A $50,000 electric bill? The cost of cooling L.A.’s biggest houses in a heat wave.
An electrical service bill for a house can be one of the most confusing things to a credit card company — especially if it’s something they can’t verify.
“A huge part of the confusion is that a $100 bill could cost you $5,000 if it’s a bad item,” said Stephen Zuckerman, CEO of California Credit Counseling. “We actually advise our clients to pay the full amount.”
And if you do have a problem, the bill can be a goldmine for investigators.
“A $1,000 bill for a single water pump could be significant,” said Gary Zuckerman, also of California Credit Counseling. “It might lead to other things. It could be something as simple as a bad installation.”
A water heater, or hot water?
With water heaters, there are three different kinds.
“There’s an air conditioner, there’s a water heater and then there’s a gas heater,” said Zuckerman. “The gas heaters are more common and they tend to be the bigger ones.”
There are also two different kinds of water heaters: electric water heaters, which use electricity to heat water for the house, and gas water heaters, which use gas or oil to heat the water.
One of the most common questions Zuckerman’s clients have about their household bills is whether it is a gas or electric heater.
“In the case of a water heater, some people make the mistake of thinking the water heater is a gas heater because the thermostats are gas. But it’s not,” said Zuckerman, who has worked as an investigator on some of his clients’ cases. “There are a lot of gas water heaters and they’re actually quite common — particularly in the southern part of the country, where they actually have an air conditioner in the backyard.”
The most common gas water heater in the San Fernando Valley is a tank water heater, which is basically a big tank