Texas Electricity Choice

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Texas Electricity Choice

Postby tex_toby » Mon May 04, 2009 12:05 pm

Can any of you in Texas give some advice on choosing an electricity provider? TXU has always been my provider, but they ticked me off this morning. I work with three other guys in my office, all who have TXU, and all three have a better rate than me. I called them this morning to see if they could give me a better kwh rate, and what they quoted me was more than I am already paying! :shock: I have always been a loyal customer - never had late payments, etc... I have decided to now shop around, but there are too many options out there. Do any of you have an alternate electric provider? Pro's, Con's? Any suggestions? I like to have my bill averaged over 1 year so I don't take big hits in the summer, but that is my only requirement. I just don't want to sign up with a company online to later find out they are not so good if ya know what I mean. I'm all ears.

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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby Gator » Mon May 04, 2009 12:46 pm

I just switched to Stream Energy and have also use Amigos Energy. To get lower rates, I went with a 6 month plan...
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby JamesB » Mon May 04, 2009 12:46 pm

Glad you brought this up... It's a topic I've been considering for a while just have not had the time to sit down and do the research... Looking forward to any advice folks have to offer up.
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby BrisketGrease » Mon May 04, 2009 1:11 pm

Here's a great website to compare different companies....

[url]
http://www.powertochoose.com[/url]
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby tex_toby » Mon May 04, 2009 2:30 pm

Thanks for the info, guys.

Gator - do you mind if I pick your brain a bit? What drove you to pick Stream over the competition? Price alone, or other factors? Have you been with them long enough to go through a couple of billing cycles? If so, have you had any problems?

tex 8) 8)
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby Gator » Mon May 04, 2009 2:58 pm

Well, I was with TXU and switched to Amigos Energy and was happy with them (I had good experience with Amigos). Recently a good friend went with Stream and signed up under their dealer program. I moved over becasue their prices were good and I could help out my friend at the same time...they are all starting to look the same to me and price plays a big factor.

The only negative I heard is that another friend was with a company that went out of business. When they went out, TXU switched them back and tagged them with thier highest rate for that month - something to watch out for.

Now is a good time to switch with the summer months coming up and 6 month plan can save $. What is your average monthly KW usage? I think the average 2,000 - 2,500 SQ Ft new home uses 2,000 KW per month during the summer.
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby tex_toby » Mon May 04, 2009 3:27 pm

I range from 900kwh to 2600kwh depending on the season. My A/C unit is about 15 years old, so not very energy efficient for my 1800 square foot house.

That does remind me of something though. Have any of you ever heard of free energy conservation audits for your house? A friend of mine started up a company late last year that does this locally. There are only three criteria to be met in order to qualify. 1) House must be older than 5 years old, 2) Must not receive energy from a co-op. 3) You must be the homeowner. Basically, you find a local company doing these audits and set up an appointment. I say free, but they can charge you $5 to $20 depending on your location (for a fuel surcharge), but that is all you are out of pocket - period. Basically, they will come out to your house and do some diagnostic tests to check for common household air leaks, measure air loss in A/C and heating units and test for carbon monoxide leaks. Household improvements as needed based on results of testing include attic insulation, duct efficiency improvement, weather stripping and caulking around exterior doors/windows. They spent about 4 full hours with 3 guys at my house sealing things up. If you are a low-income family, they will even switch out your light bulbs and replace with the energy efficient ones. I didn't qualify, but it would be great for those that do. All said and done, it made about a 20% difference in my electric bill. These guys get paid by the electric companies. It's something you already pay for on your bills, but you probably never knew what it was. Anyway, I highly recommend looking into it. Sorry I don't have the name of any other companies doing this besides my friend who does it around here.

tex 8)
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby mgwerks » Mon May 04, 2009 3:58 pm

We get our watts form a Coop, and there are no alternatives (other than $olar and wind). COnsider yourselves lucky to have a choice.
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby Gator » Mon May 04, 2009 4:28 pm

Toby - attic ventalation is the best spent money, IMO. I added ridge vents to my home 2 years ago and saw a dramatic decrease in cooling costs during the summer.
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby NewBQ » Mon May 04, 2009 7:36 pm

Toby, there was a company in garland, tx that provided the service you described. Winegard Energy
I don't know if they are still around.
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby Papa Tom » Mon May 04, 2009 8:21 pm

I use Startex and have had them at least a year. Chose on price alone but have no real complaints. Would like to have auto pay which they do not offer but do take web payments. I added a couple powered attic vents last year and they seem to help.
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby DATsBBQ » Tue May 05, 2009 11:32 am

We don't have a choice where I live unless you want to go off-grid. When I look at the raw rate, I'm paying 3.82 cents per kilowatt, but....
Add the following:
General Rate Schedule Ajustments (GSRA),
Air Quality Improvement Rider (AQIR),Transmission Cost Adjustment (TSA),
Electric Commodity Adjustment (ECA),
Demand Side Management Cost,
Purchase Capacity Cost Adjustment (PCCA),
Renewable Energy Standard Adjustment (RESA),
and the Franchise Fee
and I'm really paying 8.64 cents per KW. It costs me just shy of $3/day to keep the lights on.
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby Papa Tom » Tue May 05, 2009 3:09 pm

Consider yourself lucky DATS. My choice at the time was the cheapest (last Aug) so I locked it for 3 yrs. at 13.5 per KWH. My bad the price of energy has come down but today the cheapest fixed rates here are in the neighborhood of .10/KWH.
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby honu41 » Tue May 05, 2009 6:54 pm

Wow guys, sure sounds complicated. Are you folks saying that if we were neighbors on the same street, right next door or across the street, we have choices on who we buy power from? Who owns and maintains the transmission and distribution systems, overhead and underground?
The City of Seattle's "City Light Department" (where I worked before retiring) had a similar arrangement in the 1920's and eventually bought out every single small electric utility company and formed a municipal power company. The city built additional generation plants; oil and hydro, constructed new and upgraded the existing transmission and distribution systems then eventually joined the power grid with 13 western states, including part of Texas and part of British Columbia.
Since the utilty is municipally owned and "not for profit" the rates for a home owner varies between 3.5 to 4 cents per KWH. Would be lower but part of the power revenue supports other city departments otherwise the property taxes would be higher.
Does the concept you folks have some benefits to the consumer? I do see the the high rates to make profits for the owners of the power company. Would the system Seattle has work for you? Part of the farmimg areas east of the Cascades have Co-ops and their rates are even lower than the City's.

Good luck in making good choices...

a hui hou,
joe
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Re: Texas Electricity Choice

Postby Papa Tom » Tue May 05, 2009 9:34 pm

The way it works here is the power generation and transmission is owned by the company with the best lobbyists. They then wholesale it out to companies that can put up a sign, hire a meter reader and send a bill. They then charge what the market will bear until your contract ends then double your rates without notice. It's genuine capitalism at work.
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