First – What Is It?

TOD/TOU pricing is the utility’s policy to charge different cost rates for electricity depending upon the time of day or the time you “use” electricity.

In general the rates for TOD/TOU outside of the 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM range are about half the current rates you pay today. The weekends are also usually at lower rates.

As with most everything, context is useful.

On the surface you are thinking Hey – have the regular rates – that is awesome – finally some relief from high electric rates!

And you may be be able to enjoy that benefit if you are retired or find yourself being able to work from home the better part of the day, and in that case this may be a useful feature. Remember though, nothing is FREE, and these rates are subject annual uplift as they are now and may have additional “adjustments” over time.

Let’s take a closer look…

PRO’s

• Low cost outside fo the 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM range
• Low cost on the weekends
• now fees or adjustments to your current account are required

CON’s

• During the 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM period your rates may be 2-3 times HIGHER than they are now.
• You come home from work, its 99 degrees outside you instinctively turn the A/C on high, you know, just to cool the house down…in fact you will probably NOT do that under TOD as you will see your electric bill jump substantially

OK, so maybe we’ll just be HOT till 9:00PM and then we can really cool off the house –

Let’s continue.

What else do families do between 4:30 PM and 7:00 PM every evening after the kids get home from school and the parents get home from work?

• Cook food
• Do the clothes
• Wash dishes
• Run the Dryer
• Take showers

So if you have electric appliances, especially an electric dryer, or water heater, you are going to be in for a shock – UNLESS – you just put off everything till the weekend  or eat dinner at 9:30 PM.

Like it or not, we have all become addicted to convenience – we want what we want and we want it NOW.

So there will be lifestyle impacts you will only be able to guess about until you actually live through it.

If we did not have years of actual data about these anomolies from places like California, Texas and Florida you might be able to say – “Hey, you are pushing solar energy products, so of course you are going to focus on the doom and gloom” – you coudl say that, it wouldn’t be correct, but you could say that.

If you are watching the handwriting on the wall though you will quickly see that these anomalies have NOTHING TO DO WITH SOLAR ENERGY companies, these events transpiring are the result of an overwhelmed Utility grid that has relied far too long upon NON-renewable energy that is NOT SCALABLE to the degree it needs to be to handle the growth of population any given area .

OK – so how do we fix this?  People generally want a magic pill to FIX STUFF, so let’s see what’s in the ole medicine cabinet…

Options

1) Well, without being overly obtuse, STOP using electricity and these problem go away now – but like I said we are addicted to convenience – so this option is really not going to fly.

2) With TOD/TOU pricing – CHANGE when you eat, do your clothes, heat and cool your house – again that convenience thing rears its ugly head so people don’t like being impacted in their daily activities, so this option won’t last too long either.

3) Change the type of appliances you use from Electric to Gas — OK, now we are on a legitimate path to success – did you know that you electric dryer alone can consume 3,500 kWhs a year or MORE if you have a small family and are soing laundry 2-3 times a week. This is a workable option and if you scout around and watch for the LOWE’s and HOME DEPOT ads , you can solve a large amount of your problem with different appliances. 

So this option is an MKS (Maybe-Kinda-Sorta)

4) Don’t be mad, but, MOVE to a different location not using TOU/TOD pricing – this of course is ripe with a number of logistic and personal issues not to mention the expense of the move itself – I’d have to mark this option generally speaking as a NO-GO, unles you getting read y to move to Bermuda and live on  island that does not need a whole lot of electricity.

5) If we apply some common sense to this matter, and realize that very people want to change the way they live to accommodate a lower electric bill, then the last option is to find a way to get CHEAPER electricity that is NOT subject to rate hikes or “policy changes” you cannot control — some of you already guessed… which is correct –

install solar energy that you OWN

Here are the benefits and conveniences of using renewable energy –

• ZERO cost to implement unless you choose to pay for it up front, in which case your electric bill is eliminated* and drops to next to nothing
• Your Solar Energy systems that you own, is connected to the grid, the same grid you rent energy from today – except, instead of you PAYING them – THEY PAY YOU for any excess electricity you do not consume in your home – No Matter what time of the day it is.
• Solar energy is an asset that ADDS value to your home – there is a government watchdog agency called Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories in Washington (www.LBL.gov) who shows that homes with solar energy gain 6%-8% of home value after installation which continues to compound over the life of the ownership
• You decide when to use your energy, not some energy policy dictated by a nameless accountant at a utility company
• If any of this strikes a chord, kindly know this is the last year you are eligible to claim a 26% Tax Credit on your system installed 2022, for the average home that amounts to about $6,000 is tax credits and larger homes can claim as much as $17,0000 – $19,000 – your will likely fall somewhere ion the middle of that range.

Lastly -let me share that like most new technology there is a lot of marketing fluff that you have to sort through to find the truth, except here, where we help you do the sorting up front before you invest one penny of your hard earned money.

We constantly update this data, so if you should come across an article that dispels what I have written hear – call me, I’m not perfect and sometimes make a mistake and is that is the case, I will take the lumps and correct the data.

Solar Energy itself is in fact perfect, the conversion of that Light into electricity by human hands is subject to ongoing evolution and improvement and that’s what we focus on, watching the technology and knowing when to adopt it and when to wait.

Here is an example –

Just a year ago using batteries with solar for your home was REALLY EXPENSIVE, the COIVD crisis magnified that more than necessary with impacts to manufacturing and distribution.

TODAY however adding a battery to your solar energy system will allow you to reduce the number of panels on your roof, be able to STORE excess energy before you send the balance to the grid, and provide the BEST way to manage your energy for your home.

We don’t do wild-assed guessing for a design. It is based upon your actual usage, so we ask to analyze your most recent electric bill to provide an initial design report for your review.

This analysis ensure that we stay within the guidelines set forth by energy policy at the Utility company, which keeps you out of trouble BEFORE we do the installation.

Is this article makes sense and you want to at least see if you home might be able to use Solar Energy with the benefits I described above, then call or email: service@cs2energy-f8x97rhcdh.live-website.com – simple include your street address and your preferred phone or email and we can do the rest over a a 2-minute conversation to see if this technology makes sense or not.