Utilities

Dear PoP – Pepco Help

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

I’m not sure if you’ve done any stories about this in the past, but my Pepco bill has jumped from $68 in October to $330 in December. My roommate and I share a smaller two bedroom apartment in an older row house. We are very energy efficient and were actually out of town for 9 days in December while we racked up this bill- the heat was off and major appliance were unplugged. So my question is, does the bill seem reasonable for December or is there something wrong with my bill or heating system? Any help you or your readers can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.”

Has anyone had crazy increases to their Pepco bills? I’ve never had an electric bill jump that high? Has anyone had an error in billing before? If so, how did you remedy it?

Dear PoP – What’s Up With DC’s Drinking Water?

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

I recently moved into DC from Arlington, and while I’m loving the change, I’m not so thrilled with how my tap water tastes. Even filtered through my Brita pitcher, it has a not-so-delicious “metallic sewage” scent and flavor. I don’t want to go to bottled water – expensive and wasteful – so I was wondering if any readers had suggestions on undersink or other types of filters that worked well in DC? I was reading the annual water quality drinking report (http://www.dcwasa.com/waterquality/waterquality_reports.cfm), and it identified some specific problems in DC water, so I was hoping someone had already done all the research about what was the best filter to remove those particular contaminants!

Thanks,

Thirsty Reader”

This is a great question. The best solution I’ve come up with is that I use a brita filter on my tap and then I pour that water directly into a brita pitcher for a double filtration. And if all else fails I then mix in a healthy dose of powdered iced-tea mix… What sort of filters do you guys use?

Potential Single Point of Failure

By Prince Of Petworth

I was at a bbq where someone noticed this crazy light pole. That is insane. One lightning bolt and four blocks of houses would be screwed.

Important Question

By Prince Of Petworth

Who provides the best cable/internet service: RCN, Comcast or Verizon? Do you think we’ll ever get FIOS in the city?