Electricity rates

[buckeyefarmer]

I calculate by taking total bill / total KW, since that is my effective rate.
yr $/KWH KWH $
2008 .089 16821 1502
2009 .101 16601 1671
2010 .103 17122 1769
2011 .105 15308 1613

 

[ultrarunner]

Dosent it get like 90 degrees there in the summer? No AC how do you sleep with your house in the 80s!

I live in Oakland CA and the weather by any standard is quite mild... there will always be a couple isolated days of heat... maybe 3 at the most before the natural A/C of the Bay Area kicks in.

Now, the folks a little farther inland can be 20 degrees warmer in the summer and 20 degrees colder in the winter... the difference on the other side of the hills is this pronounced.

Years ago, Parade magazine did a survey on ideal climate based up the number of heating and cooling days of major US cities... Oakland CA had the best climate for 2 out of the 12 months from the entire continental U.S.

Now, if we could just get our act together, we would really have a wonderful place to live...

 

[Redneck in training]

We are on Clarke Electric COOP.
Normal rate is 11.47c/kWh
Heating rate 5.15c/kWh
All surcharges combined 28.34.
I average the rate goes up about 4-5%/year.

 

[zonta223]

Dosent it get like 90 degrees there in the summer? No AC how do you sleep with your house in the 80s!

Well lots of homes here do not have AC and the temp sometimes hits 117 in the shade.
Cost per kw hour is about 27c...plus the quarterly standing charge of about $40.
Makes having Solar a no brainer.........my bill went from $450 to $45 including the standing charge.........next bill was $65.
would love 10c per kwh.....then they would be paying me money as I am paid 52c per kw for every kw I generate which is returned to the grid

 

[NHmitch]

We pay about $.18 per KWH here in PSNH utlilty. For 550KWH $95 a month

The delivery charge, base charge, stranded line costs, etc total $50 of the total or $.09 per KWH

Then the actual electricity is $.085 per KWH

We could buy the electricity from a co-op for $.075 so would save $5 a month but there are other areas we can save more - such as reduced use..

Having a 1.5HP deep well sub pump and irrigation and A/C units in the summer push our usage up to 900KWH and the bill goes up by $30-35 those months. So it does get little less the more we use, but its still high.

I am about the same in Southwest New Hampshire. We are close to the highest in the nation. On the other hand, we don't have sales tax, and its a great state to live in. They are trying to put in the Northern Pass here, a utility cooperative with Canada. The power will come from Hydro-Québec. Most of the power would come from Canada's Hydroelectric, however there is huge debate of this, and people do not want to have more lines coming through the state. The lines are actually going to be next to the existing lines, and I am all for it. If it lowers our bills, and we can have a good coop with Canada, then thats great. It will lower the cost of electricity by $200-$325 million a year. I personally want to get off of the grid completely. Solar is very expensive, and I am not sure that I have enough wind. I usually have 5-25mph sustained winds.

The Northern Pass

 

[von-mil]

Residential rate in my general area is $8.00 per month fixed for rural ($7.00 for urban) plus 10.43 cents per KWH plus some minor BS fees.

 

[KTurner]

I just heard on the radio, and verified it by checking their website...

My electric company just issued a press release saying that if the state approves the changes, our prices will *decrease* by about 4% on September 1, 2012. The reasons were their fuel and transmission costs were lower and the mild weather.

Keith

 

[DKCDKC]

Drawing from a combination of nuclear, coal, oil and natural gas, my local electric cooperative is 10 cents per KWH. It's been pretty steady for a decade. Of course, I remember the halcyon days of yore (the 1960s) when my electricity here was just over a penny per KWH. And gas was 28 cents a gallon. And a good professional starting salary was $5,000 a year.

 

[grsthegreat]

Dosent it get like 90 degrees there in the summer? No AC how do you sleep with your house in the 80s!

here in No Idaho we hardly ever get into the 90's during the day.nights are always chillyish.

I can open windows most of the time and be just fine. On the hot muggy nights and days, then yes the AC comes on.

 

[tallyho8]

What makes me so angry is that most of our electricity in Louisiana is generated by natural gas and we supply most of the natural gas to the US.

Federal laws set the rate that we can sell gas to other states so they get cheap natural gas to make cheap electricity and have lower rates.

The gas suppliers can sell Louisiana gas for more money in Louisiana because there are no federal laws limiting the rates they can charge in this state so our electricity is higher than states hundreds of miles away that buy our gas.

 

[clemsonfor]

Well you guys are just taking the mill and dividing by Kwh. If i do that i'm at $0.14 kwh or just a bit more. i have no external light either that tacs on a charge.

 

[clemsonfor]

here in No Idaho we hardly ever get into the 90's during the day.nights are always chillyish.

I can open windows most of the time and be just fine. On the hot muggy nights and days, then yes the AC comes on.

I guess this to is the problem. Its pretty humid most of the time where i live. If you run open windows, despite it being 85-88 degrees when you come home in the afternoon IN YOUR house in the 4 summer months, you will have sticky sheets at night and paper thats dosent crinkle is just will be limp like on many days!!

 

[Canada_CT230]

I have one of those measuring meters to monitor parasitic draw. Here is what I found and unplugged yesterday:

Alarm Clocks x 3
TVs x 2
Satellite Receivers x 2
Cordless Phone Bases x 2
Desktop Computer x 1

I have these in several rooms and all told it adds up to 110 Watts.

110W x 24 HRS/Day = 2.64 KW/Day

2.64 KW/Day x 365 Days/Yr = 963.6 KW

At our rate of about $0.07/KW that is a savings of $67.45 per year.

Stuff is unplugged now...we only kept 2 charging bases for the 4 phone handsets, turned off the desktop computer and hopefully I see the $67 of savings.

 

[LD1]

I have one of those measuring meters to monitor parasitic draw. Here is what I found and unplugged yesterday:

Alarm Clocks x 3
TVs x 2
Satellite Receivers x 2
Cordless Phone Bases x 2
Desktop Computer x 1

I have these in several rooms and all told it adds up to 110 Watts.

110W x 24 HRS/Day = 2.64 KW/Day

2.64 KW/Day x 365 Days/Yr = 963.6 KW

At our rate of about $0.07/KW that is a savings of $67.45 per year.

Stuff is unplugged now...we only kept 2 charging bases for the 4 phone handsets, turned off the desktop computer and hopefully I see the $67 of savings.

I heat what you are saying there. But let me play devils advocate here...

That $67/year is ONLY if you leave the stuff unplugged ALL DAY EVERYDAY. But you have to plug it back in to use it.

In my case, the phone charges overnight, so that is ~8hours off of the savings.

Between me, my wife, and the little one, TV is probabally on 4-5hrs a day.

Alarmclocks....for the little savings involved, and the PITA to re-set the time everyday (or eatting batteries), I think I'll leave mine plugged in.

And same with the cable box. I dont know about you guys, but mine takes about 15 minutes to boot up after a power loss. For me, I'll just leave it plugged in:thumbsup:

Same with the computer. (I assume your "paasitic" draw is assuming the computer is in sleep mode). I'd rather pay the extra pennies vs having to wait on it to boot up. That is an extra 5 minutes I could have spent here browsing TBN:thumbsup:

So all told, I doubt youd see a $50/ year savings at BEST. And for me, the daily inconvience isnt worth the mear ~13 cents per day savings.

 

[Bird]

The electric companies all offer a wide variety of "plans" and claim to make them simple. Anyway, I'm currently on a 12 month contract with an Energy Charge of 7.5563 cents per KWh. But then you add in the Base Charge of $4.95 and the Delivery Charge of 2.8006 cents per KWh. Now of course it varies with usage; 500 or less kWh is 12.6 cents per KWh, over 1000 is 11.5 cents, over 2000 is 10.9 cents, etc. Keeping it real simple, right?:laughing: My last bill was $118.93 for 1016 KWh, so that amounts to about 11.71 cents per KWh.

 

[grsthegreat]

i agree about the parasitic draw costs. there are enough led lights on in my house to be able to walk around at night without any lights turned on. im not sure why every piece of electronics needs led lights and clocks on them. I tried turning off the power to my tv and sat boxes, but it takes 10 minutes to reboot back up then.

it does suck. there has to be a way to provide a low power circuit to maintain memory on these devices without the huge draw there taking every day. the companies that produce these things just dont care.

funny thing is though, most of the people i meet that complain about this draw have no issue with leaving their computers run 24/7 so they can be online instantly..... funny aint it.

 

[Canada_CT230]

I heat what you are saying there. But let me play devils advocate here...

That $67/year is ONLY if you leave the stuff unplugged ALL DAY EVERYDAY. But you have to plug it back in to use it.

In my case, the phone charges overnight, so that is ~8hours off of the savings.

Between me, my wife, and the little one, TV is probabally on 4-5hrs a day.

Alarmclocks....for the little savings involved, and the PITA to re-set the time everyday (or eatting batteries), I think I'll leave mine plugged in.

And same with the cable box. I dont know about you guys, but mine takes about 15 minutes to boot up after a power loss. For me, I'll just leave it plugged in:thumbsup:

Same with the computer. (I assume your "paasitic" draw is assuming the computer is in sleep mode). I'd rather pay the extra pennies vs having to wait on it to boot up. That is an extra 5 minutes I could have spent here browsing TBN:thumbsup:

So all told, I doubt youd see a $50/ year savings at BEST. And for me, the daily inconvience isnt worth the mear ~13 cents per day savings.

Almost all the items I unplugged were in spare bedrooms and we don't use them very often. So hitting the power bar switch for the TV / SAT / Clock when we have a guest is no big deal.

The only thing on that list that we will interact with is the desktop computer and we don't use it that much but it was running all the time. So to boot it up once a month or so is fine.

The other thing is that we reduced the number of cordless phone charging bases...4 to 2. So a short walk to the living room to charge the kitchen cordless is no big deal.

They all add up I guess and these don't make much extra work to power back up so I guess they will stay.

Around here in Manitoba, Canada I pay about $0.677 per KWH and pay a $6.85 admin fee. The hydro utility has paid for me to spray foam my basement walls, bought me CFL bulbs and will pay for attic insulation, pipe wrap, etc. They do this so they can save me electricity so they can sell it south of the border for top dollar. Thanks for eating so much power and buying from Canada and keeping my bill low.


So not much change in daily living but I'll take the $67.

 

[dmccarty]

...

funny thing is though, most of the people i meet that complain about this draw have no issue with leaving their computers run 24/7 so they can be online instantly..... funny aint it.

I unplug some of the wall chargers when not in use because they are not in use. It might save a couple dollars a year.

Waste Not Want Not is what Granny always said. :thumbsup:

Leaving the computer on does cost but you can get something for the price. My system runs anti virus scans at night, file updates, and backups. My system uses about 120 watts, do the math and presto!, it cost me $8.76 a month to run the PC. That is about 5-7% of our power bill. That is a good percentage of power use but worth it for me.

Later,
Dan

 

[LD1]

there has to be a way to provide a low power circuit to maintain memory on these devices without the huge draw there taking every day. the companies that produce these things just dont care.

They are already low power. But I guess it is how one defines "low power" and "huge draw".

Canada_ct230 mentioned that with 3 Alarm Clocks, 2 TVs, 2 Satellite Receivers, 2 Cordless Phone Bases, and 1 Desktop Computer all only adds up to 2.64kwh PER DAY. Even at my 11 cent/kwh rate, that is still only 30 whole whopping cents PER DAY for TEN ITEMS.

I certainly wouldnt call that a "huge" draw

 

[clemsonfor]

I heat what you are saying there. But let me play devils advocate here...

That $67/year is ONLY if you leave the stuff unplugged ALL DAY EVERYDAY. But you have to plug it back in to use it.

In my case, the phone charges overnight, so that is ~8hours off of the savings.

Between me, my wife, and the little one, TV is probabally on 4-5hrs a day.

Alarmclocks....for the little savings involved, and the PITA to re-set the time everyday (or eatting batteries), I think I'll leave mine plugged in.

And same with the cable box. I dont know about you guys, but mine takes about 15 minutes to boot up after a power loss. For me, I'll just leave it plugged in:thumbsup:

Same with the computer. (I assume your "paasitic" draw is assuming the computer is in sleep mode). I'd rather pay the extra pennies vs having to wait on it to boot up. That is an extra 5 minutes I could have spent here browsing TBN:thumbsup:

So all told, I doubt youd see a $50/ year savings at BEST. And for me, the daily inconvience isnt worth the mear ~13 cents per day savings.

Plus that 67 $ a year is less than $6 month. You can eat out 1 less time a month and be there. But yes you do get something for eating out. I am also playing devils advocate. And i always hear them saying to unplug your cable box etc. UMMMM do any of you watch any tv, or have a DVR. If you unplug the **** thing it wont record any of your shows. You have to have it plugged in every day your not home so that it will record. Yea if i had a power strip i could flip it. Very few of my shows tape during the day unless i missed something or its reruns we record. But sometimes we go out to eat or visit someone so if we dont plug the DVR in and i miss Deadliest catch or Mythbusters or momma misses her Housewives that will be the last time it will ever be unplugged!!!!!!! I know you can retape it at a later date but sometimes it dont auto reset and you have to manual set each retape event.


That said i unplug small appliances and dont leave chargers in when i think about it. But my alam clocks stay plugged in in my bedroom, guest beds i have been know to pull the plug on.

CFL's are so cheap these days that if you replace your most use 10 bulbs with them you will see more difference than some other tactics like unplugging the washer each time and having to fish your cord out from behind it each load.