is time of day metering of electricity right for me? (long)

[luckydriver]

so can you figure out the 14 vs 7.5 cents? i cant

it appears generation and transmission are fixed costs since it's the same rate

delivery and transition seem to be the only different rates

i totally forgot to call the remainder of last week so maybe this week will

[ecman51`]

This has been a relatively cool summer for us this year. Very enjoyable though with nice cool nights. Now they have really been getting cool. So I have been starting to run the electric cube space heater in rooms where I am, for the 5¢ per hour, as my furnace is stil totally off. I need to look into(call up mfg.) that crack I found located above my furnace pot, before getting her going for the year.

Why don't you call your utility about some of those questions you have Ld?

[ecman51`]

I could not remember if the digital meter kept track of holidays also = yes = I am off-peak today (Monday, confirmed at about noon, 9-7-09). How nice. So while I was out mowing grass before, in the hot sun, I ran 2 fans, the tv and the a/c, to confirm it.

[ecman51`]

Yesterday I decided to figure out my useage cost on this new plan and what it would have been on the plan most other people have. Here is the results:

4559 kwh since about the middle of last December when I got onto this plan.

Standard rate would have made the bill about $479.

But the time of use plan was:

675 on peak = $127
3883 off-peak = $194
4559 kwh Total = $321

A savings of $158 in 8 months!!, or about $19.75/mo.

Then, ontop of this, I saved even more because a lot of the off-peak electric useage at night went to me not having to crank up the gas furnace as much, so I saved a lot on my gas bill(which to heat the entire house is actually more costly than the electric!, used at your feet in one room).

One could argue though that I was thusly using more electric to save on the gas. True, but I saved both ways, as my electric bills were still less than in previous years, while yet saving very substantially on the gas. And also, one could argue that in the warmer weather I was using more electric simply because I knew that I was 'saving'. True, I did, by running the a/c rather than suffering, the way I did in the past. How nice it was this summer to have used the a/c and yet still had cheaper electric bills.

I wish I could do some scientifically valid past vs. present overall energy use comparison. But I can't, since our winters here vary so much from year to year. But, I may make these totals anyway, just to see, for the heck of it and look and record the heating and/or cooling degree days for each (which are on each monthly bill). I cuold also do this for many past years since I have all my receipts.

[luckydriver]

321 saving isnt too bad at all!

even after heating up my spa during peak one day, my usage continues to fall (not that i'm complaining)

from my 9/15 bill the usage was

BILL 9/15

214 0.14 $29.96 new
434 0.075 $32.55 new
648 $62.51

648 0.12 $77.76 old rate
$15.25 savings

i still have yet to call them to ask them exactly what my bill would be under the old plan but i do want to do it someday

weekly meter readings myself have pretty much gone by the wayside but i do them every few weeks when i remember.

[ecman51`]

When you cal them, say nothing that makes it sound like you are getting a pricebreak from them without having to do anything to earn that price break. We don't want to wreck things for ourselves - now do we?

[luckydriver]

ok i called the company to ask my savings for the past 2 full months of time of day:

she said 2 months ago my bill was 80 and would have been about 86

last month it was 75 and would have been about 79

i know that's about 10 bucks but then she said it's about 12.39 so she must have done some more accurate calculating at her desk. She also confirmed that 12.39 included my additional 3 dollar customer charge. So extrapolating that should be about 75 dollar savings by their calculation

one other thing this didnt account for is the voluntary plan i was on. it used to take 10% and put it into an account for upcoming rate increases however back in June they stopped it and knocked it down to 1% because of some rate increase. She said rather than us paying more today because of a 9% increase, they knocked this down to 1% to keep us paying the same. pretty lame if you ask me. But next year they will start up the 10% again. It's a good 7.5% interest rate and would have gotten me a few cents so why not do it?

[ecman51`]

Went for the 7:30 to 7:30 plan for the winter. This is their earliest plan. I did that because it gets darker earlier in the winter and I'm more likely to take advantage of earlier electric space heating.

[luckydriver]

last month i ran the spa on full 100 degrees on standard mode (heat comes on anytime it's called for) for a week or so then put back to 98 on econ which means heat only turns on during the 2 nightly filter cycles. also i put up the lights around the spa again and they are on at least 10 hours a night.

bill came today and it's 82 bucks. 199 ON and 547 OFF peak so thats 73.3% off.

i havent checked the meter itself for a while though but will post it when i do.

i'm hoping the new spa cover and blanket is also contributing to the savings

[ecman51`]

Lucky,

If you want to follow some of my escapades regarding what I am doing, you can check out a thread about a space heater issue I posted in the electrical forum here. Besides a problem, I posted how I am saving regarding using one. I'm doing like that infomercial and full page newspaper ad space heater, where I leave the house in the 50's, and then keep msyelf warm in the room I'm at, with a space heater.

Trouble is, wouldn't you know it.....I just heard last night on the news that they are expecting winter natural gas bills to be 12% less this winter. Therefore, I will not be able to save (over other people), as much this winter, as I did last winter. But I will still save, no matter which way I go - gas or electric, or combo of each, or ramp house up to temp and then shut 'er down and coast through the night on space heater (my hybrid system).

[luckydriver]

latest bill

BILL 11/17

181 0.14 $25.34 new
657 0.075 $49.28 new
838 $74.62 but the bill is really 87.16 so the rates must have gone up

838 0.12 $100.56 old rate
$25.95 savings


78.4 percent off peak. the spa runs now more of course so that being off peak plus my lights on more off peak hours now contributes to the higher percent off peak now.