Maybe they are trying to tell me something. Power company content.

My shop has it's own meter and power bill. I'm trying to cut the power bill some, so I have gotten into the habit of shutting down all the parasitic power draws, air compressor, everything. If I'm not in it, the only draw is the security cameras on the back of the building. Berkeley Electric Co-op (Stop laughing, that really is their name.) stopped by the house today to find out why I only used $11 worth of power last month compared to $50 for the same month last year. They checked the meter to make sure it wasn't "broken" and went on their way.

Maybe that's their subtle way of telling me to get off my lazy ass and go out to the shop. Must be time to start another project.

The city left a tag on my door the other day, wishing to change my water meter due to it not reading. The meter has lost an ex-wife and 2 daughters in the last couple of years, so I phoned back and suggested they might be wasting their time with this change.

They have been "estimating" my water bill for a while now, too, so we shall see how that goes. I know I got three months of "free" natural gas this spring, when they finally made it by to take a proper reading.

Berkeley Electric co-op let's my mom read her own meter cause she doesn't want to give them a key to her gate and they don't want to walk down her long drive. She just calls them on the correct day of the month and tells them the reading.

In reply to Stampie:

Nothing BEC does surprises me.

I know my water meter and I think the power meter on my house transmits the reading to the guy driving around reading meters. Doesn't have to leave they're vehicle, just park in front of a house and punch in something into the reader and it receives the readings.

The city came around ~12 years ago to replace all the water meters with ones that could transmit the readings. I wasn't sure it would work for us since our meter is in the basement (everybody else on the block has their meter in a hole out by the street). But it seems to work just fine. At first I would check every time we got a bill, but after a couple years with no problems I don't check it any more.

I wish the power company would use that type of meter. They physically read it one month and estimate it the next. I'm getting tired of having a $200 bill one month and a $50 bill the next (they always seem to estimate high). It makes budgeting things difficult.

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

Generally they estimate in THEIR favor (just went through a similar thing, we were told we used far less than the average so they loaded up the bill figuring the meter was reading wrong) so you might actually want to let them in to do that and save some money.

The electric utility where I live has "smart" meters. Every hour they connect to cell tower nearby and transmit data with how much power flowed into the house or out to grid (for people with rooftop solar)at what time. Every so often they send nice little graphs and charts showing how much power my wife and I are using and when on an average day.

Hal wrote: The city came around ~12 years ago to replace all the water meters with ones that could transmit the readings. I wasn't sure it would work for us since our meter is in the basement (everybody else on the block has their meter in a hole out by the street). But it seems to work just fine. At first I would check every time we got a bill, but after a couple years with no problems I don't check it any more. I wish the power company would use that type of meter. They physically read it one month and estimate it the next. I'm getting tired of having a $200 bill one month and a $50 bill the next (they always seem to estimate high). It makes budgeting things difficult.

Mine does the same thing. Though there was a 9 month period where they said I owed $0. I didn't contact them to suggest otherwise.