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Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by ChrisLomont on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:25AM (#32411516)
>But my electricity price literally doubled.

What supplier and location, out of curiosity?

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by metatranca on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:40AM (#32411740)
Similar in Florida with FPL(the utility company) [0]. We are now paying more. These are the new rates [1].

[0] https://cleanenergy.org/blog/fpls-holiday-surprise-810-milli...

[1] https://www.fpl.com/content/dam/fplgp/us/en/rates/pdf/res-ju...

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by ChrisLomont on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:30AM (#32412602)
That's an 18% increase year over year, not a 100% increase.

I've yet to find anyone with bills doubled, despite so many people claiming it true. But I keep asking....

More data: https://www.gulfshorebusiness.com/expect-electricity-bills-i...

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by MisterBastahrd on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:44AM (#32413911)
I know that, at least in the New Orleans area, Entergy effed up and undercharged people for a year, then decided it was a smart idea to reconcile their screwup by hitting people with a $600 bill last month for a home that usually uses about $300 in electricity.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by ChrisLomont on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @04:44PM (#32418176)
Do you have a source other than hearsay about the doubling? I find nothing in their rates (or rates published by watchdogs) that indicates a double payment. I only see places like Fox News style "some people have claimed..." stories.

The only actual stories with solid data say the increase is due to natural gas prices, which have not nearly doubled, so it'd be surprising that the end product doubled. And stories showing how unusual high heat waves have caused people to use more energy, which naturally results in a higher bill.

Also, that's completely different than inflation caused, and I doubt the higher bills would last long if that double monthly bill is true.

Also, if people were undercharged, then they owe the money. Basically they got a better deal by paying less early.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by MisterBastahrd on Thursday August 11, 2022 @04:02AM (#32422830)
You can go to the New Orleans subreddit and find people who are complaining about their electric bills there. I never mentioned inflation because it's not really big on their list of complaints, and there's nothing about that group which would make me believe that they're lying.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by ChrisLomont on Thursday August 11, 2022 @06:42AM (#32423811)
I looked at some of those. I find plenty of cases where someone had a broken meter, was undercharged, then was charged to catch up. The electric company allows them to pay over time if needed in all cases.

I looked through New Orleans rates. They never doubled.

I find zero cases where the electric rates doubled, which is what the person here claimed.

As far as complaints, I can find people here complaining their rates doubled, when in fact they did not. Going to another place is not much different than here.

As far as I have found, no electric company doubled rates, contrary to lots of hearsay.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by nobleach on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:00AM (#32412079)
I've heard from friends in the Gainesville area (GRU) that their bills have been in the 800 - 1100 range!!! Before I moved in 2010, I had a almost 500 bill and even that was just insane. When I look at the population of that area, I ask, "how many of your customers can actually afford rates like that? That's like a mortgage payment!"
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by jusonchan81 on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:15AM (#32412341)
At those prices won’t investing in solar make sense? Most likely it will yield a massive savings?
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by metatranca on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:44AM (#32413917)
Just yesterday I was checking Project Sunroof [0] to get an idea about how much I can save(based on my location this app says I have 1,634 hours of usable sunlight per year) and I am seriously thinking about installing Solar Panels.

[0] https://sunroof.withgoogle.com/

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by jdhn on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:20AM (#32412420)
I'd love to know what Duke is going to do. I have a 1950s block home with less than 3 inches of insulation in the attic (Duke Energy efficiency audit put it at a charitable R-11) and original windows that I was told by the HVAC person "leak like a sieve". Electric bill this month may hit $400.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by cudgy on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:43AM (#32412833)
Original windows are likely the biggest offender. You could just replace the largest windows if budget is a concern or place plastic over the inside portion to create an “insulative” air barrier between the plastic sheet and the window. The plastic trick worked amazingly for me when renting an old farm house on a city plot. Looks ghetto ugly though.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by runnerup on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:54AM (#32413032)
There’s clear plastic shrink wrap which truly does become nearly invisible once you run a hair dryer over it. Last one I used was “Duck” brand and worked great. People would walk up to the windows and be surprised to hit the plastic that they didn’t see.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by antisthenes on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @02:57PM (#32416827)
My house is built in the 1950s as well, probably with comparable amounts of insulation.

My electric bill has never been higher than $150, and maybe $175 this summer.

Stop putting your AC on 68 and you'll have a lower bill.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by post_break on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:26AM (#32411530)
The open market of Texas, sigh.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by alostpuppy on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:28AM (#32411557)
Oof.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by meragrin_ on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:57AM (#32412018)
Probably any supplier using natural gas.
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Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by post_break on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:30AM (#32411580)
My previous plan was 8c per kWh, it's now 16c per kWh. I live in Texas where you shop for rates. Before you're quick to crap on comments give a little benefit of the doubt.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by sangnoir on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:00AM (#32413143)
> My previous plan was 8c per kWh, it's now 16c per kWh

Didn't ERCOT allow the Texas energy resellers to "recoup" the winterstorm losses (running into billions) from their customers over a decade? That increase was not primarily driven by inflation, but by good old socialization of losses while privatizing profits.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by dragonwriter on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:19AM (#32413429)
Consumer price increases are inflation, no matter what drives them.

And energy price inflation drives inflation in other sectors, again, irrespective of what is driving the energy price inflation itself.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by sangnoir on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @12:14PM (#32414413)
> Consumer price increases are inflation, no matter what drives them.

Yes, but I never argued it's not inflation.

Most suppliers lean on the crutch that costs have gone up for them (due to supply constraints or inflation) so it can get recursive: some consumer price increases are driven by inflation - the most obvious being inflation of fuel increasing the price of shipping.

The price increases on the Texas energy market deserves a special call-out because it's a hypocritical corporate bailout with public money on a so-called open energy market, without fixing the root cause. Throw in once-a-century storms happening every decade, and you got a stew going.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by krzyk on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:35AM (#32411658)
I wonder, is solar popular in Texas? From my vague memories it is quite sunny there.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by bretpiatt on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:30AM (#32412612)
Both solar and wind are popular and growing.

Texas generates more wind energy than any other state (in gigawatthours). I'm unsure if any other state has a higher percentage of their total production in wind. Texas is around 20% of total in wind on ongoing basis (and another few percent in solar).

During recent heatwave solar and wind provided nearly 40%, " Several experts told CNN that it's owed in large part to strong performances from wind and solar, which generated 27 gigawatts of electricity during Sunday's peak demand -- close to 40% of the total needed."

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/14/us/texas-energy-record-solar-...

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by caseysoftware on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:26AM (#32412524)
Yes, Texas is the #1 producer of solar (by far) and #2 for wind.

I had solar installed on our house last year - just before supply chain issues got really bad - and so far this summer, it's generated enough to power our house every day. Of course, not every circuit is connected to it though, so I get to deal with the bs of "net billing" but the capacity is there.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by jsight on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:51AM (#32414052)
At .08/kwh probably not, but at .16kwh, I'd bet they start gaining momentum very quickly!
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Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by mminer237 on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:57AM (#32412017)
That's not true. 73% of Republican want more solar farms and 62% want more wind farms: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/08/most-americ...

This also tracks with my experience. I know tons of conservative people who are leasing their farms out to build windmills or installing their own solar panels.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by tstrimple on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:53AM (#32413005)
Let's just ignore that the number of Republicans supporting renewables has dropped 15% in the last 5 years and is still trending down.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by mminer237 on Thursday August 11, 2022 @10:51AM (#32426606)
Because of partisan divisions like the parent comment was trying to further. Conservatives have no ideological opposition to renewable energy, some are just starting to oppose it because "the team likes it" and politics is becoming more about tribalism than actual policy. If people stopped trying to paint people on the other side as "the enemy", we wouldn't have these kinds of issues forming.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by epistasis on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:47AM (#32411841)
There's a big divide between politics rhetoric from political parties, and what's actually going on economically on the ground.

Not only is Texas installing massive amounts of solar, wind, and battery storage, it's also mostly going into rural areas that are more politically conservative.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by tstrimple on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:51AM (#32412987)
I wonder if they get the same conservative "No Industrial Solar" propaganda that pervades rural Iowa. A little bit of searching seems to indicate rural opposition to renewables to be fairly common.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbryce/2022/01/27/backlash...

Republican approval of renewable energy is also dropping year over year and is down 15% from 5 years ago.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/08/most-americ...

It seems there is a pretty clear divide in partisan and urban / rural support.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by throwaway0a5e on Thursday August 11, 2022 @06:34AM (#32423761)
Most rural people have no problem with industrial development unless it's highly polluting (and by "highly" I mean "orders of magnitude above and beyond what it takes to make people here hand wring").

Declining support for renewable energy seems to be a result of team politics.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by rootusrootus on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:52AM (#32411932)
Painting with a pretty broad brush there. Rhetoric and reality frequently don't match. The strongest Trump-supporting conservative in my family happens to be one of the few of us who owns an EV, as well. Money talks.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by lettergram on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:29AM (#32411560)
https://www.texaselectricityratings.com/resources/historical...

Says the guy who can’t spend 2 seconds searching.

Energy prices at least doubled in Texas. And was relatively stable 2016 through mid 2021

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by sangnoir on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:21AM (#32413474)
Texas energy pricing went up because of losses incurred in early 2021 during the infamous winterstorm that resulted in runaway prices.

Most energy companies ran into losses, but the supervising authority approved loss recovery via price increases over a number of years.

Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by engineer_22 on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:29AM (#32411564)
Why are you making this personal?
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Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by kahmeal on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:39AM (#32411723)
You are saying dumb shit.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by roflyear on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:56AM (#32414135)
Probably true!
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by butterguns on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:31AM (#32411591)
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5% by post_break on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:36AM (#32411669)
Jesus, I'm so glad I'm "only" paying like half of that price.