Let's compare Kilowatt Hourly rates!

[yarsrevenge]

Curious as to how much variation in KWH there is around the country. California, my sympathy goes out to you.

I live in Bend, OR and mine is 0.065 in the winter slightly more in the summer.
-L

[Nanook]

I've designed my next system around these numbers:lol:

8 months of the year 0.0577 for the first 750 kwh, then down to 0.03891 kwh


4 summer months 0.0813 kwh



Nanook (who always exceeds 750 meesly kwh)

[yarsrevenge]

Nanook, your KWH goes down after a certain alloted hours (750)?
I've gotta' go look at my bill I wonder if mine drops too! I find the whole electric bill confusing and have never fully understood *all* of it.
-L

[john f]

0.046 to 0.055 KWH in Gainesville, Fl





john

[Eric Boerner]

.2744 a kilowatt hour in Southern California

[Eric Boerner]

Funny Nanook. Your power costs goes down when you use more energy. Ours goes up.

I think its something like:

.08 KWH for the first 100
.15 KWH for 101 to 250
.21 KWH for 251 to 500
Then .2744 beyond that.

All I know is I hit well beyond the 500+ mark every month. The price schedual is really silly actually.

[oz]

WOW, you're only paying 0.065 per KWH ? I think that's very cheap!

I live in Springfield, VA (Washington, D.C. area). It varies between $175 - close to $300 a month for me, a family of four.
Average is around $225, I think. My house is 2 story and a basement. And we have someone babysitting our kids at home during the day.

I can never figure out my electricity bill, its as bad as telephone bill.
Lookin at the bill...
There's a Distribution Service Charges, then First 800 kWh @ 2.233¢ per kWh
Over 800 kWh @ 1.260¢ per kWh then there's
Electricity Supply Charge:
for June – September
First 800 kWh @ 4.073¢ per kWh
Over 800 kWh @ 6.051¢ per kWh
for October – May
First 800 kWh @ 4.073¢ per kWh
Over 800 kWh @ 3.205¢ per kWh
then there's a fuel charge of each Electricity Supply kilowatthour used is subject to Fuel Charge Rider A, whatever that means.

And I thought deregulation was supposed to make it cheaper.
Too many Enron type crooks out there taking advantage of this.

[Eric Boerner]

Actually, his is only 6.5 cents a KWH.

Your's is super cheap too. Thats a great rate at 6.05 cents a KWH.

In Cali, it's 27 cents a KWH. If I used as much power as you do (sheshh $225 a month with those rates?) I'd pay over $900 a month in electricity.

[yarsrevenge]

>>>>If I used as much power as you do (sheshh $225 a month with those rates?) I'd pay over $900 a month in electricity.
Dooood, I'd quit if I was spending $900 a month! To think I thought my 100g was costing almost $30 a month was high! 450w HQi (3x 150w) and 80w actinics and pumps, heaters...
:eek1:
-L

[Wilafur]

depends on who your elec provider is. if you are with socal edison you are screwed.

luckily i am serviced by the municipal utility company and my rate stay at a flat 10.4 cents year round. nowhere as good as the rest of you folks in the boonies :D who get it for 6 cents but i will dealw ith it. :)

[rldavis]

Ours is .050 KWH right now. Man, I feel really lucky compared to some of you. I freak out in the summer when our bill gets over $200. I'm guessing that's the norm for a lot of people here every month. I'm not even going to mention what a gallon of gas is going for here today, but it's cheap. :)

[krish]

oz,
I live in Herndon, VA.
Our electricity bill comes to around $200 for a family of
3. It has been hitting the $180 - $200 mark for the last
several months due to the cold weather. This in spite of
being very conservative on the usage.
At one point of time, i was investigating the possibility
of shopping for providers and providing recommendation
to our community on the competitiveness of other provides.
well i was mistaken. The information that is out there is
not sufficient to make a move.
The power distribution
company is like the local phone companies. "We have the
lines, so we milk the cash cow."

A substantial cost in the invoice is the cost of distribution.
who cares about value added services provided by competing
suppliers :?

Internet service over your electrical outlets :D

-krish

[Tennsquire]

First 2000 KWH @ 0.06178
Over 2000 KWH @ 0.06817

It's an odd month when my bill exceeds $100, but then, gas heat and water keeps that down quite a bit.

[Little Reefer Boy]

OK, it's late and I can't think right now...

How do we figure out how much our tanks cost? That is, what's the math? :)

For instance, I use a MAG18 (140W I think) 24/7 and 440W VHO 8 hours/day.

I don't have my bill in front of me, but let's use $.05 for example.

Thanks!

[Mako]

4.7 first 1000KWH
5.7 after 1000KWH
Fuel Charge of 2.32 for every KWH

So around 7 cents for first 1000KWH and 8 cents for everything after.

JohnF - Did you forget to add the fuel charge in there? ;)

[3_high_low]

In Boston it's 0.06746/kWh.

[DocHoliday]

Man I feel like I'm getting ripped. (Sorry CA) I live in the Detroit area and pay .09325/kwH:rolleyes:

[clutchcargo]

3_high_low, I don't where you live in Boston, but I pay 0.12068 in Boston once you add up all the variable costs.
Cjh

[cthetoy]

Its a killer in California!!

Electricty $.27 kilowatt hour
Gas - $2.11 Gallon
Water bill (Only my wife and I and a small yard) $60 a month
Basic cable $55 a month

No wonder Im so broke to buy new corals

[BonsaiNut]

San Diego Gas and Electric:

0 - 326 kWh = $.13371 (I think this is for the people who live in studio apartments :))
327 - 424 = $.15862
425 - 652 = $.16787
653 - 978 = $.17694
979+ = $.19275

...and I live in Orange County at the upper tip of SDGE territory. Thank god we don't have California Edison. (Another 35% higher). On average, my bill is about $.18 per kWh (weighted average). We are delerious if we come in under $300 a month, without heat or AC.

[gcvt]

$0.11589 - $0.13321 Kwh in San Francisco.

[Little Reefer Boy]

Originally posted by Little Reefer Boy
OK, it's late and I can't think right now...

How do we figure out how much our tanks cost? That is, what's the math? :)

For instance, I use a MAG18 (140W I think) 24/7 and 440W VHO 8 hours/day.

I don't have my bill in front of me, but let's use $.05 for example.

Thanks!

So 440W VHO at 8 hours a day =

(440 / 1000 ) x 8H x .06 per KWH x 30 = $6.336 per month?

Is that right?

[wnfaknd]

we are all getting ripped off by So Cal Edison.
What a bunch of crooks, mainly due to the biggest idiot of all: Gray Davis.

[veng68]

$0.0577 Cdn per KWH = $0.0375 US

Cheers,
Veng68

[chicken]

GCVT, recheck your pg&e bill. Those are the base energy prices, if you keep looking down on your bill, you will notice the gray davis tax, I mean energy surcharge, which adds 5 cents - 11.5 cents per kWh depending on the range. Here is what my bill is. I live over in the east bay of SF. Long live Gray Davis and PG&E :/

0-390 Kwh 12.6 cents per
390-507 Kwh 14.3 cents per
507-780 Kwh 18.3 cents per
780-1170 Kwh 22.8 cents per
1170+ Kwh 24.8 cents per

I actually made it under $300 this month. I was proud of myself. Got the bill down to $299.89 :/

[theearthling]

With the energy surcharge, mine ranges from $.13 per Kwh to about $.25 per Kwh. I think it has gone down if that can be possible. I can't find the bill, but I think it used to range about a nickel higher per Kwh in each category. Here's the breakdown (nearly all my non-aquarium appliances are gas). Note that in the over 200% and 300% categories the surcharge is nearly as much as the base rate. :confused:

http://www.mindspring.com/~theearthling/aquarium/bill.jpg

[oz]

When I visited a friend in Bangkok, Thailand. A few years back, he had this gadget in the kitchen. I asked him about it and he was at first embarrased to say but later came out with it and said it was a gadget that regulate the electricity meter (that was outside his home) to whatever number he wanted and that he was ofcourse cheating on his electricity bill there. He said he knew quite a few people in Bangkok who were doing this and that he was approached by a Thai colleague at work (in Bangkok) who sold and installed for him this gadget. He told me being so hot in Bangkok and electricity being so high there too, he couldn't afford to pay (or didn't want to pay) and run the AC all day long. So with this gadget he had, he runs the AC all day but set it to pay as if he weren't.

I think he said he paid 10,000 Baht (about US $240). And their electricity is on 240v instead of 110v.

[topjimmy]

Here in Y-Town it's 4.5 cents per kwh. Not too bad I would say.

later

JimC.

[cthetoy]

Usage History - Usage Details (2,089 KWH total)

Charge Description Quantity Unit Charge Factor Amount
Basic Charge 33.00 DAYS $0.03 $1.09

Energy Chg Win Bsln 347.00 KWH $0.13 $45.14
1%-30% 104.00 KWH $0.15 $15.76
31%-100% 243.00 KWH $0.20 $47.88
101%-200% 347.00 KWH $0.24 $82.05
More Than 200% 1,048.00 KWH $0.26 $272.41


Energy Chg Total $464.33 :eek1:

[Sylock]

Yet another reason not to live in Cali. I love Michigan!!!

[wnfaknd]

The only thing keeping me here is the weather, however, with all these friggin' taxes I'm questioning if I should stay here or move elsewhere. And now the "People's Republic of Sacramento" wants to increase our taxes even further. The latest is increase gasoline tax (as if we dont pay enough) :mad2:

[3_high_low]

Originally posted by clutchcargo
3_high_low, I don't where you live in Boston, but I pay 0.12068 in Boston once you add up all the variable costs.
Cjh

I got that from the Nstar website. Now I go back and find different info on there; it says 4.95 cents per kWh....I should find my bill:hmm2:

http://www.nstaronline.com/index2.asp?lk=cust

[Salt-Reefer]

I'm in CA, in will be in SoCal Edison, Waiting for the house to finish. I have done ruff estimates on my electricity usage and this is just based on the 375gal reef,1500gal pond and Spa then added a little extra for daily house usage. I figure I will be paying about 500-600 a month in electrity, most of my bill will be in the .27 teir. Then if I add in for the summer months because it gets to the upper 90's to triple digits in the summer months and I have 3 AC units (not always running all 3 at the same time) who knows what it will be with that.

My answer to this problem is Solar Panels. I'm getting a system set up that will generate aprox 56-65kwh a day which will get me to zero for my bill or if there is a balance it wont be much because I will be on the TIME OF USE plan which they (SCE) will buy any excess electicity from me at current peak rates of I think .34 and during the off peak when I will need electricity from the grid it will be .07. The whole system is $76,000 California Energy Commision (CEC) is offering a rebate of $40,000 so the system will end costing me $36,000 which if I were paying on low side of $500 a month for electricity it will take 6 yrs for the system to pay for it self.

Anyways, CA sucks for electricity but I found a way to stick it to SCE!

[cratylus]

I live in Rex, GA (suburb of Atlanta). Here's how my electric rates break down:

October - May

0-650 kWh = $0.04385 per kWh
650-1000 kWh = $0.03763 per kWh
over 1000 kWh = $0.03704 per kWh

June - September

0-650 kWh = $0.04385 per kWh
650-1000 kWh = $0.07288 per kWh
over 1000 kWh = $0.07503 per kWh

[tdixon]

I live in Long Beach CA and I just received my electric bill today. $108.98 for 662 kwh. I guess that's not that bad. Although I look at last year at this time (w/o tank) and I used 362 kwh. Wow! I know these prices suck in California, but boy is it nice to cruise down to the beach on a day like today when it's a nice 65 degrees outside without a cloud in the sky!! 2 days ago it was 90 degrees!! I deliver water for a living and Cali is the place to be when the weather's like this!:)

[stereomandan]

With tax and securitization charge it is $.08 per KWH

Dan

[King Jason]

Originally posted by Eric Boerner
Funny Nanook. Your power costs goes down when you use more energy. Ours goes up.

I think its something like:

.08 KWH for the first 100
.15 KWH for 101 to 250
.21 KWH for 251 to 500
Then .2744 beyond that.

All I know is I hit well beyond the 500+ mark every month. The price schedual is really silly actually.

And somehow I always end up with a lot of kwh in the .2744 section! Gray Davis needs to go. I yearn for a day when my tank only costs $30 a month! I think my AmpMaster 3000 costs that all by itself!

[King Jason]

Originally posted by Sylock
Yet another reason not to live in Cali. I love Michigan!!!

Isn't the power out in half of Michigan and it's freezing cold!

[JB NY]

I pay about 0.12 cents. Last bill was pretty brutal.

http://www.cnidarianreef.com/posted/elecbill.jpg

:eek1: :eek1:

[Wilafur]

ouch joe. at least you aren't dealing with $0.27 some of us SoCal people have to contend with, otherwise your bill will be a whopping:

946.35 for just KWH used, no taxes or surcharges included.

[StirCrazy]

ours is 0.055 /KwH CDN so that works out to about 0.037 US. I find it weird how Ca is so high when they buy a large amount of power from us. I guess if the market is willing to pay the price they will charge it.. I would hate to pay that much..

Steve

[joefish]

Originally posted by JB NY
I pay about 0.12 cents. Last bill was pretty brutal.

http://www.cnidarianreef.com/posted/elecbill.jpg

:eek1: :eek1:
Hey Joe my monthly plan bill is $317.00
:eek2: :eek1: :eek2: :eek1: :eek2:

[Tadashi]

Not sure about the rate but my tank costs me an extra $30-$40 a month because I have to use A/C to keep the place at 78. Normally I would just shut off the A/C during the day to save energy.

I have changed my photo period from 0600 - 2000 to 1800 - 0900. This way the tank is on at night during the summer when it is cooler so the chillers do not kick in as much. Also I am not home during the day so I figured why waste the electricity for lights if I am not home. The neighbors probably think I am growing weed with purple/blueish lights on at odd hours. :D

[RooFish]

I love freedom, my parents pay for it. HAHAHAHA I don't pay jack, just the equipment.

[King Jason]

Originally posted by StirCrazy
ours is 0.055 /KwH CDN so that works out to about 0.037 US. I find it weird how Ca is so high when they buy a large amount of power from us. I guess if the market is willing to pay the price they will charge it.. I would hate to pay that much..

Steve

I don't think the market is "willing" to pay, but we don't really have another option. It's either Southern California Edison or....Southern California Edison...or live like the omish.

[StirCrazy]

How much was your power befor the deregulation?

Steve

[Tadashi]

I heard there was a reefer in Souther Cali that installed solar panels and only paid about $10 a month.

[King Jason]

Originally posted by Tadashi
I heard there was a reefer in Souther Cali that installed solar panels and only paid about $10 a month.

I've been looking into that, but it's a lot upfront (about 7-10 grand after rebates). As long as it does as advertised it would pay for itself in about 5 years.

[lllosingit]

Originally posted by tdixon
I live in Long Beach CA and I just received my electric bill today. $108.98 for 662 kwh. I guess thats not bad
Ouch, I used 1357 KWH in 28 days and my bill was $120.59
first 1000 is billed at .08152 and after that its .07254

[Tadashi]

Are those the solar panels that would move to face the sun or would they be fixed?

[greenman]

Dam I must be getting robbed....

NY Capital Area

2004 Kwh @ 10.4490


grrrrr

[oz]

Originally posted by greenman
Dam I must be getting robbed....
NY Capital Area
2004 Kwh @ 10.4490
grrrrr

Everything in NY area seem expensive. I heard however that fish and corals are cheaper in NY for some reason, is that true ? thanks.

[theearthling]

Originally posted by King Jason
I've been looking into that, but it's a lot upfront (about 7-10 grand after rebates). As long as it does as advertised it would pay for itself in about 5 years.

I think it's more like 30 grand for a 4KW system, which would probably be a hair too small for most people with loaded 75+ gallon tanks (if you consider you might want to run the washer, refrigerator or something else at the same time). I think that in general, if you buy a system that matches your energy consumption needs, they take about 30 years to pay for themselves (though probably less in more expensive areas). You just have to hope they last that long.:)

[King Jason]

Originally posted by theearthling
I think it's more like 30 grand for a 4KW system, which would probably be a hair too small for most people with loaded 75+ gallon tanks (if you consider you might want to run the washer, refrigerator or something else at the same time). I think that in general, if you buy a system that matches your energy consumption needs, they take about 30 years to pay for themselves (though probably less in more expensive areas). You just have to hope they last that long.:)

The upfront cost is ~20-30 grand but in CA you get huge rebates from the state which bring down the cost to 8-10 grand. There are a lot of options, but a 8-10 grand (after rebates) system would be able to create ~12 kW a day (if sunny). You can run a search on the net for companies that supply these systems to get all the details. There have also been a few companies recommended in the Kiplinger letter.

[King Jason]

Here is one example. These systems do ~15 kW a day and the final cost comes to about 16 grand:

http://www.solar-tec.com/CAStateSolarRebate.htm

[King Jason]

And with that system at $16000, and my monthly bill being ~$300, it would take me $4.4 years to pay off. That is if it was able to "make" as much electricity as I needed per day. I think my last bill said I use on average something like 10kW a day.

[JB NY]

Originally posted by joefish
Hey Joe my monthly plan bill is $317.00
:eek2: :eek1: :eek2: :eek1: :eek2:

My monthly plan is $328. It evens itself out over the course of the year

[Salt-Reefer]

Originally posted by King Jason
Here is one example. These systems do ~15 kW a day and the final cost comes to about 16 grand:

http://www.solar-tec.com/CAStateSolarRebate.htm

King Jason,

I called them (Solar-Tec Systems)and got a quote a few weeks back for a 6000 watt system my out of pocket would be $38,518 system total would be $58,894. It would produce approx 30kwh a day

I called another place Borrego Solar system and the quoted me for a 12000 watt system for $36,646 and that would be my out of pocket expence, system total would be $76,646. It would produce approx 60kwh a day

I checked with another place Allied Sun and they were pretty close to Borrego'sprice (3-4k more)

Needless to say I'm going to go with Borrego systems getting a bigger system that should come close to and maybe totally wipe out my electricity bill. My tank will use approx 40kwh over a 24hr period. so that will leave me about 20kwh a day for everything else.

If your really interested let me know and I'll hook you up borrego systems there based in San Diego but will come to LA/OC. They might be around 8-10k instead of 19k

Steve

[King Jason]

Originally posted by Salt-Reefer
King Jason,

I called them (Solar-Tec Systems)and got a quote a few weeks back for a 6000 watt system my out of pocket would be $38,518 system total would be $58,894. It would produce approx 30kwh a day

I called another place Borrego Solar system and the quoted me for a 12000 watt system for $36,646 and that would be my out of pocket expence, system total would be $76,646. It would produce approx 60kwh a day

I checked with another place Allied Sun and they were pretty close to Borrego'sprice (3-4k more)

Needless to say I'm going to go with Borrego systems getting a bigger system that should come close to and maybe totally wipe out my electricity bill. My tank will use approx 40kwh over a 24hr period. so that will leave me about 20kwh a day for everything else.

If your really interested let me know and I'll hook you up borrego systems there based in San Diego but will come to LA/OC. They might be around 8-10k instead of 19k

Steve

Thanks for the info. You will have to keep us updated on how this thing works for you. I'm sure there is a lot of us CA reefers sick of the high rates and are seeking alternatives. I'm not convinced yet that they are the way to go. I just need someone (that doesn't work for the solar company) to say "This thing is awesome, I had a huge drop in my bill, and I use as much power as you do!

This is Borrego correct: http://www.borregosolar.com, maybe I will give them a call and get a quote.

[Salt-Reefer]

Originally posted by King Jason
Thanks for the info. You will have to keep us updated on how this thing works for you. I'm sure there is a lot of us CA reefers sick of the high rates and are seeking alternatives. I'm not convinced yet that they are the way to go. I just need someone (that doesn't work for the solar company) to say "This thing is awesome, I had a huge drop in my bill, and I use as much power as you do!

This is Borrego correct: http://www.borregosolar.com, maybe I will give them a call and get a quote.

I wont have a before bill unfortunatly to compare too but I will know by how much I will be paying or hopfully not paying!

I will definitly let every one know how it goes and whoever is close will be more then welcome to come check the whole thing out, after I get the tank and panels installed.

Yep thats the place, ask for Robert, let him know the Steve Willis sent ya over if you would.... :D


Steve

[BonsaiNut]

In California right now, the government will pay for 65% of qualified solar power systems. Check out:

http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/erprebate/index.html

and use their "clean power estimator" to see what it would cost.

And:

http://www.bpsolar.com/

BP Solar was canvassing our area recently with fliers. They are one of the big solar panel companies.

[joefish]

Originally posted by JB NY
My monthly plan is $328. It evens itself out over the course of the year
Ok now I don't feel as bad .:mixed:

[King Jason]

Originally posted by joefish
Ok now I don't feel as bad .:mixed:

Well I still feel bad! I could buy another car, or boat for $300 a month!

[Canada_Dry]

I thought this might be helpful for some of you to figure out exactly what your tank is costing you per month/year.

Energy consumption is calculated by kilowatt hours (KWH), and is recorded by your electric meter.

How to calculate the cost of operating an appliance.

1. Convert Watts to kilowatts by dividing the Watts by 1000.
2. Multiply by the number of hours you plan to use the appliance per month.
3. Multiply by cost of electricity (per KWH).

Here is an example, for a typical 60 Watt light bulb that's turned on for a whole month, with an operating cost of 10 cents for every KWH. (You can find out how much you are paying per KWH by looking on your current electric bill or by contacting your electric supply company).

1. Kilowatts = 60 Watts divided by 1000 Kilowatts = 0.06 kW
2. Kilowatt hours = 0.06 KWH multiplied by (24 hrs/day times 30 days) = 43.2 KWH
3. Cost = 43.2 KWH multiplied by .10 cents = $ 4.30/month

Multiply this by 12 if you want to know how much the light bulb would cost you per year to operate. In this case, it works out to $51.84 per year.

[King Jason]

Or you could cheat with this thing: http://reefcentral.com/calc/tank_elec_calc.php

[johnrags1234]

$.034- about 3.4 cents per kwh.

Not bad!


John