Wanted to add my voice… I currently live in a small apartment in the middle of Siler, since Mom and I don’t really see eye-to-eye anymore and that has caused, er, problems… *that* part is not something I want to discuss publicly, though.
She lives about a mile and a half out of Siler towards Pittsboro, and she’s had quite an adventure with Duke Power over the past couple years… yes, her house is quite old, but it’s had insulation put in and all the windows are double-glazed, etc…
In 2018, she was able to get on the Duke “Equal Payment Plan” and her bills were (or so it seemed to me) rather reasonable throughout the year… but in late December 2018 or early January 2019 she got a nasty call — the Equal Payment Plan had “conveniently” left out some $700+ in overages that she’d have to deal with or they’d come and cut her off. They would not negotiate in any meaningful way, and any sort of noises along the lines of “your calculations were bad, it’s your fault, YOU take the hit” towards Duke Power were swiftly and forcefully nipped in the bud.
She was forced off the Equal Payment Plan and had $70-75 amended to each bill for the next several months (ten, I believe, although I could be wrong) to cover the overages. Now her bills are $370 and for the first time in her life she’s confronting a set of bills which exceed her SSDI allotment even before food is taken into account.
It gets worse. Her hot water tank went out about two months ago… the elements are shot. I could fix it, except that the only way the lower element is coming out is by way of some sort of explosive device or by being literally cut out of the tank. I’ve thrown every WD-40 can and clone thereof in the entire county (including the legendary Penetrating Blaster aka “PB Blaster” which smells like you could start any car from the 1950s with a single squirt to the carburetor, even if it *does* lube better than any mechanic’s best dreams…) at it, as well as so much brute force that the “wrench” (metal socket thing) they sell you for removing things no longer grips because there aren’t enough flat edges left for it to grab. That element is staying put!
So Mom has no running hot water, and she’s actually genuinely concerned, in addition to trying to figure out how to get a tank and installation on her budget… she is now concerned with the fact that she may no longer be able to afford running hot water in her own home, simply because electricity costs so much that running a water heater tank is simply too expensive for her. (Before anyone pipes up — gas and tankless heaters are not options available to her.)
I have also heard, from a person of some prominence in the local community who would be in a place to know, claims that Duke is routinely inflating bills around here. I won’t identify this person or how they are able to say that, because I don’t have their permission and I don’t want to get them in trouble, for a number of reasons… but if that’s true, I’m not surprised. They bought a state, briefly, when they helped get Pat McCrory elected — I mean, most folks even talk about it openly that way, around here and elsewhere — so gee, why not pad some bills illegally while they’re at it…? Not to mention that, since they’re a monopoly, if you don’t want to pay them you can either go dark or get a personal solar farm… so it’s not like too many of us can do much about it.
Still, this is freakin’ America… the idea that my mother has to worry about affording running hot water and her electric service in this country, with who we are supposed to be and the ideals we’re supposed to be holding ourselves to… mmmph. I’m disgusted almost beyond words… I don’t know how else to put it.
These new “smart meters” that we’re all supposed to get, have me very worried as well — I’ve been watching videos by a UK fellow, he calls himself “BigCliveDotCom” on there, about what’s been happening over his way with those. It’s hard to explain without pictures, but the way a lot of cheap electronics power themselves, those “smart meters” translate basically into a bill hike for everyone who gets one… it’s a matter of “when”, not “if”. I may reach out to Clive (he’s very approachable) and see if I can get him to do a video specifically on how this all works… either way, that’s better covered as a separate post.
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2020 03:16:03 -0500
From: Christopher Havel
Subject: Electric Bill