My home electric bill has basically doubled in the past 4 months! WTF is going on?

[daczone]

I live in Northeast Ohio and my electric bill while owning my Lightning for the last 30 months has ALWAYS been right around 140 dollars. During the scalding hot summer months with the central AC running constant, the bill was always no more than $180-$200, and all of this is with sometimes heavy charging of the Lightning.

Now I'm paying over 300 dollars, and it seems that every month it keeps going up. We've been using measures to lessen our electric usage and it's still going higher. They're blaming all the AI data centers, but why do we have to pay for that sh!t?

It's going to get to point where ICE vehicles and going to be more economical.

OK, end of rant... for now.

Can you do Solar? Seriously... I finally did it and couldn't be happier. My $400-450 has been $13 (meter charge) ever since and I charge my Tesla and my Truck. If your handy you can do it yourself and save $$$$. I also did a battery for my house as well, no more running a generator when the power goes out. Solar is like free electricity and free gas.

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[RickLightning]

If you want to understand the dilemma we face in power generation, I highly recommend Bill Gate's book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. https://amzn.to/4nv96U0

This was written before AI and the huge boom in data centers.

In short, there isn't enough land for solar or wind to begin to solve the problem, but it makes a dent.

The two biggest users of energy are... cement and steel production. Innovations to make more environmentally friendly cement are coming.

The solution to having enough, and cleaner energy, is innovation in nuclear power.

Keep in mind that if manufacturing "returns to the US", energy usage will increase, and electricity costs will go up more.

Our utility company puts in for rate increases every year. They spend many dollars on advertising, which because we are a captive user, is nonsensical. Yet the utility commission cannot regulate that by law. Nor salaries. An executive from that utility just built a home in our community. It is clearly in the top 5% of homes in our 130 home neighborhood. A fully sodded lawn was just put down, and their driveway is concrete, one of 2 or 3 in the neighborhood. He is VP of Distribution, so I may ask him why we had to spend $10k to put in a whole house generator a few years back...

However, our rates don't compare to some of the rates elsewhere in the country, which makes solar not work financially, unless we want a breakeven 15+ years out. The rules on paying customers for generating electricity changed a few years back, dramatically lowering the reimbursement, thus worsening the payback.

Our rate has increased about 25% in recent years, but nowhere near New England or California rates.

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

In Ohio your solar potential should be better than typical PNW that Dave has in Oregon, at least during the Spring/Summer/Fall seasons.
Will depend on if you have the right conditions and open areas for solar panels.
You can check using PVWatts online calculator and your address here

Plugging in Columbus and 5 kW PV array into PV Watts - you may get 6.5MW per year.
My solar is a lot further north than Ohio, and with 13kW array supplies the house, my business (next door) and charges the truck reliably April-October.

Free Advice:
Do a lot of research first, and know the local rules for solar installations.
NEC requirements for roof top solar make it a lot easier to go with ground mounted if you have the space. (none of my solar is on the roof of my home).
Be warned: once you start into solar, it will quickly become an obsession er hobby that consumes a lot of your time ... just saying...

 

[RLXXI]

You have until the end of the year to break ground on solar and qualify for the federal tax incentives. Rate hikes are only going to get worse. Coal and natural gas don’t pay for the utilities and society has turned against large scale wind, solar, and nuclear. Demand is rising and supply is stagnant. It’s produce your own or pay.

Which is exactly what we're doing, producing our own, I started with a 6kW grid tie system 12 years ago, it helps pay some of what we use and delivers back to the grid for even more savings but still not enough so I began installing my own separate system. Not this year, but within 2-3 years we will be fully off grid in the suburbs.

Toucan Sam can follow his nose, I choose to follow the sun. The 1st of 4 trackers installed and producing.

Instead construe it for what it is, self sufficiency. Will it pay me back in the future? No,.. it's paying me back in real time.

If everyone installed their own systems, electric companies wouldn't go out of business, they would start adopting new ways to make $$. Like perhaps building out a more resilient DCFC network, fast charger on every corner like gas stations are now.

That's my $7.93 (inflation adjusted 2 cents).

 

[Firn]

In Ohio your solar potential should be better than typical PNW that Dave has in Oregon, at least during the Spring/Summer/Fall seasons.
Will depend on if you have the right conditions and open areas for solar panels.
You can check using PVWatts online calculator and your address here

Plugging in Columbus and 5 kW PV array into PV Watts - you may get 6.5MW per year.
My solar is a lot further north than Ohio, and with 13kW array supplies the house, my business (next door) and charges the truck reliably April-October.

Free Advice:
Do a lot of research first, and know the local rules for solar installations.
NEC requirements for roof top solar make it a lot easier to go with ground mounted if you have the space. (none of my solar is on the roof of my home).
Be warned: once you start into solar, it will quickly become an obsession er hobby that consumes a lot of your time ... just saying...

PVwatts is good, but you really need to understand the time of consumption too, especially in Ohio.

You can make as much electricity as you consume but if the times dont align (and my truck isnt at home during the day...) you will still end up with a bill every month. The majority of folks have consumption peak after solar production has ended.

I have priced solar MANY times and without dramatically overproducing I still end up with a significant electric bill. Overall payback for any purchased system is around 20-25 years in my case.

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

very true,
everyone's situation is different, even just shading issues or being on the North side of a hill rather than facing south will have a major impact on the practical application of solar.

I am ususally "home" most of the time -ie I work next door to where I live, so daytime charging is often a possiblity. But for times I am out all day, or evenings, overnight, long winter storms - I built a large LiFePO4 battery pack (currently 147 kWh of storage) so the truck doesn't have to be in the yard to get the benefit of solar energy. I can charge at night from the stored day-time solar power.

Comparing with just Utitlity rates the payback with our very low cost of electricity would 'never' pay back.
but, comparing against winter power outages, lost fridge/freezer spoilage, staff in the shop standing around in the dark wondering when the grid will come back on (while being paid to do that) the battery system was the right solution for us, with reasonable payback time.

Honestly, the original system was only to run the shop lights and a few 15A plugs. But-once we built it, and it ran the house during a 3-day winter storm took out the grid, then she gave the green light for expansion. Thats what a hot cup of tea, the well & furnace running and lights on can do for ya.
Then I started to find new ways to use electricity instead of other energy sources and this continues to grow our "on-site generated power" .
By the time I retire, I expect to heat and cool the buildings, charge up several EV's, run a 3-season greenhouse, add more freezers, and a freeze-dryer, do all the welding I like...

 

[daczone]

To fully take advantage of an EV... you should also invest in Solar. My suggestion: If you buy a "System" know exactly what you are paying for. (My system would have cost me more than 3x what I spent if I had someone else do it). If you are handy you can install a system yourself. Grid Tied, Permits etc. I simply measured my roof and figured out what would fit. I used a inexpensive company that did all of my legal requirements, plan set, measurements, filing for my multiple permits, doing all of the paper work for my grid tie. My kw is $0.17 plus misc transmission charges. I was paying $400-$450 a month. Here is a graph of my power usage and costs:

You can tell exactly when I turned on my solar in Jun and then on Jun 20th was able to send excess power back. My month bill has been simply a meter charge $15 and excess power building credits for the winter.

My only regret is not doing it sooner. My Tesla and Lightning now get free gas. I will have a few months in the winter where I won't be generating as much power.

I did a 15kW system (36 panels). My house uses about 20-25kW per day and I send back to the grid 60-80kW per day. (My summer peak was just over 115 kW solar production)

Right now (2:04 PM) the System is making 9185 Watts, my house is using 1145 Watts and I am sending 7803 Watts back to the grid. (I also have a 15kW battery that should run my house for 12 hours).

What did all of this cost?
I paid $19k for all the equipment (racking, mounts, inverter, panels, gridboss system), But there were extras in there, the 15kW Battery was $3500 a I did solar optimizers for $2000 (They mount under each panel and protect you from shading). I recover 5% usng these, If I did it again I probably wouldn't do it. I paid $1000 in professional services (plan set, filing permits, etc) and another $1000 for permits. At my current power rate I should have a >4 year payback and the system should last 25 years. Down the road as technology changes higher more effecient panels can be installed.

I also qualify for the Fed 30% credit. (Good through 2034) but sadly that credit goes away this year. So roughly $21k for the system and a $6300 tax credit back over the next 9 years.

 

[Kansan]

I live in Northeast Ohio and my electric bill while owning my Lightning for the last 30 months has ALWAYS been right around 140 dollars. During the scalding hot summer months with the central AC running constant, the bill was always no more than $180-$200, and all of this is with sometimes heavy charging of the Lightning.

Now I'm paying over 300 dollars, and it seems that every month it keeps going up. We've been using measures to lessen our electric usage and it's still going higher. They're blaming all the AI data centers, but why do we have to pay for that sh!t?

It's going to get to point where ICE vehicles and going to be more economical.

OK, end of rant... for now.

We've got it pretty good here in eastern Kansas. I just checked my electric usage through my last bill, which was 8/27/25. I've used 18,139 kWh and the total cost including distribution, taxes, etc., was $1,885.09 (or 10.4 cents per kWh). My August bill included 24% more usage than the prior August bill but the cost was $38.62 less due to my switching to a time-of-use plan in December 2024. The biggest issue with the time-of-use plan is getting my wife to avoid using the electric dryer during peak cost hours.

My biggest electric savings since buying my house was replacement of the 1996 A/C unit with a new 16 SEER unit in 2020. My summer electric usage dropped 1200-1400 kWh per month with that one change, which was a reduction of 35% in electric usage.

 

[Firn]

To fully take advantage of an EV... you should also invest in Solar. My suggestion: If you buy a "System" know exactly what you are paying for. (My system would have cost me more than 3x what I spent if I had someone else do it). If you are handy you can install a system yourself. Grid Tied, Permits etc. I simply measured my roof and figured out what would fit. I used a inexpensive company that did all of my legal requirements, plan set, measurements, filing for my multiple permits, doing all of the paper work for my grid tie. My kw is $0.17 plus misc transmission charges. I was paying $400-$450 a month. Here is a graph of my power usage and costs:

You can tell exactly when I turned on my solar in Jun and then on Jun 20th was able to send excess power back. My month bill has been simply a meter charge $15 and excess power building credits for the winter.

My only regret is not doing it sooner. My Tesla and Lightning now get free gas. I will have a few months in the winter where I won't be generating as much power.

I did a 15kW system (36 panels). My house uses about 20-25kW per day and I send back to the grid 60-80kW per day. (My summer peak was just over 115 kW solar production)

Right now (2:04 PM) the System is making 9185 Watts, my house is using 1145 Watts and I am sending 7803 Watts back to the grid. (I also have a 15kW battery that should run my house for 12 hours).

What did all of this cost?
I paid $19k for all the equipment (racking, mounts, inverter, panels, gridboss system), But there were extras in there, the 15kW Battery was $3500 a I did solar optimizers for $2000 (They mount under each panel and protect you from shading). I recover 5% usng these, If I did it again I probably wouldn't do it. I paid $1000 in professional services (plan set, filing permits, etc) and another $1000 for permits. At my current power rate I should have a >4 year payback and the system should last 25 years. Down the road as technology changes higher more effecient panels can be installed.

I also qualify for the Fed 30% credit. (Good through 2034) but sadly that credit goes away this year. So roughly $21k for the system and a $6300 tax credit back over the next 9 years.

You say your electricity rate is around $0.17/kwh plus transmission. What do you get when you provide power? Is it even credit, price ($0.17/kwh), and what is your transmission cost?

As I said above I cant get the numbers to make sense where I'm at, but a lot of that is price structure. When I see amazing success stories like this it always makes me wonder if I'm just doing the math wrong...

Edit: if I do the math on your numbers I get 70-80 kwh per day usage, or about 2000kwh. Can you dive into the numbers a little more?

 

[daczone]

You say your electricity rate is around $0.17/kwh plus transmission. What do you get when you provide power? Is it even credit, price ($0.17/kwh), and what is your transmission cost?

As I said above I cant get the numbers to make sense where I'm at, but a lot of that is price structure. When I see amazing success stories like this it always makes me wonder if I'm just doing the math wrong...

Edit: if I do the math on your numbers I get 70-80 kwh per day usage, or about 2000kwh. Can you dive into the numbers a little more?

Same graph by usage... Bill calculations are not straight forward... First 1000 kWh is at a different rate. Then there are transmission charges. Graphs are from my provider:

Net Metering:
When you’re enrolled in our Net Metering program, your bill is calculated using a bidirectional meter that measures how much electricity you use from PGE, as well as how much energy your system sends to the grid.

If you generate more energy than you use during your monthly bill cycle, you won’t have any kilowatt-hour charges on your bill. Instead, you’ll receive kilowatt-hour credits that can be used for future electric bills.

Every March, your annual billing cycle wraps up and any unused energy credits are donated to customers in low-income bill assistance programs.

 

[RickLightning]

Net metering has been eliminated in many markets, making the payback much longer.

We've got it pretty good here in eastern Kansas. I just checked my electric usage through my last bill, which was 8/27/25. I've used 18,139 kWh and the total cost including distribution, taxes, etc., was $1,885.09 (or 10.4 cents per kWh). My August bill included 24% more usage than the prior August bill but the cost was $38.62 less due to my switching to a time-of-use plan in December 2024. The biggest issue with the time-of-use plan is getting my wife to avoid using the electric dryer during peak cost hours.



My biggest electric savings since buying my house was replacement of the 1996 A/C unit with a new 16 SEER unit in 2020. My summer electric usage dropped 1200-1400 kWh per month with that one change, which was a reduction of 35% in electric usage.

Our usage from 12/24 - 9/25 was 8,017kWh. Our total paid was $1,394.44, or 17.39 cents per kWh.

We upgraded dual HVAC systems last year from 2005 units and saw no noticeable change in electricity costs likely due to increased weather temps during AC season.

But look at the difference in total electricity usage between us! Wow! And mine is a month more.

 

[Firn]

Same graph by usage... Bill calculations are not straight forward... First 1000 kWh is at a different rate. Then there are transmission charges. Graphs are from my provider:

Net Metering:
When you’re enrolled in our Net Metering program, your bill is calculated using a bidirectional meter that measures how much electricity you use from PGE, as well as how much energy your system sends to the grid.

If you generate more energy than you use during your monthly bill cycle, you won’t have any kilowatt-hour charges on your bill. Instead, you’ll receive kilowatt-hour credits that can be used for future electric bills.

Every March, your annual billing cycle wraps up and any unused energy credits are donated to customers in low-income bill assistance programs.

Thanks

Unfortunately ours is a pay and buyback structure. I buy at retail (plus delivery), so about $0.16 /kwh. Sell back is at wholesale rate

 

[WXman]

Well, I posted a factual account of why electricity rates have gone up so much, and my post was deleted because it "triggered" another member. So here's what I'm going to do. Every single time I see the "climate change" lie mentioned on this forum I'm going to report it. Every. Single. Time.

If we're going to play this game, let's at least make it fair.

 

[RickLightning]

Well, I posted a factual account of why electricity rates have gone up so much, and my post was deleted because it "triggered" another member. So here's what I'm going to do. Every single time I see the "climate change" lie mentioned on this forum I'm going to report it. Every. Single. Time.

If we're going to play this game, let's at least make it fair.

Don't remember exactly what you posted, but politics aren't welcome here (thankfully). Mentioning a political party, political leader, or making an obvious reference to a political party, gets deleted.

 

[Firn]

Well, I posted a factual account of why electricity rates have gone up so much, and my post was deleted because it "triggered" another member. So here's what I'm going to do. Every single time I see the "climate change" lie mentioned on this forum I'm going to report it. Every. Single. Time.

If we're going to play this game, let's at least make it fair.

I saw your post, and lets be honest here, your post was specifically intended to identify a political party as the cause. That is directly against the forum rules, which have always been enforced immediately and consistently.

That was not “triggered.” You make a point of expressing your political ideology in nearly every post, and have seen no instances were you were prevented from doing so. However, when you specifically attempt to identify, blame, or marginalize a political group other than your own, that clearly crosses the line.

Once again, here you are trying to push a politically charged viewpoint. That is a clear violation of the forum rules. Others are prevented from doing so with their own ideology, and it is not “against you” if you are likewise prevented from doing so.

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