Power Company Controls AC

[TRR]

As for the parking lot lights being reduced or turned off to save electricity - everything is a trade off. If you reduce the electricity consumed in parking lot lighting you can qualify for LEED (Green energy stuff) but you increase the risk of crime because of the darker parking lots.

 

[clemsonfor]

As for the parking lot lights being reduced or turned off to save electricity - everything is a trade off. If you reduce the electricity consumed in parking lot lighting you can qualify for LEED (Green energy stuff) but you increase the risk of crime because of the darker parking lots.

I didnt say dark or totally off. There is not much difference if they reduce every bulb by 10 watts, if you have 10 lights in a lot that are on 10 hours a day that is 1Kw a night saved. Yes at 10 cents an hour thats not much savings per night. You wont notice the difference in light so no safety risk. And this is assuming a lot with 10 lights, they would save 10cents a night or $3.00 month, now think of walmart with god knows how many lights or your bilo or food lion or what ever?

 

[grsthegreat]

I didnt say dark or totally off. There is not much difference if they reduce every bulb by 10 watts, if you have 10 lights in a lot that are on 10 hours a day that is 1Kw a night saved. Yes at 10 cents an hour thats not much savings per night. You wont notice the difference in light so no safety risk. And this is assuming a lot with 10 lights, they would save 10cents a night or $3.00 month, now think of walmart with god knows how many lights or your bilo or food lion or what ever?

If spralmarts were required to use LED lot lighting, each standard would have 4 lights running 52 watts each (x4) as opposed to the current 400 watts (HID) each x 4 per standard.

Thats 208 watts vs 1600 watts. Less light, but not by much. savings about $50/month at 10 cents per kwh and 12 hours of use. These lots easily have 50 of these lights (supercenters) = $2,500/month savings. But they dont do it....and the new wall mart here leaves their lot lit 24/7...dont know why.

 

[Ken]

If spralmarts were required to use LED lot lighting, each standard would have 4 lights running 52 watts each (x4) as opposed to the current 400 watts (HID) each x 4 per standard.

Thats 208 watts vs 1600 watts. Less light, but not by much. savings about $50/month at 10 cents per kwh and 12 hours of use. These lots easily have 50 of these lights (supercenters) = $2,500/month savings. But they dont do it....and the new wall mart here leaves their lot lit 24/7...dont know why.

Have noticed Wal-Mart new stores have sky light to help light the store areas. Also in Mt.View Ark. W-M a new store if no one in isle the over head lights dim to one bulb. then with a motion the lights come on before person enters area.
ken

 

[grsthegreat]

Have noticed Wal-Mart new stores have sky light to help light the store areas. Also in Mt.View Ark. W-M a new store if no one in isle the over head lights dim to one bulb. then with a motion the lights come on before person enters area.
ken

hmm, dont have those here..i can see why no skylights due to the snow, but no dimmers. There is a system that shuts off 1/3 of the lights during peak times indoors, but their parking lots are always lit

 

[BobRip]

A lot of outdoor lites send a lot of the lite up. This is a total waste.

 

[creekbend]

It was just announced yesterday that Duke Energy here in NC wants to increase the monthly rates to residential users by 17%. There will be a 15% increase to commercial customers. Dude Energy bought out FPL-Florida Power Light. several years back. We belong to Piedmont Electric which is a CO-OP, but as we all know power companies sell electric power to each other at various times, and it's usually the largest power companies that propose increases to the regulatory commission. I wonder if we should expect rate increases in the future. By the way, we were offered a similar plan last year in regards to the power control during certain hours, but we turned them down.

 

[dmccarty]

It was just announced yesterday that Duke Energy here in NC wants to increase the monthly rates to residential users by 17%. There will be a 15% increase to commercial customers. Dude Energy bought out FPL-Florida Power Light. several years back. We belong to Piedmont Electric which is a CO-OP, but as we all know power companies sell electric power to each other at various times, and it's usually the largest power companies that propose increases to the regulatory commission. I wonder if we should expect rate increases in the future. By the way, we were offered a similar plan last year in regards to the power control during certain hours, but we turned them down.

CPL merged with FPL creating Progress Energy. Now Progress and Duke want to merge.

Part of the price increase is to pay for the packages to the people who will be laid off. If the two companies think that it makes money sense to merge then they should eat the short term decrease in profit to get the long term profit.

Certainly the consumer should not have to pay for the merger...

On the other hand a coal power power plant in my county is shutting down soon to comply with EPA regulations. There was a report in the WSJ yesterday about the Federal agency responsible of power production that is not speaking up about how the EPA regulations is going to decrease the limited surplus of power production and how this might effect the stability of the power grid.

With the shutdown of the local coal fired plant, the power will have to be made up somewhere or else. Coal is the cheapest power producer so rates will have to go up to replace this plant and one or two others that Progress is having to shut down.

Progress sends us a note about letting them control our AC. I do not like the idea and for the pittance they pay us for the trouble it is not worth it.

Later,
Dan

 

[JerryK]

I am on the Great Lakes Energy grid, I have a Marathon electric water heater and get $4.50USD off each month for letting them install 'line controled' power to it. The main reason electric companies up here want to control power loads is for power resoration. If they loose power over a large area, it allows them to bring the full load up in stages and not try to run everyone's AC/water heaters/well pumps/etc. all at once. The starting load for all A/C motors alone would be a tax on what the system is designed for on certain days of the year. The control box has a contactor in it, with a built in timer, that normally waits 5 minutes before it applies power to the water heater after power loss, or can be controled 'over the line' if needed. We also have 'over the line' meters that can be monitored and read by them.

 

[creekbend]

CPL merged with FPL creating Progress Energy. Now Progress and Duke want to merge.

Part of the price increase is to pay for the packages to the people who will be laid off. If the two companies think that it makes money sense to merge then they should eat the short term decrease in profit to get the long term profit.

Certainly the consumer should not have to pay for the merger...

On the other hand a coal power power plant in my county is shutting down soon to comply with EPA regulations. There was a report in the WSJ yesterday about the Federal agency responsible of power production that is not speaking up about how the EPA regulations is going to decrease the limited surplus of power production and how this might effect the stability of the power grid.

With the shutdown of the local coal fired plant, the power will have to be made up somewhere or else. Coal is the cheapest power producer so rates will have to go up to replace this plant and one or two others that Progress is having to shut down.

Progress sends us a note about letting them control our AC. I do not like the idea and for the pittance they pay us for the trouble it is not worth it.

Later,
Dan

Thanks for the additional input. I remember seeing Duke Energy power trucks in Bradenton, Florida working with FPL crews. When our power was restored in 2006 after a storm, the only power company trucks and equipment that I saw in Bradenton and Sarasota all had Duke Power on the trucks. I asked one crew in the parking lot of the Desoto Mall in regards to seeing all their equipment in the surrounding Counties and they told me that their parent company bought FPL. The crew were probably telling me about possible future acquisitions. You are correct about the impending acquisition. If it goes through, the web said that it will be the largest in the US because of all the companies that these two Companies own presently. Sometimes two heads are better than one, and working together, we can get all the info. By the way dmccarty, upon further investigation, I discovered that BOA was a main stockholder. There were so many banks listed as stockholders that I quit reading the entire list. The same goes for all the other energy companies that the two companies currently own. The two companies are really huge. Thanks again for the additional info. I'm in Yanceyville. Where are you located?