Saving money on your light bill

st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
Lionden said:
As far as I know Stow its regular prices during peak and about 1/2 during off peak and YES you do have to call they give you a special meter that counts usage in peak and off peak hours. Usually they try to talk you down from that plan cause of course they don't make as much, they seem to know about us growers, I run 18 thousand watts of lights plus split ac(3)and dehumidifiers(4) plus fans, average bill before time of day pricing was 1400 after its down to 1100 so it does make a difference not too sure if it would make a difference on smaller ops though
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It's not regular prices for me during peak if I switch. I checked with DTE. They will bump my peak rate up by 50% if I switch to this, so I'm not sure it would be worth the savings of running my lights during off peak hours. It would be difficult for me to not use power during peak hours with a litter of kids running around the house.
 
slumdog80

slumdog80

Well-Known Member
DTE is only 10c per kwh in the winter right?

I think I would have moved to SW if I had known about those prices.
 
phizzion

phizzion

Well-Known Member
A word about 'smart meters,' hang on for the future. Once they are in place, you will see electricity being sold like gasoline, very wide swings. Oh, you want electricity at 5:00 pm on a 95 degree day? How about paying 10x to 20x times as a nice October fall day of say 55 degrees. 'Smart meters' can also be used to throttle down on electrical use in peak times. I would say anyone growing will make out cheaper by doing it at night, for a whole bunch of reasons. Only bad thing about it is your evenings are taken up, unless you like to stay up all night. Me personally, I've worked more midnight shifts than about anyone and I'm not into that anymore.
 
slumdog80

slumdog80

Well-Known Member
For mothers it works great. For vegging before flip I have not tried it, seems like it may slow things down too much.
 
gladstoned

gladstoned

Well-Known Member
I JUST switched my electricity plan. My shit was 14 cents kwh. I asked about off-peak pricing. I had them switch my meters and now from 8am to 8pm I pay 28 cents/kwh :o. 8pm - 8am 6 cents. :hump:.
I was supposed to start Nov 1st. (I ordered toward the beginning of Oct. I just got a bill for $1200. :shock::wall::cuss::finger:. I called them using my best what the fuck is wrong with you son of a bitches voice and they are re-fingering my bill and sending me out a new one. Now I'm trying to switch to 3rd shift living and I am just finding myself tired and drunk all the time. I've always been a morning person, but waking up at 3 or 4 is bullshit and staying up to 3-4 is pretty fucked up too. lmao.
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
Here is the breakdown of a bill of mine from a couple months ago. My head hurts trying to make sense of it. The 10c figure is what I was quoted over the phone a year or so ago. Charges may have gone up since then. Not sure

Current Charges
Power Supply Charges:
Power Supply Energy 493 KWH @ 0.06912 34.08
2123 KWH @ 0.08257 175.30
Renewable Energy Plan Surchg 3.00
Other Power Supply Surcharges* 18.44
Delivery Charges:
Service Charge 6.00
Distribution 2616 KWH @ 0.05003 130.88
Energy Optimization 2616 KWH @ 0.002711 7.09
VHWF Credit −1.59
LIEAF Factor 0.99
Other Delivery Surcharges** 30.07
Residential Michigan Sales Tax 16.13
Total DTE Electric Company Current Charges 420.39
 
DemonTrich

DemonTrich

Well-Known Member
all these numbers are making my head spin. I just moved into a new house in Macomb county. it has the old meters (2 of them actually, ????). would it benefit me (money wise) to have the smart meter installed and go on the "off peak plan", or am I gonna pay the same amount regardless of what I choose. I currently pay about 400.00 a month at my condo. I run 7pm-7am flower and 5pm-11am veg.
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
DemonTrich said:
all these numbers are making my head spin. I just moved into a new house in Macomb county. it has the old meters (2 of them actually, ????). would it benefit me (money wise) to have the smart meter installed and go on the "off peak plan", or am I gonna pay the same amount regardless of what I choose. I currently pay about 400.00 a month at my condo. I run 7pm-7am flower and 5pm-11am veg.
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I think it would benefit most people to go with a smart meter and run your lights during off-peak hours as long as you're cool with doing your gardening at night or early morning. The kicker is that they whack you during peak hours with a 50%+ bump in rates for any electricity that you use. I decided against it because of having 3 kids. I would get killed in the summer running the A/C during the day and having TV's going, computers, dishwasher, laundry, etc. During the fall/winter when the kids are at school for most of the day it would save me money for sure.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Holy shit AC!! Wow that would kill you at daytime rates!

Any south face should have a solar panel at least considered.
 
Usernamewastaken

Usernamewastaken

Well-Known Member
I don't want any more focus on my usage than there already is so I'm not looking Into smart meters...

i want my meters as dumb as humanly possible
 
zeerocool

zeerocool

Well-Known Member
IL has a RTTP ([FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Residential Real-Time Pricing) program where they come swap your meter with (not a smart meter) a meter that has the capability of recording time data. They require you enroll for a 12 month period. Basically the flat rate is about 10 cents, but with RTTP you pay the fluctuating real time market rate which you can monitor and they email you a prediction each day and real time warning when they cost goes over like 16 cents. The off peak rate between like 10 and 5 am is at around 1 to 2 cents and they claim goes negative at time to where you can actually make money for using electricity. Really the peak time is a between like 5 and 7 am and 5-7 pm. When you look at the historical averages the highest month is July with an actual average of 4 cents. However, you pay a flat rate of 9.9 cents. So in short if you use electricity when its cheap you can save a lot of money. You may pay a little higher rate in June and July but you make up for with 10 months of big savings.

Com-ed doesn't want everyone on this program. Its not advertised and you have to search to find it. Here is a link to the rates.

[/FONT]https://rrtp.comed.com/live-prices/[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] [/FONT]
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
zeerocool said:
IL has a RTTP (Residential Real-Time Pricing) program where they come swap your meter with (not a smart meter) a meter that has the capability of recording time data. They require you enroll for a 12 month period. Basically the flat rate is about 10 cents, but with RTTP you pay the fluctuating real time market rate which you can monitor and they email you a prediction each day and real time warning when they cost goes over like 16 cents. The off peak rate between like 10 and 5 am is at around 1 to 2 cents and they claim goes negative at time to where you can actually make money for using electricity. Really the peak time is a between like 5 and 7 am and 5-7 pm. When you look at the historical averages the highest month is July with an actual average of 4 cents. However, you pay a flat rate of 9.9 cents. So in short if you use electricity when its cheap you can save a lot of money. You may pay a little higher rate in June and July but you make up for with 10 months of big savings.

Com-ed doesn't want everyone on this program. Its not advertised and you have to search to find it. Here is a link to the rates.

https://rrtp.comed.com/live-prices/
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That looks great. Is that just an Illinois thing?
 
phizzion

phizzion

Well-Known Member
zeerocool said:
IL has a RTTP (Residential Real-Time Pricing) program where they come swap your meter with (not a smart meter) a meter that has the capability of recording time data. They require you enroll for a 12 month period. Basically the flat rate is about 10 cents, but with RTTP you pay the fluctuating real time market rate which you can monitor and they email you a prediction each day and real time warning when they cost goes over like 16 cents. The off peak rate between like 10 and 5 am is at around 1 to 2 cents and they claim goes negative at time to where you can actually make money for using electricity. Really the peak time is a between like 5 and 7 am and 5-7 pm. When you look at the historical averages the highest month is July with an actual average of 4 cents. However, you pay a flat rate of 9.9 cents. So in short if you use electricity when its cheap you can save a lot of money. You may pay a little higher rate in June and July but you make up for with 10 months of big savings.

Com-ed doesn't want everyone on this program. Its not advertised and you have to search to find it. Here is a link to the rates.

https://rrtp.comed.com/live-prices/
Click to expand...
Com Ed is the most nuclear based utility in northern Illinois of anywhere in the US. I would think that they would have real low rates at night as nuclear plants are not backed down at night like some coal, natural gas plants. It's too hard on the equipment and reactor physics can get less than ideal in the core. Real time pricing to me is a real scarry thing. The utilities could shut plants down to drive the price of electricity up, on their own doing. Get rid of the supply, price goes up. Here in MI we all know how life sucks when the juice goes out.
 
gladstoned

gladstoned

Well-Known Member
gladstoned said:
I JUST switched my electricity plan. My shit was 14 cents kwh. I asked about off-peak pricing. I had them switch my meters and now from 8am to 8pm I pay 28 cents/kwh :o. 8pm - 8am 6 cents. :hump:.
I was supposed to start Nov 1st. (I ordered toward the beginning of Oct. I just got a bill for $1200. :shock::wall::cuss::finger:. I called them using my best what the fuck is wrong with you son of a bitches voice and they are re-fingering my bill and sending me out a new one. Now I'm trying to switch to 3rd shift living and I am just finding myself tired and drunk all the time. I've always been a morning person, but waking up at 3 or 4 is bullshit and staying up to 3-4 is pretty fucked up too. lmao.
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Fail.
I couldn't take it any longer. I had to switch back to normal hours.
Terrible idea. lmao.
 
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