Saving money on your light bill

Hello fellas, first time posting over here. I'm a Michigan resident, patient, and my own caregiver in southwest MI.

I just got this switched over after putting it off forever, but this is pretty sweet. It would only work if you run all your lights at night, which i do anyway cause it helps with the heat. I called up AEP (my electric company) and told them to put me on their "off peak" billing rate. This makes power really cheap during "off peak" hours. "Off peak" hours are from 9pm until 7am except Saturday and Sunday.

The rates are as follows. 1.7 cents per kwh during off peak, and 12 cents per kwh during peak operation.

I run my lights from 8pm-8am. For veg I run a 18/6 and obviously I shut it off during the day. My first bill on this new rate was roughly half of a regular bill. Hopefully soon I can quit running my a/c and get it even lower. I also wait till after nine to do laundry and run the dishwasher.

what were you paying before you switched to off peak per kw/h m8, if you don't mind my asking, just to see the savings.. ty, good post btw..

I've been under this plan for 20+ yrs and it has worked out for me. My house is total electric (water heat pump for htg/clg). Sometimes it's a drag to always do things at night though.

I assume you need to have a smart
meter?

treetop

If I recall correclty, i think the fella said i was paying around 6 or 7 cents before the switch. I can't find anything on my old rate in my bills.

treetopmmmp said:

I assume you need to have a smart
meter?

treetop

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Yes I had to have them come and upgrade the meter, even though I already had a smart meter.

phizzion said:

I've been under this plan for 20+ yrs and it has worked out for me. My house is total electric (water heat pump for htg/clg). Sometimes it's a drag to always do things at night though.

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I actually got the idea from the 'rents, mom's been doing laundry after 9 since I was a pup!

Its called time of day pricing to where its cheaper during off peak hours, and yes tree it requires a smart meter

Lionden said:

Its called time of day pricing to where its cheaper during off peak hours, and yes tree it requires a smart meter

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I'm in a 2 bedroom apartment and my budget billing is about $170/month and I just got hit with a $400 overage that I have to pay by mid next month on top of my normal budget bill...can I get a smart meter installed in an apartment? What specifically do I request when I speak with the customer service rep at consumers? I'm very interested in reducing my electric bill as this shit is getting ridiculous...hell, I'm only running a 600w and like you fellas, I only run my big light at night.

Guy from DTE told me as well when he came to put in my new meter, figured he was toker!

jonnynobody said:

Lionden said:

Its called time of day pricing to where its cheaper during off peak hours, and yes tree it requires a smart meter

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I'm in a 2 bedroom apartment and my budget billing is about $170/month and I just got hit with a $400 overage that I have to pay by mid next month on top of my normal budget bill...can I get a smart meter installed in an apartment? What specifically do I request when I speak with the customer service rep at consumers? I'm very interested in reducing my electric bill as this shit is getting ridiculous...hell, I'm only running a 600w and like you fellas, I only run my big light at night.

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Wow, it always shocks me when I hear what consumers customers pay! I asked for the "time of day" tariff when I spoke with customer service. It took them a while to figure it out, but they got it.

I got a letter in the mail the other day saying they are coming through my neighborhood within the next week installing smart meters. If I have a smart meter do I then also need to request the off peak plan or is it automatic with the smart meter?

Huel Perkins said:

I got a letter in the mail the other day saying they are coming through my neighborhood within the next week installing smart meters. If I have a smart meter do I then also need to request the off peak plan or is it automatic with the smart meter?

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It's automatic

It will show both rates and their usage on your bill. Mine are KWH@ 0.06912 and KWH@ 0.08257. Not a huge difference but I try to take as much advantage as I can.

CashCrops said:

Huel Perkins said:

I got a letter in the mail the other day saying they are coming through my neighborhood within the next week installing smart meters. If I have a smart meter do I then also need to request the off peak plan or is it automatic with the smart meter?

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It's automatic

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I'm 99.9 percent sure you're still going to have to call them and tell them you want a different tariff. I've had a smart meter for 5+ years and they changed it out for a different one when I switched tariffs. That's with AEP.... maybe its different in your neck of the woods.

captainmorgan said:

It will show both rates and their usage on your bill. Mine are KWH@ 0.06912 and KWH@ 0.08257. Not a huge difference but I try to take as much advantage as I can.

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Wow that's not nearly as drastic as mine....

Duck and Chawn said:

Wow that's not nearly as drastic as mine....

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Sorry but I just figured out that I'm not on the time of day plan,Ill have to call them tomorrow.

To qualify when I first got into this, you either had to have a heat pump (electrical use) or hot water heater (I have both) that only drew power within the time frame. The electric companies were struggling to keep electrical useage up with natural gas becoming more in use. The idea to have much lower rates at night has to due with the large base loaded units (coal fired and nuclear). It is hard on the equipment of these units to run the power production back at night as electrical useage goes down and raise it back up in the morning when useage rises. So the utilities lower the price to get people to use more at night in low demand times and discourage use in the day time during high demand. AEP uses it because of huge coal burning plants in Ohio. Consumers Energy can barely make enough power for its customers so I doubt if you will ever see them offer this. I don't believe DTE would offer either. If you are on a CO-OP, you can just about forget it, almost all buy power wholesale from a large producer.

Huel Perkins said:

I got a letter in the mail the other day saying they are coming through my neighborhood within the next week installing smart meters. If I have a smart meter do I then also need to request the off peak plan or is it automatic with the smart meter?

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DTE? If so, it's not automatic. They have to come out and install a timer. You will then go from paying 10 cents per kwh all of the time, to 15 during peak, and 5 during off peak. Ballpark numbers

st0wandgrow said:

DTE? If so, it's not automatic. They have to come out and install a timer. You will then go from paying 10 cents per kwh all of the time, to 15 during peak, and 5 during off peak. Ballpark numbers

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As far as I know Stow its regular prices during peak and about 1/2 during off peak and YES you do have to call they give you a special meter that counts usage in peak and off peak hours. Usually they try to talk you down from that plan cause of course they don't make as much, they seem to know about us growers, I run 18 thousand watts of lights plus split ac(3)and dehumidifiers(4) plus fans, average bill before time of day pricing was 1400 after its down to 1100 so it does make a difference not too sure if it would make a difference on smaller ops though