Looks like Christmas light hourly pricing spikes are Here

[Rex Irby]

Last weekend must have been a big group of new lights strung up on houses - I love shutting down the refrigerator and all indoor lights as the neighbors light up the exteriors of their home with great impunity!!

[Rex Irby]

Not a single price alert yet either - hour ended 16:00 was 10.3 final!!  55.6 at 16:30  - The whole PJM region was red colored!!

[Jason Kaplan]

How come none of us received alerts?  Is this an issue with ComEd?  Would have been nice to know to kill my lights outside if this was occurring.

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Jason Kaplan

[Kristy Moore]

I've been getting alerts; four already this week.  Are you just not set up correctly?  I have mine set up to send me alerts when the price is 10 cents per kilowatt hour.

[Kristy Moore]

You leave all your indoor lights on just because rates are cheap?

On Tuesday, December 1, 2015 at 4:49:29 PM UTC-6, Rex Irby wrote:

[Rex Irby]

Me shutting down all indoor lights does not imply that all indoor lights are on.  Answer is very few lights indoor are on regardless since I have a minimum monthly burn with 5 full grown occupants at 210 kwh.

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Rex Irby - The Computer Guy
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[Kristy Moore]

You're absolutely right; it doesn't imply.  Imply would mean I'd have to make an inference based upon clues.  You outright stated that you turn off "all indoor lights" which is
pretty explicit and requires no deductive reasoning.  I'm not sure why you feel compelled to turn off your refrigerator if your monthly usage is only 210kWh. Our family of four (3 of us at home most of the time) has averaged just over 600 kWh over the past year and our bill is under $70/month, hardly worth risking spoiled food and food poisoning, or stumbling around in the dark and risking broken toes to avoid paying 12 cents per kWh to light the living room for an hour.

[RJ]

I moved to NC last year to escape the politics of Illinois in addition to the winters.  I thought my electricity bill would skyrocket.  NC regulators have not separated delivery from the price.  My all in cost of electricity is 10.7 cent per KWH.  We continue to control usage and with that my my highest bill since I've been here was $133 for August.  My average bill for 12 months was $80.00. We don't miss washing cloths after midnight although I continue to time the dish washer to come on at 1:00AM.

Duke has the politicians in its pockets so I don't expect major change anytime soon, but overall I'm not displeased with my utility bills. 

[Rex Irby]

Refrigerators can be turned off for 1 hour and not opened and the temp change is less than 1 degree - no risk of spoilage.  A refrigerator  250-350 watt usage for 1 hour at .023 Energy Supply cost is  .00805;  At .5 that comes to .175 - Delta of  $0.16695 multiplied that single item times 40 days of winter light extravaganza comes to $6.68. 

in your case your base load is likely 100 watts from 600 average and thus 500 extra watts during these conservative 1 hour periods for 40 days at 50 cents delta energy charge comes to $10.00 extra on your bill.  Not a ton of money!! But base load is the key - this is what allows a great transition to solar panels.

Interesting fact:  Why we should be concerned about our electricity usage base loads and its impact on the rest of the world!!

• 1 day of combined residential electricity usage across the top 1% of US households (comprising approximately 3.1 million people) is roughly equal to 1 year of total electricity consumption in the African country of Sierra Leone (a nation of 5.5 million people).

[Kristy Moore]

There is no "extra" charge on my bill, because we don't turn on lights and other appliances just because rates are cheap.  Nor do we run around like idiots turning off things we are using, just because the rates are high.  We chose to sign up for the RRTP because the most likely peak usage hours fit into our schedule.

Which definition of base load are you using?  Because 100kWh is way more than what it takes to keep our fridge, freezer, and fish tank going when we are gone for a month on vacation.

[Rex Irby]

Done with this discussion - I am "like an idiot" - his should be my personal admission to stop this discussion.

[mic...@michaelgnicholas.org]

I appreciated your analysis Rex.

[w d]

Rex,

I appreciate your contributions to this blog.  I've said so in the past.  

I've read the responses to your comments and I admit I'm puzzled.  There's an element of anger and disrespect in some of the commentary.  I can't figure it but it appears to be chronic.  The interest doesn't seem to be in energy efficiency or conservation.  It seems to be operating under an umbrella of interest in those things but is really just thinly disguised insults.  

The blog accepts all inputs, even the mean spirited.  Good for the open dialogue.  However, I'm hoping a kinder spirit will visit as we enter 2016.   Meanwhile, sometimes "done with this discussion" is about all that can be said.  

[Kristy Moore]

The thinly veiled insulting is classic "Minnesota Nice", which is how most native Midwesterners talk. I'm not a Midwesterner, I'm a Southwestern gal, and we are too busy to play these PA word games, so we're very direct. When I call someone an idiot, I do it directly.

I also take people at their word, so if someone says "I turned off all my lights" that means they either had left lights burning that weren't being used, or they sat around in the dark to pay a dollar or two less on the monthly bill.

[Kristy Moore]