Watt meter

tjnamtiw said:

But those rates don't include all of the junk charges and generation fees that they tack on like the $25 a month for access that HAS to be included in the KWH charge. Here in Ga, the TOTAL cost per KWH is about $0.129 per KWH. It varies by season. We have hydro electric dams 15 miles away, too!

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Sorry, I don't agree with you. The $25 per month fee is a fixed cost, I pay it whether I use any electricity or not. I want to know what the electricity I am using is costing me. Just my $.02.

macman said:

Gio said:

.....You can slice it anyway you wish but thats what it`s costing you.

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Absolutely. Anyone who thinks it's not part of it is just kidding themselves.

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First off, let me say the fixed portion of my bill is entered in Quicken as a fixed electrical cost so I account for it. I think you are missing my point of actual $/KWH.

Here is an illustration why your total bill divided by total KWH number is no good for any analysis of doing things to reduce KWH useage. Both heat with electricity.

Joe lives in Nevada and his ave is $.135/KWH. Mark lives in Colorado and his ave is $.135/KWH. They both put in pellet stoves and reduce their consumption during the winter by 50%. Which one is going to save the most money? They both used to average 1100 KWH/mo during the winter and after installing a pellet stove, they now average 550 KWH/mo. Without knowing what the actual charge/KWH is, you would have to say they both would save the same amount. In reality, Joe would save an average of $63/month while Mark would only save $51/month. The reason is Mark's fixed charge is higher than Joe's, so it inflates his ave more than Joe's does. Joe's fixed charge is $12.50 per month and his real cost/KWH is $.114 Mark's fixed charge is $25.00 per month and his real cost/KWH is $.093.

If you are looking to conserve and save money on electricity, forget about the fixed charge. The only way it is going away is if you go "off grid". The only money you are going to save is the energy rate on your bill times the reduction in KWH usage. But, if you want to argue who pays the most for their electricity on an internet BB, by all means include the fixed charge in your cost/KWH.

Sorry for the rant. I'm done with this thread.

Mark

Gio said:

There is no such thing as a fixed charge in my bill. The rates of the many different charges might be fixed or set by the state/feds but each rate is multiplied by actual kwhr total and vary from month to month based on the amount of electricity used..

Example: transmission charge...........570 kwhr X $0.012490 =$7.12
customer charge...................................................$8.53
energy charge..................570 kwhrX $0.030230 =$17.23
Res assist adj clause..........570 kwhrX $0.00230 =$1.16
pension/PBOP adj mechn PPAM .......570kwhrX $0.000850 =$.48
dftt srvc cost adj.....................570kwhrX $0.000120=.0.07
transition chrg..........................570kwhrX $0.005690 =$3.24
energy conservation chrg................570kwhrX $0.002500 =$1.43
renewable energy chrg ...................570kwhrX $0.000500 =$0.29

Total delivery services.............................................................$39.55

..........Generation chrg............................570kwhrX$0.092500 =$52.73
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Total amount now due....................................................... $92.28

It would be a false and misleading statement to say my electric rate is $.09 per hr because that is only the generation cost. I have to pay the above charges to get those KWHRs delivered to my home. I must divide $92.28 by 570 kwhr used . My cost per kwhr is $0.16 I see no other sensible method to arrive at this end figure.

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What about that $8.53 customer charge? That is not tied to KWH used as far as I can see. Does it stay the same every month? I agree that all the numbers that are multiplied by KWH are considered as actual energy costs. It is interesting to see how other electric bills are formatted. Thanks.

I just got my bill for the month of October. I guess I have a simple bill. These are the charges listed on the bill.

Energy charge $.093x574=$53.38
Service availability charge $25.00
Operation Roundup $0.84
Sales Tax $0.78

Current Charges $80.00

The Operation Roundup is a voluntary thing that rounds your bill up to the even dollar and that money is put into a fund to help people that are having trouble paying their electric bills.


Mark

My electric company is a Co-op. I am guessing my $25 service availability charge covers the same things that your itemized per KWH costs are with a CYTA factor built in. When I built the house in 1988 and had the electricity hooked up, the service availability charge was $7.50 a month.

I am glad I purchased a Pellet Stove in 1997. I am also very lucky to live where we get lots of sunshine in the winter. Yesterday morning the temperature was zero at 8:30 when I shut the stove down and the high for the day was 29 degrees. There was not a cloud in the sky all day. I did not turn the stove back on until 9:00 pm. I shut the stove down this morning at 7:45 because there were no clouds in the sky. My total heating cost for yesterday was $1.38. The mean temperature was 9.8 degrees.

Here is a picture of the "daytime heater" firing up this morning at 7:15.

Mark