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Some of you have seen my recent posts about my solar photovoltaic system and all of the details surrounding it. Progress Energy has just come out and changed my meter to the time of use rate meter and during discussing the details of it with the installer, he mentioned that ANYONE can call and simply request to be put on the TOU rate schedule.
This means that during peak hours you pay a higher rate than you have been paying but during OFF peak hours you pay less. For those who work outside the home and can use programmable thermostats and manage their energy usage intelligently, you may be able to save yourself some big money on power each year simply by asking for a meter swap.
Interesting, thanks for posting! My last PE bill was ASTRONOMICAL. I have NO idea why and need to do a little more investigative work. I need to look into that.
I figured I should give a bit more info - my original post doesn't seem all that helpful. I've adapted the information below from my other solar post shown here:
Basically the way it works is there are peak hours as follows:
April 1 - Sept 30: 10am - 9pm
Oct 1 - March 30: 6am-1pm, then 4pm-9pm
Several holidays are also excluded from this such as New Years Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and day after, and Christmas day. When any of these fall on a Sunday, the Monday after will be considered "off peak."
All other hours are off peak and are charged at a lower c/kWh of usage.
On top of this, there's a peak demand charge of $X (don't know what it is for non solar PV customers) per kW for all on peak usage. This means they take the maximum number of kW you use during any 15 minute period during the month and multiply that by $X and add that as a surcharge to your bill. So if you have a lot of high demand devices (say, multiple HVAC, clothes dryer, oven, etc) coming on all at the same time, this could easily drive your peak demand surcharge through the roof and diminish an otherwise reasonable bill.
Therefore I will be installing simple control circuitry on my main two HVAC systems to prevent them from turning on their compressors at the same time with the upstairs given priority. Each HVAC compressor can easily use 2-3kW by itself, so just keeping them from coming on at the same time can save me $10-15 per month on my bill with no other changes.
Interesting, thanks for posting! My last PE bill was ASTRONOMICAL. I have NO idea why and need to do a little more investigative work. I need to look into that.
Something is running more than you think or maybe your house is leaky in some way (window left accidentally open, etc). Big power draws should be fairly obvious but it can take time to go through everything to find out.
Interesting, thanks for posting! My last PE bill was ASTRONOMICAL. I have NO idea why and need to do a little more investigative work. I need to look into that.
Same here! I had just checked my balance online and then popped over here and saw your post. My bill is about $50 more than the highest bill I've ever gotten in 2 years.....something's up......
We've always used to the TOU Demand and saved money every single month. The bill tells you how much it would have been if you were not on the TOU meter.
Thank you for this post. I used to have TOU with progress energy and saved money every month without changing anything.
I just called Duke Energy - and they also has a TOU residential program - signed up and will be getting meter installed shortly. The rates are not as good as progress energy - but peak hours are much better - so I might do even better with this program. Just need to figure out how to avoid both AC units turning on at the same time.
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