here come the rate changes......

[ctreefer]

I just heard on the radio on the drive in to work that my particular energy supplier (UI) is hiking its rates as of January 1 from anywhere from a 30% rate hike to as high as 50%!!!

We were lucky enough to avoid the rate hike that most of you CLP customers got hit with this past year, but it looks like were going to make up for it big time. This is going to cost me as much as $70 more per month before I even get my new 120 set up.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

Its just a matter of time until everyone suffers from rate hikes...Going to put some good reefers out of business!

I am just waiting to see what my bill will be like when we turn the heat on...ouch!

 

[FlyingL0]

I was one of the manu unlucky ones hit by the CLP hike; my bill went up about $50 - $60 a month.

 

[fishman_CT]

I was paying $80 a month for a 90g reef after the rate hike. Before that, I am not sure how much I was paying because it wasn't a big deal. Then all of a sudden I am paying $200 a month for power and it's not even peak energy use season yet! It is a big crock if you ask me. All these energy places are making a killing. CL&P got in a lot of trouble for overbilling the state of CT for powering all the street lights. They overbilled them in the neighborhood of $10 million!! And they think it is more than that, but that's as far back as their records go! Check out the article. That's a lot of street lights!!

http://www.ccm-ct.org/advocacy/2004-2005/092305a.html

 

[ctopal]

I beat yah, $270 last month, ha ha. Wasn't CL&P supposed to have a 2nd planned rate hike after the 1st one? Has it already hit?

 

[minh_han]

Energy costs are one of the primary reason I haven't restarted my 125G tank. It had 3 175W MH lights, and I just wasn't going to pay for the added energy. So, I'm switching to T5's when I get the chance. Jas, you still want my MH lights?

 

[ctreefer]

This is why I was planning basically just t5s from now on and small return pumps from my sump and for flow the maxi mods which consume little electricity. I hadn't counted on the rate hike though, so now even though I thought I was reducing costs, now they're more than double and out of my hands.

 

[staninct]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8037700#post8037700 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ctopal
I beat yah, $270 last month, ha ha. Wasn't CL&P supposed to have a 2nd planned rate hike after the 1st one? Has it already hit?

Mine was $307 with no halides! (Wifey keeps the A/C on like 66!)

 

[cato]

**** all those energy people. The gas people, electric people, the oil people and any others I left out. They all SUCK!!! :mad2: :thumbdown

Wanna know how I really feel?

 

[staninct]

Lets not forget the banks and insurance giants!

 

[shozbot]

We as a nation waste energy on an enormous scale by driving fuel guzzling vehicles, over heating or over air conditioning our homes and businesses, and many other practices like waiting in line for crap fast food or that essential Dunken Donuts Coolatta that we need so badly!

If it takes price hikes to get us to conserve, then so be it!

If we could get avg fleet mpg up into the high 20's we would'nt be seeing gas at $3/gal or heating oil at $2.60.

And its not a matter of better technology, people just need to buy vehicles that make sense rather than planet destroying Suburbans, Yukons, HumVees, Escalades, Expeditions, Navigators, etc. etc.

We didn't need them 20 yrs ago. Why do we need them now. Same goes for McMansions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mr pink floyd]

the technology is already out there to make a car go liek 100 miles on 4 oz of water, the big oil companies are just trying to keep us from changing, they are tryign to keep us dependant on oil

 

[mr pink floyd]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3299610356332390298&q=water+fuel&hl=en

 

[hans1976]

CL&P's rates go up another 5% in October.

As for getting 100 miles on 4 oz of water, to do that, you need a ton of electricity. So the cost to convert that water into Hydrogen is just much. Solar panels are not there yet for producing cheep electricity. At a cost of $10 per sq foot and that 1 sq foot only produces 1 watt of electricity. And windmills, nobody wants them in their backyard.

Shozbot is right, we need to conserve. Every time we buy a barrel of oil, we are putting more money into the hands of terrorists.

Look at how much energy we waste. How many of us have changed our 60 watt light bulbs to the energy efficient 13 watt bulbs? How many of us go off to lunch or a meeting and leave our fans on, our monitor on, our lights on? How many of us drive to the grocery store for a gallon of milk rather than walk around the corner to the local convenience store? How many of us have clock radios and fans going in unused rooms of our house? How many of us have bought energy inefficient houses with high vaulted ceilings or energy inefficient windows? And the list goes on.

I won't even get into (not too deep) how much money we waste as reefers by not working together. Things like - instead of us placing 40 orders with Dr Foster and Smith each month, place it as a group. Then the UPS man only has to make 1 stop and we all would save on the shipping charges. And did you realize that Dr Foster will make a 3.6% donation to your favorite non-profit organization?

I am not singling out Dr Foster. You could do that with every online business. You can even do that with the locals too. Have one of the 4 or 5 club sponsors come to every meeting (those held at the Lutz or other non-store place). You place your order ahead of time, they bring it and a bunch of other stuff. This way you don't have 15-20 people drive 50-100 miles, you have 1 - the club sponsor driving.

Enough of my ranting. Time to get into my 12 MPG SUV and get over to Dunkin Donuts for my Coffee Coolatta and Boston Cream donut.

 

[justincognito]

Connecticut has a tax rebate program for people to install solar panels on their homes. You get half back. It still takes 5 to 10 years to make your money back, but by then energy costs will probably be much higher so it could take less time. And if there is sanctions or war with Iran everyone look out! I'm getting ready for $6 a gallon gas by next year.

 

[justincognito]

hans, great idea about bulk orders.

 

[ctreefer]

Justin, I had looked into the solar panels and even with the rebates, it took more like 20 years to recoup the costs and the life expectancy of the panels is something like 25 years and if you use batteries you're paying even more. Also, as hans said, you need so much area for them to work. The space on my roof that is available and useful for solar panels (300ft2) is only good enough for about 20% of my needs.

The part that kills me is I'm already trying to conserve and pretty much can't do anymore. I've totally insulated all my walls and ceilings to current standards, replaced all my windows with low E windows,replaced all my incandesents with CFs, use wood burning stove in winter months and use the AC about 4 weeks out of the year. My appliances are all energystar rated (except for my washer/dryer) and my tank is setup as efficient as possible. I agree the only way to make things better is to change our ways. either way, not much I can do in 4 months time other than suck it up.

 

[mr pink floyd]

As for getting 100 miles on 4 oz of water, to do that, you need a ton of electricity.

yea that is true, that seems to be the only problem so far, but it is pretty big

there also is technology that can put lasers on 747s now, some sort of chemical reaction that prodices the electrical energy, it does mean volital chemicals, but i think there is a way to make this water fuel work, were just not quite up to that level yet, just what we have now is amazing

 

[ctopal]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8040105#post8040105 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by staninct
Mine was $307 with no halides! (Wifey keeps the A/C on like 66!)

Thanks, that makes me feel better!

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

HI there

Welcome to the Club of high energy prices. Your electricty prices here have now about reached the level they are in Germany for the last few decades (neglecting inflation, of course). The cheap prices you guys had for so long most probably came with large hidden cost that you will have to pay in the future. The distribution grid has not been maintained properly and was not extended to meet the increasing demand. There will most probably more of those little outages and eventually there may be another big one like three (?) years ago. Let's take a look at California with their abundant power outages and a completely overloaded grid, they are always one step ahead of the rest of the country, for better or worse...

Gas is still about twice as expensive in Germany compared to the US (currently it is around 6.2$ per gallon).
Now think twice why the German or other European manufacturers have to put energy saving technology into their products, be it Aquarium stuff, cars, or refridgerators. Talking about cars, why on earth does anyone need an SUV or a pickup with 500 HP? Who is really dragging a two ton load with his car? And on US highways you can't use the Power for fast driving anyways because there are these stupid signs telling you to drive just 65 mph.

Looking at my own electricity bill, what really struck me was not the amount of money I pay for electricity each month (I had seen worse bills) , but rather the number of kWh. The amount of energy my little apartment sucks up every month is plain ridiculous, the A/C actually does not contribute that much to it. It is the Fridge and the stove. OMG, I actually checked the wattage of these things and compared to my parents appliances when I went home last time. Both need 5 to 6 times more energy than a standard European model.
Please! You guys live in a nation that builds stealth bombers and space shuttles, it should not be too difficult to build some energy efficient appliances. A fridge is nothing I would call high-tech.

Talking about solar panels, they are great! For hot water and heating they are all you need in these latitudes. I know a lot of people in Germany who have them and they basically stopped using other means of heating for most of the year. And they are pretty small, for a normal one family house they are bout the size of 3 normal doors. For electricty the solar panels are still not up to scratch, wind generators are much better for that. I own shares of several windmills, and all I can say, they are paying off. There is so much more open land here in the US, the coast is long and has lots of wind. And with ever increasing energy prices and the current changes in world politics, I am really astonished that nobody brings up this topic just to make the US more independent from politically unstable countries.

Just my 0.02$

Jens