Enmax

[EmilyB]

It seems to me it was 11 cents per Kj a while ago. I just don't know what to do. It is about 5 ish now. I think I might do it. At least I will know how much I pay each month...

[StirCrazy]

If you think about it.. why would a company give you a secure rate plan if they felt rates would go up? kinda cutting there own throats. I think what you will find is that when a couple more companies come on line rates will drop by a cent or two. especily if they let companies like BC hydro get in on the game. that rate is not that bad.. I pay 5.5cent /KWh and we have some of the cheepest hydro around.

Steve

[trilinearmipmap]

So how can I translate 5.5 cents per kilowatt-hour into a monthly hydro bill for a tank with 220 watts of lighting on 12 hours per day?

[Delphinus]

220W for 12 hours is 220*12 = 2640Wh or 2.64kWh.

2.64kWh * $0.055 = $0.145 per day

Thus, approximately $4.30 per month for your lights.

But that's assuming your 220W of light are only drawing 220W out the wall. I'm no EE or electrician so I can only offer simplistic explanations, but some of that energy is lost to heat, some of that energy is lost to resistance in the wiring, etc.

[Delphinus]

Ultimately, part of me wants to agree with the sentiment that these fixed-rate terms wouldn't be offered if the company didn't expect to make a profit off them. The one real hesitation of mine, is that the terms are things like 5 years. It's a gamble on the part of both the consumer and the energy companies; the consumer is expecting rates to rise and thus wants to lock in; the energy companies must thus be not expecting rate to rise over a 5 year period.

But part of me is looking at my >$200 monthly utilities bill, and then hearing the analysts say how reserves are low and thus prices are expected to rise or even double in the fall (timing to corresponding to the increase in demand), and then saying "oh, crap, I can't afford to keep this hobby up, at the level I'm currently doing so."

I don't know what to do ... frankly I'm scared to lock myself into a 5-year plan because I'm sure it wouldn't be offered to me, if the company didn't intend to make money off the deal, but those projected rates are a cause for concern for me..

On the other hand, when Epcor first came to town, I looked into the terms they were offering for THEIR fixed rates plans .... and I am sooo glad I didn't take that, because the rates fell shortly afterwards, quite significantly...

[ed99]

Jonathan- your compost pile is heating up because the stuff in there slowly starts to oxidize. The grass and other stuff in there is good insulation so the heat does not escape quickly.

As for energy prices- hopefully they will stabilize in the short term. Us Canadians have to pay more now because recently more pipeline capacity was added to transport gas to the States, so now prices have equalized at what they pay. The only worrying thing is that during the year cycle, gas prices (and therefore electricity in a lot of places) should be at the low point right now and they're not since not much gas is getting into storage. Longer term- we're running out of juice in North America, so prices will go up until another source is found.