this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
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Interestingly, that’s on top of Friday’s energy saver challenge. I was able to offset 80% of my electricity usage during that peak period; if others did the same, we artificially smoothed out the demand curve.
I suspect that such challenges are going to become regular events as we move towards 2026 and beyond.
I'm excited for time of use rates coming in the spring. 5 cents more per kWh between 4-9pm, 5 cents less between 11pm and 7am.
I own an EV, so time shifting that load is easy, both my car and my charger support scheduled charging.
Then I can program my thermostat to avoid peak times, and warm before wake-up in the morning.
I may even try to figure out how to time shift my deep freeze from running in the 4-9pm zone.
According to my usage from last year, these new rates should save me about $20 a month even before I switch my usage patterns, so my savings may be significant.
Where do you find out about challenges?
You can sign up on the BC Hydro website. They send quarterly mailers with the signup details too.
Until my building replace the 25+ years old metal frame window, I can't do any energy saver challenge at all. (already did as much as I could like sealing the seams with foam tape, scheduled temp changes, even shutoff the baseboard heater in the kitchen(it's like 2 degree at coldest day last week) The window frame catches all the moisture and then all have thin ice/frost during the blast. Living room is set to 19 degree max and it barely keep at 12 degree on one day.
I never realized how truly inefficient baseboard heaters were until this year when I bought a forced air space heater and set its temperature slightly above all my baseboards.
20% YOY energy savings in November/December with the added benefit that the room sits at 20 instead of 18 like it did with the baseboards. I guess the baseboards were just pumping their heat straight out the windows, and little of it was being absorbed by other surfaces….
unfortunately, I kinda still have to keep baseboard heater on during winter days cause otherwise the condensation and the water drips would be even worse than I currently have to maintain. (like regularly have to remove water from window tray and silt). It is thermally inefficient as the heat do straight up to the cold windows compare to space heater which circulate in space that you are in. So when I have the plug to spare I usually use space heater together with baseboard like you did so the baseboard won't work so hard but still kinda working just to keep the condensation in control. The condensation is so bad I kinda want to do 3d print and make redirect water track that I can glue to the window frames. (currently we have some absorbing plate we can flip around every 2~3 days. I've also considered the IR window film but it's very expensive to hire professional to install and our building already have window replacement planned for 2025 or 26, so if I install window films they are all wasted money in 2 years. The cost for install/material is much higher(2~3k for the sqft of my windows) than the potential hydro cost. my top monthly hydro is around 200+ for Dec~Feb, where my other normal month say May-Oct is around 70. (that's with portable AC on for the hottest days.) So might as well save the film cost and put them toward paying the window replacement levy that's surely incoming.
Cool, how do you feel that this effort was for them to sell power elsewhere for more profit?
I feel great! Back when they were selling at a profit to Enron, I got a dividend cheque in the mail.
BC Hydro is owned by the people of BC. If they make money elsewhere, it subsidizes my rates.
And so far, my energy conservation at peak times has given me a $9 credit to my bill, even though I was just offsetting my use to times outside the challenge window.