has your hydro gone nuts here in ontario ? mine is right off the wall $411.00 per month for a normal family home. :cussing:

With the way they keep slammin us with everything from skyrocketing fuel and hydro prices its little wonder why the govt. spent millions to take guns away from us honest folks. I wonder just who they where protecting from who. I guess we really are :blahblah: cause all we do is :cussing: about it and do nothing when they :hallo5: our :hallo3: off.

Very creative use of the smileys, ZR!

The same thing just happened to us in the NWT. I'm down to candles and a diesel powered computer.

You guys talking water bills?

No. Bills for hydro-electricity. Water is one thing that is affordable here.

Oh, OK. My power is supplied by an electric cooperative where I live. Cheap power doesn't even describe my rates. My house is some 2200 square feet, and still has alot of damage from the previous owner that needs attending to. Three of the outside doors have severe leaks around the door jambs. My power rates are still ~ US$125/mo during the summer with the A/C set on 68 degrees. :0: I can imagine what my rates would drop to if I'd get myself motivated to finish this place.

Hey a diesel powered computer, permafrost would be in love. Hey Paul ours is no better $160 and I have a gas stove and a gas waterheater and a gas dryer. :hallo8:

Count yourself lucky Paul,

Everything in my new house is electric,

My hydro bill last month was $668.92

The house is fairly large(2800 sq/ft or so) but that is bloody crazy.

I have a friend who works for union gas and he is going to look into some other options for me.

I do have quite a bit of electrical equipment as well as a pool but that price is still pretty high.

Oh well, what are you going to do, boycott hydro I don't think so.

DP

I think i will set up a wheel in the river and sell them my excess hydro :hallo09:

i have 2 fridges, a freezer, electric stove, electric dryer {clothes on the line mostly}, electric water heater, oil heat, water from a well, the pool pump is 220 volts so it draws very little {it's off now}. hydro is nuts.

Paul doo yourself a favour and ditch the electric waterheater youll save the money back in a year at these prices. Switch too an oil fired water heater even more efficient than my propane one. They are almost impossible to run out of hot water with them too. I am going to switch to an outdoor wood furnace next year to save big.

i work for an independent power company(generating),and before it came an open market we had a geek give us a seminar on how the open market will be better for the consumer,i laughed and asked him since when did any corporation do something that will only benefit the consumer,but he was to smart and had all the answers and tried claiming what would happen stating that prices will drop big time,i asked him about the probs in california,he just shrugged it off and said the rates would not rise like that here ,and that its been worked out in ontario,and now we are paying gst on hydro's debt payments,its such a crock of ####,we are all getting fleeced at the pump and for our utilities,my house was $100 equal billing 8 years ago its now $158 plus $50 every 3 months for water heater rental(nat gas)but what are we going to do??we all need hydro and nat gas,outdoor woodfurnace is nice but only country folk can do that

When we moved to the NWT, we bought a 2500 sq ft. house with electric baseboards. Our first winter bill was $670, with a pile of $500 bills behind it. I installed a wood boiler in the garage, ran hot water lines to the house, ducted the house, and my winter bills haven't been above $135 since...except last month. Huge rate hike, and now my bill is about $300. Good thing I'm not using the baseboards anymore. Probably would have been $1200. Greedy so-and-so's. :cussing:

Granted the amounts in you guy's bills are in Canadian money, but has anybody thought of solar water heat? It is admittedly higher maintenance in the snow belt. However, after the initial cost of setting one of these up, the cost to heat water is literally $0.

One of my long term goals (like 10 or so years) is to be completely off the utility grid, and be self sufficient. Payback time is like 20 or so years depending on application for full solar/wind electric and solar water heat. With the prices like you have all been mentioning, it seems like the payback should be reduced substantially.

I don't think solar would work for me. Only about 4 hours of weak daylight in the winter.

In your case, you would need a grid intertie with a power buyback contract with the utility if such an option exists up there. During the summer months, when you are making far more electricity than you could ever hope to use, you could sell back to the hydro. spring and fall months should break even more or less, leaving winter months as your sole purchasing period.

There is also wind, if your area will support it. More complicated to engineer the correct system for your house as they deal with microclimates, and nervous neighbours over a mill going up. The results for persistance are quite rewarding.

My last bill was around $400 :angry: This government is giving
us quite the screwing and not even a kiss after :0: I was thinkin
that i should put a big old diesel genset in the back yard and jus
hydro all together ??? Gotta love these politicians givin themselves
raises and raising all our costs of living :angry: :angry:

No wonder the rates have gone up. Look at what that @#$%^ at Hydro One had got for salary before they fired her & now she wants to sue them. :devil: :devil:

Isn't it ironic that since this DEBT RETIREMENT charge that everyone is seeing on their hydro bills to pay off hydro's 20 billion dollar debt, the debt
actually increased by a further 70 million..go figure.

as for natural gas, they want every gas user to incur a $120 charge to pay
off past debts in the form of 3 $40 payments added to your existing bill.

food for thought.

Also didn't natural gas prices tend to go up after they had convinced a lot of people to sign up? Or is it just energy prices in general.

The whole things a joke.

I still can't figure out how the gas company can surcharge us, since they had a bad year last year.

Hell, my company went bankrupt last fall. If I knew I could have just surcharged my past customers, we would still be in business.

CANADA, land of the free. You just have to pay through the nose.

not that I want to live anywhere else.