Sizing up the Competition

[benjamindees]

Since I'm not ready to go off-grid quite yet, I still get to deal with my friendly neighborhood power company, AEP/PSO.  The last ten months of service from them have been a particularly fun experience.

First off, I moved into this house in January.  The first conversation I had with an AEP representative ended with them wanting a ridiculous deposit before commencing service.  Apparently the previous residents of this house used an absurd amount of electricity.  I can't imagine how.  Regardless, AEP (in their medieval wisdom) calculated my deposit based on the usage of the previous residents.  Despite quite a bit of wrangling, they would not budge on this.  Oh, well, I'll get it back in twelve months anyways.  Strike one, ridiculous deposit.

So I'm off, getting my usual power bills of like 350 kWh/mo, until about July.  Out of the blue, I get a $90 bill that says 1,300 kWh.  So, I check the meter.  Nope, 400 kWh.  I check the bill again:  estimated reading.  Apparently it was estimated based on the last jokers who lived here, not me.  I call and offer to let AEP send somebody out to read the meter.  No, that's okay, they'll take my word for it.  They send me a correct bill.  Strike two, ridiculous random bill.

Strike three was when they sent some guys out to mangle all the trees in my yard.  They were extra nice about it.  Somebody came by and marked the trees they were going to mangle.  They left a note:  "We're going to mangle the marked trees."  I checked.  That's fine, I don't care about any of the marked ones.  I care about the big ones that aren't marked.  All the literature says "plant big trees 15 ft from power lines."  Well, that's where my big ones are.  They got mangled anyways.

Like I said, that was strike three.  By then I'm buying parts for enough windmills never to have to deal with AEP ever again.

A couple of months ago, I get a notice of new rate plans.  "Don't worry," it says, "you've been placed in the correct rate plan for your usage," (or something to that effect).  Yeah, right.  But, I take their word for it.  My bill seems to match up with the rate plans on the flier.  I'm beginning to think maybe I misjudged AEP.  Maybe they can do some things right.

Then again, maybe not.  Apparently the flier didn't mention all of the rate plans.  And, apparently, I wasn't in the right one.  I just noticed this today.  To their credit, AEP is one of the few utilities that actually publishes their tariffs in plain view on their website.  Unfortunately, though, they don't bother to read them themselves.

I call customer service.  "I'm in the wrong rate plan.  I want to change."  "Oh, you can't do that.  Everybody is in tariff 15 now."  "Hmm, that's not what it says on your website.  I want tariff 20."  Long, uncomfortable pause.  "Okay, let me transfer you to the correct guy.  You can leave a voicemail."

How many people would go past this point to save $5 a month?  Well, me, for one.  I leave a voicemail.

Five minutes later, a call back.  "Unfortunately, you're not eligible for that tariff."  "Whaa?  I use miniscule amounts of electricity.  It says so right on all of my bills."  "Oh, well, last October you used 1,100 kWh."  "That wasn't me, besides, as the tariff says, only the last five months are counted."  "Just wait a month and then you can switch."  "I don't want to wait.  Besides, I don't want to argue.  Should I just call my Corporation Commissioner?"

Dum, dum, dum.  That's the word they never want to hear.  It's a magic phrase.  Open Sesame.  But this one has been around the block.  There's still fight left in him.

"Well, you used 1,300 kWh in July."  "That was an incorrect estimate.  It's been corrected.  I think I'll just call the Corporation Commission."  I try one last time.  "Okay, I'll change it, effective on the next reading."  By now I'm impressed.  Who knows when their readings are.  I think they're like every three months.  "What?  A month from now?  It says in the tariff that I should be switched automatically, effective this month."  "Oh, it doesn't happen automatically.  You have to request it."  "Let me go and get the tariff, then."  I go and frantically copy the pertinent phrase from my computer.  I go back to the phone.  "Well I've discovered you've already been switched."  "Automatically?"  Silence.  "You're on tariff 20, effective immediately."  

Good.  I've got what I want.  But by now I'm riled up, so I'm not going to let him off easy.

"That's great!  Thanks for your help.  By the way, I'm building some windmills so I don't have to deal with you guys any more.  Have a nice day."

I think I may just write the Corporation Commission anyways.

[pyrocasto]

You think that's fun, try calling them up to get grid tie for your windmills. ;-D

[erichtopp]

Well I think you are on the right track getting off the grid. I know here in Canada we are in for another big hike in hydro rates next year. Let's see now, my electicity bill has doubled since last year.....and next year is going to be even more expensive. Getting away from the grid and NON and I repeat NON renewable resources is the right way to go. Besides you'll be doing yourself and all of us a favor being lower the green house gases you produce each year not to mention you'll have power while the rest of us will be sitting in the dark when the power is out. I don't see anyone who has gone off the grid, going back on the grid.

[nothing to lose]

I like posts like this. Sorry for your problems, but I have a Crappy Co-OP here also so I know the feelings.

The reason I like these kinds of posts is maybe a few people will read them and see there is more than just money at stake in going off grid

I mean I am so sick and tired of people (around here anyway) always telling me how power is cheap enough and a wind gennie will never pay for itself. Of course these are people that can barely check the oil in their own cars I think and have no clue to anything else.

They are in the dark even when the power is on.

Peace of mind, no power company crap, no outages, no destroyed trees, no brownouts, no surges, no worry about the grid power killing a computer! How much are all these other good points worth, and that's not even mentioning the benifits to the enviroment.

 Though I am not off grid at this house I can see all the reasons I should be. But, I have reasons I am not, like I travel alot and the wife (nor any one else around here) would know what to do if a simple cable came loose while I was gone 3 months. But in my own defense also neither last year nor this year did I bother haveing the grid turned on at the other house I rent

 I make do with various ways there and perfectly happy with that power situation.

On grid here however, I was defraging my main PC the other night so I left it on all night, in the morning the kid asked if I knew we had lost power durring the night sometime. Crap, that's when I rememberd I had takin the UPS for the main system to the other house, I run it on that PC there in case the batteries went dead on the inverter. Sure enough I went to look and my main system was off

 I was just lucky it did not scramble the hardrive, must have  been done and sitting idle when the power went off. Years ago before I started using a UPS on every system I had one destroyed by a power outage while the drive was running, so many cross linked files, corrupted files etc... I could not recover that one, had to reformat the entire pc, all the drives!

 So we also have to figure things like UPS for computers into the cost savings of off grid. I mean if I had a real RE system at the house I rent I would not need the UPS there ($150 savings). The other UPS's I have to use here at this on grid house are cheaper ones but altogether total about $250 or more for the 4 of them. So off grid I could save around $400 or $500 on just the UPS's I have to use while ON grid. Original cost of UPS's would buy a good cheapy 5K inverter (paid about $500 for my Aims 5K.) Each time I have to replace a UPS it's another deepcycle battery I could have bought for an RE system instead. THEN figure in the power company costs you don't have to pay.

 RE system pays for itself alot faster than most people think if they would only look at the TOTAL savings instead of just the monthly grid bill.

Hmm, I did not even mention the deepfreeze there that just happend to go bad and ruin all the food inside about the same time we had grid problems, can't prove it, but I am certain the grid did fry it! If we add that cost of grid power, another $1,000 or so savings being off grid. Deep freeze would not have fried if it were on an inverter and batteries!! Expensive foods would not have ruined!

[asheets]

You think the above is bad?  I had just moved out of a condo that has been in my wife's family for 11 years.  The usage has always been high, but since it is old enough to have electric baseboard heat and electric hot water plus a bunch of 100W incandesent light bulbs everywhere I can't reach or change, I blow off the utility bills.

We moved to a new house in the 'burbs with a gas/electric combo and lots of efficiency built in.  Electricity for last month was 800 kwh.  A pretty good savings from the old place.  But, I compare it the the bill for the old place (with the hot water and heat turned off, and just the fridge, digital clock, and a florecent safter light left running, the bill is 450 kwh.  WTF??

I call up city utility, and they say that all this is normal consumption.  I don't buy that, and request a meter audit.  They refuse.  So, I pull the main breaker on the condo for a month.  Next month's bill is 350kwh.  I call the mayor's office and tell him I'm suing for a refund for the last 11 years of bills unless somebody checks things out RIGHT NOW.  The meter gets replaced and the breaker turned back on.  The most recent bill was 94 kwh (with the house set up for sales showings, with baseboards set at 50 degrees and hot water set at 90, and a few lights on 24x7).

We're still arguing about what the settlement is going to be.  I'm building gennies left and right, and I'm going to get one of those Listeroids before too long.  Enough of this cr@p.

[nothing to lose]

Yep you got to watch them close!

450kw for a fridge clock and light they said was normal eh. My average was 510KW for a month figured over a 6 month average.

 I need to find out what is was the last 6 months though, I put in all CFL lights and my bill doubled

 I think the wife run the air 24/7 all that time though. I was expecting to see lower bill, but I had run alot more things also like the air compressor more than normal and I got a Lathe/milling machine durring that time, perhaps turned on the deepfreze about then too. So I got to start watching the meter when I am around here and see whats going on. That's the problem though I am seldom here now to check it.