TOU vs. Tiered Rate

Ventucky Red

Ventucky Red

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Has anyone here gone from a regular rate program for their electric bill to a time-of-use type of billing?

Did you see any savings? I am considering this; however, with So Cal Edison, once you switch, you need to stay there for the year.

Thoughts?
 
Ventucky Red said:
Has anyone here gone from a regular rate program for their electric bill to a time-of-use type of billing?

Did you see any savings? I am considering this; however, with So Cal Edison, once you switch, you need to stay there for the year.

Thoughts?
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Yes, and I think I'm saving money, but difficult to say at this point because I also switched at the end of summer.

If you have smart thermostats, make sure that the one you use has a deal with your electric supplier. I had to manually program mine and bypass a lot of the actual smart features, because my electric company doesn't kick back to my thermostat company.
 
Also, keep in mind, that the peak times are peak times for a reason. So you have to be willing to make a conscious effort to use less electricity during those times. My wife was annoyed by the stickers that I put on all of our large appliances that said, "Do not use between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m."
 
Lindberg said:
Also, keep in mind, that the peak times are peak times for a reason. So you have to be willing to make a conscious effort to use less electricity during those times. My wife was annoyed by the stickers that I put on all of our large appliances that said, "Do not use between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m."
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Sounds like a good reason to switch to gas.
 
We have the variable rate system, it's automatic on our thermostats, and tells us the rate the day prior. I think the higher rate is from about 2-7 pm, really only during the summer. We can easily plan around it, just not for example running the dishwasher or the clothes washer/dryer between those hours.

I can't tell if we're saving money because it's been this way since we moved into this house 10 years ago. But it sure seems like we must be, those peak rates can be 4x (or more) the non-peak rates.
 
Lindberg said:
If you know how to use gas for air-conditioning and refrigeration, I'm all ears.
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Lindberg said:
If you know how to use gas for air-conditioning and refrigeration, I'm all ears.
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You don't often see them, but gas refrigerators have been around for a long time. Once I rented a place that had a gas refrigerator and an electric range. Unconventional,
but they did the job just fine. RVs often have refrigerators that work on either propane or electricity.

Dave
 
Lindberg said:
If you know how to use gas for air-conditioning and refrigeration, I'm all ears.
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Ammonia vapor chillers are a thing. I once did a design for a SoCal house that was going to use thermal solar to drive the chiller(s), with condensing gas backup. Very attractive during $1/kWhr days, but historically, those are few and far between... owner was concerned they might become more frequent going forward. That house wasn't built due to other life decisions. Same owner now planning a desert home.
 
Ventucky Red said:
Has anyone here gone from a regular rate program for their electric bill to a time-of-use type of billing?

Did you see any savings? I am considering this; however, with So Cal Edison, once you switch, you need to stay there for the year.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Is that a recent change? Used to be you got one 'do over' in the first year.

we went with a whole-house battery, and volunteered for demand response. Stayed behind the meter as a UPS for regulatory simplicity.

Paul
 
I have SCE's TOU-D-Prime, but I have solar with a battery under California's NEM 2.0, so I get paid retail for pushing extra electrons to the grid during off peak, and run as much as I can of the house off the solar and battery during peak. What sucks is can't add more panels at this point without cutting my reimbursement rate a lot, and I just bought an EV, so I have some new numbers to crunch. I think SCE has a tool that will look at your past year's use to see if you would be better off with at TOU plan, and then you can self-assess if you have the discipline to limit your use during peak hours if it would be a marginal benefit to switch.
 
I somehow got enrolled in one of those programs and during the day it was running the fan and not the AC, I got so ****ed off it was hot and humid and I was sweating, even though I turned the smart thermostat at a lower setting it wasn’t doing anything. Took awhile and several calls but finally got that fixed. Never again lol
 
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