apparently my meter read shows that I used 4632 kilowatt-hours, for a total cost of $327 for only 28 days. My grand total between the two bills is $435!!!! For 45 days!

When I called Ed last week, he tried to convince me that it was "just because of the cold weather." Having done my research, I knew that this was impossible, so I refused to follow his recommeded path & simply wait for my next bill. I got the number for the electrician, who agreed with me that I would have to be a major drug lord in order to cosume this much power. He had Sean, one of his employees, verify that the meter was attached to my unit. On Thursday, Sean & I verified that the meter reading did match what the power company said it did.

I am fairly certain that there is something seriously wrong with my heat pump. The meter read has gone up by under 1000 kilowatt-hours in the week since the meter read, a significant reduction over the 1125 that I was apparently using in the coldest weather. I have complained to Ed on at least 4-5 occassions that something is wrong with my heat pump. He has had it fixed twice & told me to just change the filter & dismissed me the other times. I started January with a fresh filter.

Whatever happens, I believe that Ed needs to be responsible for the $435 electric bill. Assuming that the heat pump is the culprit, he should also be responsible for replacing it with a model that I approve that won't break & cost $327/month to run.

This situation, combined with the giant piece of medal that I hear echoing as people drive over it in the garage every morning at 5am, has put my on edge. I appologize again for the length of this e-mail, and I hope that you can help me. The only thing stopping me from calling the local news is my regard for my property value. The only thing stopping me from calling a lawyer is that I may need the money to pay this ridiculous electric bill....

Kind Regards,

Amy

PS I believe that L-----'s bill will be even higher. When we looked at the meters, hers read over 7000 kilowatt-hours. Faye's was under 2500 for the same 1.5 month period. I suspect that L----- & I may have the same defective heat pumps, since we closed around the same time.