In our recent article What’s up with My PG&E Bill? we looked at some of the big questions that we get asked about executive pay, wildfires and Time of Use. The last one spurred many more questions so we researched and answered that in more detail for you.
What does Time of Use mean for me?
As we mentioned in the previous article the biggest change is PG&E doing broad rollout around your time of use; saying that this change gives you flexibility in how you schedule your daily electricity use to get the most value. To prove this claim, they have an interesting “what if” analyzing quiz on their website which will let you enter in several features and then get a recommendation on which rate plan is right for you.
I ran the tool myself to see what recommendations it would make for me.
What is Time of Use vs. My Current Plan?
When I went to the page, I immediately got a recommendation that says I should switch from my current Baseline Plan (which consists of an allotment of energy available at the lowest price, based on where you live, your heating source, and the season.) to Time of Use – they estimated I’d save 21%.
But I went ahead and took the quiz to see how other actions might impact me.In fact, I took the quiz 3 times to see how my possible changes might affect what I pay.
Quiz result #1:
I said that I will turn off small appliances, run half of my dishwasher and washer/dryer loads during off-peak hours. I also said I would increase my thermostat by 5 degrees in the summer. The recommendation was still the Time of Use plan. But my savings only changed by several dollars – still 21% less than the current plan. (Apparently, I don’t use a lot of power doing those tasks…)
Quiz result #2:
I will also increase my thermostat by 10 degrees* in the summer and run half of my dishwasher and washer/dryer loads. (*This is totally unrealistic in my household but I checked it to see what it would say.) This very large change which would rock my household only netted slight savings – 22% less than what I’m currently paying.
Time of Use with Solar: A Clear Winner
Quiz result #3
I kept the first two changes but indicated that I would consider adding solar. I said I would offset 80% of our annual electricity use. So… not surprisingly, this rocked my world. I would now save 84% off my PG&E bill (mostly gas remaining would be my guess.)
So – if I read this correctly, it makes sense to change to Time of Use because my household doesn’t use a lot of power during the Peak Hours (with the exception that we love our AC.)
And that putting solar on my roof would save me thousands of dollars a year. (About enough to take this family of 4 to a nice resort in Hawaii annually…)
At what rate will PG&E pricing rise?
So… let me make the note that the above calculations assume that there will be a rate increase of about 4% this year. Hmmm.
This seems optimistic based on past increases (Hat Tip to our fellow travelers who crunched the numbers and found this to be slightly over 7%. and likely to be around 26% going forward for peak rates.) And present news stories about additional bonus payments needed to retain rank and file employees.
And another important question, while on the subject.
Why rent power from PG&E when you can own? (or…Why am I renting expensive power generation?)
When considering a place to live – if you have the resources (the cash down payment) and income, and able to qualify for financing – would you rather rent or own?
Going solar is kind of like owning a home – you are using your utility spend on power (PG&E payment), which is renting electricity (you don’t own anything)…and trading that for monthly payment that is happening anyway, and applying to paying down and owning an asset – a new solar system.
What’s infinitely better than buying a house is you don’t need a down payment, you get a 30% discount from the federal government, AND you starting profiting DAY 1 with a lower payment to power your home.
Conclusion: There is a best way to save money.
From this writers perspective (and yes, we do sell solar), it is completely bananas that more people are not going solar in 2019 before the ‘30% discount’ goes away!!
But; even with all the good reasons to buy vs rent, we understand this can be a big step.
However; in today’s world, there are situations where you have no power and those where you do. And taking charge of your family’s energy future can be both affordable and pleasant.
You can get the highest quality, highest value system with state of the art solar monitoring with a no-pressure consultative sales process. We won’t ask you to trust us, rather, we invite you to hear it from a recent customer.
Click here to hear an “interview with a CFO” case study.
