Fixed or variable electric rate?

[skfullgun]

NOT in ERCOT. The coop I receive electric from is in the MISO system.

I'm in Angelina County.

 

[billtool]

Fixed.

 

[ScottDLS]

Fixed locked In for 3 years Discount Power. 0.07-0.09 kw/hr...(there’s a base charge for first 1000kw). I’ve got two (new) 4ton a/c and a 25,000 gal swimming pool, but the max I’ve ever used is 3200kw in August. Winter <1500. Before I got new HVAC I once used 5000kw in a month, I had a variable rate plan and Bill over $1000. I have gas heat and hot water. Good news is we had power all last week in my neighborhood. Had to run the pool pumps 24x7 to keep the equipment from freezing. If I had lost power I would have had to drain all the equipment and hope for the best. I have a 8000w tri-fuel NG/gasoline/LP portable generator, but I haven’t got a transfer switch and link to my panel, so i wouldn’t have been able to power my forced air gas furnace. Also the thing‘s so friggin loud my neighbors probably would have shot at it. Next project is to get the transfer switch and build a enclosure for the genny. I also want to buy a used military 10kw diesel genset from govplanet. check out MEP-803A and MEP-1040 tactical quiet generators.

 

[Axxe55]

Fixed locked In for 3 years Discount Power. 0.07-0.09 kw/hr...(there’s a base charge for first 1000kw). I’ve got two (new) 4ton a/c and a 25,000 gal swimming pool, but the max I’ve ever used is 3200kw in August. Winter <1500. Before I got new HVAC I once used 5000kw in a month, I had a variable rate plan and Bill over $1000. I have gas heat and hot water. Good news is we had power all last week in my neighborhood. Had to run the pool pumps 24x7 to keep the equipment from freezing. If I had lost power I would have had to drain all the equipment and hope for the best. I have a 8000w tri-fuel NG/gasoline/LP portable generator, but I haven’t got a transfer switch and link to my panel, so i wouldn’t have been able to power my forced air gas furnace. Also the thing‘s so friggin loud my neighbors probably would have shot at it. Next project is to get the transfer switch and build a enclosure for the genny. I also want to buy a used military 10kw diesel genset from govplanet. check out MEP-803A and MEP-1040 tactical quiet generators.

Buy a Generac standby generator instead. Insulated enclosure and are very quiet, efficient, will run the entire house, and can be set up to fire up automatically when there is power interruption. Plus has an excellent warranty if there are ever any problems.

You are not going to get any of that with a military surplus generator.

 

[ScottDLS]

Buy a Generac standby generator instead. Insulated enclosure and are very quiet, efficient, will run the entire house, and can be set up to fire up automatically when there is power interruption. Plus has an excellent warranty if there are ever any problems.

You are not going to get any of that with a military surplus generator.

The thought with the milsurp is two fold. One they run on diesel which is quite stable and can be bought in advance and stored in barrels which the genset can draw on with aux pump. Two they are designed as primary power and can run thousands of hours if properly maintained. Really I just want to tinker with it. The Generacs are good but run on NG which could go down too. Of course they can be set up to run on LP from a tank too. I really probably need neither as our power has only gone down for over 24 hours twice in the 23 years since we bought our house new in 1998.

 

[Axxe55]

The thought with the milsurp is two fold. One they run on diesel which is quite stable and can be bought in advance and stored in barrels which the genset can draw on with aux pump. Two they are designed as primary power and can run thousands of hours if properly maintained. Really I just want to tinker with it. The Generacs are good but run on NG which could go down too. Of course they can be set up to run on LP from a tank too. I really probably need neither as our power has only gone down for over 24 hours twice in the 23 years since we bought our house new in 1998.

I am very strongly supportive of Generac. I worked in rental equipment business and it was also a dealer for Generac equipment. If I had to support a family on repairing and servicing Generac equipment, we would have starved to death!

If you go with military surplus, you might also consider one that is trailer mounted, for a few reasons. One it could be used at other places than just your home. A vacation or hunting cabin, or a relative or friend that needed temporary power, and they would have a large aux. fuel tank already mounted under the generator.

 

[ScottDLS]

I am very strongly supportive of Generac. I worked in rental equipment business and it was also a dealer for Generac equipment. If I had to support a family on repairing and servicing Generac equipment, we would have starved to death!

If you go with military surplus, you might also consider one that is trailer mounted, for a few reasons. One it could be used at other places than just your home. A vacation or hunting cabin, or a relative or friend that needed temporary power, and they would have a large aux. fuel tank already mounted under the generator.

Yeah on Govplanet a lot of the MEP-803As go on sale with the trailer too. An easy pull for my Jeep and I could pick up from the auction site that way too. I like the portability idea too. When the Zombie Apocalypse hits I’m not going to want to sit in the suburbs with the “dead” hordes wandering around. I’ll head out to the Alexandria Safe Zone and barter with my genny for protection from Neegan and his minions.

 

[Axxe55]

Yeah on Govplanet a lot of the MEP-803As go on sale with the trailer too. An easy pull for my Jeep and I could pick up from the auction site that way too. I like the portability idea too. When the Zombie Apocalypse hits I’m not going to want to sit in the suburbs with the “dead” hordes wandering around. I’ll head out to the Alexandria Safe Zone and barter with my genny for protection from Neegan and his minions.

Or bring your tent and generator and hunker down at my compound!

 

[candcallen]

Heres my bill thru the 19th. So thru the worst of the cold. You can see we are up over last month and that's about an average june/july bill. We use right at 1000 kw hours over march of last year.

2000 sq ft house. 4 people home. 15 year old heat pump. No pool and I noticed the light on for the E heat strips probably 10 or 15 times during the 2 coldest nights of rolling blackouts. The heat was set at 68 but it never got below the high 50s onntje below 0 night.

It could be worse.

 

[DoubleDuty]

We own our Electric Co. So they better not **** us

 

[Wolfwood]

Yeah on Govplanet a lot of the MEP-803As go on sale with the trailer too. An easy pull for my Jeep and I could pick up from the auction site that way too. I like the portability idea too. When the Zombie Apocalypse hits I’m not going to want to sit in the suburbs with the “dead” hordes wandering around. I’ll head out to the Alexandria Safe Zone and barter with my genny for protection from Neegan and his minions.

wow a trailer generator like that could really increase the range of one of those electric trucks!

 

[sidebite252]

We too are on fixed. I switched from TXU to Reliant about a year ago only because they were offering a good fixed rate for 5 years and a signing bonus just for signing up. Since we have 2 separate meters (house & shop) we got bonus credit for both meters. I didn’t pay an electric bill till the 3rd month. All that and ONCOR owns the equipment. Seems confusing but I was able to work it to our advantage.

 

[avvidclif]

We too are on fixed. I switched from TXU to Reliant about a year ago only because they were offering a good fixed rate for 5 years and a signing bonus just for signing up. Since we have 2 separate meters (house & shop) we got bonus credit for both meters. I didn’t pay an electric bill till the 3rd month. All that and ONCOR owns the equipment. Seems confusing but I was able to work it to our advantage.

And that's a plus??? Local co-op is up and running, it was down less than a day then on rolling blackouts. Oncor still has numerous outages that have been out for a week.

 

[sidebite252]

And that's a plus??? Local co-op is up and running, it was down less than a day then on rolling blackouts. Oncor still has numerous outages that have been out for a week.

What was a plus? Not sure what you mean @avvidclif

 

[Darkpriest667]

I th ink the rate is fixed but the PCRF is variable depending on wholesale... My bill may be BRUTAL this month. Last month's was the highest I have had in over 10 years. Here's what the bill looked like last month.

If you look at the document it says PCRF depends on wholesale.



This is last months bill, yes my name is on it, I don't hide who I am on the internet unlike some folks. Big Brother gonna find you if they want you and we're all armed lol. I removed my address and account --

So last month I did 1862 Kwh this month Is 2333 I expect the bill to be over 400 dollars, but I could be surprised and it only be 280 dollars LOL.

 

[mitchntx]

I did a bit of digging on PCRF multiplier and it is a variable tacked onto a fixed rate.

I guess it is technically a fixed rate. But ...

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

 

[gll]

Last month was one of my highest bills, and lower generation months at 1100kwh, since I put in my 9kw solar array 4 years ago. Last July, my generation credit was lowered for the fiscal year, due to low wholesale rates... I don't expect payback until 2028. I really would not recommend solar to a BEC member.

 

[rotor]

I have not been able to figure out if the co-op plans are fixed or variable like the Direct Energy, Reliant and other plans are. I know mine is a 36 month fixed rate and from everything I see I am immune to a huge bill next cycle. I have read that some people are expecting a huge bill that may exceed their credit card balance if they have direct pay. Be alert.

 

[Axxe55]

I have not been able to figure out if the co-op plans are fixed or variable like the Direct Energy, Reliant and other plans are. I know mine is a 36 month fixed rate and from everything I see I am immune to a huge bill next cycle. I have read that some people are expecting a huge bill that may exceed their credit card balance if they have direct pay. Be alert.

Just based on 17 years of past billing, I have to think ours is fixed to a certain degree. Energy costs are always going up or down, but our bill seems to stay pretty consistent.

 

[ScottDLS]

Heres my bill thru the 19th. So thru the worst of the cold. You can see we are up over last month and that's about an average june/july bill. We use right at 1000 kw hours over march of last year.

2000 sq ft house. 4 people home. 15 year old heat pump. No pool and I noticed the light on for the E heat strips probably 10 or 15 times during the 2 coldest nights of rolling blackouts. The heat was set at 68 but it never got below the high 50s onntje below 0 night.

It could be worse.

View attachment 245374

I used 2000 kw ending 2/20 according to my smart meter. 2500 sq ft house, but gas heat. Power never went down, but I had to run the pool pumps 24/7 to keep $8000 of equipment from freezing. At 9 cents kw I'll probably pay around $200 with tax and meter fee. I also know how to read my gas meter and I'm bracing for about 30 MCF at about $9/per from Atmos so $270. But I also decided to run my pool heater when the water temp got down to 38 and I brought 25000 gal back up to 45, before I shut it off. In 2221 when the next freeze hits, I think I'll just drain the equipment.