Powersmartpricing.Month 1

Current billing period: 3/8/2012 to 4/9/2012

Standard (BGS) bill: $97.26

PSP bill: $67.18

Savings: $30.08

Electric Supply Savings %: 51.08%*

Saved $30 on my first bill !!!

Act on Energy - 2-2012

I got the January Act on Energy and see that I am not doing too well on the electric for saving energy.

Yes my electric has went down better than the 99% last month but I can account for this.

My 12 month rolling average on electric is smaller due to January dropping off. My gas is still below the most "most efficient neighbors" because I insulated my house better and it is warmer this year.

Although I would like to keep enrolled in this program, I have found another that may help WHEN I use energy. It called the Powersmart program from Ameren. I have enrolled and will be adjusting my power usage on a time usage.

Let you know how this works and the adjustments I make as it goes along.

Turbo Taxing

I love tax time.

Bullsh*t! I hate it. The only thing i DO like about it is that they are quickly going to the e-file. That make things so much faster and your refund goes directly into your bank.

At least I thought.

Watched on TV where Turbo Tax would allow you to file your taxes for free. My first thought was for free? Nothing today is free. So I learned, see later. I had bought Turbo Tax once before and got sucked into all the hype of "We'll get you the biggest refund". So after shelling out $30 (some years ago) took it home loaded the software and started up the program. I had already did my taxes my way and knew what I would get back. It went through the W-2's, Fed taxes, la la la and all that. Got to the end and let the program compute my refund. Amazing. The same amount that I had came up with but now I've wasted $30 on this POS software program that didn't do squat. Never again I thought. So I thought.

Flash ahead to today. The dear wifey says "why not use Turbo Tax they advertise it's free?".......Pause for my thinking.....Came up with, WTH I'll give it a try. Again, I had already done the math and figured out what we would get back doing it my way but thought I'd give it another try. Not gonna cost me anything right? Right? It's Free! Went to their web site and entered my log in and passwords and started off. The free version only applys to Federal tax returns, state filing costs $27. Illinois lets you file for free, why the charge? My first red flag was that right after I signed up, they were offering me the paid version, Just in case I was feeling guilty about them doing this for free. Next flag came up while entering my W-2. After entering my employers fed ID, TT alerted me that they "found" my W2 and if I signed up for the paid version, they would enter that information for me. Think not. For $39 I can enter a LOT of data myself. Went through the whole nine yards again about donations, deductions and all that. Next flag came when it asked for your state info. Was a little hesitant but entered it anyway thinking I would print it out and e-file it myself. Not paying for something I can do for free right? That's what I thought.

After checking, re-checking and more questions, here comes my refund total. WOW. Imaging that. Me and turbo tax have the same number ........again. Now I'm not bragging here, I am NO tax wizard but I can follow instructions. If there are no deductions, doesn't pay to buy software no matter how much hype you hear.

So I finally got to the end, after several more attempts to maybe see if I was generous enough to fork over some cash to pay for this Free service, and there it was. At the end, when your just ready to e-file, you have two choices. First is to file by mail or e-file federal for free. Second choice is to pay $27 dollars and e-file state or Pay now and file state later. Hummmmm. So since they have done your state, they think you should pay for it either way. I say BS. Backtracked into the program and found where you can delete your state tax information. After that, went to the end and tried again and waa-laa. It's now free and only federal but Illinois e-file is so simple once you have the federal done. Or I thought.

So TT files my federal tax return........ electronically.....within seconds.....over a secure internet connection. Great. Why not print a copy for my files and for help on my IL tax return. Uh Huh.

Hit the print button and waited FOREVER. I mean like I was smoking some ribs and turkey outside and left to pull the ribs off. Cleaned up the mess, covered the ribs and put them out to cool and came back to the computer and huh. Still not printed. So I opened a new window and started on my IL e-file. Went thru the whole form, filed and printed a copy for myself before going back to TT, and still not printing.

Let's just say I printed out the email confermation I recieved from TT, I have no copy of the tax form I filed and I will NOT be paying for tax software again !

Act on Energy

So. I get my monthly/yearly energy usage from Ameren/Act on Energy and have been on a slow burn since I got it.

My Electric usage says that I use 99% MORE last year than my 100 neighbors. My Natural gas is 14% BELOW last year than my 100 neighbors.

Now, What burns my ass is that I'm pretty sure they didn't compare on equal grounds. From previous posts, ya all know I have a pool AND use solar heat to heat it, AND have installed a salt water generator to cut down on chemical use. I also have a 80 lbs per day Ice maker and just acquired a 400 lbs per day Ice maker that I use during the summer. I use almost all the energy saving ideas that I know of and yet I use 99% more electric?

Now a little quick background about all this. I have been involved with the Act on Energy Business program at my work since the day I learned about it. It is a very good program and has loads of opportunities for businesses to purchase energy saving equipment/services with rebate incentives to reduce their electric/gas bill. I have not kept track of the grand total but know it is over $50 k that I've done with the program. And yes you might say I'm addicted to saving energy. I traded my H2 Hummer for a Prius.

I didn't have a problem with the natural gas. My house is heated with NG central heating and also have a NG water heater that I just replaced in June. I have replaced the aluminum siding on the house and installed R-14 insulation and R-7 siding boards under the vinyl siding. I know that my house is insulated better than my neighbors.

Well. After the holiday season has wound down ( lack of posting ) I went back and tried to figure why my electric is soo high. Come to find out if you don't update account info, it basically take generic information and assumes all house are more less the same. One example is that they take your square footage of the county tax info. If you have a basement, it's not included. You need to change it. It also has a option for if you own a pool ( bonus ). Also states that after you make any changes it might take up to one billing cycle for changes to take effect.

We'll see next month !

Care Free Summer

Haven't posted in a while because of the great pool season we had this year and enjoyed a flawless season of pool upkeep. After year 2 of the Compupool chlorine generator, I can honestly say that this is the best setup for a pool.

The only problem I had this year is that the pool clouded up on a Wednesday. The reason was that the mechanical timer that turns the pool pump and the generator on had the "ON" lever fall off. Fixed the problem, hit the super chlorinate button and things were fine 24 hrs later.

Since it was a very dry summer, I frequently added water to the pool and never had to add salt this year either.

If you have a pool this is something to seriously look at!