PG
&
amp;E customers concerned, but most unwilling to give up air
conditioning
By Jessica Thy Nguyen Special to the Dispatch
Gilroy – After last month’s oppressive heat wave, the inevitable arrival of this month’s PG&E bill leaves Gilroy resident Patricia Cameron still sweating.
“My bill last month was $193,” she said from her Pacific Mobile Estates home. “And that was before the heat wave.”
Cameron and her son work while her 29-year-old daughter searches for employment.
“The kids are in and out and they do turn the air conditioning on,” Cameron said. “I’m expecting it to be a real hefty bill.”
She is concerned that if a large bill comes she’ll have difficulty paying all of her bills.
“If I get a high bill I’m going to cry,” Cameron said. “You pay what you can and let the rest roll over. Something else will just have to wait, that’s all.”
For Zinnia Garcia, a single mother, her PG&E bill is less of a concern only because she is enrolled in the CARE program provided by PG&E for low-income households.
“There’s no way I could pay even $100 or more a month [to] PG&E, what with food, rent, cable, the phone and three boys,” Garcia said.
Garcia makes $10 an hour and said her bill is usually never higher than $50 per month, through the help of the CARE program. The CARE program is offered by PG&E to low-income individuals or two-member households earning less than $28,600 per year.
Even with her air conditioning on all day in June, Garcia said her bill was only slightly higher.
“I know that I’m blessed because I know that other people pay [big] bucks,” she said.
For customers who don’t qualify for CARE, expect a $200 bill from last summer to increase to at least $230 according to estimate given by Jeff Smith, spokesman for PG&E.
Senior citizens in Gilroy who live on fixed incomes sometimes visit the senior center to escape the heat and a high electric bill.
Wayne Castro, a regular at the center, said he usually goes to the clubhouse that’s located within his neighborhood at Pacific Mobile Estates.
“Some of the other [senior citizens] who live there go to the clubhouse to read the newspaper and drink coffee,” he said. “We usually stay there ’til around 5 or 6 on hotter days and then go home [when it closes].”
Castro prefers the cool air in the clubhouse rather than paying PG&E to run his air conditioner at home.
Business owners and farmers who pay high PG&E bills throughout the year are also expecting to pay more.
Joel Goldsmith, owner of Goldsmith Plants Inc., expects a big bill because of the cooling system he runs throughout the summer in his greenhouses.
“I turn the cooling systems on during the summer, but with the hotter weather it’s just a matter of efficiency,” Goldsmith said. The system runs at the same temperature, but with the warmer weather, doesn’t work as well for the greenhouse.
Charlie Morales, former Gilroy City Councilman promotes solar-powered homes as another way of curbing the electric bill.
“Green building is the way of today as well as tomorrow,” he said of the solar-powered developments planned for the city. Before moving into his new solar-powered home, Morales paid $300 to $400 to PG&E each month. Now, his electric bill alone is about $5.
Residents such as Robert Baker find the increase in the bill unavoidable.
“Last month’s bill was only $15 higher and the comfort was worth it,” he said.
For others, it was easier to just ignore the hot weather. Although temperatures were scorching last month and the only breeze that could be felt was hot, some residents such as Jean Blake said she was fine with only an open window and no air conditioning.
Residents less acclimated to the heat felt differently.
Karen Covington ran her air conditioner full blast during the time she was home. Though she said she’s worried about how high her electricity bill will run, she would rather be comfortable.
“I was trying to be frugal, but I had to keep my house nice,” Covington said.
Others in Gilroy found ways to cut back on electric usage in order to curb a high PG&E bill.
Cerinity Ortiz said she and her family unplugged appliances they weren’t using.
“Those are what you’d call energy vampires,” Smith, spokesman for PG&E said of unplugging unused appliances. “It doesn’t save that much, but it helps a little.”
Like many other Gilroy residents who suffered through the late July heat wave, Ortiz’s family opted to keep their air conditioning on rather than bear the heat, but tried to find other ways to conserve energy. She said they even covered up their windows with store-bought bamboo shades to keep the heat out.
As for the furry members of the household unable to leave, Linda Glawatz, a librarian in Gilroy, has a less costly solution than running the air conditioning all day.
“Because I have two cats who were just boiling,” she said, “I have a fan that I can put on timer and just leave on.”
