July 1st, BGE's electric rates become unfrozen. They've been constant since 1999 at $.0675/kWH (time-of-day meter average plus xmission charge). The national avg is somewheres around 11 cents, so we're really just steping up to the market average- still not bad considering this is one of the higher cost-of-living regions nationally and BGE is about 80% coal-fired (one nuke plant, and a few small cogens). It's the one-time jump that will hurt.

This period was to have seen the elusive competitive power market develop here. There are 2 other choices for residential electric- both coal-sourced, unfortunately

I am very curious to see what (uninformed) outrage develops here. It's never been a secret; its just hitting home now. IMHO the utility and gov't were not aggressive enough in bringing in and qualifying other generation sources, and the uncapping probably should've started a couple of years ago instead of all at once.

AZCivic- if you are reading, here's a chance to come out here and run a seminar for people on saving energy around the house- you'll make a killing after the 1st billing cycle goes out!

I might quit my day job and join a PV solar installer...

 

That constant rate explains a lot. I have a contact at their nuke plant who has been telling me some pretty gruesome stories about the state of their payroll. At first they started cutting the "frilly" stuff such as the cafeteria, a few janitors, things and people deemed to be nice but unnecessary. It progressed to the point of significantly reduced manpower across the board and the requirement that employees vacuum their own cubes and remove their own trash. (Oh, the humanity!) They would never, ever sacrifice safety but they were forced to sacrifice everything else. I hope for his sake that they can bring a few jobs back on site.

As for saving energy around the house, we can do so much more! My favorite class in school was a seminar called Solar Energy Analysis and Design. Most people would be absolutely floored if they knew what the design of a house could contribute to energy savings year-round. The sun may be an impractical means of supplying grid power but it could take a huge load off of the infrastructure over the coming decades if only we could take the extra time to build in simple passive systems into our new construction. If I can be taught how in a single trimester, our society ought to be able to put it to use!

Tim

 

.11 cents a kwh? consider yourself LUCKY, almost 15 cents a kwh here!kevin

 

Yes, I think the cutbacks you speak of are directly related to working on revenue that is 7 years out of date. BTW, Calvert Cliffs is the 1st plant to get an NRC extension- out to 2036.

On the upside, BGE, nee Constellation, is being bought by FPL. With some luck, some of their wind/solar programs will filter up here. Wind not so much on the Chesapeake, but I'll gladly take an industry solar grant.

 

Yeah it's about 11 cents here in Arizona, but unfortunately the one major nuclear power plant in Arizona is supposed to be down for most of the summer for periodic maintenance. As such, they'll have to fire up more of the alternate ($$$$) power generators instead. Keep in mind, summer is the expensive time of year for Arizona, on account of the extreme high temperatures.

As for power saving tips, shoot, this was bad timing. I could write a whole heckuva lot on the topic, but I need to get to sleep and tomorrow I pack up all my camping gear for my trip to Canyonlands, south of Moab, Utah. In the mean time, er, my key to success has been careful planning of thermostat use, total replacement of all household lighting with CFL's, and documenting power draw of everything possible using a Kill-A-Watt (also sold as the Power Angel) and using the knowledge of how much power every appliance pulls to know how best to use them. Heck, I even undervolted my computer's CPU from the stock 1.35v to 1.14v to save 11 watts whenever it's on and drawing load. How's that for dedication!

 

overclocked and undervolted... there's a combination I've not seen (intentionally) before.

 

Actually stock clockspeed, but undervolted. Most guys like to overclock on the stock voltage, which you can usually get an extra 10-15% on the newest cores, such as the Athlon64 SanDiego core mine has. Rather than go the overclock route, I undervolted mine, and it astonished me with how far under voltage it could go and still pass Prime95 testing as totally stable without errors. I'd probably give thought to underclocking it, but since my motherboard won't go lower than 1.10v, I figured stock speed at 1.14v was good enough.

 

I borrowed a professionel watt/watt-hour meter and audited the electrical gadgets around home.

Some things were to be expected, like my 12 year old air conditioner, which I've since replaced.

But others, like an old TV/VCR combination....that sucker consumed 26 watts while being off!!! If my math is correct, that sucker would consume 18.7 KwH a month doing nothing!! Needless to say, that has also been retired.

Screw-on fluorescent lamps offer a double advantage. The increased electricity-to-light conversion efficiency means much lower heat generation, which your A/c does not have to remove.

Wal-wart transformers, those pesky black boxes that plug in you wall to power anything from cellphones to cordless tools, are the proverbial drip in the faucet. Older, iron-cored devices consume 2 to 3 watts continuosly, doing nothing. Newer switchmode devices, consume less than 0.5 watt and are lighter.

 

The only problem is that switching power supplies are not available/prohibitively expensive for retail to replace iron xformers. Cellphone chargers are a possible exception, but they are low current and normally 4v output- not useful as a replacement for many xformers.