Have you ever tried to understand your Power Companies billing rate?!
Check out some of the rates/costs and how they are calculated, below: This is from my local power dealer. Let me inform you that each of these links open pages with more and more links. Each of those links open “Laws” and “Regulations” that the power company must live by. I did as much reading as I could, thinking I might be able to write one condensed version of the "whats" and "whys" we are paying. Not a chance!
Conclusion: The government energy “Regulators,” who for the most part are made up of former Power Company cronies, has stacked the deck in favor of the Power Dealers. This is not surprising because most of those cronies make their money on investment/stocks their former company has given them. By the way, those same people have a fixed 15% tax rate (*See Mitt Romney, etc….)! Sorry, I digress. The real conclusion is…. These “rate regulations” have given Power Dealers a “Get out of Jail Free” card that allows them to fix rates based on confusing, real, and imagined numbers that always guarantee they will cover their costs and line their pocket books with guaranteed profits!
What’s a person to do?
Be placated with the supposed concern the Power Dealers shows us by recommending ways to lower our energy bills! Hmmmm sounds reasonable.
Relax and just pay the bill. It’s just to hard to figure ‘em out so let us quietly be lead to slaughter.
Fight back! Hmmm, sounds like the American way. Although, the “American Way” now a days means we have to rely on our politicians. Heck, they’re the ones that got us here. No help there!
Find different ways to power our homes? Yup! What about solar? With solar power, panel manufacturers’ fighting to get cost down to $1 per watt from today’s’ average of $2.60 per watt and as retailers, and installers start dropping their prices due to the increase in sales, and taking in consideration that many States offer up to 50% in tax write offs for installing solar, it’s time for the American people to make the change!
Here is my personal estimated costs and return on investment: My home has a gas heater so my electric bill is low and I use all types of energy saving gadgets, in comparison to others.
I use apx, 400 kilowatt-hours a month: (remember that one 1 Kilowatt-Hour equals 1000 watts - For example, let's say you leave a 100-watt bulb running continuously (730 hours a month), and you're paying .15¢/kWh. Your cost to run the bulb all month is 100 x 730hr ÷ 1000 x 15¢ = $10.95. (P.S. my projection of cost per kWh $.15 includes all the fees the power company adds into my bill.)
Building the most up-to-date solar panel system for my needs, on my roof, I’ll spend apx $18,000.
If power prices continue to stay at $.15 per kWh (which you can bet they won’t) the system pays for itself in 7.25 years.
Now let’s include the tax rebates and incentives offered by the government and power company:
50%! I found 3 ways to receive deductions that will total almost $9,000! Now my cost is only $9,000!
That means it will take 3.63 years to break even! Then, as they say, "I'm off the grid!"
That’s for an “Off the Grid” system. Meaning it’s only powering my home not a system that feeds into “Consumers Power” which has them paying me for excess energy that I add into their system! I get $.65 per kilowatt hour I send back to them! (of course there is lots of red-tape and this and that exclusions etc…. but, I figure that by the time I pay for a new Meter and the add-ons that they rip me off for, I’ll still get apx $.35 per kWh from them.) I won’t be sending them to much power, it will all depend on my monthly energy use and season of the year. I will not get rich off selling them power, but I do get to "stick-it to ‘em!"
So check your energy bill, if your home or business is using more than 400 kWh a month, then you need to go solar!
If you live in Canada, check out my friends at ethosolar.com
If you’re a fellow American, check out how you can calculate your energy saving by going solar at: http://www.find-solar.org/?page=solar-calculator (use the Price Installed $ amount at $6.00 per Watt DC, this is the nation’s average price of solar panels and installation per kWh needed)
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