"Energy Efficient" Nonsense !

[Timothy]

But I'm paying 20 cents per kwh to your 10 cents...Az is pretty low too...

We here in the Northeast are getting boned pretty regularly and I have Millstone, Plymouth and Seabrook Nuclear Power Stations within 100 miles of my house.

[billt]

During the 6 extreme temperature months of the year our power bill is $90-120.

What do you mean by "extreme temperature"? Here it's 113 to 118 in the Summer.   Bill T.

[david86440]

But I'm paying 20 cents per kwh to your 10 cents...Az is pretty low too...

We here in the Northeast are getting boned pretty regularly and I have Millstone, Plymouth and Seabrook Nuclear Power Stations within 100 miles of my house.

Try California if you want really cheap energy rates! ................not.

We have tier pricing, our last bill we hit the $0.40352/kwh rate

Funny thing is we are using less with our new "Smart" meter. We heard horror stories about them but we are happy with ours.

At our house in AZ it's $0.075/kwh

[Badgersmilk]

What do you mean by "extreme temperature"? Here it's 113 to 118 in the Summer.   Bill T.

OK, I bow to the hellishness of Arizona!    Extreme temperatures here are (this years been worse for us all) 90-100 hot days, and 40-30 on the low side...  I hadn't taken into consideration your a/c unit is attempting to change the atmosphere of Mars.  

Don't you guys get earthquakes there as well?  WTF?  You beat yourself with a whip for laughs to?    Plenty of beach houses here you know!

Not sure what our KW per hour rate is.  Have to check next time the bill rolls around.

They make up for it all by charging us 9-11% sales tax (even on food).  

[TAB]

You know I do energy audits for a living right?   


Most of the green stuff is crap, CFLs and solar are number 1 and 2( you pick which is which)  for being "green"



If your price per kwh did not change, did they install a digital meter( some times called smart meters)?  If so they track WHen you use power and charge accordingly.  peak time power use= more per kwh.

[Sponsor]

[billt]

If your price per kwh did not change, did they install a digital meter( some times called smart meters)?  If so they track WHen you use power and charge accordingly.  peak time power use= more per kwh.

I went on that "plan" several years back. It is based on "On Peak" and "Off Peak" usage. For us it works out pretty well because there is just the two of us and we can adapt. For example in the Summer months the "On Peak" hours start in the early afternoon when cooling demand is at it's highest. During the Winter peak hours are in the early morning due to heating demands. So I adjust the time I run my pool filter, and Melanie adjusts her clothes and dish washing to conform. It's easy to do and it does save a few bucks.

Instead of a meter with all of those gears and wheels, you get one with a LCD readout that makes no sense what so ever. The only thing I change twice a year is the timer on my pool pump. Of course your heating and cooling you cannot adjust, but everything else can be.   Bill T.

[TAB]

Have you  though about a evap cooler?  If used correctly they can save you alot on your cooling.  One of the few "old" green ideas that actually makes alot of sense power wise atleast.

[Rastus]

Have you  though about a evap cooler?  If used correctly they can save you alot on your cooling.  One of the few "old" green ideas that actually makes alot of sense power wise atleast.

Swamp cooler?  It is an old idea but not an old green idea.  The old part is there wasn't A/C and in the last few decades it was an alternative as to being less expensive than A/C...when you have the water.  They are all over the Farmington, Aztec Durango area where I used to work and it didn't start out being a green idea.  A misspeak on your part I'm sure, but it shows how propaganda can creep into one's thinking. 

[billt]

Have you  though about a evap cooler?  If used correctly they can save you alot on your cooling.  One of the few "old" green ideas that actually makes alot of sense power wise atleast.

We had a 2 Stage Mastercool with upduct discharge in our house in Lake Havasu City. It works well, and with the upducts it allowed you to run the system with the windows closed, and discharge the air through the attic which really kept the attic temperatures down.

The problem in Phoenix is the dew point is much higher during the Monsoon season, which greatly cuts down on the days you can run it. If you have a dew point over 40 degrees, it can really muck up your house, and worse rust your guns! Evaporative coolers are the greatest destroyer of firearms in the state of Arizona. People run them when the dew point is too high trying to save money, and the indoor relative humidity can climb way too high, causing guns to easily rust, walls to sweat, and mold to form.

The other issue with them is constant service and leaking. All that controls the water input on even the most expensive units is a cheap little float switch, (valve), that can calcify and leak quickly. The pads require replacement every year, sometimes twice a year. In the Winter if it gets really cold, the water line on the roof can freeze and break causing even more problems. New home builders don't even offer them anymore. About the only place I could see one would be in the garage. In the Summer if you park 2 hot cars in a 2 car garage the temp can easily hit 130 inside your garage. An evap cooler would help get rid of that heat, and you could discharge it into your attic which would make your A/C run less. But I don't think I would install another one in my home unless energy cost went completely off the chart.  Bill T.

[Pathfinder]

That may be true in North Dakota Path, but its not in Arizona and Florida. People flock here every day, and to keep up with the ever increasing demand, power companies have to build new plants (which is a regulatory nightmare) and buy power from over the grid. Both are costly. Here, they actually save money when folks use less. In your neck of the woods, with a stable or shrinking population, I'd expect them to be flogging 1,000 watt floodlights for your yard and encouraging you to set your thermostats at 80 degrees in winter and 70 degrees in the summer to bring in more cash.
FQ13

OK, so we've established that you can't spell worth a damn, you're a faux libertarian, and now that you are geographically ignorant too!  

ND's population is growing. OK, it is small - I used to giggle over the fact that FL had 3 times more people on Medicaid alone (1.8  million) than we have people in the entire state (620k at the time) - but we are also one of 2, maybe 3 states with a budget surplus, and our unemployment is 3%. People are flocking here in droves. So, yeah, we have less than 700,00 people, but so what? Our power gets sold on the open market, so like others have said, we have to buy back from the freakin' world what we produce.