How much is your electricity bill?

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by actinic

If you can't figure that one out then there's nothing I can do for you. Sorry.

LOL, cool point bro.

[Solere]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

There is a comparison tool online. On the same site you find your bill. I don't know that it is very useful though. The reason is that the estimate reflects the way you use electricity under your current plan and does not take into account that you would change your ways if you were to change plans. Like you might have a high ratio of use during on peak periods now, but if you went to time of day, then you would play the game and stop doing this. The same with demand.

Thanks for the info. The APS website showed that my bill would be lower under the Time Advantage 7pm to Noon plan. There is no demand charge on this plan, but the on peak and off peak per kwh rates are higher. After reading the posts in this thread about the demand charge, I'm a little confused. Does APS calculate the 60 minute period during the month with the highest demand/load and then bill accordingly? Besides an air conditioning unit running for a 60 minute period, would the cooktop on for 10 minutes along with the A/C unit or a computer running during a 1 hour period with the A/C unit cause a huge demand charge? My hunch says no. Obviously A/C units are huge energy hogs, so wouldn't the possible savings of the Combined Advantage Rate be negated by an A/C unit? Then again, my hunch tells me that perhaps the Combined Advantage Rate plan didn't generate enough profit, so they discontinued it?

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Happs

Thanks for the info. The APS website showed that my bill would be lower under the Time Advantage 7pm to Noon plan. There is no demand charge on this plan, but the on peak and off peak per kwh rates are higher. After reading the posts in this thread about the demand charge, I'm a little confused. Does APS calculate the 60 minute period during the month with the highest demand/load and then bill accordingly? Besides an air conditioning unit running for a 60 minute period, would the cooktop on for 10 minutes along with the A/C unit or a computer running during a 1 hour period with the A/C unit cause a huge demand charge? My hunch says no. Obviously A/C units are huge energy hogs, so wouldn't the possible savings of the Combined Advantage Rate be negated by an A/C unit? Then again, my hunch tells me that perhaps the Combined Advantage Rate plan didn't generate enough profit, so they discontinued it?

They did not discontinue the Combined Advantage plan. They did drop one of the demand plans. I forget their name, but I was on it for years. I switched to Combined Advantage. They bill for the highest demand in the month of the billing. Like in summer months my demand peak is around 7 kwh and in winter months maybe 2.5. You are right that high demand kills you, but the offset is that the hourly rate is much lower than the standard time of day. It is like 8 cents even on peak, IIRC, about 1/3 of what it is on the straight time advantage without demand plan. The name of the game is to never run two big things at once. You can one run thing fairly economically though. This means you can run the dishwasher heater or the oven, but just don't do it when the ac is running. AC peaking is hard to avoid. In the hottest days of summer, mine will run an hour without stopping so that load is a given - it is pretty much the base demand for June-Sept.