Has anyone adopted this plan? I'm going to try it. They give you a 60-day trial period during which you can switch to another plan if you don't like it without an early termination fee. I'm currently paying about 10 cents/kW and going to the TXU Free Nights Plan gives you a daytime rate of 15 cents/kW with free electricity from 10 pm to 6 am.
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TXU Free Nights Electricity Plan
- Thread starter bigsmooth125
- Start date
I'm on a TOU plan with Dominion Electric in Virginia. My flat rate is 11 cents. With TOU, I pay 9 cents 5a-1pm, 17 cents 1-7, 9 cents 7p-1am, and 5 cents 1a-5pm. This is the summer schedule. The winter schedule is different. So far it's working in my favor, but it's not as much of a slam dunk as you would think. Even with setting the thermostat to 78-80F during the day, and waiting to do laundry/dishwasher until the evening, I'm still using enough power during the peak time that I'm not running to the bank.
Now, at .15 during the day and FREE at night, what is to stop someone from buying a bunch of batteries and charging them for free at night and then using the power from the batteries during the day? How fast could you recoup the cost of batteries and an inverter? Hmmmm.
In Texas where the a/c runs all day? This is just a sneaky price hike. At best with free EV charging (and putting on a lot of miles) you'll end up paying about the same (and hope you don't ever need to charge your Model S in the day.)
I did the maths on this deal, it worked out to be more expensive for me (by a lot) assuming I mostly charge at home, which I don't. I normally run my A/C warm during the day, but the kids have been home all summer from school, so I've not been able to get away with that, but even if I could, the TXU rate is still way too high. I switch plans every few months, but right now I'm month to month with Reliant at $0.063 per kWh.
I realize that these free night plans for most people usually end up being more expensive than traditional plans but I think that in my unique situation, the plan could work to my advantage. On weekdays I'm rarely home between 6:30 am and 5:00 pm and during these hours I turn off the A/C completely. I rarely drive more than 80 miles/day, and I'm also able to use the dishwasher and washer/dryer during nighttime only. I'm curious if anyone has had first hand experience switching to the free nights plan.
More rather than less
I live in Frisco, TX where Coserv provides the electricity ($.09/kw). I talked to Coserv about their time of use plan. They strongly discouraged me and told me I would probably pay more rather less most of the time. I am glad I do not have to play the "when do I charge game".
I live in Frisco, TX where Coserv provides the electricity ($.09/kw). I talked to Coserv about their time of use plan. They strongly discouraged me and told me I would probably pay more rather less most of the time. I am glad I do not have to play the "when do I charge game".
stephenpace
VIN S00219
Last I checked there was also a large minimum buy requirement for the TXU plan, and I didn't use enough power to avoid the penalty if you didn't hit the minimum.
Update: I've had the free nights plan for the past two months and, to my surprise, it actually reduced my electricity bill by 33% as compared to my previous plan. I didn't expect that much of a savings. Including taxes and fees, I've paid a total of about 7.8 cents/kWh. I expect that I'll pay even less over the next 6 months as I won't need to use the A/C at all during the day. Clearly, YMMV.
Are you still getting that rate? Does the rate you mentioned include taxes and fees?
