Hydro rate HIKES - won't retrofitting buildings cost you MORE

-D-

-D-

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I was watching CP24 and some Minister was giving a speech about the retrofit projects to better insulate buildings and make them more energy efficient. There was also mention of builders currently making 0 zero something buildings (ground thermal heat, solar, etc...)

Now, we were just told that our Hydro rates are going up because of the mild winter therefore not a large demand...and somehow we have to pay for that.

With that logic of raising rates, one has to wonder wont our rates go way up with the zero buildings and retrofits?

discuss?
 
it's just their way of "justifying" the increase. They will do it anyway, this is just their excuse to make it sound like a reason other than to pay the upper echelon.
 
My co-workers and I were just talking about those Tesla batteries for your home the other month and how when more people get similar tech in their homes rates will go up because people are not using as much... This s*** just proves it. brutal.
 
-D- said:
With that logic of raising rates, one has to wonder wont our rates go way up with the zero buildings and retrofits?

discuss?
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Actually a big problem in Hawaii IIRC. Because of the sunshine factor there are huge solar panel installations so people don't have to buy power. That means that when they do it will cost more per kilowatt hour because grid infrastructure maintenance costs are part of the consumption cost.

It costs almost as much to maintain idle equipment as it does working equipment so the costs get spread over fewer sales units (Kwh's)
 
Necessity is the mother of invention, so to speak. As hydro rates and billings become more and more ****ed up, innovators will make going off-grid easier and more practical. It's coming...
 
just wait, it's going up again in September. cut out the dept retirement and add another 100 and some odd bucks to the over all yearly costs,

nothing like the old switch and bait.
 
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Blackfin said:
Necessity is the mother of invention, so to speak. As hydro rates and billings become more and more ****ed up, innovators will make going off-grid easier and more practical. It's coming...
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Anyone that is building, and will have to put in a few poles... should be seriously looking at an off-grid system.
 
Hydro's yearly take will only go up. The best you can hope for is by making changes that your share of it goes down.

Does anyone know if you can disconnect entirely from Hydro in a subdivision? I know you can refuse natural gas from Enbridge, but they charge you something like $20 a month as a non-customer fee to cover the infrastructure that could be used for your house. Craziness.
 
The same thing is happening with water rates. You can't disconnect a dwelling house from water in most municipalities, but one condo I know drilled their own irrigation well to disconnect that non-dwelling irrigation system from City water. The well will pay for itself in 4 years from water savings.

My irrigation water for the new house will be coming from an intake in the river, and house water from a well.

LED lighting works. A street light conversion saw average daily kWh's going down by 90 percent. LED bulbs are available for dirt cheap in retrofit bulb and fluorescent tube formats to fit existing fixtures, or there is a pile of LED-specific fixtures coming out at dirt cheap prices. The new house will be all LED fixtures.

Heating will be geothermal.

Yes, hydro and water rates will rise, but to do nothing to lessen consumption is stupid. Others will conserve, you won't, and then you'll just pay even more than the conservers will when rates necessarily rise to cover the fixed costs of maintaining infrastructure.
 
GreyGhost said:
Hydro's yearly take will only go up. The best you can hope for is by making changes that your share of it goes down.

Does anyone know if you can disconnect entirely from Hydro in a subdivision? I know you can refuse natural gas from Enbridge, but they charge you something like $20 a month as a non-customer fee to cover the infrastructure that could be used for your house. Craziness.
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I looked into that as I was considering disconnecting from gas over the warmer months, and the $20 flat customer charge doesn't apply if the account is closed. But there's an $80 fee to open a new account so there's no savings overall.

My condo is paying LESS in hydro than we paid 10 years ago because of a number of energy retrofits that were performed over the years. Considering the sharp rise in hydro rates over that time period, we're saving tens of thousands of dollars every year. The cost of the retrofits will pay for themselves soon if they haven't already.

There's definitely a benefit to reducing energy consumption where possible, even if there's some upfront cost (within reason). Rates will continue to rise for years to come, the "explanations" are meaningless. We can only save by using less.
 
The problem with geothermal is that it is almost impossible to do of grid. It uses a huge amount of hydro and you want heat when it is snowy and cloudy. If you had natural gas heat it would be easy to go off grid.

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AGAVE said:
How's this for some new stupidity.
http://www.cjad.com/cjad-news-human...utlets-to-be-required-in-all-new-homes-report
Now they want to force you to expand the grid.
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Typical lobbyist / civil servant driven crap. Recent changes in electrical codes have apparently added thousands to the cost of a new home.

While I don't disregard safety the chances of these safety items saving a life are minimal. However if the thousands per home were instead made available to emergency services many more lives would be saved.

Every dollar we are forced to spend on a government forced policy is a dollar that can't be spent in the free enterprise market system. And we worry about the economy.....
 
Scuba Steve said:
The problem with geothermal is that it is almost impossible to do of grid. It uses a huge amount of hydro and you want heat when it is snowy and cloudy. If you had natural gas heat it would be easy to go off grid.

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True enough, but the goal isn't going off the grid. I don't have access to natural gas. I can do propane heat but don't want to be held hostage to unregulated propane prices that can (and did the other year) double during cold weather.

Right now the geothermal is reasonably competitive with natural gas, plus there is the bonus of virtually free air-conditioning in summer. You can't really do any air-conditioning with an off the grid system right now.
 
Skyrocketing prices tells me capitalism works. That's all I need to know. Remember, who ever you are what ever you do, don't leave any money on the table. If you have to buy off local, provincial or federal politicians that shows a can-do attitude and winning spirit.
 
griff2 said:
True enough, but the goal isn't going off the grid. I don't have access to natural gas. I can do propane heat but don't want to be held hostage to unregulated propane prices that can (and did the other year) double during cold weather.

Right now the geothermal is reasonably competitive with natural gas, plus there is the bonus of virtually free air-conditioning in summer. You can't really do any air-conditioning with an off the grid system right now.
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You can. I know someone that does and have seen others. But...then your starting to get pretty expensive.
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