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Today I received hydro bill. I did not add any new appliances and I did not change anything in my electricity consumption habits, but compared to last year and same time the bill is increased up to 80%. I think all residents of Ontario should start citizen action and stop paying hydro bills until rates is adjusted to fear price.
Also they stopped to print history of usage in the bill. Probably they do it to full us and prevent of doing comparison.
I feel for you, my friend in Kemptville pays almost twice what I pay in Ottawa for the same KWH used. I don't get it. It seems if you are rural, the votes don't matter, nor can you raise a huge protest. I feel for the non-city people, or; are us city dwellers getting a break...via higher taxes. It is one of my pet peeves and drives my desire to get off the grid. Just recently a lady in Ontario who is off the grid, on her own land and built her off the grid home mortgage free was denied an occupancy permit. The reason… is she did not install Ontario Building Code wiring in her home. She installed a 48V off grid wiring service which is permitted under OBC. The exemption in the OBC, allows for this, but the Municipality says that wiring in home must be to code have an 115V service panel and wiring installed. They encourage you go green..but then do this. The system, wants you to buy into the grid, mortgage, credit cards and leasing or financing. My new goal for the last 5 yrs is to teach my children, not to get sucked into the corporate system, not sure if I will succeed, as they are tempted many ways to “buy in”. But hopefully they will catch on before they end up like I did, credit cards, mortage, ect, ect.
Hydro will be uncontrollable by the government soon. It's only going to get worse. Ontari-owe gave her a majority.
Hey folks,
We have a new ombudsman put in place just last week. I would advise that you deal with customer service to have the issue resolved and if that does not solve the problem, call the ombudsman and make your issues known.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you're wondering why?
http://www.torontosun.com/2016/04/05...te-in-the-dark
Mine only increased from approximately 96$ to 107$ since last year, and prior to that we haven't notice a big increase either. Not complaining but kind of wonder why I don't see that huge increase that you guys experienced.
Line052- Your friend will find that insurance is hard to get as well. You can only use "solid fuel" (wood, coal) as supplementary heat, not your main source...
Talked with my neighbor last week after he received their hydro bill, it shows that they had reduced the amount of hydro actually used over the previous month , so what does Ont, Hydro do? they increase the amount on the delivery charge, go figure .:angry:
??? Lots of rural people use wood as their only heat.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat32rf
It all depends on who you use as an insurer, lots of rural insurance providers out there who will cover wood stoves. The funny thing is that out insurer does not put a premium on wood appliances but they do for oil.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat32rf
Get use to it nothing we can do.
Yep, I thought I could reduce my usage and reduce my bill, nope, no matter what I do the charge on delivery and fees/taxes is what gets us in a rural home. If I were to not use hydro at all I would still have a $75 bill just to be connected. The only way would be to go off the grid and at the moment this is just too expensive for how homes are built right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by yellow dog
I noticed my bill was probably around $100 higher than what I expected it to be. I didn't have a chance to dig into it, but I'm guessing the rate has gone up.
I should have installed solar panels when it was lucratively subsidized.
A few things changed recently, they finally took away the debt retirement charge. But then they also took away the 10% clean energy benefit. They also messed around with changing people's billing rates based on low / medium / high density. Some people who were in medium were moved to low density which has higher basic rates before consumption is calculated.
their encouraging reducing consumption but still have the same financial liabilities to employees payroll and benefits, not to mention paying other utilities in the US to take the excess power generated in Ontario. There are the same number of poles if not more to maintain or replace as they deteriorate.
The less we use the more it is going to cost in the future.
does it not seem strange that we are being encouraged to reduce hydro consumption yet the governments are pushing for electric cars.
I can hardly believe that Tesla was able to get more than 275000 people to give $1000 down payments on electric cars that will not be made for another year.
remember the good old days when Ontario Hydro was pushing everyone to install electric baseboard heaters for clean reliable heat...
Lets not forget all those Mutual Funds Managers that are holding hydro stocks for their customers... Hydro needs to make money and the only way they do that is by selling hydro. The less people using it, the more it will cost. Mutual fund managers rely on the return regardless of what the government says....
Too bad about your hydro bill going up so much, it probably won't get any better as I thought I heard they sold another 15% of hydro today?
If everybody or majority in Ontario will stop paying, demanding adjustments and fair prices, the government will have nothing to do, but satisfy the demands. But according to comments I see that everybody decides to pay and shut up. It is another 10 or 20 cups of coffee....Quote:
Originally Posted by yellow dog
Hydro bills will definitely go up, as the investors will want a good/high rate on their investment dollars, so how will they get it ? by raising hydro rates.
We will all be bending over while they stick it to us.
Sounds a lot like the 407....a license to print moneyQuote:
Originally Posted by jaycee
Generally I'm a capitalist pig but where essential services like electricity, transportation, water/sewage, healthcare are concerned I have a hard time believing these services should be in the hands of the private sector. I also know that many publicly run utilities are management heavy and cost more than they should when left in government hands. It's a complicated problem that has been greatly magnified by decades of mismanagement by Ontario Hydro and than further compounded by the green energy swindling that is going on. At this stage we are fooked for the foreseeable future no matter who holds the reins.Quote:
Originally Posted by jaycee
Or we know what happens when you don't pay you bill. My neighbor tried that, got disconnected and had to pay in full to get reconnected as well as twice the amount of his highest bill that year as a security deposit.Quote:
Originally Posted by cuulguy
so go ahead and stop paying your bill if you want...but I am going to keep paying for the hydro that I use.
you don't have to use the 407 but practically speaking have no choice but to consume electricity. Even if you could disconnect your home unless you were a hermit who grew his own food you have no choice but to consume electricity. The gasoline you buy is pumped by electrical motors. Also the 407 is still owned by the Province and they collect revenue from it until the end of the 99 year lease which is not that far off. Apples & Oranges.Quote:
Originally Posted by fratri
I'm just wondering what's you guys usage per month? My last bill for February was 486kWh, is it not much?
Jan 2015 4610 kWh $ 810. 2016 3418 kWh $ 600Quote:
Originally Posted by seabast
Feb 2015 4604 kWh $ 846. 2016 3502 kWh $ 656
Mar 2015 2810 kWh $ 473. 2016 2398 kWh $ 530
Time of use makes a difference , also I was changed from residential-low density to residential-medium density
Most of rural Ontario do not have access to natural gas as a fuel source and are stuck with oil, propane ,electric or wood. If you have to buy wood, it really isn't worth it.
i use an electric air to air heat pump system and keep the place at 20.5 C when I am not home and 21 C when I am home. In the past 12 months it cost me $3600 for heat, hot water, lights.
I know people with same size demands using oil or propane that it cost them more.
Have a friend who's insurance company was going to charge a $2300 premium to just for his oil tank alone, he bought a different tank that reduced the oil tank premium down to $ 800
So you must be heqting your house with hydro! What about in summer, how bad is it?
btw, it's pretty bad, it's a lot of money! Better be pretty warm inside at the cost....Quote:
Originally Posted by B Wilson
[QUOTE=seabast;967404]So you must be heqting your house with hydro! What about in summer, how bad is it?[/[COLOR=#333333]i use an electric air to air heat pump system and keep the place at 20.5 C when I am not home and 21 C when I am home. In the past 12 months it cost me $3600 for heat, hot water, lights.
I don't think 300 per month average for heat, air conditioning, hot water and lights is that far off what others in 1800 square foot homes are paying no matter how they do it. Yes it used to half the price and was a lot easier to stomacheQuote:
Originally Posted by seabast
HOLY CRAP...When did a hydro bill become a mortage payment????? I b**tch when I have a $150.00 bill. Last month was $120 for one month in the summer it is about $240 with A/C going. My wife and I are time of use Nazi's in the house, also, all bulbs are CFL and slowly converting to LED. It is only a townhouse, but wow....
Quote:
Originally Posted by B Wilson
When I bought the place 13 years ago it had a forced air electric furnace ,back then January and February hydro bills were less than 250
But you can see why rural Ontario hydro one customers are at a financial breaking point. Unfortunately the majority of Liberal supporters are urban based so they can't relate to the struggle rural areas have.
A lot of urban people tell me to switch to natural gas and can't believe it's not available
What is the total $ of you water,natural gas and hydro bill monthly in the city?Quote:
Originally Posted by line052
After adding up everything, 300$/month isn't that bad. I'm lucky and young enough to get firewood for pretty cheap. If I had to pay 250$ or 300$/cord, + natural gas and hydro I would be pretty close from 300$/month though.....Quote:
Originally Posted by B Wilson
Now, when you add tv cable (that I cancelled couple of years ago, thanks Kodi and Netflix), phone and internet bills, sewer/water and town tax it can get pretty bad for some familly. I haven't add a 100% increase in my hydro bill so I can't complain to much yet....
We went to high efficiency propane after our oil furnace was flagged. Our equal billing for propane is $150/month, hydro around $150/month, that is heat, lighting, water heater, $300 total a month on rural pricing. If I had hydro for heat I would be screwed. When we had oil the equal billing was $250/month, the hydro was also $200-$250/month, that is just going from an old oil system with AC motors to propane and DC motors.
We also have a wood pellet stove to bump up the heat when it is really cold, more spot heating but nice dry wood heat. A wood stove is out for us, a side split so the efficiency of a wood stove does not make sense for the cost of installation.
Got the one from the cottage..... $112 to deliver 00000 electricity. $99 delivery and $13 for HST and a .75 regulatory charge with a $0.85 credit for Ontario Clean Energy benefit.
If you averaged it out about 240 a month for heat and hydro.
That is not very good for natural gas and urban hydro pricing.Quote:
Originally Posted by line052
Me too. I turn the breaker off when I leave. I used zero hydro last month and got a $115 bill. F'cn Cnts.Quote:
Originally Posted by mosquito
That's cause they charge a premium for seasonal service even though you don't disconnect for the winter. If you can, change the bill to your spouses name and tell them you live there year round and want to be changed to residentalQuote:
Originally Posted by LiveBates
I pay around $400 a month for hydro and water. We are a big household with 3 adults (mother in law) and 2 kids. I can't say we are efficient users of electricity. I am constantly having to shut off lights behind my kids. Freaking out all the time with them.
My natural gas is above that, probably averages around $90 a month, mainly for heating, but also for cooking.
Living where we are,we buy from Hydro 1 directly. We,also,have an all natural gas home (cooking,heat,hot water,fireplace,BBQ). We're on regional water and sewer. On the average,our total utilities per month is $235. Being on Natural Gas is saving us a ton. We're time-of-use skrimps,too,but,what's really pissing me off is how they're "adjusting" the TOU to suit their profit margins. Now,having said that,Wynne et al are going ahead with another block sale of Hydro. That will put roughly 70% of Hydro in private hands. They will be free to charge whatever the market will bear. Watch what happens to TOU and conservation policies,then.Quote:
Originally Posted by line052
I think I posted this info someplace before,but,I know a family with a Beef operation that went completely off grid twenty years ago using Diesel generation wired to the entire farm. It took seven years before it paid for itself in Hydro fees,alone (not including the cost of fuel). They've never looked back.
Private or Public owned the rates will still be regulated by the Ontario Energy Board and they will still have to apply to the OEB for rate increases. Enbridge and Union Gas have to apply for rate increases as well. The whole energy sector is regulated. In a nut shell its a regulated profit system where the utilities are only allowed to make a fixed % of profit from retail sales. That is why Enbridge applied for a small rate decrease last fall, they had to share the savings of cheaper natural gas costs with their customers. When their costs increase, they reapply for an increase.Quote:
Originally Posted by trimmer21
I don't think they will be free to charge what ever the market will bear, if this was true, Enbridge and Union Gas would be charging just a small amount less than what it would cost to heat homes with electricity.
When I hear the Federal and Provincial governments talk about "green infrastructure spending" I just wish they would put some of that money into grants for the gas companies to expand their networks further out to rural areas where there just isn't a viable business case for them to expand on their own.
That is how high speed internet availability expanded in Eastern Ontario. The Federal and Provincial governments invested in 33% each of the cost. Internet providers like Cogeco, Bell and Explornet then all bid on sections of Eastern Ontario and the end result was 90% of the population got minimum 1.5 mbps internet.
To me spending tax dollars to expand the natural gas network will benefit more people than subsidizing solar and wind power generation. It would create employment and reduce hydro consumption by some of use high monthly kWh users.
Wouldn't that require a pipeline? Liberals and pipelines usually aren't often mentioned in a good way.
They would just be tapping into the existing TransCanada Pipeline. I have one within 7 km of my place but no distribution in my direction.Quote:
Originally Posted by terrym
Not much we can do about it now. Down the road, I suppose the potential is there to buy back shares (lots of companies do that).
Energy prices are regulated, so atleast for the short term we can hope that profits and making shareholders happy, will be more a function of efficiency, controlling cost and better service. Something hydro 1 (and governments) isn't exactly known for......................
At the end of the day, remember the all important questions.
1) Why are they selling it
Answer: Much needed money and 'effeicencies"
2) Why is the money much needed
Answer: Because those in charge of the purse strings aren't fit to run lemonade stands.
3) Why then are they still in power
Answer: Liberal urban dwellers, vote buying and Unions
Why I fear the sale of Hydro One. I crossed the 407 from one end to the other and it cost $ 40.I just came back on Highway 90 west of Buffalo for $3.15 for 86 miles . Highway 407 is privately owned and highway 90 is state owned and this what will happen with hydro rates when hydro becomes privately owned, no control of costs.
so you think the provincial government and hydro one have been doing a good job of controlling spending and keeping costs down?Quote:
Originally Posted by Foxx
Not at all, but when it is in private hands there will be no way a government will be able to control the rates.Quote:
Originally Posted by B Wilson
Have you compared the state of the roads as well?
Granted I don't do a lot of driving in the States, but what little I have done is more than enough........Heck, don't even need to drive in the States to see (and feel) the difference. Cross the border into Quebec.....
Not a fan, at all of privatizing Hydro One, so don't get me wrong. But there are reasons for it, and those reasons really are the problem. Everything else is just an after effect.
Cause........and.....effect.
No-one to blame but
The government will always control the rates via the Ontario Energy Board.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foxx
There are already several privately owned hydro distribution companies, some of them owned by a huge Canadian owned company call Fortis. Fortis owns Cornwall Electric (which has cheaper rates than Hydro One) as well as owning Canadian Niagra Power, Algoma Power and Eastern Ontario Power.
There are several Municipal owned distribution companies as well like Ottawa River Power Corp that distributes hydro in Pembroke, Killaloe and Almonte. Renfrew Hydro in the town of Renfrew.
All hydro distribution companies whether it be Hydro One or any of the smaller local distribution companies mentioned above, all have to APPLY for rate increase to the Ontario Energy Board for approval. Occasionally they get denied their increases.
I struggle with the concept that the best interests of the people of Ontario were really being thought of when the government (Ontario Energy Board) is in charge of approving rate increase applications by Hydro One ( when it was 100% government owned crown corporation) Why would they deny themselves rate increases? How did we get to where we are today?
Simple answer, the Ontario Government completely mismanaged the hydro generation and distribution system in Ontario. The icing on the cake was "The Green Energy Act"
The only thing they got right was ending the use of coal for power generation.