Archive for Smart Meters
How to Use The Google Smart Meter in Texas
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Google PowerMeter is a free energy monitoring tool that helps you save energy and money. Using energy information provided by your Texas electric utility smart meters and energy monitoring devices, Google PowerMeter enables you to view your home’s energy consumption from anywhere online.
Benefits of Google PowerMeter
- Find What Devices and Appliances Are Always on
- Predict Your Energy Costs
- Plug in Your Fixed Electric Rate per kWh to customize your data
- View How Others Have Used Google Power Meter
- Track Energy Usage Over Days, Weeks, and Months
You will be able to quickly see patterns of electric usage during certain times of day and pinpoint what devices are using most of your energy. You may have never even thought about what appliances in your home causes you to spend the most on your electricity but the data available from Google smart meter will allow you to plan and budget to plan how you use your energy and how to lower costs.
Even if you are not the type of person to budget nd plan the Google Smart meter application that is available online keeps track of all the data for you. The application even automatically creates the graphs and shows you the patterns for where you can save the most money.
This online application is perfect for me and considering Oncor electric utility which is agressively impleneting smart electric meters in their service area is my utility I will not have to wait long to use this app.
If you are in the Dallas Fort Worth area chances are you already have a smart electric meter installed by Oncor Electric Delivery. If so I encourage you to go to the link below and sign up with Googles application.
http://www.google.com/powermeter/about/about.html
One of the neatest things about the Google smart meter app is the dark green area of their chart. The dark green area shows you what applianxes in your house are always on. Many people do not realize it in Texas but many of the appliances we use suck energy out of the electric outlet even when you turn off the device.
The Google Power meter will help you pinpoint those devies and retrofit the outlet or device so that it no longer takes energy from your usage while not being used. If you do not want to spend money on retrofits you can atleast begin unplugging those devices from the wall as an alternative.
If nothing else this app is very cool and interesting to play around with and review even if decide not to implement in changes in your electricity usage consumption and behavior.
Oncor is not currently listed as a PowerMeter partner but you can easily purchase a cheap device to use with this application in correspondence with your smart meter. Below are a couple of devices that can be purchased that are compatible with the Google PowerMeter application.
http://www.currentcost.com/powermeter/
Texas Electric Smart Meters: What They Are & How They Help You Save on Your Energy Bill
Posted by: | CommentsIn years gone by, all businesses and personal residences were required to have an electricity meter on their property. The electric company would send meter readers out to read them once a month, and that’s how they calculated your bill.
Now, this is no longer necessary thanks to Texas’s smart meters. Their function is the same – to measure your electricity use so that your electric company can know how much to bill you. But, they cut out the need for a meter reader.
All information is transported back to your electricity company electronically. And, the information is constantly updated – it records your energy usage every 15 minutes. This, in essence, shows your energy usage in real time.
Another neat feature of Texas smart meters is that it records and analyzes a history of your Texas electricity use. This saves you money because you can use this data to manage your energy consumption better.
Use Smart Meters to Get Off Prepaid Electric Service Plans
Customers who are on prepaid electric service plans can use the data provided by smart meters to choose a “smarter” energy plan. When you know how much energy you use, you can use this raw data to shop for a Texas electric company that offers more competitive rates.
Many pre-paid electric plan customers are surprised to learn that they’re being charged 14, 15 or 16 cents per kilowatt hour, when the going rate for consumers who aren’t on these plans is only 9 or 10 cents per kilowatt hour, for example.
Knowledge truly is power and Texas’s electric smart meters can arm you with all you need to lower your monthly energy bill.
Reverse Auction Sends Electric Rates Down In Texas
Posted by: | CommentsElectricity Rates Come Down With Reverse Auction
Commercial companies are always in need to reduce their electric rate because of the direct ability to bring needed savings to the bottom line. Being able to negotiate an electric rate below the companies budgeted goal can justify a manager’s position in a company. A large facility could stand to save tens of thousands of dollars if a reverse auction is used.
Click Here to Learn more and Begin the Reverse Auction Process
How Does A Reverse Auction Work?
Reverse Auctions work in the business to business working relationship. One business would like to win the business of another and so they bid on the work. The company needing business done receives bids from several different companies who offer the same service. During the bidding process the companies placing bids understand they need to price as competitively as possible in order to win the business. The company needing the service picks the lowest bid and ends up with a lower price for the service than if they were to just take the first sales pitch that came along. Many times in the case of an electricity broker you will have the reverse auction facilitated by an energy broker. The energy broker brings a large volume of business to the electric providers in the reverse auction. The Retail providers understand that if they don’t price with the best possible terms and conditions along with a low electric price they will not win the companies business. The energy broker understands what is legally written in the contracts and what is favored towards their client rather than towards the Retail Electric Provider. Many times the energy broker will step in and make the energy contract more agreeable to the customer if the energy company tries to sneak in an unfavorable clause in the energy contract.
Texas Electric Companies
There are more Retail Electric Providers in Texas then in any other state. Texas represents the most competitive energy market in the United States of America. Many energy companies came from out of state to start up in Texas when the state deregulated the electric market. The energy grid is split up into 5 different regions but the state plans to break it up into several more nodes (nodal system) in 2008. The reason for the break up is to assist in alleviating the congestion zones. Many smaller outlying cities around the metropolises have to pay high electric rates only because they are a part of the bottleneck caused by Houston, Dallas, and other large cities in Texas. Having several nodes to break up the congestion will allow those cities causing the congestion bottlenecks to pay for their problem and give them incentive to create a more robust infrastructure to handle the demand. A reverse auction can assist commercial businesses in some of the metropolitan areas like Houston Texas by filtering through some of the hype about this congestion to the lowest bottom line rate that a Retail Electric Provider can offer. Some providers will justify their high energy rate because of the commercial business being in a highly congested area. This may be a smoke screen to a dishonest sales tactic. A reverse auction filters these bids out of the mix.
New Ways To Save On Electricity In Texas
The Texas ERCOT grid has some new ways to save for the Houston area. Smart metering is being used on a small scale in the Centerpoint area. Centerpoint is the poles and wires company in Houston. This company reads the meters in the metropolises, installs the poles and wires, transformers, and electric infrastructure. Smart metering keeps track of peak demand and can turn off your air conditioner and back on if your company is about to go over a demand level that could be costly to the bottom line. This is a win win situation as Centerpoint does not have to build additional power plants to keep up with increased demand. An energy broker can assist in enrolling a commercial business in some of these new ways of saving money on a businesses electricity bill.
Electricity Brokers Mean Dollar Savings
In summary, an electricity broker can save a company thousands of dollars. Texas Electric Providers market but energy brokers find the cheapest rate. The difference in going directly to the provider and working with a broker translates into a more informed buying decision and more money to the bottom line. You may click the link below to fill out a short form to begin the reverse auction process for your Texas commercial or industrial business.
Begin Your Texas Commercial Electricity Reverse Auction