Electricity costs on the rise

jim lockard

3.87 cents per KW want me to box it up and ship it to ya? J.Lockard

GW

W Mass is up there

I have oil heat/HW, elec stove (average use) and dryer (4 person family).

Got a $100 elec bill... wow.

Perhaps I'll try donwsizing my 26-99 pump for the radiant.

18.2 cents per KW.

can anyone top that?

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Unknown

Hi Gary

I`m in Ontario Canada and just got mine, 5.50 per KW, of course "delivery charges", and "regulatory charges"(whatever that is), along with "Debt Retirement" charges are extra, could we lucky or what? Sounds like your getting ripped!, or hang on,,,,,,maybe its us?

Dave

Brad White

Twenty Cents in Boston

by the time we add in delivery charges (it must come in by truck but we never hear it), taxes, fees, graft, it adds up.

I have a firm grip on my ankles.

Chris_82

if this isn't bad enough,...

havent heard any grumblings about the still high price of CU? Aparently my understanding is that there is NOT a shortage but the commodities brokers that got burnt by the actions of a few finacial types in (name a forign country) still feel they haven't recouped their losses and untill they make umpteen billions prices will still stay over what the stuff is worth. And or many in the wholsale end of things found out just how much the market is wiling to bear? Any truth to this? Personally when my penny collection was worth more in its weight than face value I ran down to the junk, err, salvage recyclers for some ready cash.

J.C.A._3

Hey Brad....

Hold them ankles tight !

I don't know about where you are...but for most of the surrounding communities by me..National Grid(GREED?), just bought up the gas supplier.

Hey, wait a minute here...Didn't Regan "de-regulate" the industry...to stop monopolies and encourage competition? OOPS. They've done it again!
Shave your head and enter re-hab.(throw a few hissy fits while you're at it...it failed)

Did I say that out loud? (BIG CHUCKLE!) Chris

m dewolfe

well.....After much debate with my wife tonight over dinner I threw out the numbers to go solar. Yes a daunting task but we just cant keep burning all of the dino juice and hoping that things will get better. sooo 14 55watt panels, 24 batterys, inverter and all the misc hardware to make this thing work will be on order shortly. we plan to just run all of our lighting and misc loads to start and then....who knows...maybe we yank out the meter all together. Watch for photos...Mark

Unknown

And here we are

sittin' pretty with a rebate from LIPA ........

A 2 buck rebate .

We should count our lucky stars they didn't raise the rates , umm , I mean " surcharge " again .

Unknown

Hey Mark,

can you run a line up here? Taxes and "debt retirement" charges kill us! I wonder what Thomas Edison would think!

Dave

m dewolfe

solar

I am debating about a propane modcon and a tankless domestic water heater. I just think that we are slowly becoming a world of extrodinary waste....I have been dreaming of a off grid home for some time now but I have small children right now its not practicle. When I was first married my house was about 500 square feet and the furnace had cracked hx so I yanked it out and planned to replace it before winter came around. wellll 4 years and 14 cords of wood later..no broken pipes..my inlaws did think their little sweetheart had married grizzley Adams!

I think back to the day I finished all of the gas piping and hung the thermostat and said "look honey..automatic heat".....this was back in 1991..

Frenchie

Right on!

You said out loud what many people think. The Britney analogy is priceless!

joel_19

electric

yup getting out of hand actually Gary 100$ aint too bad , we've got lots of clients topping 200-300 in the winter and that can be over 500$ in the summer . There is bucks to be made if we can figure out how to save them . my house my electric bills now exceed my heat bills and I've only got one fridge not 3 and all CFL bulbs.

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Uni R_3

Come on Dave...

Even with all the BS charges, especially a goods and services tax on a debt retirement that predates the imposition of the tax, it's still under 10 cents CDN / 9 cents US. It's a bargain if you ask me.

GW

my numbers

I divided the dollars spent into the KW used; I can care less what the delivery charges are.... I only care what I'm writing on the check!

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jp_2

do little more research

24 batteries? sounds like you need to do some more research here.

thats a lot of bettery for 770 watts of panel. I think a lrger watt panel is a little cheaper than a whole bunch of little ones.

have you changed over to all compact florscent lights?

Mike D_7

electric rate

Brookfield CT, CT Light & Power.
I get the same type of bill. Everything "A La Carte". When I divided my KW use into the bill, the total was 19 cents per KWH.
Good thing we have dergulation, or my bill would be high.

Brad White_9

Exactly as I did, Gary.

When the companies tell you their per kWH rate, it is deceptively small. As you did, I took the check amount divided by kWH used. Ouch.

Part of it is the basic minimum charge because you have a meter and an account. Your first few kWH are at one rate, second block at another then you get a separate rate above that, ostensibly to help larger users. Which means small users, those who conserve, pay more per unit. Makes you wonder what they think motivates folks!

wsdave

$100???

Man I would KILL for a $100 monthly electric bill.

Seriously - I'm from West Springfield and only use electric for lights and cooking. My bills are between $110 - $125 a month with Western Mass Electric.

Gee - gotta convince the wife to get rid of the 2 upright freezers downstairs - LOL - yeah right!!!!

Dave

Brad White_9

That was funny, Mike!

I took your last sentence as tongue in cheek and a good one

At once I am all for deregulation but only when done in daylight. Otherwise it is price fixing which, if you or I did it, would land us in jail. When government entities do it, it is called "Conservation".

The downside of regulation is when government dictates the price of any commodity in what is otherwise a free market. When California (Kah-Li-For-Nee-Ah) dictated an electric rate ceiling under Governor Gray Davis, refused to allow new electric generation permits within the state, the companies providing or importing power from out of state had a choice: Sell at the stated maximum price at a loss (price being below their cost) or not sell it at all. Brownouts became blackouts.

California even went so far as to sue providers to sell electricity at below their cost and thankfully lost in court. Imgagine being told to install a heating system at less than your cost under penalty of fines, imprisonment or other sanctions?

As Barry Goldwater used to say, "The government big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away." Be careful what you wish for....

Robert O'Brien

On LI

21.2 c KWH in August 06. 20.9 c KWH in Oct06. 19.8c KWH as of last bill.
And I still see electric water heaters on a weekly basis!

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ALH_4

deregulation

Here, people are a little bitter about the way deregulation happened. But we are a state with an energy surplus, and some shady Butte politics were apparently involved.

Constantin

... to be fair...

... a lot more than just preventing new plants being built in CA was going on at the time. For one, PG&E and SoCal Edison were allowed to write the legislation that "unlocked" the CA electricity market (while protrecting their monopolies, of course). One of the most damaging provisions was prohibiting the T&D utilities from engaging in long-term supply contracts.

Combine that with documented market tampering by generators, electricity traders, etc. and you have a recipe for destruction. By forcing the market to depend 100% on the spot market for power, market manipulation becomes that much more attractive.

Consider that the conditions on the ground In CA cannot have changed much since those brownouts... power plants take a while to build, come on stream, etc. yet CA has not had nearly the kinds of issues as they had under that market regimen.

I propose that the market incentives at the time were a prime reason for CA to experience the kinds of issues they did. Give the market perverted incentives and the market will respond by engaging in perverted behavior.

Ken_40

In northern VT...

We get juice from a "Co-OP"! A "not for profit," local amalgamation that charges 15-cents /KW and claims to use:
50% hydro (presumably from Hydro Quebec), 40% off grid, 9% Nuke and .1 (point one)% wind.

They admit to investing in a energy consortium from moneys received for selling one of the former "partners in southern VT at a rate of 15+% annual return.

I just got a 15% rate increase, and they put my money into a 15% "investment."

I called the utility that pays 15+% return and they told me I could not invest and they had no investments anyhow. Someboidy's lying (;-o(

Which shell is the pea actually under?

LarryC

Western Mass Electric bill

Doesn't that sorta make you wish they did not shut down Yankee Rowe, Connecticut Yankee, and Millstone nuke plants? Vermont Yankee is still up and running for a little while longer.

Oh well,

LarryC

jp_2

Regulation is Great!!!!

until the government tells YOU, you are charging too much money for your services, then lets hear the compliants come in!

Ken_40

Larry,

Is PSNH/NE Seabrook reactor still up and running? Or did the TH's sue that one into obvlivion too?

LarryC

Seabrook

Unit 1 is still up and running, but they gave up on finishing Unit 2 and now it is roofed over and being turned into a storage warehouse.

D Murphy

You'll love this...

My dad had his house built back in 1975. Mass Eelectric at that time (energy crunch) offered newly built homes a "special" rate to go all electric. My father bit and took it. So, his house has each room with an individual self-contained (glycol) electric baseboard unit. I think it wa about 10 years ago, Mass Elecric got rid of that rate and chrged him the standard rate (R-1 I think) Here's the kicker...I bought his house 2 years ago when mom passed. My electric bills are about $850 per month December thru March.

So, all you guys here what would it take to convert to a high efficiency baseboard system? ($$) ballpark! I know it's sight unseen for all of you...heres some stats on the house. Gambrel - floors with a finished basement. each floor is 1120 square feet. House is elevated off the street roughly 15-18 feet so a gas line might be difficult. I've done the heat load calcs about 75,000 btu/h. This is not something I can afford right now...(however in what I pay for elec most would argue that I could) I'm on the North Shore of Massachusetts (inside 128).

Though you guys might get a laugh out of this....

GW

Dave

where in the world are you? I'm up the road in easthampton. Where do you work?

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wsdave

Gary

I live in West Springfield right off route 5.

I work as a Building Equipment Mechanic for the Postal Service. I've worked in HVAC for about 30 years between Navy and Post Office.

Dave

mtfallsmikey

Hey Mr. Lockard

Are you in Winchester? Think I've seen your truck around. And if you are referring to Allegheny Power rates, don't forget the fuel utilization charge they tack on to the bill!

Steamhead (in transit)

Baltimore area

On my last bill we paid 15.7 cents per KWH, all taxes and fees included. This reflects last summer's huge rate increase that went into BGE's CEO's golden parachute, which is one reason we have a new Governor!

I'm told that when people see their CEO on the street they call him a thief!

Natural gas is running $1.75 per therm once you figure in all the taxes and fees, oil from my supplier $1.77 for 100,000 BTU's worth. Roughly neck-and-neck, despite BGE's and other utilities' efforts to make gas look substantially cheaper by neglecting to include those taxes and fees in their advertised price per therm. They apparently are never prosecuted for violating false-advertising laws as we would be.

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Mitch_4

HOLY C**P BATMAN

> My dad had his house built back in 1975. Mass

> Eelectric at that time (energy crunch) offered

> newly built homes a "special" rate to go all

> electric. My father bit and took it. So, his

> house has each room with an individual

> self-contained (glycol) electric baseboard unit.

> I think it wa about 10 years ago, Mass Elecric

> got rid of that rate and chrged him the standard

> rate (R-1 I think) Here's the kicker...I bought

> his house 2 years ago when mom passed. My

> electric bills are about $850 per month December

> thru March.

>

> So, all you guys here what would

> it take to convert to a high efficiency baseboard

> system? ($$) ballpark! I know it's sight unseen

> for all of you...heres some stats on the house.

> Gambrel - floors with a finished basement. each

> floor is 1120 square feet. House is elevated off

> the street roughly 15-18 feet so a gas line might

> be difficult. I've done the heat load calcs about

> 75,000 btu/h. This is not something I can afford

> right now...(however in what I pay for elec most

> would argue that I could) I'm on the North Shore

> of Massachusetts (inside 128).

>

> Though you guys

> might get a laugh out of this....



at $850 / month, get a home equity loan, finance a high efficiency mod con install and hydronic baseboard, bank the savings in a RRSP, pay for the install in no time and retire on the savings...

Mitch_4

HOLY C**P BATMAN

at $850 / month, get a home equity loan, finance a high efficiency mod con install and hydronic baseboard, bank the savings in a RRSP, pay for the install in no time and retire on the savings...

PS_3

Energy Spreadsheet

I use this spreadsheet to track my energy use and costs. Enter site specific data ONLY where the font is blue.

Note the savings in fuel consumption from replacing my old, oversized CI boiler with a Vitodens and constant circulation! Depending on which years used in comparison - I have calculated normalized savings of 32 - 47%.

PS_3

Energy Spreadsheet

Oops.

Keith_8

Out of control

I thought our bill of $189 last month was disgusting. Usually I feel a little better when I compare last years bill with this year. Normally I'll see less consumption this year and the higher bill is due to a rate increase. Not in February, we managed to consume more.

The family looks at me like I'm a moron when I proclaim the cloths will be dried the old fashioned way, on a cloths line. 10 reasons from them why this is crule and unusual punishment. I'm hanging them mind you, (the wash that is). Lets give it a try for a couple months and see what happens? You would think they were paying the bill. If dad spends more money on electric then there is less money for something else.

It's official, deregulation in CT is a failure.

Keith

brucewo1b

Just explain that in this world of prescious resourses

That solar powered HW and heat is the way to go but Solar Powered Dryers are here and now.

brucewo1b

Just explain that in this world of prescious resourses

That solar powered HW and heat is the way to go but Solar Powered Dryers are here and now, or is this just another not in my backyard deal ;-)