Retired Professor Living in an Apartment in Worcester, Massachusetts.
I live in a one-bedroom apartment in Worcester. I moved into this apartment in 2021. The building is a renovated school building with very tall windows.
The gas-based HVAC system in this building is about 20 years old and not very efficient.
The heat is technically included in the rent, however, my rent was raised 10% at the end of my first year. And now another 8% for this year. I believe these costs are partially reflecting the increased cost of heating. This kind of steep increase doesn’t match up with my increase in social security. When National Grid announced that they were raising their rates across MA, I knew my rent was also going to increase.
When I first moved in 2 and a half years ago my electric bills were about $90 per month, however, the prices have very quickly gone up significantly. I pay for my air conditioning through my electric bill. In the last two years, my electric bill nearly doubled. I decided to enroll in the utilities “budget plan.” On this plan, my electric bill comes to around $160 per month, almost double what I was paying when I moved in. For those who are unfamiliar, the budget plan is an average that the utilities calculate based on a year’s worth of your bill. Every 6 months they adjust it if they find that they are not getting as much as they want. My first budget plan was $125, then it went up to $160. The utility sent me information about the budget plan and at first I thought it would be a better option for me, but this constant adjustment of it is not great.
I have a lot of strategies that I use to keep my bill as low as possible. I’ve added draft snakes below all of my windows and my front door to make sure I’m not losing heat or cool air in the summer. I clean the vents to my blower system every month to try to keep the system as efficient as possible. I made sure that all of my lightbulbs are LED - that really makes a difference in the bill. I also confirmed with the building that all of the recessed lighting in my apartment was LED.
I hear my father’s voice every time I step out the door. “Have you turned off all the damn lights?” My dad was very conscious of energy use.
I’ve been a member of the Sierra Club for 40 years and so I’ve always cared about these issues. One thing I could be better about is unplugging things. If I leave for a trip I make sure that I turn off and unplug all sorts of things like the TV, printer, etc. With a house full of electronics, the energy really starts to add up if you’re not unplugging everything.
I talk about the cost of energy with my friends and other folks at the senior center. This is something many people in my community are regularly thinking about.
I’m retired but when my rent went up I started teaching part time to keep up with the bills. I have a small pension from teaching.
I think the most important thing is the rate setting. It's a murky bureaucratic process, that the average citizen has no idea how it happens or what to do with it. All we do is get the letter saying that our rate went up. The state needs to push back on the utilities and the rate increases. When you see the salaries and profits of the top executives, it really makes you think about where our money is going. I see examples where energy is owned by the town, or citizens, or local utilities and the rates are different and there is more transparency about what energy they’re buying. When I lived in Seattle I was constantly getting notifications about sources of energy. What I’m asking for is more transparency around our rates. We deserve that information.