Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Potential Money Saver?

The Electric Company announced that they will be opening up a new billing plan for residential customers, and I am trying to decipher it and figure out if it is worthwhile.

First of all, there is a monthly fee to join - 15.80 NIS monthly for the special meter.
Then there will be a different rate for peak and off-peak times. Peak and off-peak times vary throughout the year. It looks like this:

 Month         Peak Hours     Rate Increase for Peak Usage   Discount - Off-Peak

January          4-10 PM                126% of regular rate            25% discount    
February        4-10 PM                126% of regular rate            25% discount
March            8AM-10PM           base rate + 2.1 %                 29.3% discount
April               8AM-10PM           base rate + 2.1 %                 29.3% discount
May               8AM-10PM           base rate + 2.1 %                 29.3% discount
June               8AM-10PM           base rate + 2.1 %                 29.3% discount
July                10AM-5PM           149% of regular rate            24% discount
August           10AM-5PM           149% of regular rate            24% discount
September     8AM-10PM           base rate + 2.1 %                 29.3% discount
October          8AM-10PM           base rate + 2.1 %                 29.3% discount
November      8AM-10PM           base rate + 2.1 %                 29.3% discount
December       4-10 PM                126% of regular rate            25% discount 

Right now, I am trying to figure out how worthwhile it would be to sign up for a plan like this. What do you think?

I'd love to hear your ideas about this. If this could actually save me money, I'm in!

4 comments:

  1. If you are home most of the day I do not think it is worth it. There was something like this in England - the idea is you set your boiler, washing machine, dishwasher to work when it is cheaper. Looks too complicated for me. I would be worried that I would actually spend more with this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was actually wondering if it would end up costing me more! I can handle running the washing machine at night, but sometimes we need the heat on during the day or evening. and the freezer is always plugged in. And I run the dishwasher once during the day and once at night. I think I want to pretend that I'm on the plan for a month and see how many things I can actually move to off-peak without signing up. Then maybe I can make a better decision... (this may require me to monitor our electric meter closely, but being more conscious of our usage is probably a good thing!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. My husband and I discussed this. We are not using it because I work from home and need to use electricity during peak hours

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hear ya. And that's the biggest thing holding me back, I homeschool and we're home more than many families.
    But, that being said, we are not huge energy consumers during the day. I often run the washing machine at night, and the dishwasher as well. I don't have a dryer (yet - debating that) but if I did, I see no reason I couldn't run it at night. We dress warmly and rarely run the heat. During the summer I try not to run the A/C. (I'd rather just get outside and get our minds off the heat using other methods)
    We don't turn on lots of lights during the day, as we have many windows and even a skylight that let lots of natural light in.
    The biggest things would be - the computers and the kettle, toaster oven, and regular oven. We use those during the day. The question is, is our usage pattern such that we could save money with this plan EVEN THOUGH we're home a lot during the day?
    Food for thought...

    ReplyDelete

Hi! Thanks for commenting on Frugal and Kosher! From now on, all comments are moderated, because of the unfortunate prevalence of spammy comments. Thanks for understanding!