House of Jorob

Electricity Choice: I Left PECO For Another

"Hey, have you picked an energy supplier yet?"

"Nope."

After going 11 for 11 with that question this month, it was clear I wasn't going to find a quick answer, one that would solve the problem created not by energy deregulation January 1 of this year, but by PECO's announcement of a rate hike this coming October 1.

For all the noise in the media about the damage deregulation would do to my bill back in January, it didn't happen. My PECO price never went above 9 cents per kilowatt hour. Every other energy supplier was either at that rate, or higher. Why change?

Summer wasn't much worse. The PECO over-500 kilowatts rate wasn't that bad: .10 cents. An extra-hot July produced a brutal bill for that month.....but the difference between it and the bill I would have paid had it been calculated at last year's rates was $6.

But then PECO filed for a new rate hike, one that jacked my lovely 9 cent rate up to 11.14 cents.

And suddenly I was shopping my friends and colleagues for ideas on suppliers.

I thought, given my streak of nobody's-changing-anything-yet mentioned earlier, that I might help out by posting my research....and my final choice.

My choice? 

DirectEnergy.

I'm married to a senior citizen, so we grabbed the senior rate for a year. Next March, we'll see what the market is doing and decide whether to stay or move on.

Second choice is Energetix. The rebate, delivered after two months, covered 70% of the early termination fee if I decided to leave, and the rate is still below 9 cents. A microscopic amount below 9 cents, yes. But still.

 

The Research

Streamenergy.net  --  877-369-8150

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

6 mo     .0909    Fixed      $75            .0979

1 yr       .0959    Fixed      $150          .1029

Var        .0969    Var         $0            .1039

Direct Energy -- Directenergy.com/protection -- 877-627-4675

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

1 yr        .0959   Fixed        $0             n/a

1 yr       .0879    Fixed        $0            Senior Citizen special rate

Energetix.net  --  800-544-0182  --  $25 rebate at the time of this research.

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

1 yr       .0895    Fixed     $35             .0925

 Var        n/a      Var          $0                n/a   

¹ An inquiry about variable rate trends was answered. See below.

Gateway Energy -- www.gesc.com  --  877-296-1645  --  $50 rebate at the time of this research.

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

1 yr        .09590  Fixed     $0                  n/a

Var        .1059     Var       $0                  n/a

North American Power -- napowerperco.com -- 877-572-9444

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

3 mo     .09990  Fixed     $0                n/a

Var       .1199     Var         $0                n/a

North American's power schedule was a problem². See below.

Constellation Energy -- home.constellation.com -- 888-900-7650 --  $50 rebate at the time of this research.

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

1 yr       .989     Fixed      $150            n/a

 

Footnotes:

¹Mr. Robinson,

Unfortunately, since we are new to the PECO territory we do not have any real market rate information at this time.
Thank you,
Kate Brantley
Customer Service
Energetix/NYSEG Solutions

² North American's website described a combination deal--the first 3 months would be fixed. The next 9 months shifted to variable. Variable rates for PECO customers would be recalculated "quarterly, semi-annually, or annually." I called looking for clarification of which one it would be--quarterly, or one of the others. I was on hold for 12 minutes before giving up.

NANOWRIMO 2010!!!

I don wanna talk about it.

Three posts in 11 months: Ferocious blogging!

I wrote about reconnecting after NANO back in December.

Then managed to post three items in the last year.

What the hell.

I didn't have anything to say.

NaNoWriMo: The Forums are Open!

I'm so excited.

The forums have been stripped and reopened on the NaNo web site.

This means the start of National Novel Writing Month is less than one month away.

The Forums are the bulletin boards supporting the NaNo authors, and once a year they are purged.

Wiped.

The good stuff--plot leads, character development, that sort of thing--is archived and reposted a couple weeks from now, but the Forums themselves are dumped because they're job is to support the current crop of novelist nutcases.

All 100,000 of em.

That is a lot of nutcases.

Nano makes ends meet--web servers cost money, and so do staff people supporting administrative activity--with voluntary contributions from their participants. And some grants, which in this climate are not exactly falling out of the trees.

If you decide to participate in this year's fun, maybe find a couple bucks to send their way.

50 and Grooving

50.

Half a freakin century.

And dammit, I made it.

Took every single shot life threw, and still standing.

Got knocked back a couple of steps, sure.

Some of those shots hurt.

Coupla goals for the next half century:

1) Finish five books in the next six years.

Writing them.

Reading them is different--see the reading list I've got running on the side of the blog.

I'll worry about actually publishing one or two of them after I write the damn thing.

NaNoWriMo is a part of this.

So are all the sidenotes and pieces I've been working on lately.

2) Get my voice-over work going.

Wandering through a large forest on this one.

Every pro I've talked to tells me I need a demo disk.

Engineering time.

That's like, $4,000.

If I had a spare $4,000, I wouldn't be looking to develop my voice-over work.

But still.

It's a goal.

The mic loves my voice. Does things to it that other people like--without engineering.

Because when I broadcast at the Show every year, complete strangers find me to tell me how much they like listening.

And all I'm doing is announcing the next round of lectures or demonstrations.

Can't sing worth a damn.

But give me a script and a mic, and I can influence people.

Bonus Goal: Write up the other goals I have.

Next post.

NaNoWriMo warmups

National Novel Writing Month kicks off in just three months.

Write a novel.

From scratch.

In one month.

50,000 words in 30 days.

1,6667 words per day.

The mind boggles.

Well, no.

Not really.

More like an extended cramp.

This November will be my fourth shot at the magic number.

Haven't made it to the finish yet.

I mean, with the 50,000 words.

I'm usually gamely plugging along, filling page after page.

Just not enough of them.

Last year I tapped out at just over 19,000 words.

That I'm thinking about this year's Nano project three months in advance is a good sign.

That I'm actually drafting an outline is even better.

Although, I've never worked from an outline for Nano.

Been letting the characters develop themselves, and work out the story between us.

We'll see what the outline does.

It's legal, as far as the NaNo writing rules go.

You can't use prewritten chapters, that kind of thing.

Outlines and character sketches, sure enough.

As long as it's planning material.

I don't have a clean ending on this post.

Kind of like my NaNo novels, to date.

Quick Test results

Well, both the missing posts turned up on my FB profile.

Flagged as being posted about 6 hours ago.

One was written June 18.

The other, June 20.

OK, so maybe that's when they were released from FB Purgatory.

Either way, its working again.

Back to randomness.

Quick test of the facebook posting process

This'll be supplanted real quick, but right now I'm testing the FB posing process. Went out and got a username on FB (instead of the numeric thingy that I've had for so long) and all of a sudden the next blog post didn't make it to the FB account.

Grilling II: The First Weekend

I didn't think the chicken would catch fire.

Grilling I: Bringin Home the Char-Broil

I bought my grille at Lowes.

It's a Char-Broil.

Two burner thing, didn't cost me a hundred bucks.

I figure if I still suck at this after a year, I'm not out that much money.

The adventure started when I tried to take the thing home.

Lowes offered to put the thing together for me.

If I wanted to wait three days.

I didn't.

It just so happened that my model was also out on the flat, chained up with a bunch of other grilles on display.

I opted to take one of them with me.

Until I opened my trunk.

I drive a Saturn sedan.

Oops.

Unbolt the grille from the cart.

Put the grille on the back seat.

Oops.

Detach the wheels from the cart.

Unbolt the base legs from the upper legs.

Oops.

I hadn't counted on the wings.

The side trays were permanently attached.

Unbolt the brackets supporting the wi--

Duh.

I'm buying an assembled grille because I don't want to put one together.

Right now my car looks like a parts-pile.

The sales guy knew where I was going before I started pulling the pieces of the pre-assembled grille out of my car.

"The box is a lot smaller," he said. "I'll have one brought out for you."

The box fit on the back seat, with room for Little Boy.

For a couple of hours, my front porch looked like a construction zone.

But the grille went together really easy.

The fasteners--and there were a bunch of them-- were all together on one card, with clear identification on the back of each blister.

And the identification on the card matched the naming in the assembly instructions.

I tested the thing today, attaching Little Boy and then firing up the grille after a leak test.

Blue flame all around the burners.

Elation.

Bring on the hot dogs.

What, I'm going to risk steak at this stage of my grilling career?