72cougarxr7 wrote:
I have spend some good money over the years at my house on energy efficient upgrades.
(Converted all lighting to led, energy star dish washer, energy star water heater, energy star front load washer and dryer)
Seems like every time I spend money to lower my energy usage and attempt to lower my utility bills, the good old New York "Public (dis)Service Commission" allows the utility companies to implement a rate hike.
I have spent thousands to be more efficient, hoping to save money on my electric bill, and am spending pretty much the same as I was 10 years ago!
Actually, not so much as a "rate hike" more like after rate "service charges"..
On my bill there is local and distance distribution charges, green charges, generation charges, local, state, fed taxes among with a bunch of other little charges that add up way past what my actual KwHr charges cost..
In a nutshell, my actual bill the electric if based soley on KWhr use would cost me less than $20 but adding on all the little knick nack charges puts the over all bill to $100-$120 per month.. :M
Many of those charges also go UP to Commercial Rates (Commercial power rates in my state ARE much more expensive than consumer rates) if you exceed a certain preset level..
And for my house, I used exclusively fluorescent lighting when I rehabed it after I bought the house.. When we first moved in 30 yrs ago we had electric bills that did cost $20-$30 per month.
I have been slowly moving from 4 ft T12 bulbs to 4 ft T8 LED as T12 bulbs die the replacements which do use a bit less than half the wattage but cost considerably more to buy up front and because of that I will never see any really break even point when the LEDs die.
