Oklahoma Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Are you on OG&E Smart hours?
Tell me about it.
We just signed up.
Re: Are you on OG&E Smart hours?
I did some math the other day and it really didn't seem to be a good deal unless you turn your AC completely off for those hours (which would absolutely never happen in my house) and still didn't account for how much extra it would run after 7 to catch back up. I felt like I must be missing something.
I am very curious as to how this works because I think I am missing something as well. We run our pool 24/7 and our bill is only around $200 per month. The email I received said pool owners save, on average, $300 per month. My house was built in the 70s and although we have replaced all of our exterior doors with energy efficient doors, we have not replaced the windows, further, our air conditioning unit is from the late 1980s so I wouldn't consider our house the King of Efficiency by any means. We keep our air on 78 when we are at work and 74 during the night, I am just not sure how much more we could be saving by being in this program because honestly, $200 is cheap compared to what everyone else I know pays. I do know that I absolutely WILL NOT agree to shutting off our pool during the day. First off, that causes an insane build up in bacteria. Second off, an insane build up in bacteria results in us having to buy more chemicals which would zero out any electric savings. And Third off, yuck.
We'll see. I don't like that I had to sign a 60 month contract without actually knowing what the requirements are.
So, in other words, we will save nothing. We are at work between 2 and 7.
((and yes, you electronically sign a "terms of agreement" before they will install the stuff - it is a legally binding contract))
I think you will save enough to be worth it, and I think that your being at work during those hours will actually help that, too. You won't be there during the un-smart hours (for lack of a better term, ha!) so you'll be saving without even really noticing.
My parents are on it, and they are hard core. My dad is retired, and my mom works part-time, and they don't even turn on the tv or the computer during those hours. They've gotten to where they really enjoy it, though - they do a lot more reading and such. They've saved a lot of money - I don't know how much, but they're definitely big fans of it.
It wasn't NEARLY as hot this year as it was last year.
This is why it should save most people money. Peak hours are only on weekdays, so people who are at work during the day won't be using much electricity during those hours anyway (and almost none if you program your thermostat to keep it warmer in your house during that time). Electricity at non-peak times is basically half price, so you would be paying significantly less during the majority of the time you are using a lot of electricity.
If you are running your pool constantly during peak hours, you may not end up saving any money. I think the projected savings is assuming you are turning it off during those hours.
For the first year, if our bill ends up being more than it would have been with the regular plan, we will only have to pay what it would have been at regular rates. I think we will save a lot of money, though. My main challenge will be to schedule when I do laundry and run the dishwasher so that they are outside of peak hours.
Avoiding usage during peak hours does you zero good if you aren't on some sort of smart hours program, since you're charged a flat rate, regardless of usage.
The numbers my coworker was throwing out were like .09 per kwh for non peak hours versus .54 per kwh for the peak hours. So basically, if you change nothing about your usage, every hour of usage during peak hours would be roughly equivalent to six hours of non-peak usage.
Either way, I know it's not for us, since our opposite schedules mean someone is home using stuff like 22 hrs a day at my house.
Peak pricing varies, depending on the demand that day (they will let you know what the demand level is the day before). It varies from $.05/kwh during low demand to $.46 during "critical" demand (which would be the very hottest days of the summer). Standard peak pricing is $.09/kwh and high demand is $.22. Non-peak pricing on the Smart Hours plan is $.05 all the time. On a standard OG&E plan, electricity is always $.11/kwh.
They tell you and other studies have been done to back up their findings but it's actually worse to turn your AC completely off. Even if you have an old unit it takes more energy to cool the house. Those who have done energy studies say it's best to set it at 80 when you are leaving and when you get home turn it down to 72. Anything else is wasting energy and making your unit new or old work overtime.
Alison, this is true. Also, it is a proven fact that the coolest your house will get is 20 degrees less than what it is outside. So, when it is 110 degrees, continuing to set your air conditioner on 70 degrees is useless, it will run constantly and NEVER cool that low. The most energy efficient thing to do is set your air on 85 and just be glad 85 is cooler than 110.
I beg to differ. I guarantee you it never reached 90 degrees in my house this summer. It may not be able to efficiently cool more than 20 degrees below ambient, but it damn sure does get there.