opinion
january16
2014
An Opinion:
3
Some Other Ways of Looking at High Electric Bills
By Scott Laird
Did any of you experience a
little sticker shock when you opened
your West Oregon Electric Coopera-
tive (WOEC) bill last month? Many of
you have expressed surprise when you
opened that bill right before Christmas.
Everyone knows we have high
electric rates in Vernonia. We can debate
the reasons and whether they are fair or
necessary until the cows come home.
Unfortunately, at least a portion of those
high rates are just part of living in a ru-
ral area with an extremely rural service
district like ours. There are reasons our
rates are so high, reasons we have little
control over. But there some areas over
which we do have some control.
Over the last few weeks I have
talked with numerous people about their
electric bills and followed several dis-
cussions on Facebook. Obviously some
people are upset at the high bill they re-
ceived; others are more understanding.
Still others didn’t experience a huge
increase and are basically satisfied with
their local utility.
In other words, there are a myr-
iad of ways Vernonians can view their
electric rates as well as ways we might
try to deal with those rates. If we can’t
control high rates, at least we can try to
understand them.
First of all, electricity is a won-
derful convenience that offers those of
us who live in the modern world many
comforts and amenities. Just think
about all the ways you may use your
electric service in any given day. Your
alarm clock goes off; you turn on lights
around your home; turn on the heat, air
conditioning or fans; turn on your coffee
maker, take a hot shower; cook or make
your breakfast, using food from your re-
frigerator and freezer, on your stove or
in your blender; run a load of dishes in
the dishwasher; turn on your computer
and check and send emails; turn on the
cable television to check the news; put in
a video for the kids to watch; wash and
dry a load of laundry, run the vacuum
cleaner, run power tools in your shop, fill
your car tires with air from your air com-
pressor, charge your cell phone, make
copies on your printer... and on and on
and on. Hopefully you get the idea.
Many of us were without pow-
er last week when a log truck knocked
down a power pole on Bridge Street and
once again had the opportunity to expe-
rience firsthand living modern life with-
out the convenience of electric power.
If your electric bill was $300 last
month, you paid $10 a day for all those
conveniences. When I look at it that way
it actually seems like a pretty good deal.
I feel like I get a lot for my money and
others have told me the same.
That’s one way of looking at
your high electric bill.
Most of the people that I have
communicated with, who saw a big jump
in their bill last month, have some type
of electric heat. The last WOEC bill
covered a billing period from Novem-
ber 9 to December 9. (those living out-
side Vernonia are on a different billing
cycle.) The first week of December was
extremely cold-remember those 2 de-
gree mornings. I’m guessing if you have
electric heat, you had it turned on and
up more than usual last month. Some
of you used space heaters to make sure
your pipes didn’t freeze. I found a direct
correlation between those who saw a
large increase in their bill and those who
use electric heat. People without elec-
tric heat mostly saw a very small or no
increase.
Let’s talk a little more about us-
age last month. Did you have guests for
Thanksgiving and do more cooking or
baking? Did you put up holiday lights
and plug those in? Do you have barn
animals that required more care during
those cold nights? Do you have small
children who needed to stay warm?
The first question I have asked
people who complained about a high bill
last month was, “What is your average
bill during the summer months and what
exactly do you do different in the win-
ter?”
According to the billing depart-
ment at WOEC, usage was up three-
quarters of a million kilowatts last month
compared to the previous month, as we
began celebrating the holidays during an
extreme cold spell. The bottom line-if
your bill went up significantly, you used
more electric power.
WOEC offers something they
call “Budget Billing” which averages
your monthly usage over the last year
and then allows you to make equal pay-
ments each month throughout the year.
This allows you to plan a budget that
includes your often fluctuating elec-
tric bill and avoid the dread that comes
with opening that bill during the winter
months. This seems like a really good
option for some people. That’s another
way of looking at your high electric bill.
I went into WOEC and asked
some questions about usage. My person-
al average usage has actually decreased
somewhat significantly over the last two
years. As electric rates have risen, I have
looked for ways to cut back and keep my
bill manageable. I have stopped using a
space heater which was using about 300
kilowatts per month. We also plugged
our TV/DVD into a power strip which
we turn off whenever it is not in use. Yes
it takes a minute to reboot when I turn it
on, but the savings are visible. Accord-
ing to several web articles I read your
cable box is one of the biggest “vam-
pire” users of power, sucking electricity
and costing you money even when not in
use. I try to turn lights out when I leave
the room. I stopped leaving my porch
light on overnight. I sleep with my dogs
to help keep me warm-those nights in
early December were definitely “three
dog nights!” I do everything I can to
comfortably, and sometimes uncomfort-
ably, reduce my usage.
That’s another way of looking at
your high electric bill.
Here’s another simple way of
looking at that same issue. Yes, WOEC
instituted a rate increase of around 12%.
If your average monthly bill is $100, that
increase will cost you an extra $12. If
your average bill is $400 it’s going to
cost you an extra $48. More reason to
find ways to reduce your usage.
Here is part of one message I re-
ceived from a reader when I asked about
how people keep their rates down:
“I hang all the washed clothing
on clothes racks. Especially bath towels,
jeans, sweatshirts etc. Also, I only wash
in lukewarm water. You don’t need hot
water unless you have really oily, filthy
clothes. Never run dishwasher unless it’s
full. It takes extra time and more work
to cut back on the electric bill but I know
it’s something I have to do. Have hung
up clothes since the 1960s. It still can be
done to save money.”
I love living in Vernonia. Yes,
we have high utility rates. But we also
have a great quality of life. We have
beautiful scenery, rivers, streams, trails
and parks. We have friendly and re-
sourceful people, activities we can be
involved in, and lower property taxes.
We don’t have rush hour traffic, pollu-
tion, noise at night, high crime rates and
crowds. Our kids are pretty safe here,
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Chip Bubl
Dr. Ken Cox
Tobie Finzel
Dr. Carol McIntyre
Jack Phillips
Jim Tierney
Grant Williams
Photography
Scott Laird
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we can keep and raise animals in our
back yards, like horses and chickens,
walk around the lake or on the trail or
drive out into the country in a matter of
minutes. We live here for a reason.
I believe we may need to make
some sacrifices in order to live where we
live. No, things are not as convenient.
Yes, it costs us more to drive to work.
Yes, we pay more in monthly utilities.
But we can try to make changes
and mitigate some of those expenses by
changing the way we pay our bills or
use our power. And there are also ways
to put the convenience of electric power
into perspective to help you deal with
the high cost of living here.
You just have to be willing to
look at your electric bill in some new
and different ways.
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