Homeowners – Don’t Forget to Seek Out Alternate Electric Suppliers

Posted by on February 20, 2014

For those of you, like us that aren’t fulltimers and still have a S&B (Sticks & Bricks house) … have YOU reviewed your electric bill and chosen an alternate energy provider? We did a few years ago, but as I learned over last summer, you have to remember when your promotional periods end – or check your rate each month.

We had a couple of months at the start of last summer when our rate nearly doubled from the previous rate of .0659! After a couple of bills with sticker shock, I then chose *another* promotional plan with the same supplier at a rate of .0749 kWh … well that plan just expired this month, so back to the CT Energy website I went. Compare Energy Suppliers | Energize Connecticut

Rates are on the climb again, our current provider offered a fixed rate of .0899 kWh for the remainder of 2014. Not that bad compared to others, even though it would represent an add’l $27/mo increase on our bill based upon our average usage.

In looking at the companies that are offering promotional rates under .0800 kWh, they are all short term promotional periods of 1 to 3 months, and then switch to a variable rate. Some promotional rates that move to variable state the variable rate will be under the utility rate that is currently .09235 … but a variable rate really gives them a chance to jump your rate.

I finally decided to change our supplier to Gulf Energy. They offer 3 fixed rate plans for CT Customers:

— 3/14 though 6/14 @.091/kWh
— 3/14 through 11/14 @.084/kWh
— 3/14 through 6/15 @.087/kWh

I decided to take the long term view and fix our rate at .087/kWh for the next 16 months. For signing up we’ll receive a $10 Gulf Gas Card and for every 5,000 kWh we use, we’ll receive another $25 Gulf Gas Card.

Our average usage – working from home, running a number of computers and TV’s is about 1800 kWh/mo. So we should see a $25 fuel card every 3 months. Over the term, that will probably equate to about $150 in fuel cards – so in essence an $8 rebate on electric every month.

I’m not really happy about escalating rates, but at least we’ll have a fixed rate, that I am pretty confident will remain competitive for the next 16 months.

If you haven’t checked your bill and your options, take an hour or so to do it. It can represent some savings in your pocket each month.

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