what on earth does electricity cost near you?

[Tomtint]

Up here in Mass, my electric bill at home in the summer is in the 5-600.00 per month. The winter it's 350.00 ish a month.

 

[Peter 315]

Up here in Mass, my electric bill at home in the summer is in the 5-600.00 per month. The winter it's 350.00 ish a month.

WOW that's a big bill you running ac 24/7..........

 

[Frankenkubota]

Meters! Anybody remember Westinghouse? A good man and a great company until the MBAs got their hands on it.

I was hired by Westinghouse in Raleigh NC, 1981. (That痴 where Barney goes to party). The Meter Div. they hired a bunch of young engineers to develop remote reading/load control.

I don稚 remember the details but, I believe we sold our old fashioned electro mechanical meters, in volume, for about $30-$40 a piec, probably less.

I move to Oregon about 2005, buy a little farmette, 7 acres in the woods. 5 buildings, 2 different meters. The meter on the cow barn was at least 30 years old? It said Westinghouse on it. Westinghouse has been out of business for years!

Here痴 the good part. Our electric coop had the 2nd highest rates in the country. They also had the dubious honor of being Enron痴 first acquisition. Worse than all that, they rent you the meter for about $15/month.

So, that meter being about 360 months old, rented out at $15 a month brought them appx. $5500.00 for a meter that cost them $30.

Not bad, like your cable box.

It don稚 really matter, call it what you will, they are a govt. protected monopoly. They gonna get their money one way of the other, call it what you will.

Hard to think of competing power companies, how would that work, impossible. Too expensive, way too complicated, who owns the wires and poles etc etc. That痴 what Western Electric said about their phone monopoly, remember them?

Now, Remember when you paid for long distance? Who Remembers party lines? That cord, a wire coming out of the wall? You had 1 choice and only 1 choice and, who rented you a phone. Remember dial up?

Monopolies!

 

[Tomtint]

WOW that's a big bill you running ac 24/7..........

AC does run as needed. Its set on 72*..so if its hot..it runs. Another large draw is our irrigation system running off the well pump. It runs 8 hours a day every day. We have 16 zones hat get 1 hr each every other day.

 

[ultrarunner]

Meters! Anybody remember Westinghouse? A good man and a great company until the MBAs got their hands on it.

I was hired by Westinghouse in Raleigh NC, 1981. (Thatç—´ where Barney goes to party). The Meter Div. they hired a bunch of young engineers to develop remote reading/load control.

I don稚 remember the details but, I believe we sold our old fashioned electro mechanical meters, in volume, for about $30-$40 a piec, probably less.

I move to Oregon about 2005, buy a little farmette, 7 acres in the woods. 5 buildings, 2 different meters. The meter on the cow barn was at least 30 years old? It said Westinghouse on it. Westinghouse has been out of business for years!

Hereç—´ the good part. Our electric coop had the 2nd highest rates in the country. They also had the dubious honor of being Enronç—´ first acquisition. Worse than all that, they rent you the meter for about $15/month.

So, that meter being about 360 months old, rented out at $15 a month brought them appx. $5500.00 for a meter that cost them $30.

Not bad, like your cable box.

It don稚 really matter, call it what you will, they are a govt. protected monopoly. They gonna get their money one way of the other, call it what you will.

Hard to think of competing power companies, how would that work, impossible. Too expensive, way too complicated, who owns the wires and poles etc etc. Thatç—´ what Western Electric said about their phone monopoly, remember them?

Now, Remember when you paid for long distance? Who Remembers party lines? That cord, a wire coming out of the wall? You had 1 choice and only 1 choice and, who rented you a phone. Remember dial up?

Monopolies!

When it was all said and done after my first full year on Grid Tied Solar the utility sent me a check for for a couple of hundred dollars to cover the excess I sent to the grid... more than covered the meter minimum monthly fee.

The solar components came with the property but had never been commissioned... all the components are circa 2007-08 so the same size panels today would provide twice the output...

There are options... especially when grid power can be 34 cents a kW with all fees and taxes factored in.

Commercial power at the Hospital runs about 18 cents a kW right now... with 20 to 30k monthly power bill... (Small Hospital)

I still have rotary phones with cords coming out of the wall... and DSL which never went down when California had the Public Safety Power Shutoffs... I was the only one in the neighborhood with a working phone and it was my old rotary...

Losing grid power focused on a wireless weak point... no service especially for extended outages... new California bill will require backup power for cell sites... with providers saying it will increase costs... also site generators not preferred as solar with battery being preferred.

Funny thing with old Ma Bell is reliability was number one...

Have friends in the middle of nowhere 7 miles from the pavement off grid and no cell or TV signal... but they have rotary phones that work!!! Put in sometime in the 70's as part of a rural program.

 

[check]

Wow, and I thought I had it bad up here in God’s country. $714 (Canadian) for Apr-May-June (with the AC on A LOT). That’s only $510 US, or $170 per month.

 

[ultrarunner]

Just did the math for Mom's 360 kW monthly usage comes out to 32 cents kW... no wonder solar installs still booming

 

[check]

Just did the math for Mom's 360 kW monthly usage comes out to 32 cents kW... no wonder solar installs still booming

Whaat?! Isn’t that over $1000 for one month?

 

[CADplans]

Whaat?! Isn稚 that over $1000 for one month?

360 X $0.32 = $115

It is not unusual for low kW/month users to pay more per kW,, someone has to pay to replace the poles,,,

 

[rangerfredbob]

I don't have the most electric stuff but do have a well and pumped septic (the drain field is up hill about 5' and 300' away), the water softener system leaks like a sieve out the cleanout port (it's on the short list... but even the short list is long...) and the only A/C in the house is a in room unit with a window port. In the winter we have the wood stove for primary source with wall inserts and the same in room A/C is a heat pump so it heats upstairs. With that said, year round my power bill is $100-175 with average around $130