Energy Usage Contest

[Apogee]

Saw this tonight and thought it was very cool!

http://www.king5.com/news/Bellevue-Family-Drops-Power-Gains-7500-79357037.html

Wish I'd known about it.

Great idea!

Enjoy,

Steve

[Jedon]

I've heard that energy companies are now charging more baseline "transmission and hookup" fees to offset lower energy usage and prevent people with 100% PV powered homes from getting the grid "bank" free. I read on some other forum a family cut their energy usage in half and their bill went UP!

http://consumerist.com/2009/07/got-solar-panels-utility-wants-to-charge-you-for-not-using-their-energy.html#comments-content

[LowGear]

I don't think I could cut my electrical usage by 80% with out a lineman's cutter.  The fact that they went to Hawaii for the month is only a sidelight - not really.  Even when we lived in Seattle and went to Hawaii for January our good old electric heat kept Puget Sound Energy solvent.

As for free rides, I think folks in electric utilities should choose their words just a bit more carefully.  Enron, Enron, Enron.