When you get your energy bill every month, what do you do? Most of us, business owners included, cut the check and don’t think about it again. But did you know you could be paying more than you should?

It’s true. While all of us get billed for our energy usage, not all of us our being billed fairly. Reasons your bill may be wrong include:

  • Square footage-based billing. If you live in an apartment complex, your property owner might be using an arbitrary billing system that calculates electricity costs based on your square footage. This isn’t fair to people who live in a bigger unit, but consume far less energy than other units and still wind up paying more.

  • Supplier errors. Nobody is perfect – including your energy supplier. Sometimes, your overcharges could come as a result of an honest mistake or a reading error.

  • Intentional overcharging. That’s right, sometimes your electricity provider will intentionally overcharge you just to make sure you don’t fall behind on your payments. After all, if you were them, would you intentionally underestimate?

So how can you avoid these overcharges? Here are some tips to help you out:

  • Complain if you get a big bill. Think your bill is higher than it should be? As a customer, you have every right to call your energy provider and further inquire.

  • Live in an apartment building with consumption-based billing. Your property manager should be billing you based on the amount of energy you consume, not the square footage of your apartment. If your landlord isn’t doing this, maybe you should find one who does.

  • Read your energy meter. Most people rarely read their energy meters – just once when they first move in and again when they move out. However, reading your meter every three months and updating your supplier can help prevent overcharges from occurring.

  • Invest in power monitoring equipment. Power monitoring equipment allows business owners to track their energy consumption in real time. This doesn’t just prevent them from paying too much on their electricity bill, it also helps them cut operating costs by identifying and reducing sources of energy waste.

Electro Industries has been a worldwide supplier of power monitoring equipment for the past 40 years. Our energy management systems are helping businesses all over the globe save millions of dollars and reduce their impact on the environment. Visit our website to learn more, or call us at 866-928-7908.