When we first moved out here to Arizona nearly four years ago, I called to get the electricity turned on at our rental house. The lady on the phone asked which plan we'd like to be on. I thought, "Plan? I just want the electricity turned on."
Well, it turns out that here in Arizona, where everyone needs air conditioning in the summertime, there are different rate plans for electricity. So you get charged different rates for electricity used at different times of the day on the weekdays. The middle of the day is the time when the rates are higher if you sign up for one of those plans, and the rest of the day is much lower.
It seemed like the plans would work great for people who are at work &/or school and not using any major appliances during the day, but not so great for a homeschooling family who is home almost all the time. So I just signed us up for the regular rate, where every hour of every day is the same rate, no matter what. But the disadvantage is that the rate is kind of high, so we began to wonder if we should be on a "plan".
We have other homeschooling friends who are on these time usage plans and they seem to save money, despite the fact that they are home all day. I guess how people do this in the summertime is that they turn the A/C on lower than normal during the night, then turn it up at noon, and sort of see how long it stays cool from the turning-down the night before. It seems like sort of a game to see how long they can go before the A/C kicks back on again during the peak hours.
So after nearly four years, we just this week signed up for the "Time Advantage noon to 7:00" plan. This means that all our major usage of appliances needs to happen between 7 p.m. and noon, to have better rates. And any usage during noon to 7 p.m. is at a higher rate.
So after nearly four years, we just this week signed up for the "Time Advantage noon to 7:00" plan. This means that all our major usage of appliances needs to happen between 7 p.m. and noon, to have better rates. And any usage during noon to 7 p.m. is at a higher rate.
So the kids & I are working on readjusting when we use the bulk of our electricity. Which means I have to bake bread before noon, do laundry before noon or after 7 p.m., and so on. It was a weird first day yesterday since I was gone all morning getting kids to the doctor, but hopefully we'll soon get into the groove with this new system. And maybe it will help me be more disciplined with getting started on things earlier in the day. :)
2 comments:
That would be tough to do. It seems I'm doing laundry all the time! We turn the heat down (cooler) or the A/C up (warmer) at night because we're in bed, and we need it more during the day. That would be tough thing to get used to. I hope it isn't so hard for you guys and that you can save some money.
Love,
Rachel
Yeah, Rachel, I definitely do a *LOT* of laundry around here! But it's been kind of nice this week, to only be able to do it in the mornings. I seem to focus on it more than I sometimes did when the whole day was available for doing laundry.
I've also noticed that I fold it and get it out of the way sooner now than when I was still adding to the pile of clean laundry all day long! :)
Before heating with wood when we lived in Marquette, we kept the thermostat at 68, and a bit lower at night. Since moving here, we usually have our A/C at 82 during the days and a little higher at night.
It will be strange to turn the A/C cooler during the night this summer, but that's when the rates will be lower... so we'll take advantage of it! :)
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