Electricity Costs

Our local power company wisely has a tiered energy cost system, so energy wasters who use more than the average amount of electricity subsidize those who use little. This is a great idea. Unfortunately, it horks me.

We're an energy efficient household. All of our appliances are Energy Star rated, we use natural gas for heat and cooking, we don't own a single incandescent bulb (they're mostly compact fluorescents, with a smattering of LEDs), and we don't have air conditioning. However, we do have 5 adults and 2 kids, most of whom live and work here full time.

It turns out that a large household uses more energy than a small one. Go figure. It also turns out that if you work at home, your home energy use is much higher. Most folks' houses sit empty for 75% of their waking hours. Since we're here all the time, we don't get to spread our electricity cost to an office building somewhere -- which gets the cheaper, subsidized rate. And, to top it off, I have quite a few computers being used as servers, and their power use adds up.

The end result is that instead of paying the baseline 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour, I pay closer to 15 cents per kilowatt hour. I spent a while on the phone trying to convince the power company that as a home business, I should get the commercial rate, but they wouldn't buy it.

It's too bad that even at my outrageous prices, solar electricity takes about twenty years to pay for its initial costs. Still, as an eco-freak, I think I'm willing to invest in it, if I can figure out how. Any solar experts out there want to help me out?

Filed Sat - March 5, 2005, 02:17 PM in

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