Milwaukees Best Light said:

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How much did your bill change since you switched?

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The rate is available online. Shouldn't be hard to look at your current bill to see rate and usage.

Diggity said:

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they're owned by Michael Dell's son, so doubt he's in any rush to cash out.

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everyone has a number I am in this industry this is what always happens. NRG and Vistria always looking to buy books from smaller companies.

It's gone up a little. The energy rate with BASE is higher than I had before switching, and the $29/month fee factors in as well. It's peek summer and I keep both AC units set to 72 and its less than $75/month more than this time last year including the fee. I'm not changing my usage or anything. I knew going into it I was likely going to be paying more, but my goal was to have backup power and not reduce my bill. If I took the $15k for a whole home and amortize it over time, I'm still ending up on top. It really depends on what your current rate is to determine if you actually save money.

I'm probably going to switch to Base from my current plan.

I'm currently paying like 12.7 so I technically would save, but the monthly fee will put my on the red.

But for the same reason as above: bit looking to save money but that would be nice, but more to have backup power without the $15-20k price tag at once.

I also have at least 100 feet of space between the gas and electric meter.


And a a tip, put your internet on a battery backup for the modem and router. Prevents power blips and will run for 30-90 minutes before dying.

~egon

Use my link and we'll both get $250 towards our power bill

https://www.basepowercompany.com/?heard_from=Referral&referrer_name=9f831d4c-b222-43c6-b695-891242c74ca1&first_name=Benjamin&referral_plan=2way-EnergyCredit-FreeMonth

Also, be aware you don't ever own the system. If you move you have to pay another fee to have it removed.

My BF just had two of these units installed, one at his home and one at a rental property he uses as an office. He is very happy and has been impressed with the whole process. He actually had an outage the day or day after his home unit was installed and if the app hadn't notified him, he wouldn't have even known. His internet didn't even flinch. Power was out for several hours and he still had most of his battery left.

The units are have a cover, so they look nice. His is smaller than his A/C, so you can't really see it from the street. He put down a weed barrier before the install and filed it in with rocks just to eliminate the need to weed whack and trim around it.

You do need a UPS battery backup for your wifi router, if you don't want an interruption. I think you will still also want a soft start for your A/C unit.

His plan is to still keep his gas generator, and if the power is out for days, use that to ether run the house or recharge the batteries.

The cost for the transfer switch installation ($695) is significantly cheaper than he could find any electrician to do it for.

They are now installing 40 kW units (up from 25) standard. This was a recent change, as his neighbor independently (not off of BF's referral code) had the 25 kw unit installed just a few weeks before they came and put the 40 kW unit at my BF's property. I believe he told me last night that the new, bigger units have a port where you can plug in a gas generator to recharge.

I always think there is a catch, and my biggest concern was the cost of electricity. I just had to renew after being on a 3 year contract, and the best I could do was 8.95 cents (without fees) from Think Energy. I believe he is paying just over 9 cents with Base. I think they also pay up to $250 to get you out of a contract.

I will probably be signing up. I'm just a little annoyed that I still have my trifuel generator that is not set up the way I wanted, but part of the hold up with that was not being able to find an electrician to do the transfer switch work (lots of calls and messages that were never returned, and we kinda just gave up).

I'm just not a buyer of the price tag being worth it relative to a whole house generator.

You start getting there with a solar install too… but then a whole house generator is definitely the more economic option.

The benefit to me is the convenience. I was never gonna get a whole house generac. I do have a trifuel that we intended to hook up to the nat gas line. But even that comes with its inconveniences. For me, this is a decent compromise, and I'm not planning to move or sell anytime soon.

We have enough random but relatively short outages in my area to make this worth it. Just had one a few weeks ago that was around 5 hours. It was also from about 8 pm to 1 am. It would be nice to not to have to pull out the portable for that.

these are a bit dated, but came from the generator group I used for research. I supplied the parts, but think I paid closer to $300 a couple years ago:

We were looking at $1000 per switch. Can't remember who supplied the parts. And after getting quotes, we had trouble getting anyone to call us back to actually do the install. So $695 doesn't seem too bad.

Was also a few months after Beryl last year. So maybe prices have come down. But I also get the "Woodlands tax". Everything costs more.

just looked. I paid $265 for the install, which was on the lower side, but $1000 is silly. You should be able to get it done for a lot less.

$300 is about what I paid, also. Only thing that could justify $1k is if the panel is full and have to do a sub panel.

Just to follow up on this, I signed up with Base yesterday and my base rate (before fees) is 7.7 cents per kWh. It's actually cheaper than what I just renewed with Think Energy.

TXTransplant said:

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Just to follow up on this, I signed up with Base yesterday and my base rate (before fees) is 7.7 cents per kWh. It's actually cheaper than what I just renewed with Think Energy.

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Assume your area is a little higher than central Houston. My base rate is under 5.5 right now. Interesting Base wouldn't adjust for the area like all other providers.

When I looked last the Base was competitive to 3 year plans, but still cheaper ones available on the market. Not even close to competitive to shorter plans.

I just shopped my plan a few months ago. The 8.9 cents I found with Think (that I am now leaving) was about the cheapest I could get. But I only use >1000 kWh about 3 months out of the year. I'm below 1000 the rest of the time. That greatly affects my rate, and I have to be careful when shopping around.

I'm seeing quite a bit lower, but you'll want to check your zip code

https://www.powertochoose.org/en-us/Plan/Results#

Loos like rates have come down from a few months ago. I had signed another 3 year contract with Think, so I stopped looking.

From the comments on the previous page the rate with Base is "negotiable"...?

I'm not offended by 7.7 cents, but if all it takes is a phone call to get it lowered...

Has anyone looked into VPP. Been seeking their FB ads lately

https://vpptexas.com/vpp/

jaggiemaggie said:

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Has anyone looked into VPP. Been seeking their FB ads lately

https://vpptexas.com/vpp/

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They are rolling the dice like Griddy did and depending on solar energy...interesting.....Also, it seems like you are locked in for 25 years with them and if you move new buyer must take over the contract or you must buy it out.

I raised hell with Energy Ogre over locking me into a long term rate that's higher than the market.

They gave me 8 of reprieve from monthly payments to them.

They claim to be trying to renegotiate everybody's rate, but it seems clear they really missed something.

I canceled with them a year ago and have been getting better rates on my own. Sure I have to set reminders and shop it but it's not hard. Especially when they were locking me in 12 month contracts when I could get 3-6 months for cheaper, and was paying them $10 those 12 months.

htxag09 said:

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I canceled with them a year ago and have been getting better rates on my own. Sure I have to set reminders and shop it but it's not hard. Especially when they were locking me in 12 month contracts when I could get 3-6 months for cheaper, and was paying them $10 those 12 months.

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That's honestly where I'm at. Every contract is a year or longer (latest is 16 months).

They claimed they were trying to get ahead of next summers prices....like I'm not aware you could have locked 6 months in now and reassess in the winter.

I'll probably cancel as well. I just don't see the value from them.

They're banking on the premise that rates are constantly rising so longer is better. I just haven't seen that be the case.

Easy, quick example…when I shopped in late November, the lowest 12 month rate (>2k kWh) was 13.6 (excluding time of day, etc plans). So I locked in 6 months for 11.7. Then in April/May I locked in 14 months at 11.6. Right now looks like you can get 3 month plans for under 10.

Randomly saw a Base power add a few months ago and looked into it. Also saw this thread and will be following.

I had originally brushed BASE Power off thinking a 1-day battery didn't really solve what I was concerned about and installed a 50-amp interlock instead.

Now I'm moving and the interlock installed quote was $1,000 and I saw the new BASE Core that you can recharge with a gasoline generator giving you essentially a whole home standby generator at a fraction of the expense.

I don't have a good location for a full standby generator at the new home either way. So my reasonable options being a 50-amp interlock again or BASE Power.

Any recent negatives or reasons I shouldn't go ahead and sign up?

Anyone install the BASE Core unit with the 30 amp generator plug?

I believe my coworker paid extra to have the generator plug installed on his 25 kW unit. I don't think he's tested it, but those should be good to go.

The new 40 kW units that are the standard in some areas (they are testing them) come with the plug integrated. So no extra charge to have it installed. However, they are not ready to use at installation. Evidently, they require some kind of software update. My BF is currently working with them to get this sorted out because this is exactly what he wants to do.

Thanks - I was on the phone with BASE yesterday discussing and asked them about the plug because it said "beta." They told me that it was definitely live and working.

Maybe if there still is something to figure out they have it sorted by the time mine would get installed around October.

I've used my generator plug on my BASE setup a couple times (testing). We've had one outage and I used 4% of battery in a couple hours. The generator plug only does 3KW, so just keep that in mind. Easy enough to make it work though

If you sign up with my referral link we'll both get a free month of power ... PM me and I'll shoot it your way. Free $250 if you decide to sign up

But in my talking with them, the plug should be making the generator work at 100%, so you don't have to run it all the time; just enough to charge batteries (or enough to get through a night) and then turn it off.

So you can extend your gas supply when power is out for a while.

~egon

In my mind, BASE is trying to bill themselves as a cheaper version of a standalone generator but they really aren't. At the end of the day, you pay all this money and just get protection from the little annoying blips on the grid when your power goes out for an afternoon because of a small issue.

The idea of protecting from 97% of grid issues is basically lying with numbers. They're counting the 2 minutes your power went out during the middle of the day and you barely even noticed. Nobody really cares about that. That 3% tail case is exactly why you buy a standalone generator and go through all the cost for it. Because that is what you're actually spending money on, to guarantee that you'll have power when nobody else does.

You're basically subsidizing grid level battery capacity for BASE while receiving an uninterruptible power supply in return for all your payments and hassle.

For $20/month, I think it's worth it. I'm not including the cost of the transfer switch install because that belongs to your house. You have to get one no matter what type of generator system you install, and it could be repurposed if you drop Base. My coworker said Base also installed soft starts on his A/C units for no extra above the installation charge. Those are all home "upgrades", IMO.

A whole house permanent generator has similar monthly costs, above the five-figure installation, because those units require regular testing and maintenance. Not to mention, any repairs or service are on you.

$20/month is $15k (assuming that's the average cost of a Generac) spread over 750 months.

I often have short duration outages (several hours long) in my area. It's a hassle to fire up a portable in that situation, especially if it's at night or in bad weather, but they sure are annoying (especially if you work from home).

The catch to base, IMO, is going to be if they can keep electricity costs down. If they start to jack up rates, then it could get expensive. I already have a hard time finding decent electricity rates since I use <1000 kWh 9 months out of the year, so for now 7.7 cents is a good deal for me. The extra $20/month is just insurance that I won't have the headaches that come with short duration outages.

I live in the back of Kingwood.

There are months when we have hourS of power outages for no reason. We've had sunny days and no power for no reason.

We lost power one weekend for 17+ hours because "of mechanical failure". What failed? Who knows.

My options are:

• do nothing (which I have, so I get to listen to the spouse complain all the time)
• install a interlock kit (which I have and used a couple of times)
• install a whole home generator ($12-$15k+)
• invest in backup systems for the house.

Yes, Base is the same as a whole home generator, but I'm not out the outlay at once. Money now is worth more than future money.

~egon

For all your calculations, y'all are acting like Base's power rates are competitive, they aren't.

Second, that's a life of renting their system, you never own it. Want to move? Have to pay them a fee to take it back or convince the new homeowner to take it on? What happens if it has issues in 5 years?

Lots of unkowns and the math reminds of when solar panels came out. Lots of funny math that made sense on paper but not in reality. And they at least had the benefit of tax breaks.

Now, if all you want is the most hands off approach for 4ish hour power outages, that's fine and it fits that need.

ETA: I just did the math on my current plan vs. the base plan. Based on my electricity usage / month last year, the base plan would cost me an extra $350 over the next 12 months. And plans are cheaper now than when I renewed a few months ago. If I compared it to today's 12 month plans, base would cost $700 more over the next 12 months.

Dr. Doctor said:

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I live in the back of Kingwood.

There are months when we have hourS of power outages for no reason. We've had sunny days and no power for no reason.

We lost power one weekend for 17+ hours because "of mechanical failure". What failed? Who knows.

My options are:

• do nothing (which I have, so I get to listen to the spouse complain all the time)
• install a interlock kit (which I have and used a couple of times)
• install a whole home generator ($12-$15k+)
• invest in backup systems for the house.

Yes, Base is the same as a whole home generator, but I'm not out the outlay at once. Money now is worth more than future money.

~egon

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I think the biggest drawback here is that BASE is going to forever cost you an extra penny on electricity cost. They have no reason to remain competitive long term. How much extra cash in perpetuity are you willing to spend to straddle this awkward lease-style set up? Eventually you will outspend what you would have on a generator. Things are going to require maintenance and servicing. The will find a way to cover their costs as they are a business.

At the end of the day, they're going to find a way to extract cash from you in ways that you haven't had cash extracted before because you are now paying for a service instead of solving the problem with your own assets.

I would consider buying a whole home backup battery yourself outright over going with BASE. You can get a system that will do backup battery for less than $5k. I'd look up Enphase as the most consumer friendly company here.