Discussions

Was surprised how high my hydro bill was this month. Don't mean this in a complaining way, just trying to make sure I don't have something wrong with my furnace or water heater, etc. I don't recall ever paying more than $180 or so, but this month it was $260.  
 
I guess it's a combination of cold weather and rising prices? Anyone?

Previous month 176.00 all in.hydro and gas. This month 300.00 actual read. Never has my bill been this high and I have been away for a month. Furnace turned down all lights off. Hope feburary is less.

It sucks but it’s been cold. Ours was over $1500 so if you want to swap bills let me know?

$800 here. Just the house

January bill is way high, but then so was our usage. Pretty sure the next bill will be just as bad .

When I used to help at our town curling rink the monthly hydro bill could be as high as $4500 a month with the heat and the ice plant running. That used to take a bit of paying out of fundraising and donations.

Normally, about 200 in the winter. 400.00 this time.

Mine up significantly but it is not a “actual read” it just an estimate this month . Usually I submit my reading through winter months to prevent their high estimate but got lazy this month  
Curious if these are mostly high estimates customers have received this month.

Okay, everyone's experience seems to match my own. It's reassuring, but at the same time, we're all suffering big bills.  
 
Mac72, I have to submit a reading every even month, and they send a reader every odd month, including January. Maybe MB Hydro uses everyone's average usage to predict those who are in their estimated month? I submitted my own in December and they read it this month.  
 
January 2021, I paid $170, and January 2022, I paid $268, but my natural gas consumption was up 43% from 01/2021 to 01/2022. Electricity was up 23%. Since all the heat (furnace and water heater) is natural gas, I can't say why electricity was up so much, partly due to having to plug in the vehicle more .  
 
Hope those on a limited budget can handle the big bills!

Mine is also close to $100 more than i expect for this time of year, consumption wasn't much more than previous months or last year.  
 
Bill does state it is an actual reading but look at the number of days in this cycle.  
 
My cycle was 38 days in total, instead of standard 28-33 depending on when they read it and when i submit my readings.  
 
It's likely just because of the number of days in this cycle. Mine apparently ran from Dec 13 2021 to Jan 20 2022.

Not sure if this rate increase was granted but could be another reason bills are higher. Check your prices on the bill.  
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-hydro-rate-increase-application-1.6250766

Just logged on to view my bill and it says it was approved to increase the rate 3.8% for residential. I live in an apartment and it looks like they estimated. What if they are estimating too much? They can just gouge us just like everything else is. Every thing goes up but wages stay the same.

My home in town is supposed to be self read every other month and estimated in between. I’m too poor to trust their estimates so I try to call it in every month. Their estimates are not accurate but if they beat my call and overestimate they always correct it the next month.  
At the farm I have to call the reading in every month. If you miss three monthly readings they charge $50 to come out.  
Saying that though I’m grateful for the relatively clean and reliable electricity supply here in Manitoba as we rely on it for everything.  
In Britain we were always getting outages .  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-01-24 17:03:28

every month and submit reading via internet, quick and easy.  
https://account.hydro.mb.ca/Portal/ServiceRequestFormPrelogin.aspx?reason=submitMeterReading

Mine was horrific this month also! I was trying hard to reduce the amount i used this winter and still paid almost $300 this month ugh

Yes, I see now my bill was for 35 days, quite a bit more than the average of around 30-31 days you would expect. Makes the cost a little higher than a normal billing cycle. Your 38 days is quite stretched out indeed

Mine was super low! Lol. My guess is I read last months meter wrong. Like around $80.  
 
We are on the budget plan as our hydro consumption is a lot throughout the year - $500 a month. So in the end it all works out. I pay regardless of what I actually use. I definitely made a mistake reading it at some point

Usually you can’t read your own meter in an apartment. And I didn’t live here last year. It’s a brand new building so it wasn’t even ready last year at this time.

We had a pretty sustained cold spell during the last month, especially compared to the last couple of winters. MB Hydro is raising rates and doubtful that will change anytime soon, but we still enjoy some of the lowest power costs anywhere.  
 
I've noticed a few more wood burning stoves going in lately, always thought insurance costs would make that prohibitive, but a buddy said he added a stove and it made very little difference to his insurance bill.  
 
Might be an option if it's not too hard to get one installed, nothing nicer than sitting in front of a fire.

Mine was really high this month too. Almost double! I looked a little closer, and yep with the cold spell and increased rate it sadly was correct. Ouch!

Check your Basic Charges over last year. I bet it went up $30 per month '.

We haven’t had the extended periods of cold weather and snow that we have experienced this year. The last two to three winters have been comparatively mild.  
The increase in rates was clearly explained in the flyer that comes with your hydro bill. Manitoba Hydro for various reasons (mostly poor management) managed to lose a boat load of money so we as consumers have to cover their loss.

Monthly plan is way to go as it easier to budget for having same amount every month.  
 
January was very cold compared to last few years.  
 
As to wood stoves adding to insurance means an inspection so make sure installed correctly and safely with regulations.  
 
Also make sure to tell insurance as if fire your insurance would be invalid if they don’t know.  
 
Keep in mind wood isn’t free so there is the cost of that and whether any available at this time of year.

Actual reading on the most recent bill was double that.

Just a joke of a company…

Anyway Manitoba hydro broke December usage record and it wasn’t even that cold compared to January