{"id":1387,"date":"2017-11-10T11:19:02","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T16:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/providerpower.staging.wpengine.com\/power-to-help\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2017-12-15T14:48:59","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T19:48:59","slug":"blame-it-on-the-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/blame-it-on-the-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame it on the Rates: Electricity Bill Charges and What it All Means"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s as easy as flipping on the lights&#8211; electricity is quick to use and seemingly immeasurable. Or is it? When the electricity bill comes in the mail, it can be difficult to make sense of the charges and fees; it can leave you wondering, \u201cWhat am I even paying for?\u201d Let us break it down for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you buy gas, you\u2019re charged by the gallon. When you buy electricity, you\u2019re charged by the kilowatt-hour (kWh). When you use 1000 watts for one hour, that&#8217;s a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kilowatt_hour\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">kilowatt-hour<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. To get kilowatt-hours, take the wattage of the device, multiply by the number of hours you use it, and divide by 1000.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Example calculation: 500watts*10hours=5000\/1000=5kWh<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1403 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/11\/Provider-Power-blame-it-on-the-rates-4.jpg\" alt=\"When the electricity bill comes in the mail, it can be difficult to make sense of the charges and fees; it can leave you wondering, \u201cWhat am I even paying for?\u201d Let us break it down for you.\" width=\"432\" height=\"355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/11\/Provider-Power-blame-it-on-the-rates-4.jpg 734w, https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/11\/Provider-Power-blame-it-on-the-rates-4-300x247.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" \/><br \/>\n<!--more (Continue Reading...)--><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s important to remember: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watts is the rate of use at this instant. We use watts to see how hungry a device is for power (e.g., 100-watt bulb is twice as hungry as a 50-watt bulb).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watt-hours is the total energy used over time. We use watt-hours to see how much electricity we used over a period of time. That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re paying for.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Depending on the appliance, you can&#8217;t always trust the wattage printed on the device because many devices don&#8217;t use the full listed wattage. For example, the compressor in a refrigerator doesn&#8217;t run constantly, so you can&#8217;t go by the listed wattage for a fridge. To get a more accurate use of electricity of your appliances, go through these steps:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Step #1.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0Go get your electricity bill and see how many kilowatt hours you used last month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Step #2.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0Assume that the lights in your kitchen and living room together use 400 watts. How much does it cost if the lights are on 24 hours a day, for a whole month? \u00a0How much per year? Assume 15\u00a2\/kWh, then go through the formula mentioned above to figure cost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Step #3.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0Assume your window AC uses 1440 watts. \u00a0How much does it cost to run it continuously for a month? \u00a0How much per year? \u00a0Assume 15\u00a2\/kWh, then go through the formula mentioned above to figure cost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what does this all mean? How do you know you\u2019re paying for exactly what you use? How do you know that you\u2019re getting the best rate?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1402\" src=\"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/11\/Provider-Power-blame-it-on-the-rates-3.jpg\" alt=\"When the electricity bill comes in the mail, it can be difficult to make sense of the charges and fees; it can leave you wondering, \u201cWhat am I even paying for?\u201d Let us break it down for you.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1066\" srcset=\"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/11\/Provider-Power-blame-it-on-the-rates-3.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/11\/Provider-Power-blame-it-on-the-rates-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/11\/Provider-Power-blame-it-on-the-rates-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/11\/Provider-Power-blame-it-on-the-rates-3-900x600.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you live in a deregulated market, you have the power to choose the company that supplies energy to your home or business. By the time you flip a switch or press a button to enjoy the benefits of convenient, reliable energy, several different entities have worked together to bring this energy to you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electricity can be a pesky thing to keep track off, especially when it\u2019s costing you lots of money. Let us help you get your home into \u2018green\u2019 shape, while saving you time and money on your next electricity bill. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/#contact-us\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Connect with us today<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and we\u2019ll help you get on track to a more energy efficient home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Like what you read? Read more tips here:\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/top-energy-tips\/\">10 Tips to Save Energy this Fall and Winter<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/save-green-going-green-winter\/\">How to Save Green While &#8216;Going Green&#8221; This Winter<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/five-ways-to-lower-energy-bills\/\">You&#8217;re Wasting Money on Monthly Expenses: Five Tips to Lower Your Bill<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/5-diy-ways-insulate-home-cheap-2\/\">5 DIY Ways to Insulate Your Home on the Cheap<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s as easy as flipping on the lights&#8211; electricity is quick to use and seemingly immeasurable. Or is it? When the electricity bill comes in the mail, it can be difficult to make sense of the charges and fees; it can leave you wondering, \u201cWhat am I even paying for?\u201d Let us break it down [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[368,268,263,259,367],"tags":[353,354,355,356,357],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bill-management","category-maine","category-massachusetts","category-new-hampshire","category-saving-money","tag-electricity-bill-is-high","tag-how-do-i-pay-for-electricity","tag-how-do-they-measure-electricity","tag-how-much-does-electricity-cost","tag-why-i-am-paying-for-electricity","section-business","section-community"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7rbwO-mn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/power-to-help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}