Even Before Long Winter Begins, Energy Bills Send Shivers in New England

SALEM, N.H. — John York, who owns a small printing business here, nearly fell out of his chair the other day when he opened his electric bill.

For October, he had paid $376. For November, with virtually no change in his volume of work and without having turned up the thermostat in his two-room shop, his bill came to $788, a staggering increase of 110 percent. “This is insane,” he said, shaking his head. “We can’t go on like this.”

For months, utility companies across New England have been warning customers to expect sharp price increases, for which the companies blame the continuing shortage of pipeline capacity to bring natural gas to the region.

“btw, Hawaii has a $.38kwh charge. Be tough to top that.”

I saw that too, in a report dated 2011. NH is higher than ME for example but the reason we both are near the bottom in monthly household costs is that we can use less (we heat with wood and use AC but for a few days a year). NH is appreciably more affluent than ME so we do use more, because we can.

I use about 475 kWh’s a month and the price, depending on the fuel charge or a surcharge to provide for complete reconstruction nearly every year due to ice, wind and snow storms that tear down the equipment runs about $110.00. If you figure it out it is about $.25 a kWh (that sounds too low of late, I will have to verify).

In 2010 during a February wind event we lost over 100 utility poles in my town alone. It took ten days to reconstruct the system. Then we had Snowtober in 2011. Another 7 days. Recently (thanksgiving) we had some snow, about a foot of very wet, sticky snow and more in the higher elevations, another four days and more reconstruction. Yea, NH suffers because we are the most forested in USA, the trees along the ROW’s are old and tall, and fall down.

You see we have reread his post cause were not smart enough to know what really happened with Seabrook. And he’s so conservative he’s been with F. R. for 2 months.lying lib zot.
So reread Veni until your enlightened .

There are lightweight, breathable silk thermals and there are denser ones. They’re not especially cheap, so look for a sale. Rely upon decent specialty retailers. REI, Cabela’s, etc. You could spent $100 on a set of silk thermal top and bottom if you don’t catch a sale, half that on sale.

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