[sophieuliano]

Until today, I was operating under the assumption that if I used my dishwasher, washing machine etc during the off-peak hours (which for some reason, I thought was after 9pm at night), I would be saving money. After calling my utility company today, I learned that there is no such thing as "off-peak" hours! Most everyone in the U.S. is on a flat-rate system, so it makes no difference what time you use your energy. This seems ludicrous to me. In an age when we should all be encouraged to save energy, it would make sense to have a tier system, where concerned citizens can choose to save money and energy by using these appliances at certain time. No wonder there are black-outs during the August dog days in Southern California when everyone is using A.C. as well as all their guzzling appliances the same time. Does anyone have a utility company that offers a different system?
Many companies are talking about "Smart Grid Technology" in the future where there will be communication through broadband powerlines to the utility company and customers will be able to choose "smart" times to run their energy. But that's sometime in the future!

[horselover]

Shucks. And I thought peak hours were from 11am to 4pm every day. Well, at least that's what our electricity company said.

[sophieuliano]

what is your local utility company? I'm interested to know because there are some variations. Mine is DWP Los Angeles. Many people think that there are off-peak hours and will be suprised if you actually call and ask! You can have a special meter installed that will allow you the off-peak hour option and they will install free of charge but only certain customers are allowed to have it. All very strange!

[horselover]

I'm in Canada and it's called Toronto Hydro.

[3plus3]

That really bites, I thought it was that way as well. My electric bill is really ridiculous and I am trying to find ways to get it down.

[echos]

I also pay an outrageous electric bill each month. I do try to conserve, but with 6-kids and all that laundry, I have a time of it.

[Roguegal]

Originally Posted by sophieuliano

Does anyone have a utility company that offers a different system?
Many companies are talking about "Smart Grid Technology" in the future where there will be communication through broadband powerlines to the utility company and customers will be able to choose "smart" times to run their energy. But that's sometime in the future!

A friend of mine just moved out to Arlington west of Phoenix, Arizona and she has off-peak hours. After 9 p.m. parade goes from .15 down to .05 cents per kilowatt hour. The company she uses is APS. Red Hat is find out if SRP has a same deal.

[Simon47]

Out here in the country we still call it Ontario Hydro. We are damn lucky in ntario I inderstand since our hydro is subsidized. I did some research a while back when the marketing arm of hydro tried to sell me a 5 yr plan and hydro still hasn't gone as high as they said it was going to. Without subsidies our hydro here would be about 13 cents a kilowatt hr. I read a report about the cost reported for Nuclear at about 5.5 cents which was recanted and new figures put it between 8-11 cent kwh without subsidies.

consumers that use less than 250,000 kilowatt hours per year, and consumers in the municipal, university, school and hospital sectors which will be 5.3 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the first 600 kWh they use each month (750kWh for non-residential customers,) and 6.2 cents per kWh for electricity used per month over this amount. This will be reflected on the "Electricity" line on consumers' bills. From November to April the change to the higher electricity rate will be above 1000kWh. This is up from 4.3 cents per kilowatt hour in 2003, which in 2004 increased to 4.7 cents per kilowatt hour on the first 750 kilowatt hours of electricity consumed per month and 5.5 cents above that, and increased again in 2005 to 5.0 cents per kWh and 5.8 cents for everything over 750 kWh.

globeandmail.com: Ontario's electricity

The disconnect between cost and price for most of the last century resulted in Ontario Hydro amassing a debt of over $25-billion - that's $2,000 for every man, woman and child in Ontario. Currently, a typical residential customer pays an additional $7.50-a-month toward this debt and all the taxes and profits of the Ontario Hydro successor companies - Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One - as well as all the taxes paid by Ontario's more than 90 local electric distribution utilities, are dedicated to paying it off.

Originally Posted by horselover

I'm in Canada and it's called Toronto Hydro.

[Tag]

We dont have any such off-peak hours here to reduce the energy bills. If we did, everybody would be using those times & there would probably be no off peak hours!

[horselover]

Now I don't pay for electricity. I don't rent a house anymore. Solves my problem for the time being.