Indy woman wants explanation after receiving outrageous electric bill
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis woman is hoping for answers after receiving what she calls an outrageous electric bill.
Jessica Murphy told 24-Hour News 8 she has lived in the same house for the past nine years. She said she has never seen a bill like this before.
Her usage nearly doubled compared to last year and she doesn’t understand why.
Murphy received an electric bill for nearly $900 dollars in December.
“We were really shocked open the mail thinking I’m going to get maybe a 4 or 5 hundred dollar electric bill because you know that’s about our average bill,” she said.
Her family didn’t do anything differently to cause the increase. She said if anything they added more energy efficient light bulbs and cut the furnace down. Murphy said she contacted IPL for an explanation.
“They tried to tell me well I noticed it went up a little bit in between the middle of December and January did you by chance have a Christmas tree and I was like yeah I have a Christmas tree,” she said. “But I don’t see that going up 5,000 kilowatts from a tree.”
A spokesperson for IPL said the cold weather affects nearly 47% of the energy usage and the fluctuating temperatures didn’t help.
“”For example, in November we saw abnormally temperatures, we had days that were in the 70s and the 80s and then in December we had a really cold month where I think the average low was around 23 degrees,” said Claire Dalton, IPL spokesperson. “When you have that huge variation in temperature your household uses more energy.”
So how can you winter proof your home? Michael Gunning works at Fusek’s True Value. He shared some products, like window insulation kits, draft stoppers, tape, and sealants for your windows.
“Very inexpensive anybody could do them it’s just really quick and easy things,” said Gunning.
Gunning said another option is to rely on Mother Nature.
“Some other things that people don’t realize is if you have curtain or blinds or shade,” he said. “If the sun is kind of hitting your house or beaming in you want to open those blinds or you want to open those curtains; let Mother Nature kind of help you out too it will kind of heat your home up.”
Click here for additional energy saving tips.