Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Are major changes coming to your electric bill? 5 things to know
Cal Matters ^ | JULY 20, 2023 | WENDY FRY

Posted on 07/20/2023 7:31:12 AM PDT by artichokegrower

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last
To: artichokegrower

Coming soon to signs in California:

Do you need to charge up your EV with low cost electricity?

I am a low income homeowner with electric wiring and a parking space.


21 posted on 07/20/2023 8:37:10 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (ARTICLE I SECTION 2....The President...may require the opinion, in writing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: artichokegrower

Jose, I heard you need some extra dinero.

Why don’t you park your EV in front of my house and let me use it to power my house?

You pay 50 cents each day to charge it up and I will pay you $4 each day to use up most of its electric charge.


22 posted on 07/20/2023 8:45:45 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (ARTICLE I SECTION 2....The President...may require the opinion, in writing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: artichokegrower

So will Tesla plants be charged the most?


23 posted on 07/20/2023 9:03:42 AM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Blueflag

Yes, it’s a real thing.

Yes, it does happen.

Yes, they will detect it, and they will find you.


24 posted on 07/20/2023 9:40:40 AM PDT by Jotmo (Whoever said, "The pen is mightier than the sword." has clearly never been stabbed to death.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: EEGator

Wow. Who signed off on that, eh?

Imagine if any phone or cable TV lines were under a line like that.


25 posted on 07/20/2023 10:13:39 AM PDT by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: ad ferre non, velit esse sine defensione)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Jotmo

Interesting. Thanks.


26 posted on 07/20/2023 10:15:05 AM PDT by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: ad ferre non, velit esse sine defensione)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Blueflag

It happened Friday into Saturday.
Monday morning I had a site meeting with 23 people. All above me.
Good times…


27 posted on 07/20/2023 10:15:38 AM PDT by EEGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Bon of Babble

“I am not wealthy by any means and the a/c is set to 75...”

YIKES!

I get the health concerns, but most everyone should be able to well-manage 79 or 80 with adequate hydration.

I start the day at 75 or lower, then let my place get to 79 during the daytime before the A/C kicks in to cap it there. After sundown, I step it back down to 77, and then back to 75 in the wee hours of the morning, if opening the windows hasn’t achieved that result, already.

But this all depends where you live; High Desert locations cool off nicely at night, so throwing all the windows open is free overnight A/C.

Palm Springs or Barstow — not so much. Yeah, it’s kinda cool to be chatting poolside in shirtsleeves with your Main Squeeze at 2am, but that doesn’t help you get your house prepped for the next day’s Solar inferno.

And anyplace in the Central Valley?? Fahgeddaboutit.

The big thing I see in this is how this billing scheme (and it IS a “scheme” in all the most nefarious senses of the term) will hit customers who ALREADY forked out the big bucks to install solar arrays.

THIS SINGLE MOVE — BY ITSELF — takes EVERY solar system consumer in California from being a fiscally responsible, considerate balancer of environmental concerns and personal costs, and recasts them all as reckless NET FISCAL LOSERS.

INSTANTLY.

These are my concerns EXACTLY:
Californians were “sold” solar on the promise of SUBSTANTIAL Return On Investment as the cost of their systems began to be increasingly eclipsed by the rising cost per kWh of electricity. Jacking up the “base” service fee puts a hefty knock in the timeline for recovery of their outlays, and definitely damages — if not destroys — one of the main marketing angles that has induced so many to “go solar” in the first place.

This base fee change instantly turns the ENTIRE history of the CA-government-driven “go solar” push into a MAMMOTH, and exceedingly FRAUDULENT “bait-and switch” scam, as those who signed up for the deal watch “the carrot” whacked down to a stump with withered greens poking out.

Late in the read, the author eventually gets around to how the change kneecaps solar power investors citing a resident who now “...worries her electricity bills will go up no matter how much energy she saves with solar, but details are nonexistent.

So, lets look at some. The new $51 Base Fee might not seem so big, but solar is so expensive that the before/after cost differential is already small. You can’t just focus on the electric bill; you’ve got a system you’re paying on, and that monthly already takes a big bite out of your net savings on your power bill. Now take that power bill and jack the baseline from $10 to $51 (or $73, or whatever). How does your $300/mo solar system bill look now that you’re no longer comparing it to a $200/mo average charge for electricity?? Project out ten years and consider how that $300/mo bill looks now that your future power bill is going to be $51, or maybe $67, and not the $475 that year-on-year $/kWh price increases projected it probably would be?

THAT’S the breed of unjust fiscal reality that’s being nervously swept under the rug, here.

And THIS — THIS is just CLASSIC:
“There have been a couple times in the last year where our bill has jumped up a couple hundred dollars and we haven’t been able to figure out why,” Jacobson said.

So, you’re a complete ignoramus as regards your own energy consumption habits, and too damnably lazy to get introspective about it, so you’re going to fob off your billing problem onto other people; many if not most of whom HAVE NOT been lazy like you, HAVE NOT shirked investigating their own usage habits, and HAVE, instead, taken action — often personally EXPENSIVE action — to combat the issue, on the DOWNSTREAM side of their own meter.

CLASSIC Leftist douchebag evasion of personal responsibility.

AND a PERFECT illustration of the value of a modern university Masters degree in sociology. I’d certainly take it in trade for what I scoop out of my cat box in any given week.

BOTTOM LINE: This pricing scheme is an end-to-end disaster.


28 posted on 07/20/2023 10:16:12 AM PDT by HKMk23 (https://youtu.be/LTseTg48568)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Brian Griffin

Lets look at that math, shall we.

Let’s say you pay $.15/kWH at home. You can use that to run your home or charge an EV.

If Jose pays $.15/kWH to charge his EV and run his house, he’ll charge that EV at about 80% efficiency. That means it really costs him about $.1875/kWH to charge his EV.

Let’s propose his EV has a 100 kHW battery - a full size SUV is in this range.

If he charges it to 80%, usual recommended amount, from nearly empty, he will buy ~ $18.75 worth of electricity to ‘fill’ his EV SUv with 220 miles or range. Still cheaper than buying gasoline.

But how much do you need every day?

Our house is a pretty big home, and yesterday, a moderate, mostly cloudy summer day, we consumed 2.5 kW per hour, on average. Let’s say Jose can only leave his car with you for 12 hours, and you, being energy parsimonious, only consume 1.5 kW per hour. In 12 hours you’ll consume ~18 kWH, or $3.38, buying electricity from the utility.

$4 COSTS you money, presuming Jose pays the same $/kWH as you do.

Full disclosure: we have solar power on our house, a solar battery of good size, and an EV.
1. the value of the solar system is that on an annualized basis, about 70-75% of our power is generated from the sun at an amortized cost of about $.13/kWH, *ALL* in.
2. With the recent cost increases, we are billed for the 25% at about $.16/kWh all-in. SO ... solar is saving us money.
3. The EV was far more expensive than the ICE model of the same car. It’ll never save us money, really, unless gas breaks $4/gal. We knew that going in. We just wanted it.
4. Our other two vehicles are ICE.


29 posted on 07/20/2023 10:39:32 AM PDT by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: ad ferre non, velit esse sine defensione)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: artichokegrower

This is just a test.
If CA voters don’t complain, it will get much worse.
I am sure glad I left CA in 2002.


30 posted on 07/20/2023 11:02:27 AM PDT by Zathras
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: artichokegrower

“My electric bill will be put in my dog’s name”

Explain to the electric company that your dog is a transgender black—lower rates!


31 posted on 07/20/2023 11:05:49 AM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: artichokegrower
The question that the state hasn't answered is how, exactly, they're going to figure out what an individual ratepayer's actually is. It's a big job, as noted in the article.
Another major issue: data collection. To implement the changes, the state will have to categorize approximately 14 million households into income brackets, and a third-party administrator probably will have to verify their incomes, state and utilities officials say.

What are they going to do? Ask? What if people don't respond? Can one challenge the category you've been placed into?

This is another terrible idea coming from the entrenched socialist wreckers in Berkeley and Sacramento, confirming our decision to get out of California.

32 posted on 07/20/2023 12:01:48 PM PDT by absalom01 (You should do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, and you should never wish to do less.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brian Griffin; All

Do you need to charge up your EV with low cost electricity?

I am a low income homeowner with electric wiring and a parking space.


Sadly, vehicle to home or grid is not yet a thing. Best one can do currently is draw (in the US) up to 1.9kW (120V 16A) via a $220 charging port adapter in Hyundai/Kia evs. Or, as in my case, use an inverter connected to my Bolt’s 12v battery to draw roughly 1 kWh.


33 posted on 07/20/2023 12:02:06 PM PDT by pluvmantelo (Stalinists to the left of me, Satanists to the right...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

#3 What exactly is your ‘fair share’ of what ‘someone else’ has worked for?
- Thomas Sowell


34 posted on 07/20/2023 7:05:25 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: TexasGator

#9 Here is the video of him doing so... : )
https://youtu.be/l-W8Ox3YsAE?t=5


35 posted on 07/20/2023 7:25:58 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Bon of Babble
the a/c is set to 75, hardly cool

For most of the world's population, anything below about 82F feels cold. They would never set the air conditioner that cool. In Belize, the tour guides on the air-conditioned buses wear winter coats, because the tourists from El Norte are accustomed to Arctic Circle temperatures.

36 posted on 07/20/2023 8:14:33 PM PDT by Reeses (Artificial Intelligence is better than Low Intelligence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: artichokegrower

Meanwhile, from NYS...

https://states.aarp.org/new-york/aarp-ny-pulp-applaud-passage-of-bill-that-would-ease-access-to-utility-assistance-for-new-yorkers-in-need

This is despite the billions we spend for LIHEAP and the fact that Deep State is still exporting record amounts of our energy while waging a war on generation.


37 posted on 07/20/2023 8:18:27 PM PDT by mewzilla (We will never restore the republic if we don't first secure the ballot box.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: minnesota_bound

Yeah…


38 posted on 07/20/2023 9:23:23 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance to the flag of the USofA & to the Constitutional REPUBLIC for which it stands.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: EEGator

Ahhh....
Your undying devotion to the promotion
of EV’s has become very clear. Can’t be
bitin’ the hand that’s feedin’ ya.


39 posted on 07/20/2023 11:28:10 PM PDT by Lean-Right (Eat More Moose)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: BobL

In some states, there is no taxes paid on
SS benefits if your combined household
income is below a certain level.


40 posted on 07/20/2023 11:37:50 PM PDT by Lean-Right (Eat More Moose)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson