Get ready for environmental increase to your electric bill!

[sfsuphysics]

If we are talking cost only then yes gas is cheaper, but it isn’t necessarily really “cleaner”, of course depending on where/how the electricity in question was generated.

Yeah I was talking cost vis-a-vis the power company charging different prices for different times to use electricity. As for the "cleaner" aspect, yeah that really gets complicated as you said depending on how the electricity is generated, if it was generated via natural gas power plant then it absolutely is cleaner, the dirtiest water heaters are 80% efficient by law, I want to say power plants for natural gas maybe 50%? Plus transmission losses. Ultimately it's do you want your pollution local, or some place far away. "The environment" largely doesn't care where the green house gas comes from though unless you live in a valley and it gets stuck there (i.e. LA). But yeah mixing all the coal, nuclear, gas, wind, hydro and solar together into one bucket and saying "I only use green energy" may be a bit of a stretch.

My washer has a really good spin cycle it seems, and often with a lot of the clothes I wear they come out of the washer dry enough so that I can hang dry them and they are dry really fast, of course there are some things which this is impractical for and it is more work, but especially during this last year when the diversity of things I wear has been low it has saved me a ton on electrical costs. Even running an extra spin cycle if they are a little wet still has saved me a couple hours of drying time.

Yeah that's one of the big selling points of the front loaders, is they spin the water out of them so well you actually save energy on the drying side of things. I remember way back in the day couldn't wash more than 3-4 pairs of jeans at a time because they soak up so much water you could never dry them. Now that spin cycle squeezes all the water and and drying is relatively less energy intensive, although there are different types of ways dryers determine dry... some are better than others.

Funny how a post about pushing everyone to a TOU electric schedule became a laundry chat

 

[iani]

Mike you may want to check on the TOU for solar people. I am on the old schedule and got a message saying I am being switched.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Mike you may want to check on the TOU for solar people. I am on the old schedule and got a message saying I am being switched.

When did you have the solar installed?

I forget where I saw it, it may be San Francisco exclusive though. But I'll keep an eye out for a letter.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Also keep seeing "protection plans" that let you go 12 months and if your bill is more expensive they'll refund the difference and allow you onto another program. But YMMV based on your conditions, etc.

 

[TurboReef]

I have solar and was signed up for the TOU plan #1 (without charging car). They switched my plan and told me it was going away. Peak time is now extended until 9pm

I increased my solar panels to 26 to try and compensate for this. I am maxed out unless I get more than a 200 amp service from pg&e.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yeah some years back new solar installs went directly to TOU scheduling simply because the power companies were having a hard time (read: They made less money) with balancing demand with the excess supply. So they stopped allowing people onto a standard NEMS system which gives you a 1 to 1 credit for energy you make, and put new solar installs on TOU. Now I totally understand their problem, however switching to TOU doesn't stop solar from being created when it does, all it really does is pay people less for solar ultimately making more money for themselves.

 

[TurboReef]

Yeah some years back new solar installs went directly to TOU scheduling simply because the power companies were having a hard time (read: They made less money) with balancing demand with the excess supply. So they stopped allowing people onto a standard NEMS system which gives you a 1 to 1 credit for energy you make, and put new solar installs on TOU. Now I totally understand their problem, however switching to TOU doesn't stop solar from being created when it does, all it really does is pay people less for solar ultimately making more money for themselves.

I literally get 8 cents a kilowatt when I sell back on the grid. I have to have more panels just to compensate in hopes I can break even with my “non sun” hours. Pg&e are total crooks. I can’t even believe the state of California allows this to continue.

Don’t forget about how they purposely shut down plants so they could buy energy and a select few for rich.

white collar legal crime.