Broken meters, crossed wires: How to find out if something else is causing your high utility bill
CBC
GR Chhina's bill says his electricity consumption doubled after ATCO installed a new meter, and he can't figure out why.
Linda MacAngus had a similar issue. After months of phone calls to Enmax, it turned out the technician had connected a neighbouring condo's wires to her meter by accident when installing it last fall.
And Calum and Joyce Rees are staring at a mysterious energy consumption increase on their bill that's rising so high, they worry they'll have to sell and move.
None of these three found much help from their utility provider.
When they've called, they were quoted fees of over $100 to investigate — only reimbursed if they're right in guessing something is broken, and no information on whether it's wise to take the risk.
"I had all kinds of excuses, even down to one person who said that my boiler must be hooked up to the electric meter and that would be causing it," said MacAngus. "Well, I knew that wasn't true, and I have in-floor heating. So when they said the fans were being used more in the winter, I knew that wasn't right."
"They even said that my two strings of LED lights on the balcony might be doing it.… Nobody would say, 'Well, yeah, this sounds serious. Let's take a look at it.'"
MacAngus says it's important to trust your gut. She pushed back, and in her case, Enmax did send someone free of charge. Finally, after months of stress, she was reimbursed for what she had overpaid after a technician confirmed the wiring crossing issue on her meter.
This might seem rare, but CBC Calgary's call-out to the community on utility bills turned up multiple examples of meter issues and people being told they needed to pay a fee to get it checked out. And with inflation driving up costs across the board, many folks don't have $100 or more to risk on getting the meter checked. They're frustrated.
Salwa El-Maghwry, who helps families struggling to pay utility bills in her role at Rise Calgary, says she's seen issues, too.
One of her clients who lives alone recently received a $900 bill for one month. It was normally $400-$500 in that household. El-Maghwry and the client called the provincial advocate and Enmax customer service to see what should be done.
"To me, it sounded really ridiculous.… We ended up having Enmax visit the home to take a look at the meter itself," she said in a Q&A event on utility bills hosted by CBC Calgary.
"Forty-five days later, the client received a letter in the mail stating that their meter was going to be upgraded. As a result, their utility bill for the month afterwards was $260 in the middle of the winter and Enmax did forgive the total $900 for the month before."
The customer didn't get repaid for any previous months.
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