Anyone use this with TXU? I don't mind my house a little warmer during the day but at night I need it at least 70 F cool to sleep. Seems like an ideal package for me but there's always a catch.

Go to smartmetertexas.com and pull your 15min interval data. Run a simple excel rate simulation with your usage vs their time of day rates.

Nothing is ever FREE!. My 6th grade son was asking about those plans this weekend. I looked at Reliant "Free Weekend" and average rate paid was 14.4 cents/KWH. Free on weekends, but 21+cents at other times. I saw lots for rates for less than 10 cents/KW.

Yeah, I priced some of those plans out... They want you to use a lot of power at night because demand drops but wind generation actually picks up leading to power surpluses in parts of the grid (my understanding). There have been times where spot price for electricity at night has actually been negative.

When I priced plans out a couple months ago and looked at my usage (when I'm in the office, I leave home before 0700 and return around 1745-1800). "Nights" started at something like 1900. My usage to cool the house for the night was mostly over by then. The big loads came from 1500-1700 getting the house cooled down after letting it drift up during the day. Sure the weekends would be nice, but most of my usage was still weekday afternoons.

It is kind of hard to use past information on a flat rate plant to determine how the plan will alter your behaviour when you know how expensive electricity is during the day and it being free at night.

I use this plan(currently the free energy starts at 9pm), but I start cooling my house at 8pm so it ready at 10pm for me to sleep.

Also, I get my house down to 66F at night, then the thermostat changes to 75F at 6am to turn it off. This saves me a lot of money since it takes like 8 hours for my house to rise to 75F even on the hottest days.

I just re-upped with them for the same plan since the new plan starts at 8pm. I was not going to reup if it remained at 9pm.



I just uploaded a spreadsheet I made to see which plan I should use from TXU. It is not perfect. Feel free to steal it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y3W_KshrJxQp372ozpvmj5SDtpHhe4ML/view?usp=sharing

I figured out I was getting shafted by my current energy provider. I was paying $0.11/kWh @ 3,000 kWh. With TXU free nights, I will be paying $0.13/kWh @ 2,000 kWh. I'm assuming I will get billed for at least 1/3 less with free nights. Therefore my expectation is that my bill drops from $330/month to $260/month. Plus I will be able to blast the AC at night to 66 F whereas I used to keep it at 74 F.

You should be able to easily get ~$.08/kwh plan and you wouldn't have to worry about when you're consuming (nights vs day). 3000kWh @ $.08 is cheaper than TXU's free nights $260.

Check into EZ Electricity. Aggie owned company. Don't ever have to worry about finding the best deal because they do it for me.

I am paying $0.04/kWh right now in Victoria, where neighbors are paying $0.08-0.12/kWh. They charge a small service fee which is a percentage of your total bill (~3.5%). They donate half of the fee to the charity you pick from their list---Association of Former Students being one of them.

AgEngr16 said:

---

Check into EZ Electricity. Aggie owned company. Don't ever have to worry about finding the best deal because they do it for me.

I am paying $0.04/kWh right now in Victoria, where neighbors are paying $0.08-0.12/kWh. They charge a small service fee which is a percentage of your total bill (~3.5%). They donate half of the fee to the charity you pick from their list---Association of Former Students being one of them.

---

That's crazy,... my delivery charge is more than that I think...

you guys must have better rates. In Houston the free nights charges 17.2 cents + 3.6 cents for delivery and an additional $5.70 per month.

Do not forget the delivery fees that TXU and others no longer list, but instead send you to another site. More hide the numbers games.

agdx88 said:

---

you guys must have better rates. In Houston the free nights charges 17.2 cents + 3.6 cents for delivery and an additional $5.70 per month.

Do not forget the delivery fees that TXU and others no longer list, but instead send you to another site. More hide the numbers games.

---

I've been testing out Griddy. At the very least, I'm happy with their transparency.

TMoney2007 said:

---

AgEngr16 said:

---

Check into EZ Electricity. Aggie owned company. Don't ever have to worry about finding the best deal because they do it for me.

I am paying $0.04/kWh right now in Victoria, where neighbors are paying $0.08-0.12/kWh. They charge a small service fee which is a percentage of your total bill (~3.5%). They donate half of the fee to the charity you pick from their list---Association of Former Students being one of them.

---

That's crazy,... my delivery charge is more than that I think...

---

They do a great job of finding really low rates by bulk buying a group of consumers onto a locked in rate plan. I think I have that rate until 2021. I actually pay more for delivery than I do the electricity

So is that your all in rate, or your rate per kwh used without delivery fees and tax and all that?

That is rate per kWh. I paid $144 for 1560 kWh last bill cycle.

I've talked with two of my neighbors and one is paying $0.11/kWh and the other $0.10/kWh. Both of their bills were over $200 last cycle and both have houses about 500sf smaller than mine.

Sounds like $.04 is your rate from your provider, then there are TDSP (Transmission and Distribution Service Provider) charges on top of that. Your TDSP for Victoria is AEP.

Assuming $5 of your $146 bill was taxes, you're actually paying $.089/kWh.

I understand that is how to look at total cost per kWh, I was under the impression the posts were referencing only their per kWh electricity cost. My neighbor told me she paid about $210 for 1500 kWh, hence my misunderstanding of the above posts.

For those interested, this is the ERCOT (90% of Texas) grids prices at each "node" around the state. Basically this is like the current wholesale price, it changes every 5 minutes.

http://ercot.com/content/cdr/html/current_np6788

AgEngr16 said:

---

I understand that is how to look at total cost per kWh, I was under the impression the posts were referencing only their per kWh electricity cost. My neighbor told me she paid about $210 for 1500 kWh, hence my misunderstanding of the above posts.

---

It would actually make sense to look at it that way since the other costs are fixed for a given infrastructure provider that covers an area, but the contracts all list the price per kWh at 2000kwh or whatever the standard is.

With the retail provider I use, they charge $10 a month and then sell the electricity at wholesale and pass the fees on without making them up (which I think they're all required to do the fees at cost.) They charge for your usage at whatever the 5 minute spot price is when you use it.

I've been around 9.1/kwh all in since March, which is below average for Texas at least.

TMoney, who is your provider? I was not aware of anyone using the 5 minute real time pricing for residential billing. I think this may be the direction the market is moving though.

KorbinDallas said:

---

TMoney, who is your provider? I was not aware of anyone using the 5 minute real time pricing for residential billing. I think this may be the direction the market is moving though.

---

I use Griddy. They're no contract so it's at least worth a try. If you decide to try it let me know. If I invite someone we both get $25 or something like that.

You put like $50 in and it draws it down daily and adds another $50 when you get down to $25. It's worked pretty well for me. They have an app that will tell you when the price spikes. It probably doesn't make a huge difference but I'll turn my AC off when it happens if I'm around.

It's worked pretty well for me, I think. At the very least they're really transparent about the fees and taxes you pay. It's all on the website/in the app.

I don't live in a deregulated area so I don't have any options for providers. I was just curious, thanks for the information.

I have been with energy ogre for a couple years now. $10/month and they do all the work for me. I used to spend at least 2-3 weeks of evenings on power to choose comparing plans with usage, it's worth every penny for me and so far they have been great at locking in good rates. Plus they set up the bill pay, auto draft, and user profiles every time.

If you use ECOZAPP when signing up you can save a little extra -

PlanoAg98 said:

---

Anyone use this with TXU? I don't mind my house a little warmer during the day but at night I need it at least 70 F cool to sleep. Seems like an ideal package for me but there's always a catch.

---

Just use Griddy. Nothing is cheaper than the market rate for off peak electricity usage. I crank the AC down at night and pay 2.5 cents a kwh doing so.

I wish I could pay for market rates.

I usually have the house at 80-85F during the day (no one upstairs and wife home downstairs). I would crank the AC down to chill everything overnight if the costs were next to nothing...

~egon

Dr. Doctor said:

---

I wish I could pay for market rates.

I usually have the house at 80-85F during the day (no one upstairs and wife home downstairs). I would crank the AC down to chill everything overnight if the costs were next to nothing...

~egon

---

Even right now wholesale is only 1.8/kwh. It goes up some in early afternoon and sometimes spikes.