I’m in a small prewar one-bedroom in Astoria. The heat is building steam radiators, so my gas is basically just the stove and a pilot light; the electric bill covers a window AC in summer, a dehumidifier, and the usual electronics. Con Ed keeps offering budget billing, and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it as rents and groceries keep creeping up.

Looking back at the last 12 actual bills, my electric/gas total ranged from about $62 in the mild months to $148 in August, with a simple average around $98. Con Ed’s budget billing offer is $103 a month. Not a huge difference, but I don’t love paying extra every month just so a utility company can hold the float.

For people who have actually used their budget billing: did your bill stay flat, or did they recalculate and jump it mid-year? How bad was the true-up or reconciliation? I’ve read that the final bill can include a big deferred balance if you move before the true-up, and I’m likely to move when the lease ends. Did anyone get a refund instead? Also, if I enroll now, does Con Ed use my last 12 months exactly, or do they include weather normalization and older history? I’d rather keep the actual billing and transfer money myself than sign up for a surprise.

astoria_arch, I am so glad you asked this! I love the budget billing program, but it is NOT magic and the true-up can jump out if you don’t watch the right line. Have you tried pulling the PDF bill and looking for the deferred balance? I’m obsessed with that number! Every month I put my budget amount in a spreadsheet and compare actual vs budgeted. Con Ed recalculates on their schedule, not every month, so if you add a window AC in June you might not see the increase until the autumn review. Then the monthly amount jumps and people think it is a scam.

In my prewar 2BR in Washington Heights, my bills swung from about $70 in October to $190 in July. Budget billing kept the monthly amount around $118. My last true-up was only $34 because I manually paid a little extra every month. I think it works if you treat it as a smoothing tool, not a discount. If you move mid-cycle, ask them what happens to the deferred balance before you sign up!

astoria_arch, I’ve been on Con Ed budget billing for three years in a prewar Brooklyn one-bedroom, and my monthly amount changed twice a year. It started at $96, went to $121 after a hot summer, then dropped to $84 after I replaced the dehumidifier and put the AC on a smart plug. So it is not a true fixed payment, but the changes were announced in the monthly bill and less jarring than a $190 July bill.

ferryfanatic is right that the deferred balance is the key line. I watch it every month, and I also submit my own meter reads on the Con Ed site. Estimated reads were the cause of my first big recalculation; the utility assumed I was using more than I actually was, and it took two cycles to correct. One caveat: if you move while you have a deferred balance, the final bill can be the full remaining balance plus your final actual usage. In my first apartment I moved in April and owed around $200 on top of the last month’s bill because the winter reconciliation hadn’t fully cleared. Not the end of the world, but it can catch you during a move.

To answer your question about the offer: their $103 is not just your simple average. Con Ed uses a rolling 12-month average plus weather normalization and other factors, so it can be higher than your back-of-envelope math. If you already keep a buffer, you may not need it.

Thanks, both. This is exactly the kind of detail I needed. I went back through my bills and pulled the last two years of PDFs. I’m not enrolled, so there’s no deferred balance line yet, but I did find the 15-minute usage data because I have a smart meter. My summer evenings are the entire story: the AC runs from about 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. and adds roughly $45–$55 to the bill in July and August. The rest of the year is boring.

I called Con Ed and asked specifically about the true-up if I move. The rep said any owed deferred balance would be due on the final bill, and if there’s a credit, it gets refunded after the final meter read. But they couldn’t tell me a cap on how large the deferred balance can get before the next review, which makes me uneasy.

I think for my numbers I’m going to stay on actual billing and self-smooth: I already keep a high-yield savings buffer, so I’ll just transfer a little extra in the cheap months. Paying $103 every month to cover a $98 average doesn’t gain me enough to justify another reconciliation layer, especially if I move.

bike_lane_lou, the estimate problem is the hidden villain! I had a $180 swing one spring because the meter reader guessed for two months in a row, and the usage graph looked like a mountain range that didn’t match reality. Have you tried the balance forecast tool under Billing & Usage? It shows the projected deferred balance at the next scheduled review assuming your usage follows last year. That tool is my favorite thing on the whole Con Ed website, and hardly anybody knows it exists!

astoria_arch, with a smart meter you have way more power. You can see exactly when the AC spikes and decide if you want to pre-cool before 7 p.m. or run it on the low setting after midnight. I did that in my apartment and cut my August bill by enough that the budget amount never recalculated upward. One thing to watch: if you ever switch to budget billing later, those 15-minute intervals are not used for billing disagreements unless you call and make a case. The monthly read is still what drives the bill. Also, ask if your building gets billed on a residential time-of-use pilot? Probably not, but some older prewar apartments have dumb meters grouped in a way that makes the transition weird.

ferryfanatic, the balance forecast is useful, but I’d caution anyone that it’s a projection, not a promise. I’ve seen the forecast miss by $40–$60 in a cold snap because steam heating wasn’t included and the plug-in space heater was. Also, the residential time-of-use point is worth checking, but Con Ed has been very slow rolling that out in walk-up prewar buildings unless the meter room was upgraded.

astoria_arch, given you already have a smart meter and two years of data, your self-smoothing plan is probably the cleaner option. Budget billing works best when someone can’t comfortably absorb a high August bill or would otherwise put it on a credit card. It doesn’t save money. The real savings in a prewar apartment usually come from the boring stuff: sealing the gap around the window AC with foam in summer, checking the refrigerator door gasket, and killing vampire loads on the cable box and Wi-Fi. I’d also look at whether your dehumidifier is running on a timer instead of 24/7; that made a bigger difference than any billing program did.

Update after talking to the rep and crunching my own numbers: I’m staying on actual billing, but I did set up the self-smoothing transfer. I moved $40 a month into a separate sub-account from November through May, which covers most of the summer peak without creating a deferred balance with Con Ed. I also replaced the foam gasket around my window AC because it had compressed enough to leak air around the side panels, and I put the dehumidifier on a timer so it only runs from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. on humid nights.

ferryfanatic, the balance forecast tool is great—I can see why you like it. It shows what budget billing would look like for my address and it confirms that the program would be roughly neutral, but with more admin. bike_lane_lou, your point about moving was the deciding factor for me. I don’t want a final bill with a deferred balance right when I’m paying a new security deposit and moving boxes.

For anyone else deciding: pull 24 months of bills first, check your final move date, and look at the deferred balance rules before you click yes. It’s a payment plan, not a discount.