"Real time pricing" for electricity

[Psychodisney]

Has anybody tried this? I got a mailing yesterday from ComEd about their "real time pricing" program. It says that 99% of customers have saved on their monthly electric bill with this program. They tell you when rates are hi/lo and you change when you run things like the dishwasher. It says the lower cost times are nights, evenings and weekends. You have to commit for 12 months.
My electric bill is always over $100. It would be nice to lower it!

 

[minnie1928]

Has anybody tried this? I got a mailing yesterday from ComEd about their "real time pricing" program. It says that 99% of customers have saved on their monthly electric bill with this program. They tell you when rates are hi/lo and you change when you run things like the dishwasher. It says the lower cost times are nights, evenings and weekends. You have to commit for 12 months.
My electric bill is always over $100. It would be nice to lower it!

I haven't tried it yet (not available here), but I would definitely be up for trying it.

 

[maggiew]

I haven't tried it because its not available here, but it is good for the environment.

The one complaint that people usually have is that in the fine print somewhere it probably says that they have the right to shut off things like your water heater during peak times if they need to for 30 minutes or so.

Maggie

 

[Psychodisney]

I didn't see that. You can give them permission to cycle your AC during the summer and they'll give you another discount. I wouldn't be willing to do that because DH works from home a couple of days a week....and he wouldn't be happy.

 

[Psychodisney]

Maagie-check out the website thewattspot.com. You should be eligible in Chicago.

 

[HHSTigerFan]

We do it, in December and January our bills were about $120 under the standard system, our Febuary bill was $78, interested to see what our March bill is and whether Febuary was a fluke.

 

[HHSTigerFan]

I haven't tried it because its not available here, but it is good for the environment.

The one complaint that people usually have is that in the fine print somewhere it probably says that they have the right to shut off things like your water heater during peak times if they need to for 30 minutes or so.

Maggie

That is another program they have, usually just your AC in the summer months during extreme peaks..

 

[akcire]

Has anybody tried this? I got a mailing yesterday from ComEd about their "real time pricing" program. It says that 99% of customers have saved on their monthly electric bill with this program. They tell you when rates are hi/lo and you change when you run things like the dishwasher. It says the lower cost times are nights, evenings and weekends. You have to commit for 12 months.
My electric bill is always over $100. It would be nice to lower it!

We tried it as part of the first group, usually no one is home during the day and we have appliances we can program to run at night--so it seemed to be a good fit. We were wrong, then we had to fight them for 8 months to get back on flat rate (my husband had to involve the Citizens Utility Board and threaten to sue). All told we spent 20 months on real time pricing, there was no savings just aggravation.

The reason we wanted off the program had to do with the pricing and reporting of the pricing. There is a website called the thewattspot.com and it was supposed to tell you the price of electricity at that moment, but it was always wrong. Sometimes it would even have a negative price displayed--as if we would be paid to use electricity (that was not the case). In the summer we frequently paid prices over 50 sometimes even 75 cents a kilowatt hour--which for IL is VERY high. I could run the dishwasher and do laundry at 3 am for a month and it would not offset the air-conditioner running for a day at 50 cents.

Also keep in mind, Com Ed's flat rates in IL are very inexpensive compared with the rest of the nation. (You would be totally shocked by electric bills in FL, TX, CA) My advise to you would be to unplug as many things as you can and if you have not done so sign up for Nature First. Nature First is another Com Ed program where they put a switch on your Air Conditioner and they pay you a $10 credit in the summer months for the right to shut down (the compressor I think) part of the machine. We have been enrolled in Nature First for more than 10 years and Com Ed has only used "their power" once or twice and we get the $10 credit on 3 or 4 bills annually.

 

[JB2K]

I know the Ameren Illinois (AmerenIP/Ameren CIPS/Ameren CILCO) companies offers such a service in the "rest of the state".

I may take a second look at it...

 

[Psychodisney]

akcire: Thanks for the input. Did you notice a change in your bills while on the program?

 

[brerrabbit]

I signed up with a service provider in my area for a two year flat rate of 11 cents per kilowatt hour. We live near Houston, Tx. For the areas of Texas that are deregulated that is not a bad rate. In the deregulated areas variable pricing can run upwards of .17 a kilowatt hour. Our monthly bills for a two story 2,900 sq ft house with a pool ran a little over $500 last summer but we were not locked into the 11 cents at the time. Since then we have added a radiant barrier, more insulation and locked in the rate. We are hoping it pays off this summer. Oh the one added benifit is at the end of the year I get 3% of what I payed for electricity for the year back on a prepaid Visa card. We signed up in Novemebr paid one bill and got $7.67 on a visa in January.

 

[akcire]

akcire: Thanks for the input. Did you notice a change in your bills while on the program?

Every month we were on the program we used less energy than we did in the previous 4 years, however the reduced usage did not translate in to equally reduced billing due to the fluctuating rates. We saved about $5 a month in winter months and paid about $20 a month more in summer months--somewhere my husband has spreadsheets (we barely use AC, but electricity prices are higher in summer due to others AC usage). This was with me running the dishwasher and doing laundry, almost ALL laundry, at 3 am (I would program the washer to run at the cheapest time and then when I got up at 5 I would put in our gas dryer--the when hubby got up at 7 he would hang/fold/or abandon for me to resolve when I got home). The other cheap times to run appliances were Sundays particularly the mornings.

Our household was pretty "green" before we tried the RTP. We had already installed CFL's, had recently put in higher efficiency appliances (due to breakage), and unplugged our extras. We thought this would be a good way to continue on the pro environment plan, and also save us a few bucks--all it did was make me mad.

 

[SOnotLayuh]

I wish we had this as an option here.