She got an electric bill for $1,373. She's not alone (www.npr.org)

submitted 1 day ago by some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org to c/news@lemmy.world

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If only we had elected the man who told us he was the only one who could stop inflation and end the wars and all that jazz. Oh wait, that happened and he made everything worse. Ha, silly me.

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[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 14 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

I have an electricity bill of $0/month during the summer months after getting solar panels about 3 years ago. It was expensive to buy the system outright, but every year the electricity rates go up, the panels become more valuable. While I'm very happy with my personal results, I became immediately aware that those at the lower end of economic spectrum would benefit even more from this.

A friend and I started to see if we could to solar panel installations for free for those that were most at-risk financially. While we came up with a workable modest hardware system we could install, we found charity solar installation would be extremely risky for us to undertake. With rooftop installations it would mean taking on the liability of interacting with people's roofs which means falls for people doing work, but also poorly maintained roofs including roof penetrations for fasteners and water leak liability. Even going "ground mount" didn't remove the risks because we'd have to be interacting with the homeowners electrical systems with possible fire risks from aging or unlicensed modifications from prior owners. This ignores the risks of copper theft from easily accessible ground mount systems. In the end we had to abandon the idea of giving others what we could afford for ourselves simply because it was took risky to us trying to do good.

[-] BorgDrone@feddit.nl 3 points 8 hours ago

I have an electricity bill of $0/month during the summer months after getting solar panels about 3 years ago.

Zero? My electricity bill is negative. I’m selling my over-production to the electric company.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Yes, I too get credit for over production with true 1:1 net metering (inside the month, and 1:1 for generation portion beyond the month) for juice I send back to the grid beyond just having a $0 bill/month. I also have a second deductive meter where I don't pay distribution fees for EV charging in the overnight hours. So in effect, I get paid by the electric company for EV charging between midnight and 4AM. I also generate enough electricity to have a large offset my winter heating bill by permanently turning off the natural gas service and and replacing the gas fired furnace with a heat pump. I also removed my standard electric water heater and put in a hybrid heat pump water heater for even more savings.

I didn't include any of that info in my first post because none of that was important to my point about solar panels being worth it to me and that I believe those that can't afford to do what I did should be able to get some of the same benefit I do. In fact, they need it more than I do, and I couldn't figure out a way to give it to them and that sucks.

[-] Nouvellalia@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

Sounds like the system is working as intended

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago

Only if the intended system is: "It is very expensive to be poor".

[-] Nouvellalia@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

Yes. That's certainly an intended feature.

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Dont vote based on appearance and personality. Vote based on the plan they have.

[-] village604@adultswim.fan 3 points 12 hours ago

I think that campaigning should be completely banned. Give voters their platform and voting history, and that's it.

[-] Dionysus@leminal.space 23 points 1 day ago

But he had concepts of a plan!

[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

He had a plan called “Project 2025” and he’s followed it to the letter.

[-] CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

I thought it was an outline of the concept?

[-] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

I reduced my electric bill by being really hot all summer. Sweating my ass off turned out to be a real game changer.

[-] village604@adultswim.fan 1 points 12 hours ago

If you're a hairy person, trimming your body hair might help. The upper limit of my comfort zone increased by like 10°F when I started. Now I can keep the house at 80F during the day and be fine.

[-] nwtreeoctopus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

Probably about exposure, but I feel like my beard keeps my face cooler. The sweat evaporation on all them little hairs makes a difference.

Feels warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

[-] tal@lemmy.today 7 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

If you are somewhere arid and you don't need to bring the temperature down too far, evaporative coolers use a lot less electricity than air conditioners.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 points 16 hours ago

Evaporative coolers require larger amounts of cheap water though, and some of those arid places are also facing extreme water shortages.

[-] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 17 hours ago

As long as the humidity is low.

[-] CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago

Power companies hate this one trick!

[-] mkwt@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

$600 of the $1373 is a deposit to mitigate risk of future missed payments... The electricity itself is really high, but it's not that high.

This is also Tulsa in the summer.

[-] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 18 hours ago

It's normal to have a $773 electric bill?

[-] SchittDickerson@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

It is now, unfortunately.

this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026

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