Two tiered electric

[common_sense_guy]

I got a sneaking suspicion there's actually three tiers of electrical charge. The two that this thread is talking about in the third tier that not many people see or hear about would be the rate that the legal grow-ops get charged. I would Hazard a guess that their rate is the lowest. Which to me would be very sad that some poor seniors are having to live in the cold to save a few bucks while huge massive grow-ops for-profit are most likely getting their electricity cheaper than everybody else. Good luck though finding one of those legal grow-ops to show you their actual bill. But I'm sure if somebody knows how to legally go about finding out it might be an eye-opener for everybody.

[dontrump]

3400 sq ft house set at 62 degree heat full geo thermo system while iam away and the bill for last 35 days
is $109 which includes the fridge and deep freeze etc

Nov and dec ran about $122 PM but the cold weather as of late shes sky rocketing because even a $40000.00 geo thermo system is not efficient when we see -15- 21C below 80KWH per day with stat set very low when outside temp is -20
verses 30KWH when we are at 0 to - 3 C

[Merry]

I have a 26 year old gas furnace and my equal billing from Fortis is $67 a month. My hydro bill is about $60 a month.

My house is just short of 2000 sq ft. I live in the North Okanagan, use a gas fireplace and a gas cooktop, and in the summer we use A/C.

I have a 7 day programmable thermostat, and when we’re sleeping it goes to 17. During the day it’s 18, and when we’re watching TV it’s 20 (my gas fireplace is in the TV room, and provides additional heat when necessary). We also have lined drapes which helps a lot. Whenever we go away in winter I set it to permanently hold at 16, and in summer I turn the heat off completely.

I once had a salesman come to the door to try to sell me a new furnace, but when I showed him my bill he left saying he couldn’t improve on that. So I dread the day when I finally have to buy a new one, and possibly end up with a higher bill.

[alanjh595]

wow I have never ever heard of a $1000 per month non commercials power bill???

Well, I was paying $800 month in Grande Prairie for my little house of aprox. 1000 sq/ft in the Winter. That was -40C, and the pipes still froze.

YES, I was gone for 12 hrs/day and the insulation was poor. I actually had an icicle form in one corner of my kitchen.
That is the extreme end of the scale and there is "no way" that a $1,000/mth could be close to being the truth in the Okanagan.

I think that this frozen fish is thawing out, and it don't smell so good.

[Sparki55]

Well, I was paying $800 month in Grande Prairie for my little house of aprox. 1000 sq/ft in the Winter. That was -40C, and the pipes still froze.
and there is "no way" that a $1,000/mth could be close to being the truth in the Okanagan.

I've seen bills of $900/ bill here. So $450/ mth. That's a big bill and would push me to gas in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, these people's condo strata denied them the use of gas. They also wouldn't insulate the floor for them and it was against the rules for owners to repair common property. Really feel for that and make sure you pay attention when buying!

[Ingevan22]

It's not cheap to switch to gas when you live in an old house that has no ducting and is only serviced by electricity - i.e. baseboards, the resistance heating referred to by TylerM4.

When you factor in the costs of ducting the house, installing the gas furnace, connecting to gas - you're easily in the $25K range.

I also looked into ductless heat pumps/mini splits etc (at least $10K for a single level, $25K+ for the whole house) - which would then also give us the benefit of AC in summer, which then also costs more to operate in summer compared to roller blinds.

And I also looked into wood heat - $10K or so? - but that is a dirty way to heat, requires a supply of wood and constant vigilance.

We managed to bring our hydro bill down 5-10% by upgrading insulation, doors, windows, LED lighting etc. but our winter bills are still horrendous - an extra $1000 over 2 bills in the winter, with energy use correlated directly with outside temperature. So unless we expect to live here for another 50 years (not a chance!), there appears to be little or no economic incentive in upgrading our heating system.

[dontrump]

I have a 26 year old gas furnace and my equal billing from Fortis is $67 a month. My hydro bill is about $60 a month.

My house is just short of 2000 sq ft. I live in the North Okanagan, use a gas fireplace and a gas cooktop, and in the summer we use A/C.

I have a 7 day programmable thermostat, and when we’re sleeping it goes to 17. During the day it’s 18, and when we’re watching TV it’s 20 (my gas fireplace is in the TV room, and provides additional heat when necessary). We also have lined drapes which helps a lot. Whenever we go away in winter I set it to permanently hold at 16, and in summer I turn the heat off completely.

I once had a salesman come to the door to try to sell me a new furnace, but when I showed him my bill he left saying he couldn’t improve on that. So I dread the day when I finally have to buy a new one, and possibly end up with a higher bill.

$60 PM while using a AC system not going to happen maybe double that and with 26% carbon tax I think u will see your gas bill go up majorly

[dontrump]

electric house with no ducting I would go with direct vent nat gas wall heaters at $900 each plus install and gas lines

[Merry]

I have a 26 year old gas furnace and my equal billing from Fortis is $67 a month. My hydro bill is about $60 a month.

My house is just short of 2000 sq ft. I live in the North Okanagan, use a gas fireplace and a gas cooktop, and in the summer we use A/C.

I have a 7 day programmable thermostat, and when we’re sleeping it goes to 17. During the day it’s 18, and when we’re watching TV it’s 20 (my gas fireplace is in the TV room, and provides additional heat when necessary). We also have lined drapes which helps a lot. Whenever we go away in winter I set it to permanently hold at 16, and in summer I turn the heat off completely.

I once had a salesman come to the door to try to sell me a new furnace, but when I showed him my bill he left saying he couldn’t improve on that. So I dread the day when I finally have to buy a new one, and possibly end up with a higher bill.

$60 PM while using a AC system not going to happen maybe double that and with 26% carbon tax I think u will see your gas bill go up majorly

I’m not used to being accused of lying, so I dug out my old Hydro Bills. I pay my bill every two months, and here are the amounts for the months we used our A/C

May 29 - Jul 30, 2019 = $105.54
Jul 27 - Sep 26, 2019 = $124.18

My A/C is regulated by my 7 day programmable thermostat, and we have 3 different temperature settings. One for when we’re asleep, one for when we’re awake and moving around, and a third one for when we’re just sat watching TV. If we go away for the weekend, we turn the A/C up to a fairly high temp and put it on Permanent Hold so that it won’t kick in unless the temperature gets excessively high.

At no time do we have the A/C set to an extremely low temperature; just low enough to be comfortable. We also keep our curtains closed in the hottest part of the day, and use ceiling fans in the bedrooms.

So you see, it IS possible to have A/C and still keep your Hydro Bills affordable.

[Ingevan22]

electric house with no ducting I would go with direct vent nat gas wall heaters at $900 each plus install and gas lines

So would I need a wall heater in every room, DonTrump, similar to ductless minisplits? Difference would be, no AC in summer, only a heating appliance.

Gas line itself is cheap, but connecting this old place to gas is not so easy - gas line runs above our property, while sewer/water/power runs below. So we already dug up 1/3 of our yard & cut through our paved driveway to connect to city water & sewer, also dug in our overhead power lines (don't ask me how much that all cost, never buying an old house in this area ever again!).

Anyway... no easy solutions for us!

One benefit of electric baseboards - and in-floor radiant heat in particular - is that this type of heating is very quiet and does not circulate as much dust, dander, etc. So the furnace never wakes me up, and I sneeze less often!

[Glacier]

Because of the two-tiered system I've switched everything including my range over to CO2 burning natural gas.

[TylerM4]

Because of the two-tiered system I've switched everything including my range over to CO2 burning natural gas.

Tell me more about this magical gas that burns CO2 !!!! If you have a patent I'll be your business partner.

[Glacier]

Because of the two-tiered system I've switched everything including my range over to CO2 burning natural gas.

Tell me more about this magical gas that burns CO2 !!!! If you have a patent I'll be your business partner.

Emitting...

[dontrump]

I’m not used to being accused of lying, so I dug out my old Hydro Bills. I pay my bill every two months, and here are the amounts for the months we used our A/C

May 29 - Jul 30, 2019 = $105.54
Jul 27 - Sep 26, 2019 = $124.18

My A/C is regulated by my 7 day programmable thermostat, and we have 3 different temperature settings. One for when we’re asleep, one for when we’re awake and moving around, and a third one for when we’re just sat watching TV. If we go away for the weekend, we turn the A/C up to a fairly high temp and put it on Permanent Hold so that it won’t kick in unless the temperature gets excessively high.

At no time do we have the A/C set to an extremely low temperature; just low enough to be comfortable. We also keep our curtains closed in the hottest part of the day, and use ceiling fans in the bedrooms.

So you see, it IS possible to have A/C and still keep your Hydro Bills affordable.

LOL no one was accusing u of lieing I just did not believe u could only consume $53 in a month BC Hydro
however I suppose(obviously)if your extremely frugal as in if u don't run the ac much;; don't dry clothes in a dryer;; don't use a oven to bake ;; don't use the fridge and deep freeze much;; maybe one TV small computer usage etc etc anythings possible ;;
However I use all of the above plus 2 tv 2 computers ;lights; exra fridge ; Dry clothes ;;use washer;dish washer; etc etc
my power bill runs $135.00 PM but iam just not going to go through life living like a hermit just so I get a below normal power bills

[dontrump]

To add to my experience with a full Geo Thermal heat/ac pump system (in ground type)

Power to heat at -2- 0 c area is 39KWH PD and as soon as the temp a few days ago dropped to -25 area it was 80KWH PD
so shows u there not efficient at all when the power back up kicks in
Glad we only saw 5 days of extreme cold so far lol