How to Write a High-Bill Findings Note for the Customer

Why this matters

A high-bill visit ends with a customer who wants one sentence: why is my bill up. Say it out loud on the porch and it becomes whatever the customer remembers, which is usually stronger than what you said. "The tech said it was the space heater" turns into "the tech promised the bill would drop" by the time the next bill arrives, and the callback is now about your credibility rather than their usage.

A written findings note fixes the record at the moment you know the most. It says what was checked, what was measured, what is only suspected, how sure you are, and what happens next. It is also the document the next tech reads when the customer calls again in March, and the one the office reads when the customer disputes the visit charge.

The investigation itself is owned elsewhere (see related: How to Diagnose a High-Bill Call, in Order). This article is about turning what that investigation found into a page the customer can read and the shop can stand behind.

The finished card, first

Here is a finished note from a real-shaped call, so the steps below have something to point at. The customer's February electric bill was up about a third on the total. The visit was one hour, plus fifteen minutes at the desk pulling the bill history and interval data.

HIGH-BILL FINDINGS - 14 Birch Ln
Bills reviewed: 13 months, all actual reads,
  same meter number throughout
PER-DAY USE              kWh    days   kWh/day
  Feb this year          1,512   32     47.25
  Feb last year          1,140   29     39.31
  Per day: +7.94 kWh/day (+20.2%)
  kWh on bill: +32.6% (this period is 3 days longer)
WEATHER (heating degree days, base 65 F)
  Baseload, Sep and May average:   18.0 kWh/day
  This yr 30.63 HDD/day, heating 29.25 kWh/day
  Last yr 29.31 HDD/day, heating 21.31 kWh/day
  Expected at last year's rate:    40.27 kWh/day
  Left after weather: 6.98 kWh/day, 223 kWh
RATE LINES
  Energy charge per kWh up 9% (new supply rate)
  No tier change, no budget-billing true-up
MEASURED ON SITE
  Office space heater: 1.42 kW (plug meter)
  Interval data: +1.3 to 1.5 kW, 5-10 PM weekdays
REPORTED BY CUSTOMER, NOT MEASURED
  Heater on about 5 h each weekday this period
MOST LIKELY CAUSE - PROBABLE
  1.42 kW x 5 h x 23 weekdays = 163 kWh,
  about 73% of the 223 kWh left after weather
NOT YET EXPLAINED: about 60 kWh
NEXT STEPS
  1. Plug meter stays on heater 7 days
  2. Office sends a copy of the supply-rate notice
  3. No equipment fault found; nothing quoted

Every line on that card is one of the steps below. Notice what is not on it: no repair recommendation, no predicted next bill, no word like "should".

Step 1: List the bills you actually read

Write how many months you reviewed, whether each read was actual or estimated, and whether the meter number stayed the same.

Why: the customer, the office and a second tech all need to know what evidence the conclusion rests on. "Thirteen months, all actual reads" rules out a catch-up bill in one line (see related: Estimated Versus Actual Meter Reads and the Catch-Up Bill). If you only saw two bills, say two; a conclusion drawn from two bills is weaker, and the note should let a reader see that.

What breaks if skipped: a later reader cannot tell whether you missed an estimated read or checked and found none. Absence of a flag and absence of a check look identical on a note that does not list its sources.

Step 2: Put use per day beside the bill total

Write both numbers, and say which is which. On the card, use per day rose 20.2 percent (47.25 against 39.31 kWh/day) while the kWh on the bill rose 32.6 percent (1,512 against 1,140), because this year's period ran 32 days against last year's 29.

Why: the customer has been looking at the total. If the note only shows per-day use, it reads as if you are shrinking their problem. Showing both, with the reason they differ, tells them you started from their number and explains the gap. See related: How to Compare Two Bills With Different Billing Days.

What breaks if skipped: the customer reads "up 20 percent" against a bill that is visibly up by more, and decides the shop is spinning it.

Step 3: Show the weather step, including the part it explained

State the baseload you used and where it came from, the degree days per day in each period, and the use the weather would have predicted. A heating degree day (HDD) counts how far, and for how long, the outdoor temperature sat below a base, here 65 F; more of them means more heating needed.

On the card: subtract the 18.0 kWh/day baseload from each February. That leaves 29.25 kWh/day of heating this year and 21.31 last year. Last year's house used 21.31 / 29.31 = 0.727 kWh per degree day. At this year's 30.63 degree days per day, the same house would have used 0.727 x 30.63 = 22.27, plus the 18.0 baseload, which is 40.27 kWh/day. Actual was 47.25. So 40.27 minus 39.31 = 0.96 kWh/day of the rise is weather, and 47.25 minus 40.27 = 6.98 kWh/day is not. The two add back to the 7.94 on the card. Over 32 days the unexplained part is 6.98 x 32 = 223 kWh.

Why: this is the step that separates "it was colder" from "something changed", and it is the step customers are most likely to wave off. Printing the small number weather did explain shows you checked it rather than assumed it away. The method belongs to How to Weather-Normalize Two Winters of Bills; on the note you only print its result and its inputs.

What breaks if skipped: either you blame a load for what the weather did, or the customer blames the weather for what a load did. Both produce a second call.

Step 4: Record what the rate lines did, separately from use

The bill can rise with no change in use. On the card, the energy charge per kWh rose 9 percent from a new supply rate. Multiply the two effects to tell the customer what their energy charges did: 1.326 times more kWh at 1.09 times the rate is about 1.45 times the energy charges. The total bill moved by somewhat less than that, because the fixed monthly customer charge did not change.

Why: a customer who hears only "you used more" and then notices the rate change on their own decides you missed it. Rate lines are read from the bill, not measured, and the note says so (see related: Anatomy of a Residential Electric Bill, Line by Line).

What breaks if skipped: the rate increase gets folded into the usage story, and the space heater takes the blame for a supply contract.

Step 5: Separate measured from reported from suspected

This is the step that makes the note honest, and it is where most notes go wrong. Use three headings and keep them apart:

• Measured: a number you read on an instrument or a record. The heater drew 1.42 kW on a plug-in watt meter for ten minutes. The interval data showed an extra 1.3 to 1.5 kW from 5 to 10 PM on weekdays.
• Reported: what the customer told you. "About 5 hours a weekday" is the customer's estimate, and the note labels it as theirs.
• Suspected: a cause you are inferring from the two. That goes under Step 6, never under Measured.

Why: a later reader, including you in a month, needs to know which numbers would survive a re-test. The heater's watts will read the same next week. The customer's five hours might be three or seven.

What breaks if skipped: "heater uses 7.1 kWh a day" goes on the note as a fact, when 7.1 is a measured 1.42 kW times a guessed 5 hours. When the next bill comes in lower or higher than that implies, the shop looks wrong about a number it never measured.

Step 6: Name the most likely cause with its confidence, and its share

State the cause, the arithmetic that sizes it, what fraction of the unexplained use it covers, and one confidence word from a fixed list. A useful shop list:

On the card the heater is Probable, not Confirmed: the watts are measured, the hours are reported. Sized at the customer's hours, 1.42 kW x 5 h x 23 weekdays = 163 kWh, which is 163 / 223 = 73 percent of the unexplained 223 kWh. The note prints "about 73%", not "most of it" and not "the cause".

Print the remainder too: 223 minus 163 leaves about 60 kWh unaccounted for. That might be the heater running more than five hours, a weekend hour or two, or something else. Saying so is what keeps the note from overclaiming.

Why the fixed list: "likely", "probably" and "pretty sure" mean different things to different techs. A four-word scale lets the office and the next tech read every note the same way.

What breaks if skipped: without a share, "the heater" reads as the whole answer, and when the bill stays a little high after the heater use drops, the customer concludes the visit was wrong.

Step 7: Write next steps that close the confidence gap

Each next step should move one item up the scale or close one open question. On the card, leaving the plug meter on the heater for seven days turns reported hours into measured kWh, which is what it takes to move Probable to Confirmed. Sending the supply-rate notice answers the rate question. "No equipment fault found; nothing quoted" is a next step too: it tells the customer nothing is being sold.

Why: a next step with no purpose, such as "monitor usage", leaves the customer with nothing to do and nothing to report back. A specific one gives them a number to read on a date.

Step 8: Remove every promise before it goes out

Read the finished note once looking only for forward-looking claims. Strike "you will save", "the bill should drop to", "this will fix it". What you may state is the arithmetic: the heater uses 1.42 kWh for each hour it runs, and each kWh costs the rate printed on the bill. What that does to next month depends on how much they run it, the weather, and the rate, none of which you control. The language rules belong to Savings Claims Without Overpromising: The Honest Language.

What breaks if skipped: one hopeful sentence is the line the customer quotes back when next month's bill arrives.

Reading it back before it leaves

Three checks, two minutes:

• Re-add the weather line. The weather part plus the unexplained part must equal the per-day change: 0.96 plus 6.98 is 7.94. If they do not add, a number was copied wrong.
• Recompute the share from the card's own figures. 163 / 223 is 0.73. A share copied from memory is the most common error on these notes.
• Read the confidence word against the table. If runtime is reported, the word cannot be Confirmed.

Then hand it over in person if you can, and read the Most Likely Cause line aloud with its percentage. Customers who hear "about 73 percent of it" remember a share. Customers who hear "it's the heater" remember a verdict.

References

• See related: How to Diagnose a High-Bill Call, in Order
• See related: How to Weather-Normalize Two Winters of Bills
• See related: How to Compare Two Bills With Different Billing Days
• See related: Savings Claims Without Overpromising: The Honest Language
• See related: How to Measure Real Watts Instead of Trusting the Nameplate