On Jun 6, 7:52*pm, "Arfa Daily" wrote:
How is electricity sold to the consumer in the U.S. ? Presumably it is by
the 'unit' of 1 kWh the same as here in the UK, but is the price constant
across the day, or is there an equivalent of the night-time economy period
that we have in the UK, where the per unit cost is significantly lower for
seven hours ? And is the pricing structure 'simple' like it used to be here,
or a minefield of different tariffs that you can choose from, that make it
so complicated that you have to go onto a price comparison site to try to
get the best deal, and even then can't be sure that you've got it right ?
And who do you buy it from ? Do you have a national supplier, or a state
supplier, or a local supplier or all of those ? Is it a massive mire of
'competition' between suppliers like it is here now ? I say 'competition' in
inverted commas, because in reality, it's actually nothing of the sort for
the most part. Do you also have 'combined' tariff suppliers who will supply
your gas as well as electricity, to further muddy the waters ? What is your
typical price now for a unit of daytime electricity ?

Just interested, as it's so ridiculously expensive and top heavy here now,
and I was wondering whether this has become the norm around the world. Any
of you Aussie boys (or girls) want to chip in with how it's done down there
? Anyone else anywhere ?

Arfa

50 years ago in New Jersey we had an off-peak hot water heater on a
separate meter.. Trouble was that there was an ordinary clock inside
the meter that was used to tell the time of day and set the off-peak
timing.. It was wrong from the day we moved in due to numerous power
failures, and frequently we got our hot water heated during peak
hours. Apparently they did not trust the meter readers to take of the
meter seal and reset the internal clock, because in 5 years it was
never reset by the power company.

Where I live now in suburban Chicago - Naperville, we are getting
smart meters. But there is a group of about 10% of the residents who
are opposed to the meters. Either they fear the radiation from the
meters - electrophobia - or they don't want the government to know
they are using many kilowatts of power at 3 am for their marijuana
plants grow lamps in their basementsg.