BGE customers, check your bill
I got my electric bill for this month today. It was literally double what I expected. My first assumption was that I had somehow failed to pay it last month. But I didn't. My second thought was that our house had sprung a leak and the heater must be running 24/7 now. That wasn't either. The truth reared it's ugly head when I looked closer at my usage and saw my readings were estimated, not actual.
How does BGE estimate my bill? Well, last month, I used 937 kWh in electricity in 30 days, or 31.23 kWh/day. Obviously, a fair estimate is that I used 1546 kWh of power in 33 days in January, or 46.84kWh. How is this calculated? They estimated I used one and a half times the electricity per day as I did last month. Presumably, this was because I was powering a 750-watt christmas tree 24x7 for a month. What did I do while gazing at this perpetually lit Christmas tree? Presumably I was sitting by my gas fireplace. My gas estimate was actually exactly double what I used last month.
Just me? Nope. I don't know how widespread it is, but somebody else in my office came in and complained of exactly the same treatment. I called them, and the guy who answered the phone immediately said he'd set up a date to read the meter; I would guess they're getting a lot of these calls.
Long story short: If you're a BGE customer, check your bill, and if it is obscenely high, and it says "Estimated," call them to come read your meter for real.