I have a friend from high school that got hit with a something like $20,000 bill because he signed up for some discount program on his electric bill. The freeze a couple years ago did similar things to demand and he got hit with a massive bill.
Comment on How do Texas residents afford electricity?
remotelove@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
More questions here than answers, unfortunately.
It’s my understanding that there is a cap at $5000/MwH ($5/kwH). That is still hella expensive, but would only be for a day or two at maximum?
For the headlines of +$16000 power bills, that is probably a one-off for heavy power consumers, like businesses that have massive freezers and such, correct?
Kalkaline@leminal.space 2 months ago
AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I presume he couldn’t pay it? What happens after that? Do you get blacklisted from power companies?
Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You get tossed to collections and your credit is ruined. It makes it very hard to rent, finance anything or get certain jobs.
rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com 2 months ago
there is a cap at $5000/MwH
It's MWh (megawatt hours). That's only for wholesale electricity, which is available to retail electrical providers, not consumers. So your utility company can charge you whatever they want, but their price is capped. Funny how that works.
remotelove@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Ok, that clears up my misunderstanding then. I was thinking that the cap applied across the board. (That does change things a bit, don’t it?)
meco03211@lemmy.world 2 months ago
A properly insulated industrial freezer should consume less electricity than a house with AC, even if it’s set at a reasonable temp.
remotelove@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
TIL. It makes sense that they can be more efficient now that you pointed that out.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m curious as to how this would compare to a properly insulated home?
most the houses in texas are uninsulated to keep construction costs down. (despite the fact that even a minimal amount of insulation would pay for itself inside of a year or two.) (Why would you want to insulate against heat, right? global warming is a woke-ist hoax! /s)
bitchkat@lemmy.world 2 months ago
New houses or ones built in the 1960’s? If its new houses, how does code not specify a minimum R value? Its not just about keeping heat in in the winter, its needed to keep the heat out in the summer.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 months ago
texas doesn’t require a specific r-value for walls in the southern third of the state. (the rest it’s r-5). They do require some insulation in an attic.
Most (cheap) homes don’t slap up insulation if they don’t have to. and r-5 is an extremely low value.
and further, that’s only on new houses. There’s plenty of old houses still in circulation and the vast majority of the old houses are entirely uninsulated. a properly insulated house, you can keep rooms warm just by being in them. we saw that’s not true of homes in texas during the big freeze a while back.
Its not just about keeping heat in in the winter, its needed to keep the heat out in the summer. that’s this sarcastic comment was about: (Why would you want to insulate against heat, right? global warming is a woke-ist hoax! /s)
AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Not correct.
I have coworkers in Texas that got hit with multi thousand dollar bills during brown outs.
Deregulating critical services never ends well for the consumer.