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Health & Fitness

LIPA the skinny behind what your billed.

When did you actually sit down and calculate your LIPA bill? Are you able to be absolutely sure you are charged for what you really use? I'm not, and I've done just that!


Like most, understanding the bill I get from LIPA can be a challenging thing. Though they give you a 3x5 "green paper insert" to help define the terms on the bill you can stil be left scratching your head. Especially if your like me and after Hurrican Sandy blew through here my "balanced monthly billing" went up from $130.00 amonth to $175.00, a whopping 26% increase!!!!

For instance:
I was charged for 1,728 Killowatt Hours of Power in the last 62
days. That means I use 27 Killowatt hours per day(1728/62 days= 27). LIPA's "green paper insert", not the bill itself, defines KWH as Electrical Energy consumed if 1,000 Watts are used for 1 hour.   

Sounds clear right?                                            

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Correct me if I'm wrong: Aren't there only 24 hours in a calender day? Not 27 hours as my bill states. Do the taxes on what i'm billed for count for the other 3 hours per day? Not according to statement, those are separate! 

If so, should I have been charged for 1488 Killowatt Hours?
(62 days x 24 hours=1488)  According to the bill, and it's green paper definition of terms, I wasn't charge for more than 1,000 KWH per hour of the day.

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So, it looks like I've been over charged. Right?  

Here's where it get's even more interesting. My bill breaks down to $344.97 for 62 days, before any taxes are applied. Which means I spend $5.56 a day($344.97/62= $5.56).                

If this remains constant, I'll have paid $2029.40 for 365 days of power, before taxes are applied. WOW!!!! That is .23 cents per KWH x 24 hours a day, for a whole year.

Ouch! Say goodbye to Christmas!

The funny thing is LIPA Hides this High .23 KWH cost by
breaking my KWH hours down, before taxes, in to separate usage rates. For
example on my bill is said "517 KWH@ $0.857 and 1211 KWH@$0.787 as the
cost of them DELIVERING IT TO ME VIA A POWER LINE, and for their vague SYSTEM CHARGES.                                                                 
Then they CHARGE me again, for POWER SUPPLY CHARGES which supposedly is their cost to make the power in the first place.    

Here's a question, not answered in the Not-so-helpful green paper insert,

"How did the Executives at LIPA come up with the rate for the KWH charges if they don't account for making the power in the first place? And, What's the benefit to LIPA, let alone the consumer to breaking our charges into separate rates when the bill doesn't define what the rates are applied?"

Oh yeah, and look online for yourself to see if any other state in the 50 states charges you .23 cents per KWH. The highest I could find was Hawaii at .20 cents per KWH, while most states are much, much lower.

 

By the way, if you're wondering to yourself if this has happened to you take my advice and don't waste your time on the website www.lipa.com. You won't find anything good there. I would start first by calculating your bill yourself to see if it adds up.

Then call the Billing department at 800-490-0025 to begin the grievance.

If your as bold as I am, call foul play and go to the "report theft of service" line and call 631-755-6871.

 

Let me know how this turns out for you. Good luck.

 

Best regards,

 

DLH

 

 

 



                                                                                                      



 

 

 



                                           

 

 

 

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