What is you electric rate?

[kato]

A lot of people around here have geothermal heat. It works well. Provides heat in the winter, and air conditioning in the summer. If we were to need a new furnace, we'd likely go for it.

[grassfarmer]

"Maybe a publicly owned utility is not such a bad
thing?"
That's the thing people won't believe here kato -
been brainwashed too long with the "free
enterprise" BS. Nothing wrong with free enterprise,
but here it's never free - more like giving a free run
to the company that contributes the most $ to the
PC party.

[kato]

Public utilities are subject to public scrutiny, and that's not a bad thing. Last year they did an audit of the public car insurance here. The result? Refund cheques for everyone. It was decided that the premiums had been too high, so we got some back.

Haven't had a refund from Monsanto lately. LOL

[ALLFARMER]

Grassfarmer i assume u checked out the rates
of the other power companies for your area? I
can't figure how u can't get at least as good a
rate as I am now getting. I living way up in the
middle of the sticks you in a developed region.

For anyone in Alberta call 310 0000 and ask for
a list of power companies available in your area,
they also can give you the rate each is charging.

[tweaker101]

Kato any idea what it costs to operate a geo thermal system? I realize there are many variables depending on the home and size and construction. I would like to change but was wondering what kind of cost is involved to run the system. I have done many changes to increase our energy efficiency but the cost per KWH keeps going up and our amount of energy stays the same

[kato]

Do you have geothermal? Are you mad at it? Or is your "angry face" aimed at your current heating bill?

Friends of ours have it, and they love it. The power involved is what it takes to run the fan to circulate air, and the pump to circulate the water (or whatever) in the ground. You don't need power to heat or cool any air, the ground does that. The start up costs are higher than buying a regular furnace, but there are grants to help bring it down. But then again,new furnaces are far from cheap too, so I think you can get pretty close.

[tweaker101]

Sorry I guess that I should have said that I was thinking of changing to geo thermal for our heat source and yes I am a little steamed at the was my power bill goes up every year. I will have to check into the possible money from grants to help reduce the cost of the system. I was just currious if it was all that cheap as there is only a few pumps to run and are there any maintenace costs on a yearly basis?

[kato]

Not sure about the long term. I just know that our friends have a monster huge old fashioned house that probably cost a fortune to heat before, and that they are loving it now. They've only had it for two years, so I guess it's too soon to tell about long term. I know that they figure it will pay for itself in a few years. There must be research on the web with some solid numbers somewhere.

[burnt]

16 cents/kWh and over half of it is based on the lowest rate which is when we have the highest consumption. So without the time-of-use factor it would be much higher.

McGuinty is gonna break Ontario.

[tweaker101]

No kidding 16cents per KWH that is crazy or a sign of what is to come for the rest of us?. Maybe solar power is not that crazy of a idea...just looks expensive at the current time or maybe a dam good investment for the future?.