Electrical Rates For New Residents (Birmingham, Mobile: house, heat pump, pricing)

[unstoppablemobile]

If I get this wrong, by all means, anyone please correct it! For Alabama Power (Mobile) you will pay 12.5 cents per KWH up to 1,000 KW for the On-Peak demand time of 12-noon until 7-pm June 1st through October 1st. For the same 4-month period, from 9pm until 10am you will pay 2.5 cents per KWH. The 2 hour periods before and after the on-peak demand is I believe an intermediate rate of 7.5 cents per KWH. So if you really want to drive your electric bill way down and have all electric.. try these tips..

When you get up, or even when you head to bed as I do, lower your A/C temp to 65 or 64 until you leave the next morning (best to have a programmable thermostat), then when you leave in the morning, turn it back up to 80, and run your ceiling fans full blast to keep the air cooler. The reason why you lower your temp early rather than keep it at 76 to 78 all thru the night is that probably by 8 or 9 am had you kept your temp at 75+, your system will come on and start cooling off your house a few times an hour at the more expensive rate. For me, I found out that my A/C (heat pump) comes on around 1:30pm when it goes from 65 to 79 in the house (I leave at 5am).. so my A/C is not running AT ALL for over 8 hours!

Another thing is my circuit breaker in my laundry room next to the kitchen, I switch off my water heater when I go to bed at night and then turn it back on around 7:30pm when the rates go to the lowest and I wait 15 minutes before I begin to do my laundry, dishes or shower. So instead of running my 40 gallon tank for 18 to 20 hours that Im not using it, it stays off and saved me a TON of money. Also, switch off your power strips at bedtime, and kill off that phantom charge that your electronics are using to be in standby mode.

[southernnaturelover]

I wonder if this only applies to people who have the newer digital meters? I still have the old fashioned dial type meter. I read somewhere that eventually AL Power hopes to have everyone on a digital meter (no more meter readers), but it may take some time. I think the Birmingham area was first to get the new ones.

[unstoppablemobile]

NO its for the older meter folks (LIKE ME!)

[arboc]

Originally Posted by unstoppablemobile

If I get this wrong, by all means, anyone please correct it! For Alabama Power (Mobile) you will pay 12.5 cents per KWH up to 1,000 KW for the On-Peak demand time of 12-noon until 7-pm June 1st through October 1st. For the same 4-month period, from 9pm until 10am you will pay 2.5 cents per KWH. The 2 hour periods before and after the on-peak demand is I believe an intermediate rate of 7.5 cents per KWH.

According to the Alabama Power website, Electricity Pricing - Alabama Power, that is true if you choose the FDT-off peak users plan. http://www.alabamapower.com/pricing/pdf/fdt.pdf (broken link)

MONTHLY RATE
Base Charge:
$21.91 per customer; plus
Charge for Energy:
JUNE 1 through SEPTEMBER 30
17.8909¢ per kWh (on-peak)
6.2109¢ per kWh (intermediate-period)
3.0009¢ per kWh (off-peak)
OCTOBER 1 through MAY 31
6.2109¢ per kWh (intermediate-period)
3.0009¢ per kWh (off-peak)
All weekends are off-peak

I believe that most people are given the standard pricing plan, FD-for typical energy use. http://www.alabamapower.com/pricing/pdf/fd.pdf (broken link)

MONTHLY RATE
Base Charge:
$8.91 per customer; plus
Charge for Energy:
BILLING MONTHS JUNE - SEPTEMBER
7.0099¢ per kWh for the first 1000 kWh,
plus
7.2628¢ per kWh for all over 1000 kWh.
BILLING MONTHS OCTOBER - MAY
7.0099¢ per kWh for the first 750 kWh,
plus
5.8099¢ per kWh for all over 750 kWh.