Power not so smart pricing

 And a quick note, I promoted power smart pricing before I logged off of here, my suggestion now it get the hell out now.  Natural gas prices have spiked and you getting SCREWED no matter what day it is.

Let's go Brandon. 

Power Smart Pricing - 1 Year

Powersmart Pricing - Month 7

 

It's almost Month 8 but I'll post 7 first.                  

Current billing period: 9/6/2012 to 10/5/2012

 

Standard (BGS) bill: $116.29
PSP bill: $87.45
Savings: $28.84
Electric Supply Savings %: 46.95%*

Year to Date:

Total # of Bills on PSP: 7
Total Savings: $289.12
Total Electric Supply Savings %: 41.97%*  

 

7 month average cost per KW: $0.0304

 



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 !

Cell Battery Drain

Friend of mine told me that the biggest drain on a cell phone was when it was looking for a signal.

Low and behold I recently had a chance to test that theory out.

Was out pretty much in the middle of no where and had trouble getting a signal inside of a building I was working in. My battery was fully charged before I went to work, and by noon it was down to one bar.

Seeing my life is full of little experiments, that night I charged it again and left it in the car. The battery at noon was still charged and again too when I left that that night.

That was only two days tho...

Third experiment was the same as day two and the battery was still fully charged at the end of the day. Day four, I took inside and left it on the desk all day. By the time I left, I had the "low battery" flashing at me.

Soooo.

That theory is correct !!!

Did some looking on the net tonight and found this and some other ways to save on battery drain.

LED Lighting

Although it only uses 1.5 watts of electricity for 40 watts of lighting, I'm not really sold on these yet.

Just like CFL's, they don't work with dimmers.

Winter Dryer Attachment

Here's a little attachment that can save you some coins every winter if you have an ELECTRIC dryer. It attaches to your dryer hose and vents the dryer exhaust back into the house. If ya think about it, the dryer produces heat (furnace) and moisture ( humidifier) that can be used inside during the winter rather than ducted outside. This is close to the one I have but there are several different model out there now. Toss some cheap ass dryer sheets in and sorta works like an air freshener too.

Just remember to take it off before summer.


Don't try this with a GAS dryer !!!!