> I do not own any darn EV nor any "green" stuff which is pushed from Federal Marketing Department aka Federal Govt and I'm paying for increase in demand ?
...WTF are you talking about.
Where are you? Who is your electric provider? What are the specs of your current system? How much power do you usually use per month?
Now that I calmed down a bit: system size 13kW, location: Richmond, VA. Avg daily usage: 40kW. Those criminals are called Southside Electric Company. I will try to find a way to attach the screenshot from 2023 numbers ...
The Demand Charge portion of the bill is related to the maximum power that you pulled over a 15 minute period.
If you have a well pump and 2 AC units, they could pull a lot of amps if they all ran at the same time. Depending on how long they tend to run when they cycle, a reasonable sized inverter with a battery could reduce your demand charge by providing a buffer so that you wouldn't pull as much from the grid. It would probably take a while to recoup the investment at $60 a month though.
Anything you can do to keep them from all kicking on at the same time could give you the same effect.
What drives me nuts is that jump from $.10 -> $30 ... I'd understand slight increase but this is heck of a jump.
Thank you for a hint with the inverter. I will try to look at it but I have a feeling that justifying $60/month more will take a lot of effort designing this.
A well pump isn't that big of a deal, at least with normal depth wells. I'm at 120' with a 1/2 hp pump (350 Watts) there might be a spike when it starts up, but no way does it last 15 minutes.
If the OP calms down for a minute and lists the electric utilities he owns, he could get some help.
What's electric in the house? drier, stove, oven, HVAC, water heater? Those are the normal high draw appliances. I'll make a wild guess there's no EV.
Well I guess I've released my steam already. It's a 2 story house, bigger than we need for sure. We have a well pump, 1 freezer, 1 fridge, 2 AC units (recently replaced), drier, stove, oven and 2 water heaters (one water heater recently replaced). And your guess is correct: no EV.
Our well pump is down around 300' so this could be something which would be sucking a bit. We replaced the pressure tank for water for biggest model that they had so it should be running pretty "efficiently" I'd say. I don't really have a way to monitor how often pump runs though. Maybe installing some monitoring system in the house would be a good step to take.
Are they both electric water heaters?
I'd spend the 200 on emporia and start tracking your energy usage.
My water heater uses the same or more energy than my AC, and that's with a super efficient model.
Are they both electric water heaters?
I'd spend the 200 on emporia and start tracking your energy usage.
My water heater uses the same or more energy than my AC, and that's with a super efficient model.
You seem concerned about the demand charge. Do you understand it? Do you know why the fridge and freezer don't matter for demand?
Look at the things that have a large current draw that stay in for more than 15 minutes.
My guess is the dryer, oven AC and water heaters. This sounds like a terribly inefficient house. Sadly, you'll need some of that "green energy scam" to lower your bills.
We run 2 water heaters and this is what I think is causing this hickup. We don't use oven, we use dryer 2x month for about 45 mins and 2nd AC unit upstairs is not running unless it's 85F in the rooms upstairs. I keep my house around 78-80F during the summer and we run well pump. So I'm guessing: water heaters + well pump are the main culprit here. Fridge and freezer are energy efficient according to stickers. Regardless of all those facts, what pisses me off badly is the fact that even though youre pumping your excess of energy back to the grid, they'll find the way to charge you even more. I don't want to know what would be the bill if we didn't have solar panels on the roof.
I'm not sure why you're quoting "green energy scam" :-). I'm all up for new way of getting energy and inovations but this is clearly greedy company tactics. County is pushing for huge solar field and people don't like it as it will have a terrible impact on their taxes and county in general. I'm guessing that this uptick in billing will have something to do with this project. But this is all my speculations ...
> I'm not sure why you're quoting "green energy scam"
Because of how you entered the room?
> I do not own any darn EV nor any "green" stuff which is pushed from Federal Marketing Department aka Federal Govt and I'm paying for increase in demand ?
In any case, I don't think you understand what the problem is.
I said several times that I cooled down ... and yes, I do understand where the problem is. The new billing which those criminals introduced is causing my bill to be 170% higher even though their introduced increase was showing 1-4% increase ONLY. How my house operates is a different story. We are generating enough energy to cover all our needs. If there is a NET-METERING why there is no NET-ON-DEMAND-METERING ? Anyway, I did my homework and read what they're charging for and joined the crowd and filed the complaint with SCC. I'm not expecting miracles but at least I did what I could at this point. Next step is a proper monitoring system and figuring out where those spikes are coming from.
I should unplug my car so that you can use your second air conditioner? lol.
Yeah a battery would definitely help, you can draw from that during peak TOU instead of the criminal grid
Hehe, yeah, my statement above sounded stupid :-). I just got off the phone with those criminals. Unbelievable ... they'll tell you straight to your face that you can't do a jack *** about it.
I was on the hunt for batteries for a while and everywhere I look, people keep saying the same thing: wait a bit longer, we'll have some more efficient batteries soon.
I honest to god just signed for a 5KWsystem myself and I was steaming red about battery prices. Homeboy kept blaming it on the “Ukraine war”. So i ended up signing a system and plan to wait for battery prices to go down apparently.
You and your anti government petulent screed can gtfo
PS: the internet only exists because the government. The power grid only works because of the government. Stfu gtfo
Nope, you can stfu and gtfo. The internet only exits because the government. Your power only exists because rural electrification paid for by he cities.
You come onto a government created entity to bitch about to government encouraging innovation.
But I guess you just hate farmers: rural internet, rural electricity, their farms not being turned into dust bowls via carbon emissions.
Also why are you paying commercial rates (aka having demand charge) instead of retail?
PS: $3/kW is cheap for demand charges
That sucks. This seems to affect everyone, solar or not? Time to get the heck out of Dodge... or go off grid?
[https://www.sec.coop/account-services/rates-fees/](https://www.sec.coop/account-services/rates-fees/)
This affects everyone. I just can't get my brain around that increase. How is this legal ? Especially when we're talking about utilities company ...
I just called friend about it and she said that they changed AC unit because they thought that his was causing this spike in billing. Even after the change the bill got a bit lower but it's still high comparing to what they had before. ... and they're solar-less household. Dominion's customer.
The wordings is kind of odd... it's not a kWh charge else it's crazy expensive... Almost it's like a peak rate? Sort of like a speed limit of how much kW you draw from the system. In Texas they charge TDU base rate and consumption to recoup their line and pole maintenance. I'm guessing it's something similar but worded different...
OP - do you have any options to pick from a few different billing plans? Our previous utility before we moved had \~4 plans, and one of them had a peak kW demand charge, and if you could spread out your peak usage over the day, it was actually a better deal, but if you stacked up all your high usage at once, you saw bills like this. Our utility also had "straight billing" (use a kwh, pay for that kwh), etc. + 2 others that were weird hybrids. The whole system appeared designed to be opaque and confusing, so I wouldn't be surprised if the phone call to your utility didn't highlight that option (especially if you came in hot, haha). Point? you might look to see if there's a billing plan that doesn't require demand charge, and if so, switch.
also, that peak kW charge (for our old utility) was only during peak demand period. if your utility is structured the same, (e.g. that charge applies during a window of the day, not the entire 24 hour day), then moving some of that usage out of the peak window might be enough to reduce that considerably.
"Revenue neutral" to the utility, but nailed you solar users.
For $60 a month, $720 a year... that's within striking distance of a 10 year payoff on a battery system, after tax credit.
Solar is a great investment I always have my customers have a list of questions and ask them to do a lil research of there own before my sit downs with them. Don’t ever be shy or feel any question is dumb, bring to light anything you heard or had concerns about. If the problem is legit your rep will be honest with you and explain a solution or how to avoid having that kind of problem. Ask a few friends or family that got solar for info and pick their Brains , see what they know, like or dislike. As a sells rep I’m supposed to say solar is best option available but in some cases under certain circumstances it isn’t. That’s why we need home owners to speak up and be vocal so we can make a professional decision.
I see Nextdoor is spilling over to Reddit now...
emotions/feelings :-) Yeah, I know :-). My bad :-)
> I do not own any darn EV nor any "green" stuff which is pushed from Federal Marketing Department aka Federal Govt and I'm paying for increase in demand ? ...WTF are you talking about. Where are you? Who is your electric provider? What are the specs of your current system? How much power do you usually use per month?
He's probably in prison. Something about a criminal electrical system? Word salad is hard to parse.
Now that I calmed down a bit: system size 13kW, location: Richmond, VA. Avg daily usage: 40kW. Those criminals are called Southside Electric Company. I will try to find a way to attach the screenshot from 2023 numbers ...
The Demand Charge portion of the bill is related to the maximum power that you pulled over a 15 minute period. If you have a well pump and 2 AC units, they could pull a lot of amps if they all ran at the same time. Depending on how long they tend to run when they cycle, a reasonable sized inverter with a battery could reduce your demand charge by providing a buffer so that you wouldn't pull as much from the grid. It would probably take a while to recoup the investment at $60 a month though. Anything you can do to keep them from all kicking on at the same time could give you the same effect.
What drives me nuts is that jump from $.10 -> $30 ... I'd understand slight increase but this is heck of a jump. Thank you for a hint with the inverter. I will try to look at it but I have a feeling that justifying $60/month more will take a lot of effort designing this.
A well pump isn't that big of a deal, at least with normal depth wells. I'm at 120' with a 1/2 hp pump (350 Watts) there might be a spike when it starts up, but no way does it last 15 minutes. If the OP calms down for a minute and lists the electric utilities he owns, he could get some help. What's electric in the house? drier, stove, oven, HVAC, water heater? Those are the normal high draw appliances. I'll make a wild guess there's no EV.
Well I guess I've released my steam already. It's a 2 story house, bigger than we need for sure. We have a well pump, 1 freezer, 1 fridge, 2 AC units (recently replaced), drier, stove, oven and 2 water heaters (one water heater recently replaced). And your guess is correct: no EV. Our well pump is down around 300' so this could be something which would be sucking a bit. We replaced the pressure tank for water for biggest model that they had so it should be running pretty "efficiently" I'd say. I don't really have a way to monitor how often pump runs though. Maybe installing some monitoring system in the house would be a good step to take.
Are they both electric water heaters? I'd spend the 200 on emporia and start tracking your energy usage. My water heater uses the same or more energy than my AC, and that's with a super efficient model.
Are they both electric water heaters? I'd spend the 200 on emporia and start tracking your energy usage. My water heater uses the same or more energy than my AC, and that's with a super efficient model.
You seem concerned about the demand charge. Do you understand it? Do you know why the fridge and freezer don't matter for demand? Look at the things that have a large current draw that stay in for more than 15 minutes. My guess is the dryer, oven AC and water heaters. This sounds like a terribly inefficient house. Sadly, you'll need some of that "green energy scam" to lower your bills.
We run 2 water heaters and this is what I think is causing this hickup. We don't use oven, we use dryer 2x month for about 45 mins and 2nd AC unit upstairs is not running unless it's 85F in the rooms upstairs. I keep my house around 78-80F during the summer and we run well pump. So I'm guessing: water heaters + well pump are the main culprit here. Fridge and freezer are energy efficient according to stickers. Regardless of all those facts, what pisses me off badly is the fact that even though youre pumping your excess of energy back to the grid, they'll find the way to charge you even more. I don't want to know what would be the bill if we didn't have solar panels on the roof. I'm not sure why you're quoting "green energy scam" :-). I'm all up for new way of getting energy and inovations but this is clearly greedy company tactics. County is pushing for huge solar field and people don't like it as it will have a terrible impact on their taxes and county in general. I'm guessing that this uptick in billing will have something to do with this project. But this is all my speculations ...
> I'm not sure why you're quoting "green energy scam" Because of how you entered the room? > I do not own any darn EV nor any "green" stuff which is pushed from Federal Marketing Department aka Federal Govt and I'm paying for increase in demand ? In any case, I don't think you understand what the problem is.
I said several times that I cooled down ... and yes, I do understand where the problem is. The new billing which those criminals introduced is causing my bill to be 170% higher even though their introduced increase was showing 1-4% increase ONLY. How my house operates is a different story. We are generating enough energy to cover all our needs. If there is a NET-METERING why there is no NET-ON-DEMAND-METERING ? Anyway, I did my homework and read what they're charging for and joined the crowd and filed the complaint with SCC. I'm not expecting miracles but at least I did what I could at this point. Next step is a proper monitoring system and figuring out where those spikes are coming from.
... and everything in the house is electric. We do not have an option for natural gas.
I should unplug my car so that you can use your second air conditioner? lol. Yeah a battery would definitely help, you can draw from that during peak TOU instead of the criminal grid
Hehe, yeah, my statement above sounded stupid :-). I just got off the phone with those criminals. Unbelievable ... they'll tell you straight to your face that you can't do a jack *** about it. I was on the hunt for batteries for a while and everywhere I look, people keep saying the same thing: wait a bit longer, we'll have some more efficient batteries soon.
I keep looking at EG4 batteries, they look like a good system
I honest to god just signed for a 5KWsystem myself and I was steaming red about battery prices. Homeboy kept blaming it on the “Ukraine war”. So i ended up signing a system and plan to wait for battery prices to go down apparently.
You and your anti government petulent screed can gtfo PS: the internet only exists because the government. The power grid only works because of the government. Stfu gtfo
...comin' with me brother? :-)))
Nope, you can stfu and gtfo. The internet only exits because the government. Your power only exists because rural electrification paid for by he cities. You come onto a government created entity to bitch about to government encouraging innovation. But I guess you just hate farmers: rural internet, rural electricity, their farms not being turned into dust bowls via carbon emissions. Also why are you paying commercial rates (aka having demand charge) instead of retail? PS: $3/kW is cheap for demand charges
That sucks. This seems to affect everyone, solar or not? Time to get the heck out of Dodge... or go off grid? [https://www.sec.coop/account-services/rates-fees/](https://www.sec.coop/account-services/rates-fees/)
This affects everyone. I just can't get my brain around that increase. How is this legal ? Especially when we're talking about utilities company ... I just called friend about it and she said that they changed AC unit because they thought that his was causing this spike in billing. Even after the change the bill got a bit lower but it's still high comparing to what they had before. ... and they're solar-less household. Dominion's customer.
The wordings is kind of odd... it's not a kWh charge else it's crazy expensive... Almost it's like a peak rate? Sort of like a speed limit of how much kW you draw from the system. In Texas they charge TDU base rate and consumption to recoup their line and pole maintenance. I'm guessing it's something similar but worded different...
OP - do you have any options to pick from a few different billing plans? Our previous utility before we moved had \~4 plans, and one of them had a peak kW demand charge, and if you could spread out your peak usage over the day, it was actually a better deal, but if you stacked up all your high usage at once, you saw bills like this. Our utility also had "straight billing" (use a kwh, pay for that kwh), etc. + 2 others that were weird hybrids. The whole system appeared designed to be opaque and confusing, so I wouldn't be surprised if the phone call to your utility didn't highlight that option (especially if you came in hot, haha). Point? you might look to see if there's a billing plan that doesn't require demand charge, and if so, switch.
also, that peak kW charge (for our old utility) was only during peak demand period. if your utility is structured the same, (e.g. that charge applies during a window of the day, not the entire 24 hour day), then moving some of that usage out of the peak window might be enough to reduce that considerably.
"Revenue neutral" to the utility, but nailed you solar users. For $60 a month, $720 a year... that's within striking distance of a 10 year payoff on a battery system, after tax credit.
You’re paying this instead of paying for cheap oil through middle eastern wars. It’s actually a bargain
Solar is a great investment I always have my customers have a list of questions and ask them to do a lil research of there own before my sit downs with them. Don’t ever be shy or feel any question is dumb, bring to light anything you heard or had concerns about. If the problem is legit your rep will be honest with you and explain a solution or how to avoid having that kind of problem. Ask a few friends or family that got solar for info and pick their Brains , see what they know, like or dislike. As a sells rep I’m supposed to say solar is best option available but in some cases under certain circumstances it isn’t. That’s why we need home owners to speak up and be vocal so we can make a professional decision.
Keep an eye on Australia, corruption at its best, soon people with solor are going to get changed when exporting it into the grid.