Opened my DWP bill this morning and it went from 96 to 214. I work from home in K-town, I keep the AC at 78, and I have not bought anything new that plugs in.
Is everyone getting hit like this right now, or did something in my apartment quietly break and start eating power?
We are on Edison out here and mine did the same thing in July. Check the meter read date before you call.
Three of us split ours, so a jump like that stings fast. Ours went up almost 70 dollars and it turned out to be the ancient window unit in the living room, we run it on a timer now instead of all day.
Also worth calling and asking about the Level Pay Plan, it just smooths the summer spikes out over the year.
Mine does this every summer in Atwater, the second tier kicks in and the whole bill changes character. Bimonthly billing hides it for a while, then one statement lands like a car payment.
Same story here in K-town, and working from home all day is exactly what does it. DWP runs a higher summer rate from June through the end of September, and once you push past the first tier every extra kilowatt hour is billed at the expensive one, so usage that goes up thirty percent can land as a bill that goes up eighty.
Two things actually moved the number for me. I pulled the meter reading off the bill and compared it to the previous one to make sure it was a real read and not an estimate, and I stopped cooling the whole apartment and just cooled the room I work in.
Nothing else I tried made a visible difference.
My brother and I split ours on the Hollywood place and it went from about 110 to 190 for the two months. Same habits, same two window units.
Worth knowing that a chunk of what you pay is not power at all, DWP transfers around eight percent of revenue to the city general fund every year. It does not help your bill, but it explains why it never feels cheap.
Call and ask for an actual re-read, mine was estimated for months!!
I don’t pay any DWP things. That stuff is included in my rent. Maybe it’s listed somewhere, but I doubt it.
Yeah sorry, I got nothing useful for you on the actual bill, utilities are just rolled into my rent so I never even see a DWP statement.
I keep the AC wherever I want and the only time I think about it is when people post these. $96 to $214 with the thermostat at 78 and WFH in K-town is wild though. Either the building has a leaky unit/old fridge/something drawing power 24/7. Worth checking.
Could be that the last bill was estimated and this one is the catch-up. Happens a lot.
Worth asking management if anyone else in the building got the same jump.