the.com/electricity costs
the monthly reminder that comfort has a metered price and the meter never blinks.
means the price you pay per unit of electricity consumed, plus fixed fees for the privilege of being connected at all.
from utilities started as private monopolies in the late 1800s, so regulators invented rate structures — tiered pricing, demand charges, time-of-use rates — to keep them from charging whatever they pleased.
peak pricingelectricity can cost 3x more at 6pm.
phantom loadidle devices quietly rack up 10 percent of bills.
fixed fee trapyou pay even if you use zero kilowatts.
regional swingssame appliance, wildly different bill by zip code.