Anyone familiar with electric companies?

[MaryCatherine]

Does anyone know how they come up with our light bill? I know darn well that I've used SSOOOOO much less electricity than last month, but there hardly is any difference. I really think they just pull numbers out of their.....hats and stick them on my bill.

 

Does anyone have any inside information?

 

I'm in Texas and I use TXU. I know that now companies can compete for business but I don't have the first idea of how to find another company.

 

Thanks

 

Anne

[KingM]

If you've got a meter, you can go read it yourself and monitor. Also, since a good chunk of your electrical usage is zombie usage by plugged in appliances and things that are running automatically, all the time, it can be difficult to lower your electric bill significantly just by turning the TV on less or whatever.

 

There are ways to reduce zombie usage, but that's a subject for another thread.

[LMA]

If you've got a meter, you can go read it yourself and monitor. Also, since a good chunk of your electrical usage is zombie usage by plugged in appliances and things that are running automatically, all the time, it can be difficult to lower your electric bill significantly just by turning the TV on less or whatever.

 

There are ways to reduce zombie usage, but that's a subject for another thread.

 

Yes, we found unplugging anything with a display really helped - microwaves to TV to the stove with the clock. However, crawling underneath something to plug in the DVD player is annoying so we left everything plugged in.

 

Around here in MA, you can buy electricity from another company but you have to sign a contract at a set rate for two years. The deliverer is still the local company.

[OhM]

OK - I've examined commercial and industrial rate structures pretty closely for different clients, but I've not actually ever dug into residential rates. :D

I'm about to run out the door, so I'll say what I can quickly!

 

Here's a quick explanation of a typical residential electric rate structure.

 

As you can see, part of your bill is a flat rate, not dependent on your usage. And usage cost is on a sliding scale - less expensive for higher tiers, so you're trimming a smaller component of your usage cost (not proportional.)

 

HTH - I'll be checking back later and can maybe explain more then!

[newbie]

I think ours they prorate. So summer, does not look so bad w/ ac but in winter it will be the same bill, even though not as much elec, b/c we are on propane.

[Wyndie]

Yes, we found unplugging anything with a display really helped - microwaves to TV to the stove with the clock. However, crawling underneath something to plug in the DVD player is annoying so we left everything plugged in.

 

We put all our electrical stuff (tv, dvd player, cd player, computer, etc) on surge protectors and we just shut all the protectors off before heading to bed. You can place the surge protectors up where they're easier to reach. :)

[OhM]

Had another thought - our elec utility used to have a system where they read the meter every other month, and estimated based on history for the months in between. If yours does this, and your changes have been within the last 6 wks, you may not see a difference until the actual reading?

[Mommyof4ks]

 

http://www.powertochoose.com/ is a good place to start looking for a new provider.