Lower Bills with TOU

Once TOU is in place, customers who want to spend less on electricity have the power to shift some of their electric use outside of peak hours. They don’t need to shift ALL use outside of peak hours to achieve savings. It's important to note that shifting load doesn't need to involve upgrading appliances. The ultimate goal is to change behaviors around when to use appliances to save.

Examples of effective load shifting

All examples below demonstrate the energy charge that a customer might see on their bill for a specific appliance. The charges for peak hours and for non-peak hours are included for each. By examining this information, you can see that moving use of appliances outside of peak hours can reduce monthly charges. Further spreading usage apart across the day, essentially unstacking usage, can help the customer achieve a lower demand charge, which is based on the single hour in the billing period when the customer's demand for energy was at its highest point. 

It is difficult to assign a monthly demand charge based on single appliance examples because we don't know how many other appliances and electronics are in use at the same time during the hour with the highest hour of demand during the billing period. However, for the purpose of simplicity, if all three examples below were 100% responsible for that high point, the peak demand would total 9.0 kwh and result in a charge of $9.00 for the month.

(2.0 kw + 3.0 kw + 4.0 kw) * $1.00/kw = $9.00

Spreading use of appliances across the day can reduce that highest point of usage, and in turn the associated demand charge. For example, if the customer ran only one of the three appliances at a time, then the highest KW usage would be 4.0, totaling $4.00 instead of $9.00 for the demand charge.

(4.0 kw) * $1.00/kw = $4.00

A demand calculator for common appliances can be found on the Umatilla Electric Cooperative's website here.

Running a dishwasher

For simplicity, we have used the 28-day month of February in the TOU/peak vs. non-peak examples below.

The average dishwasher uses 2000 watts, or 2.0 kwh, of electricity per hour. If the dishwasher is run after dinner (peak hours) for 1.5 hours every night, it will cost $17.73 in energy charges for the billing period. 

((2.0 kwh x 1.5 hrs) x $0.1970/kwh) x 28 days = $16.55

If the same dishwasher is run daily in the middle of the night, in the morning, or during the day before 5 p.m., it will cost $9.90 in electricity for the month.

((2.0 kwh x 1.5 hrs) x $0.1100/kwh) x 28 days = $9.24

Running a clothes dryer

The average clothes dryer uses 3000 watts, or 3.0 kwh, of electricity per hour.

Under TOU, if a customer runs that clothes dryer in the evening (peak hours) for 3 hours twice a week in February, it will cost $14.18 for the billing period.

((3.0 kwh x 3.0 hrs) x $0.1970/kwh) x (2 days x 4 weeks) = $14.18

Under TOU, if the customer instead runs their clothes dryer outside of peak hours for 3 hours twice a week, it will cost $8.49  monthly.

((3.0 kwh x 3.0 hrs) x $0.1100/kwh) x (2 days x 4 weeks) = $7.92

Running an electric hot water heater

The average electric hot water heater uses 4000 watts, or 4.0 kwh, of electricity per hour.

A hot water heater runs 3 hours/day on average. Under TOU, if that hot water heater runs for all 3 hours in the evening (peak hours) every day, it will cost $66.19 for the billing period.

((4.0 kwh x 3.0 hrs) x $0.1970/kwh) x 28 days = $66.19

Under TOU, if the customer instead runs their hot water heater outside of peak hours for 3 hours daily, it will cost $36.96 for the billing period.

((4.0 kwh x 3.0 hrs) x $0.1100/kwh) x 28 days = $36.96

To explore the potential costs of using other appliances or electronics, visit EnergyUseCalculator.com