LUMBERTON, NC (WBTW) – The City of Lumberton said it’s typical to have high utility bills after cold months, after residents reached out to News13 about their high bills.

Lumberton City Manager Wayne Horne said it’s typical to have a high utility bill when the weather is extremely cold.

“We had days that had lows of 19 degrees, and typically during the extreme cold weather, your heat pumps run off of supplemental heat, so if you’ve got a heat pump, typically you see higher bills based on your heating costs, and that’s what drives a lot of the higher bills,” justifies Horne.

Multiple Lumberton residents are concerned about their high utility bills and some say the cold weather should not have increased the monthly cost so dramatically. The bills ranged from $300 all the way up to nearly $1,300.

Akeyha Jones said her bill was as low as $200 in December and jumped to $1,269 in February. The majority of her bill came from electricity. Jones said she was confused by the amount because she doesn’t use a lot of electricity.

“I felt upset, ill, and emotional,” she said. “I don’t use that much light. We burn lamps.”

Jones said the past couple months have been rough on her family and that she just can’t afford to pay the utility bill.

“My mom passed away and I take care of my siblings, plus my own, so a thousand dollar light bill is not going to help me,” she said.

Horne said the city had to estimate utility usage for 2,500 out of 11,000 customers because the weather was too cold to send crews out to read meters.

“We take an average, and that average, since we couldn’t get around completely to all the meters because the weather conditions, we averaged some that gave a more stable bill,” he said.

Gloria McDuffie is a Lumberton resident and said she also received an unusually high utility bill of $300. She said the city is billing her house that nobody has lived in since 2016 because Hurricane Matthew destroyed it.

“I’m upset because I have to pay a bill to City of Lumberton knowing that I wasn’t in the place,” she said. “I’m trying to figure out why the City of Lumberton is still charging me for this house.”

Horne said the city has had a 3.5 percent reduction in electrical rates since January 1, however, electrical usage has increased.

“Let’s say you get a high bill for that month because of heating costs. You can come in and we’ll work out a payment plan with you to help you get through that billing period,” Horne suggests.

He said the city provides energy audits free-of-charge for customers if they want to find out why their bill is so high.

“Old heating systems, space heaters, using the heaters on your stove to heat with are examples of why a bill could be high,” he said.

Horne said the city does not charge anyone who would like to have their meter re-read. He said the city will go back to reading meters on its normal schedule starting with the customer’s next bill.