Our pool installer used a fixed speed pump for our decorative waterfalls, which consumes 2.5KW of power - just to run water to the waterfalls, so after we installed our solar panels/PWs, we limited the waterfall pump to only a few minutes each day.
Yesterday, replaced the fixed speed pump with a variable speed pump - and by lowering the speed to only enough to get water to run through the waterfalls, power consumption was reduced from 2500W down to 100W!
Before we installed the solar panels, we didn't pay attention to how much power the waterfall pump was using - and as it turned out, we were spending around $700/year - just to power that pump!
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As for the Griddy customers who pay wholesale prices... Griddy has some responsibility because they clearly did not warn their customers they could be charged $9/KWh during a crisis. However customers should also take some responsibility - because they should have been aware of this risk, and be prepared to drastically reduce their energy consumption while the prices were so high.
One thing that isn't mentioned in any of the stories is that Texas/ERCOT customers were asked to reduce power consumption during the crisis last week. Even though we had a solar/PowerWall system, we did make several adjustments to reduce consumption as much as we could (though we didn't have any choice about running the pool pumps continuously while we had freezing temperatures).
There are reports of customers running up $17K bills. Assuming worst case - at $9/KWh - that would be around 2000 KWh of power used over a several day period. That is a lot of power - and could indicate those customers were not making any attempt to reduce their consumption during the crisis - and if they had cut consumption, they could have reduced their energy bills some.
A bigger issue is justification for why utilities were even able to charge $9/KWh during the crisis. The plants that were operating did not see their operating costs increase 100X during the crisis. $9/KWh is the limit utilities are able to charge - and that limit should be reduced. Utility companies should not be allowed to generate unreasonable profit during a crisis...
Yesterday, replaced the fixed speed pump with a variable speed pump - and by lowering the speed to only enough to get water to run through the waterfalls, power consumption was reduced from 2500W down to 100W!
Before we installed the solar panels, we didn't pay attention to how much power the waterfall pump was using - and as it turned out, we were spending around $700/year - just to power that pump!
---
As for the Griddy customers who pay wholesale prices... Griddy has some responsibility because they clearly did not warn their customers they could be charged $9/KWh during a crisis. However customers should also take some responsibility - because they should have been aware of this risk, and be prepared to drastically reduce their energy consumption while the prices were so high.
One thing that isn't mentioned in any of the stories is that Texas/ERCOT customers were asked to reduce power consumption during the crisis last week. Even though we had a solar/PowerWall system, we did make several adjustments to reduce consumption as much as we could (though we didn't have any choice about running the pool pumps continuously while we had freezing temperatures).
There are reports of customers running up $17K bills. Assuming worst case - at $9/KWh - that would be around 2000 KWh of power used over a several day period. That is a lot of power - and could indicate those customers were not making any attempt to reduce their consumption during the crisis - and if they had cut consumption, they could have reduced their energy bills some.
A bigger issue is justification for why utilities were even able to charge $9/KWh during the crisis. The plants that were operating did not see their operating costs increase 100X during the crisis. $9/KWh is the limit utilities are able to charge - and that limit should be reduced. Utility companies should not be allowed to generate unreasonable profit during a crisis...