Login / RegisterB.C. Hydro blames heat pumps, not smart meters, for bill spikes
Heat pumps may be causing recent spikes in utility bills, according to the customer-care director at B.C. Hydro.
“I don’t know the technical side of it, but I know we have seen issues where people have called electricians out to investigate some of the internal componentry of their heat pumps, or some of the working pieces,” Jim Nicholson told the Straight by phone. “And I think that we’ve had the odd occasion where people have had a problem with their heat pumps. It’s not the actual wiring…it’s something within the heat pump itself.”
Nicholson said anyone with a heat pump who’s concerned about a spike in utility bills should “get it inspected”.
Vancouver Island resident Maureen Loucks did exactly that after she began to see bill spikes at a restaurant she cofounded almost 30 years ago in Cedar, near Nanaimo. Loucks told the Straight last month that her ground-source pump works fine. Instead, she blames the spikes on a recently installed, wireless smart meter, which replaced the analogue meter at the Mahle House Restaurant last November.
“It can only be one thing,” Loucks told the Straight. “All other logical things have been checked out.”
According to Loucks, her most recent bimonthly bill was $1,084, and her bill for the period December 14, 2011, to February 13, 2012, was $1,192. But the bill before those two, for October 15 to December 13 of last year, was $532.
Nicholson disagreed with Loucks’s analysis, but said the utility has sent a field-service representative to conduct a breaker test at Mahle House, and has checked over the recent consumption history at the restaurant.
“That’s what we’re finding in a lot of cases,” Nicholson said. “It’s not the smart meter; it’s basically their consumption pattern in the past has been fairly consistent with what they’re seeing now. And in this particular case, we’re not exactly sure why [a problem exists].”
Nicholson also said he has a hunch the problem could be an “outlier” analogue meter that is not working properly, and that was not caught as part of the utility’s annual obligation under Measurement Canada guidelines to pull 40,000 regular meters and test them.
Comparing electricity usage from mid-December to mid-April to that from mid-October to mid-December is hardly reasonable. The average temperature in October was still well into the double digits. From November through April it was well below 10C. That makes a significant difference in your heating costs, regardless of what you use.
Give it about 4 months and they'll be in line with ICBC, Translink, and BC Ferries.
Just sayin'
Heat pumps are a small version of the 'on demand' electric hot water heaters that Hyro have banned under rate class 1101. Why? Because.... and hydro won't admit it but it's because they are unable to accurately measure the power consumed by these devices using the old analogue technology. Heat pumps have short duration pulsating consumption patterns of a very short duration that are difficult to accurately measure using the old technology....supposedly, the new digital and digital 'smart' meters can do this.
They installed a new digital (not smart) meter and I used it to my advantage to reduce my hydro consumption by over 50%..thus becoming a bit of a Power Nazi... 'No Juice From You'
#! power waster... the basement, crawl space or outside hot water tank... insulate it with a thermal blanket and insulate the pipes 3' from the tank and turn the temperature down to 140 or so...even turn down the bottom element more. BIG difference. If you go away for awhile turn it off at the switch box..
"Wired smart meters cost thirty five thousand dollars, each"
Any small business owner would be in front of a judge by now, if they would conduct their business as unethical as BC Hydro.
A full criminal investigation of BC Hydro and their representatives is long overdue.
http://www.stopsmartmetersbc.ca/html/
http://citizensforsafetechnology.org/Human-Rights-Complaint-redacted,85,...
The above shows the level of misinformation and propaganda spin coming from on high. And don't get me started about the none existent savings that we are supposed to see from this multi billion dollar barrel of pork
(yes my meter is caged)
There are so many variables which are not even mentioned by any one (including Hydro), changes in people's power usage, or the two-tier electrical rates that recently came into affect which essentially jumps the price per KW/h by 30% once the second tier is reached by an owner.
Without actual analysis the bottom line is -
too many variables + too little info = too little substance.
How about giving us a real story with really credible facts and maybe then we all can make more useful comments.
bill and it says I owe 110 dollars. I used all most no power. But ther was a flood next door in another suit,
a restore company came in to repair it. they used dehumitity machines ther and it somehow spiked my meter into thinking it was me over consoming. I know that its a fact that we get nailed for or neigbours
power spikes
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