Electricity Price Increases

[JRH02]

Still, the payback period on home-generated power (most likely solar, maybe some wind) is quite long, and is highly dependent on where you live. Maybe if you're in Florida or the SW your payback might be a bit lower, PNW or northeast where winters tend to be cloudy (with the sun low in the sky) much longer. We get very little sun Nov-March at my house...just the time of year the extra would be most appreciated.

Where one lives is huge. That's a given. But here is another: How you want to live. I couldn't consider Florida which prohibits HOW you want to live. As in you can't live off grid. One must be connected as I understand it. That seems unusual from my impression of DeSantis. Maybe if you don't pay, get disconnected, then pay the money owed but don't turn the service back on ya can sneak by. Nobody seems to be able to answer that question.

We live in the PNW. About 10 weeks of each year we charge batteries from a generator. No big deal. It's well worth it to go year after year of no power bill (or any utility bill), increases, outages or damages from the same. We've had 2 or 3 outages since 2010 but I planned them. Then back on in a short time.

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With the storms and outages, cost increases actual and future, I'm jumping into a lot of posts where people keep mentioning the same old stuff like up from costs and slow payback, maintenance, service and about every other excuse that can be pondered. This stuff is almost always from people who use excuses to AVOID or distract the discussion. I rarely hear from an OFF GRID implementation from someone who says they'd never do it again. Granted I hear plenty of folk that got ripped off by vendors and programs but that's a tangential.

It's disappointing to me so I try to give an alternate opinion. But if a mind is made up it's made up. It's hard to discuss something with someone who's mind is made up.

 

[DarkBlack]

My final cost on the latest bill is 30 cents/kwh. Lovely..

 

[ultrarunner]

Many would be thrilled in my neck of the woods for all in 30 cents kWh

 

[WinterDeere]

Many would be thrilled in my neck of the woods for all in 30 cents kWh

True. But plot the difference as function of average salary, and you'll see that rate could be quite a bit more painful, to much of the country outside of California and New England. Everything is inflated in California.

 

[bdhsfz6]

We have that option here too, looked into it and any savings would be minimal. Dunno how it is in Pa, but here our bill is divided into energy cost, and delivery cost with the delivery part of the bill being a shade over double the energy part. Even if you saved a penny or two per kWh, the delivery charges would be unchanged since they're based on kWh usage. At the amount of electricity we use, it's not worth the bother to save maybe $10/yr.

My power company currently charges 4.3 cents per KWH for distribution, about 25% of the energy cost. I understand this varies with location, but I saved $238 in 2025 by shopping for the best rate.

Sure, my time is worth something, but it takes less than 5 minutes on line to switch providers. I do this 3 or 4 times per year, depending on the term of the contract.

 

[ultrarunner]

True. But plot the difference as function of average salary, and you'll see that rate could be quite a bit more painful, to much of the country outside of California and New England. Everything is inflated in California.

Yes across a broad spectrum.

Minimum wage tends to be higher here also…

Might not be good as fast food has a social minimum higher wage and slakes dropped.

Medical workers and hospitality also have carve outs…

 

[mrmikey]

......but I saved $238 in 2025 by shopping for the best rate.

You're lucky to have that ability, we're stuck with one 'profit to the shareholders' driven power supplier.

 

[WinterDeere]

Yes across a broad spectrum.

Minimum wage tends to be higher here also…

Might not be good as fast food has a social minimum higher wage and slakes dropped.

Medical workers and hospitality also have carve outs…

If you ever wondered why California infrastructure costs so much…

 

[ultrarunner]

Sad but true… maybe like the big dig or multimillion public toilets?

 

[Oaktree]

My power company currently charges 4.3 cents per KWH for distribution, about 25% of the energy cost. I understand this varies with location, but I saved $238 in 2025 by shopping for the best rate.

Sure, my time is worth something, but it takes less than 5 minutes on line to switch providers. I do this 3 or 4 times per year, depending on the term of the contract.

I don't know why the distribution portion of our bill is so high, ISTR it being 50/50 not too many years ago. It could very well be that state regulators shuffled the deck in that regard.
No, it isn't that difficult to switch to a different provider, but given the miniscule savings here, I just can't be bothered. Maybe someone who uses considerably more electricity a month would benefit.

 

[Oaktree]

With the storms and outages, cost increases actual and future, I'm jumping into a lot of posts where people keep mentioning the same old stuff like up from costs and slow payback, maintenance, service and about every other excuse that can be pondered. This stuff is almost always from people who use excuses to AVOID or distract the discussion. I rarely hear from an OFF GRID implementation from someone who says they'd never do it again. Granted I hear plenty of folk that got ripped off by vendors and programs but that's a tangential.

It's disappointing to me so I try to give an alternate opinion. But if a mind is made up it's made up. It's hard to discuss something with someone who's mind is made up.

If I'm not mistaken, you live where utility power isn't available. I would imagine many off-gridders are in a similar situation. I've known a few people who tried off-grid living for a while and decided it wasn't worth it. Different strokes.

Your last paragraph hits exactly why I don't discuss politics with anyone.

 

[Carl_NH]

Yes - Oaktree - the cost to generate in 2010 was about .08 and delivery was .07 as I recall. in 2015 that had risen to .09 for electricity generation and .09 stranded cost and taxes etc. as we put in solar at end of 2014 and did the ROI.

Now its upside down as the cost of labor to maintain the poles and distribution, trimming etc. is high, then they have to satisfy the shareholders and make a profit to pay dividends.

 

[WinterDeere]

Your last paragraph hits exactly why I don't discuss politics with anyone.

That's a shame. I'll test the waters with anyone. Some of the best conversations I can remember were with level-headed folks who had exactly the opposite political idealogy to me. Not everyone can have a conversation with someone who disagrees with them on so many levels, without it turning personal, but many can.