A) Quite familiar with peak/demand charges. It’s more or less how the power company got us to minimize our on peak usage at the plant and we cut our power bill tremendously.
B) The “12 hours of peak” is BS. No system has that. Our peak period varies, depending on the time of year, but is 4-6 hours. Also, there’s usually a significant difference in price between off peak and on peak. Off peak should be multiple times cheaper, though I could see why it’s worth more to a power company to get a plant to do some load shedding than a house.
C) Some places have started offering a “ultra low” use rate which is very cheap, and only in the middle of the night - essentially, you’re using waste power. This is excellent for electric car charging, running ice builders, Edison batteries, etc.
Posts: 6231 | Location: Republic of Ice Cream, Low Country, SC. | Registered: May 24, 2007
Not everyone benefits, but these programs can help with billing, down here we run pool pumps for 4 to 8 hours a day depending on the season. These pumps are 220, and can pull quite a bit of power and all are on timers.
Switch to the lower billing cost at night and running them then can save some money,
Posts: 25270 | Location: Gunshine State | Registered: November 07, 2008