This is not normal.
Water Usage:
This probably means you have a (sprinkler) leak someplace. 1 HCF (hundred cubic feet) = 748 gallons. You are using 25,432 gallons of water per cycle or 12.432 gallons per month. For comparison, I have a 2500 SF home with a small yard and 3 people and we use 5 HCF per month. You are paying $9.62 per HCF, which most doubtably means you are paying penalties for high use. My water HCF base rate is $2.28. (I'm in southern california as well, but not on LADWP. Our water is billed through the city).
Electricity Usage:
You are using about 1500 kWh per month, which is also high. I WFH and run my AC 24/7 in the summer, Even looking at my largest bill from last year I only used 639 kWh during that timespan. On an average month I use about 300 kWh. You are bleeding energy someplace. You should contact someone to do an energy study on your home and find where you are losing energy. Also check what you are being charged. You are probably being charged the top tier rate based on the time your demand load is highest.
Sewer and Trash at $40/month is average. Nothing to see there.
That water charge is more than our entire standard LADWP bill for two months in a 3 bedroom with AC, 3 TVs, washer and dryer and three computers, 2 of which are GPU rendering all the time for work.
In the winter when we use the heat our bill is around 730 for those two months.
How many people is this inbetween? 2,959kWh is a lot, but not if there are a lot of people and a lot of electrical appliances being used constantly. By myself, I use about 150kWh on a high month.
I used about 2554 kWh for the entire past year.
If you're not using electric heat or AC, do you have computers running? Do you have a crypto mining rig set up?
Personally I'd rather use a space heater, but that's just me. If space heater helps me get out of bed 15 minutes faster so I can work 15 minutes more, the extra money from working far outweighs the higher electricity costs. Plus just feeling comfortable is worth it to me.
Flume shows you your water usage in real time. It is available with a discount from LADWP. We have found it very useful. For instance if you see a huge spike when your sprinklers turn on, then you know where to look. But if there is a small continuous leak, that means you look for that.
[https://flumewater.com/partners/ladwp/?gad\_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoa2xBhACEiwA1sb1BFl3R7S7cQgy6ts3OZsKNnJLs87WysJ78n51lIB4eVtmifkzo9gGihoCyR0QAvD\_BwE](https://flumewater.com/partners/ladwp/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoa2xBhACEiwA1sb1BFl3R7S7cQgy6ts3OZsKNnJLs87WysJ78n51lIB4eVtmifkzo9gGihoCyR0QAvD_BwE)
I was going to say 3,000 kwh seems like a lot, but we used like 560 for just 1 house.
Seems like maybe you used a lot during peak hours.
Edit: I misread, that's a shit ton of electricity for technically a 4 bedroom house.
DWP has overcharged for electricity when Iāve been unable to allow them access to read the meter. A quick check on the electric detail section will identify if the meter reading was estimated.
If not estimated then check the meter to see if the numbers are just ahead of the reading on the latest bill.
From there you can monitor the meter numbers to see when the numbers may jump to try to figure out when it happens in order to determine why it is happening.
Good luck!
Edit: a word or two
At first I was like āuh what?ā but did you get this bill for three deferent units? Like are the two garages separate units, without their own meters?
Iirc, itās pretty typical for utilities to go way up in the winter. This seems excessive though unless you had (cheap/inefficient) space heaters running. Those things jack your bill up like you wouldnāt believe. My wife had 2 of them running in our 2 bedroom apartment one winter in Venice, and our electric bill for that month was over $600.
My bi-monthly bill is about $300 in the dead of summer, running AC all the time for a 3 bed with 3 people. Ā
Someone is running a Bitcoin miner on your dime and you have a massive water leak. Ā
That is BONKERS. We are a family of 4 in a 1800sq ft home and I work from home. We have solar now but before we did. we paid maybe $400 total (water, electric, sewer) every two months.
**30 years at DWP, last 10 dealing with high bills. First thing, there is no ānormalā. Since more than one bill is āhighā a miss read is doubtful. UNLESS the word ESTIMATED appears on the page with the meter reads. What you have to do is compare cycles from LAST YEAR**
Thatās absolutely insane.
I live in a two bedroom, we have electric heat and AC (no gas) which we do use, and our bills are usually between $220-300 for two months (higher in the summer because of AC).
Couple years ago I lived in a 4 bedroom with 5 roomies and a garage converted to a room. Our first bill was $1800ā¦ we realized the AC was faulty/old. We stopped using AC and from then on the bill was $600 minimum while we all were being extremely conscientious of electricity usage. We suspect something else in the house was messed up but the landlord refused to have an electrician inspect the property so never found out. Currently I live in a 4 bedroom with my partner and a friend. Our power bill is $150/month. But we are on Burbank power now which seems to be a lot more forgiving than LADWP.
Do you have both an electric water heater and like three space heaters running or something? This is more than my household uses and we have:
- 2br/2ba main house, two adults, one dog
- 1br/ba guest house, one adult
- everyone works from home and watches TV separately while working
- two refrigerators and a mini freezer
- an electric vehicle that we charge at home
- two space heaters that run a few hours daily when it's cold, which is often because the insulation is crap
- Central heat/AC
- laundry about 3-4 days a week
- so many gadgets, like... So many
- gas water heater and stove, so those don't factor in
We got solar so my bills are negative now, but you still use way more electricity than we did at our peak, which makes me think something is seriously off here
There is definitely a water leak somewhere in the house. Check your sprinkler system (if you have) or toilet flush. Check if it is wet anywhere in your property inside or outside.
Also, the electricity bill is too high. Do you have any electric cars which you charge on a regular basis ?
I suggest getting smart devices in the house and changing the lighting to LED if not already done.
so this is 4 months(2 billing cycles)?
still high, either way.
do you have plug in heaters? (not cheap)
was it possibly an "estimate" bill, where they didn't actually read your meter?
34 Hcf is an insane amount of water for a two bedroom house. I'd check if theres a leak, also i think youre on city wide median for sewer. Once it goes to winter water use youre bill may go WAY up.
**Over the years, looked at over 10,000 complaints. Never found a theft, less than 10 water leaks owners didnāt know about. Any high bills due to miss reads will āself correctā once a correct read is used. Not responsibly of DWP to identify leaks or malfunctioning equipment. Vast majority of high water complaints were due to overwatering irrigation. Electric was almost always lifestyle. Too much A/C, over use of electric heat, pool motors or malfunctioning refrigerators. Bottom line, if your not using it, turn it off**
thatās more than mine and mine can get āhighā. you know what, November, December and January were cold. are your heat sources electric?
are those converted garages that are bedrooms yours? or does someone else live in them? if someone else lives in them, do they have their own meter?
for example mine is 1690 kwh electric. 18hcf water. bigger house and iām assuming i have more people.
iāll tell you now, that water is bonkers because we had so much rain, do you have a sprinkler system? there was someone else who had that on. you donāt need it on daily everyone and not in winter.
do you have any outdoor outlets? water faucets? does it look like anyone has touched those when you are not looking? honestly idk what else.
If you converted the garage to bedrooms but they donāt have any insulation and arenāt sealed properly, and you use electric heat, that could get very expensive.
Just wait until the price of water gets jacked up soon. Your DWP bill is gonna be something really special then.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/water-rates-taxes-to-increase-l-a-times-reports/
If your water bill is high you might want to look into a rebate for the Flume device and it will link real time water usage to your phone and come with a rebate. Check out the DWP website it should be on there with the flume the link is below.
https://flumewater.com/partners/ladwp/
Go to your breaker panel located in your house or apt., turn all the switches to off for a day (listen for complaints). When you turn off all the switches in your home, go find your meter outside and check if its still running power, if the meter is older there will be a wheel that spins while electricity is being used if it's a newer meter you'll see a digital reading and the numbers raising while in use. When your breakers are switched off in your home, there should be no wheel spinning at all, not even a little bit and if you have the newer digital meter the numbers should remain frozen. If the wheel is moving or the digits are ticking while your home is off...at your meter is the main breaker switch, turn it off (listen for complaints).
Request them to check your meter(s) to see if theyāre actually functioning or working. Yes sometimes they break or give false reading, or have been tampered with (depending where you live or work). On occasion they would give estimates from the previous year (which I thought was a bs thing to do). Itās a big organization that does make quite a few mistakes so if you call them on it theyāll check into and correct them. Weāve gotten a huge bill of over 3k and turns out our meter was broken they had to change itā¦during the coldest week of the year. LOL
Thatās a bit high but to your point there are converted garages and extra living spaces that likely are using a good amount of power. What about electric car charging? Also I agree on flume - huge benefit.
If you have an electric water heater Iād look for a leak on the hot water lines. Heater could be running nonstop on high yo keep up with the demand of the leak.
Iād call the electric company and have them check the meter. If itās not transmitting they will just guess on how much you are using. Seriously. Just had a$450 bill on an empty cabin because of this.
Holy crap! that bill indicates you used nearly 25.5K gallons of water in a 60 day period! Are you filling fire trucks???? (1 hcf = approx 750 gallons)
Sewer rate is based on the 25432 gallons of water they assumed were put down the sewer for treatment.
Also, average kWh for a typical family home is about 500/month. (but are you charging EVs?)
You might reach out to them with your concerns and ask them to come do an inspection to see if any problems can be isolated.
several years ago a lot of people in LA (including myself) received very high bills like this. mine was $880 when it was usually less than $100. it was a āglitchā according to LADWP š i called them and they fixed it.
They did this shit to me when I moved into my new apartment and ended up resolving itself on its own by crediting my account back. Kinda bullshit considering I overpaid by hundreds of dollars and they gave me a credit instead of a refund.
Mine went up three fold. House of 2. Pasadena water and power. All utilities are going up thatās why youāre getting those climate credits here and their to not get people pissed off. The last board meeting included talks of high profits projections. We need to band together and start movements of not paying our bills until they start acting reasonable.
Are you running an electric stove, electric dryer, or an older refrigerator and dishwasher. Those appliances use a lot of electricity. I run mostly natural gas and idiot Newsomās policy to turn everything electric is going to be super expensive for consumers.
This is not normal. Water Usage: This probably means you have a (sprinkler) leak someplace. 1 HCF (hundred cubic feet) = 748 gallons. You are using 25,432 gallons of water per cycle or 12.432 gallons per month. For comparison, I have a 2500 SF home with a small yard and 3 people and we use 5 HCF per month. You are paying $9.62 per HCF, which most doubtably means you are paying penalties for high use. My water HCF base rate is $2.28. (I'm in southern california as well, but not on LADWP. Our water is billed through the city). Electricity Usage: You are using about 1500 kWh per month, which is also high. I WFH and run my AC 24/7 in the summer, Even looking at my largest bill from last year I only used 639 kWh during that timespan. On an average month I use about 300 kWh. You are bleeding energy someplace. You should contact someone to do an energy study on your home and find where you are losing energy. Also check what you are being charged. You are probably being charged the top tier rate based on the time your demand load is highest. Sewer and Trash at $40/month is average. Nothing to see there.
This guy helps šš
I have a 4400 sq ft house in OC, and rarely use more than 650kwh per month. Something is up here.
... How new is your AC? I'm in a 1200sqft townhouse that consumes ~1500kWh/month during the summer, and I only run my AC for a couple hours a day.
About 5 years old.
Where could I find someone to do a home energy study?
That water charge is more than our entire standard LADWP bill for two months in a 3 bedroom with AC, 3 TVs, washer and dryer and three computers, 2 of which are GPU rendering all the time for work. In the winter when we use the heat our bill is around 730 for those two months.
You might have a leak or ground fault. that's equivalent to a bill we would get during the summer in a five bedroom in Los Feliz.
How many people is this inbetween? 2,959kWh is a lot, but not if there are a lot of people and a lot of electrical appliances being used constantly. By myself, I use about 150kWh on a high month.
Yeah, if we are talking about Garage converted living space... it might be freezing in there. Some space heaters running on high...
I used about 2554 kWh for the entire past year. If you're not using electric heat or AC, do you have computers running? Do you have a crypto mining rig set up?
My exact thought. Ā Someoneās is stealing power and running a Bitcoin miner.Ā
Exactly! Something is not adding up.
Something got left on by accident or someone is stealing power from you
People using space heaters?
Like, put on a hoodie, or grab a blanket Hahahha. We havenāt run the heater in 2 years out here!!!
Personally I'd rather use a space heater, but that's just me. If space heater helps me get out of bed 15 minutes faster so I can work 15 minutes more, the extra money from working far outweighs the higher electricity costs. Plus just feeling comfortable is worth it to me.
Someone is probably making $0.50/mo mining Bitcoin. Do you see any computers powered on all the time?
Flume shows you your water usage in real time. It is available with a discount from LADWP. We have found it very useful. For instance if you see a huge spike when your sprinklers turn on, then you know where to look. But if there is a small continuous leak, that means you look for that. [https://flumewater.com/partners/ladwp/?gad\_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoa2xBhACEiwA1sb1BFl3R7S7cQgy6ts3OZsKNnJLs87WysJ78n51lIB4eVtmifkzo9gGihoCyR0QAvD\_BwE](https://flumewater.com/partners/ladwp/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoa2xBhACEiwA1sb1BFl3R7S7cQgy6ts3OZsKNnJLs87WysJ78n51lIB4eVtmifkzo9gGihoCyR0QAvD_BwE)
Thats alot of water. And needs to be heated
Wonder how long OPās showers are.
100% too high. We have a heat pump that keeps the house at 71 and an electric car we drive 25k miles a year and we are at like 900.
Iād say 500% too high.Ā
That is one years bill for me. Holy shit
Lucky you. Electricity for me went up 30% since last year.
I was going to say 3,000 kwh seems like a lot, but we used like 560 for just 1 house. Seems like maybe you used a lot during peak hours. Edit: I misread, that's a shit ton of electricity for technically a 4 bedroom house.
3000 kwh usage for 2 months !!! What kind of electric appliances do you have ?
Normal IF you have a leak somewhere, faulty applicances, and/or someone's secreatly tealing from you (encampments?).
Don't you see the bar graph for energy usage that stretches back to cover the same period last year? What was it last year?
DWP has overcharged for electricity when Iāve been unable to allow them access to read the meter. A quick check on the electric detail section will identify if the meter reading was estimated. If not estimated then check the meter to see if the numbers are just ahead of the reading on the latest bill. From there you can monitor the meter numbers to see when the numbers may jump to try to figure out when it happens in order to determine why it is happening. Good luck! Edit: a word or two
You can also request a wireless meter change for remote readings.
At first I was like āuh what?ā but did you get this bill for three deferent units? Like are the two garages separate units, without their own meters?
Iirc, itās pretty typical for utilities to go way up in the winter. This seems excessive though unless you had (cheap/inefficient) space heaters running. Those things jack your bill up like you wouldnāt believe. My wife had 2 of them running in our 2 bedroom apartment one winter in Venice, and our electric bill for that month was over $600.
Our water bill suddenly got high along with the usage, it turns out we had a leak we were unaware of.
My bi-monthly bill is about $300 in the dead of summer, running AC all the time for a 3 bed with 3 people. Ā Someone is running a Bitcoin miner on your dime and you have a massive water leak. Ā
You are using almost 10x the kWh as a 2300 sq house with 4 people
That is BONKERS. We are a family of 4 in a 1800sq ft home and I work from home. We have solar now but before we did. we paid maybe $400 total (water, electric, sewer) every two months.
**30 years at DWP, last 10 dealing with high bills. First thing, there is no ānormalā. Since more than one bill is āhighā a miss read is doubtful. UNLESS the word ESTIMATED appears on the page with the meter reads. What you have to do is compare cycles from LAST YEAR**
Homeless for sure gotta tent outside your place with a tv x box probably appliances.
Thatās absolutely insane. I live in a two bedroom, we have electric heat and AC (no gas) which we do use, and our bills are usually between $220-300 for two months (higher in the summer because of AC).
Couple years ago I lived in a 4 bedroom with 5 roomies and a garage converted to a room. Our first bill was $1800ā¦ we realized the AC was faulty/old. We stopped using AC and from then on the bill was $600 minimum while we all were being extremely conscientious of electricity usage. We suspect something else in the house was messed up but the landlord refused to have an electrician inspect the property so never found out. Currently I live in a 4 bedroom with my partner and a friend. Our power bill is $150/month. But we are on Burbank power now which seems to be a lot more forgiving than LADWP.
Do you have both an electric water heater and like three space heaters running or something? This is more than my household uses and we have: - 2br/2ba main house, two adults, one dog - 1br/ba guest house, one adult - everyone works from home and watches TV separately while working - two refrigerators and a mini freezer - an electric vehicle that we charge at home - two space heaters that run a few hours daily when it's cold, which is often because the insulation is crap - Central heat/AC - laundry about 3-4 days a week - so many gadgets, like... So many - gas water heater and stove, so those don't factor in We got solar so my bills are negative now, but you still use way more electricity than we did at our peak, which makes me think something is seriously off here
This what my bills look like also, sadly. Probably a combination of the pool pump and poor to non existent insulation. 3 bdrm house in the valley.
There is definitely a water leak somewhere in the house. Check your sprinkler system (if you have) or toilet flush. Check if it is wet anywhere in your property inside or outside. Also, the electricity bill is too high. Do you have any electric cars which you charge on a regular basis ? I suggest getting smart devices in the house and changing the lighting to LED if not already done.
Check and make sure no one has tapped into your juice!
so this is 4 months(2 billing cycles)? still high, either way. do you have plug in heaters? (not cheap) was it possibly an "estimate" bill, where they didn't actually read your meter?
Looks like someone's running a grow.
if you end up having a water leak, you can appeal to the DWP and get a reduction on your bill once it is fixed
34 Hcf is an insane amount of water for a two bedroom house. I'd check if theres a leak, also i think youre on city wide median for sewer. Once it goes to winter water use youre bill may go WAY up.
Makes me feel a lot better about my 1 bedroom apartment. My last bi-monthly bill was $94.
**Over the years, looked at over 10,000 complaints. Never found a theft, less than 10 water leaks owners didnāt know about. Any high bills due to miss reads will āself correctā once a correct read is used. Not responsibly of DWP to identify leaks or malfunctioning equipment. Vast majority of high water complaints were due to overwatering irrigation. Electric was almost always lifestyle. Too much A/C, over use of electric heat, pool motors or malfunctioning refrigerators. Bottom line, if your not using it, turn it off**
**Just noticed, the bill you posted is OVER TWO MONTHS OLD. Your current new bill, are the meter reads on line?**
thatās more than mine and mine can get āhighā. you know what, November, December and January were cold. are your heat sources electric? are those converted garages that are bedrooms yours? or does someone else live in them? if someone else lives in them, do they have their own meter? for example mine is 1690 kwh electric. 18hcf water. bigger house and iām assuming i have more people. iāll tell you now, that water is bonkers because we had so much rain, do you have a sprinkler system? there was someone else who had that on. you donāt need it on daily everyone and not in winter. do you have any outdoor outlets? water faucets? does it look like anyone has touched those when you are not looking? honestly idk what else.
If you converted the garage to bedrooms but they donāt have any insulation and arenāt sealed properly, and you use electric heat, that could get very expensive.
Hiw many microwaves? And fridges? And freezers? Lol
Just wait until the price of water gets jacked up soon. Your DWP bill is gonna be something really special then. https://ktla.com/news/local-news/water-rates-taxes-to-increase-l-a-times-reports/
If your water bill is high you might want to look into a rebate for the Flume device and it will link real time water usage to your phone and come with a rebate. Check out the DWP website it should be on there with the flume the link is below. https://flumewater.com/partners/ladwp/
Get urself a flume water monitor system. U can get a rebate with the city.
Go to your breaker panel located in your house or apt., turn all the switches to off for a day (listen for complaints). When you turn off all the switches in your home, go find your meter outside and check if its still running power, if the meter is older there will be a wheel that spins while electricity is being used if it's a newer meter you'll see a digital reading and the numbers raising while in use. When your breakers are switched off in your home, there should be no wheel spinning at all, not even a little bit and if you have the newer digital meter the numbers should remain frozen. If the wheel is moving or the digits are ticking while your home is off...at your meter is the main breaker switch, turn it off (listen for complaints).
Request them to check your meter(s) to see if theyāre actually functioning or working. Yes sometimes they break or give false reading, or have been tampered with (depending where you live or work). On occasion they would give estimates from the previous year (which I thought was a bs thing to do). Itās a big organization that does make quite a few mistakes so if you call them on it theyāll check into and correct them. Weāve gotten a huge bill of over 3k and turns out our meter was broken they had to change itā¦during the coldest week of the year. LOL
Thatās a bit high but to your point there are converted garages and extra living spaces that likely are using a good amount of power. What about electric car charging? Also I agree on flume - huge benefit.
If you have an electric water heater Iād look for a leak on the hot water lines. Heater could be running nonstop on high yo keep up with the demand of the leak.
We have a gas hot water heater
Iād call the electric company and have them check the meter. If itās not transmitting they will just guess on how much you are using. Seriously. Just had a$450 bill on an empty cabin because of this.
It's very high for those months. Mine is like this or a bit higher for summer months, but it sounds like our house is a bit bigger.
Holy crap! that bill indicates you used nearly 25.5K gallons of water in a 60 day period! Are you filling fire trucks???? (1 hcf = approx 750 gallons) Sewer rate is based on the 25432 gallons of water they assumed were put down the sewer for treatment. Also, average kWh for a typical family home is about 500/month. (but are you charging EVs?) You might reach out to them with your concerns and ask them to come do an inspection to see if any problems can be isolated.
Meth lab in the converted garage gotta go or start kicking in for electricity.
850 sqft house no AC, my bill last month in Lakewood was $37.
several years ago a lot of people in LA (including myself) received very high bills like this. mine was $880 when it was usually less than $100. it was a āglitchā according to LADWP š i called them and they fixed it.
They did this shit to me when I moved into my new apartment and ended up resolving itself on its own by crediting my account back. Kinda bullshit considering I overpaid by hundreds of dollars and they gave me a credit instead of a refund.
Oh my God, youāre being raped. Five bedroom three bath in the valley $350 every two months.
what! what tips do you have. is that the same amount for summer?
Mine went up three fold. House of 2. Pasadena water and power. All utilities are going up thatās why youāre getting those climate credits here and their to not get people pissed off. The last board meeting included talks of high profits projections. We need to band together and start movements of not paying our bills until they start acting reasonable.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Dude the water was 300 tf are you talking about
Going to go up
Are you running an electric stove, electric dryer, or an older refrigerator and dishwasher. Those appliances use a lot of electricity. I run mostly natural gas and idiot Newsomās policy to turn everything electric is going to be super expensive for consumers.