Time of Use Electicity Blues

[Spidey]

When Ontario has instituted a "time of use" policy with electricity, I was not particularly happy but I thought I could adapt. However, while I'm finding it might be okay of a childless couple, it is a major challenge for a family that has 5-6 loads of laundry per week.

The less expensive time is between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. Now unless one follows an extremely flexible schedule that leaves between 6 and 7 in the morning or 7 - 11 in the evening to use electricity. If someone puts a load of laundry in the washer at 6 a.m. that means it is ready for the dryer at the peak time of 7. (Sometimes I do use a line but it has been raining lately.) And then, of course, who is that ambitious at 6 in the morning? So what about in the evening?, you ask. At least 2 of my family members take their shower in the evening and for some strange reason don't seem to appreciate being intermittently scalded and frozen. (And of course this is an issue in the morning, as well.) We sometimes put a load in before going to bed but the noise is annoying. And perhaps I'm a little paranoid, but I don't particularly like leaving an appliance, especially the dryer, running while the family is sleeping. And if you can take a little more whining, after 7 in the evening tends to be relaxing time with the spouse to catch a hockey game, American Idol or the latest hijinks on the Big Bang Theory. It's not the most fun time to do chores. The dishwasher does have a timer, but it seems rare that the timing of it being full coincides with the end of the day; which leaves us with a choice of either doing the leftover dishes by hand or saving the dirty dishes for a later load. And as a recent stay at home spouse (a role-reversal that we are also adapting to), what am I supposed to do during the day? Relax with a book and then do the chores when the family comes home?

Rant finished. How are you adapting (or not adapting) to time of use?

[Spudd]

Can your family members rearrange their usual habits to shower in the morning instead? That's the only solution I can think of for your laundry problem. The only other thing is there's a yellow zone where it's halfway as expensive - you could target for doing laundry in that zone instead of the red zone.

I'm half of a childless couple so for us it's been quite fine. We put the timer on the DW when it's full enough and run it during the night. For laundry we just save it for weekends. I don't let the TOU dictate any of my other usage.

[MoneyGal]

2 kids and two parents in my family. We try to target yellow-zone use but I don't really rearrange my schedule much. I do admit that I am often doing laundry in the wee hours on either side of midnight. We have full clothes-drying racks in the basement, so laundry is hung, not tumbled, rain or shine.

I also did a full analysis of the TOU costs once they were implemented in my house and although I can't recall the specific cost per day based on my useage, I concluded it was NOT something I was going to stress about - it wasn't going to be worth caring about - because even if I shifted ALL consumption to the lowest-cost hours, it was still going to be only pennies per day that I'd gain in foregone costs.

[Jon202]

I hope you're going on-line with Hydro Ottawa (myhydrolink) using their hourly info to see what your hour by hour usage and realizing what appliances are the heavy users and which aren't.

With 2 young children, washing and (especially) drying clothes is the big one. Waiting until after 7 isn't a big deal since with supper, clean up, baths etc... there's no time anyway.

The next big user is the range/stove and frankly there's no way to shift that usage so that one we bite. A lasagna takes an hour to cook, so be it.

[hboy43]

Hi:

I don't imagine a washing machine load uses enough energy to care a hoot about. The dryer is the thing ...

We hang 365 days a year. Our close line hangs in the upstairs hallway which lofts over the wood insert fireplace. Likely dries faster indoors in the winter than outdoors in the summer. Desperately need the humidity too, leaky log house.

Another idea with shower temperature shocks is to set the hot water temperature at just about shower temperature so no cold is needed to be mixed in. The health freaks say this can breed bacteria, but I've been doing it for decades. Also probably doesn't work in houses with mechanical rather than organic dish washers.

hboy43

[CanadianCapitalist]

TOU has been neutral for us. We always do laundry over the weekend or in the evenings anyway, so we even pay slightly less under TOU.

[Karen]

For like 50 bucks you can get a pressure balanced shower valve, which will eliminate any problems you have with temperature changes while in the shower/bath.

My house is very bad for that, and I enquired about the valve you mentioned, Andrew. The plumber told me that, in order to install the valve, he would have to cut a hole in the wall of my walk-in closet, which is immediately behind the shower in my en-suite bathroom. The main bathroom shower is even more of a problem since it backs on to the family room brick fireplace. It's not a major problem since I live alone, so I decided against having it done.

I have wondered if the plumber was right, though -I thought I had read about a much simpler way of doing it that just involved installing a valve on the tap, but the plumber said that was not possible. Do you know if he was right?

[DanFo]

I've got electric heat so I'm pooched once we get TOU pricing next year..I'll probably live through one winter of it to see how bad it is ..then see what my options will be... I'll probably be putting a gas stove in the basement for heat.

[andrewf]

For like 50 bucks you can get a pressure balanced shower valve, which will eliminate any problems you have with temperature changes while in the shower/bath.

[OhGreatGuru]

...

The less expensive time is between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. ...

...At least 2 of my family members take their shower in the evening .... We sometimes put a load in before going to bed but the noise is annoying. And perhaps I'm a little paranoid, but I don't particularly like leaving an appliance, especially the dryer, running while the family is sleeping.

And if you can take a little more whining, after 7 in the evening tends to be relaxing time with the spouse to catch a hockey game, American Idol or the latest hijinks on the Big Bang Theory. It's not the most fun time to do chores. ...

Rant finished. How are you adapting (or not adapting) to time of use?

1. "The less expensive time is between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m." It is also any time of day on weekends.

2."At least 2 of my family members take their shower in the evening and for some strange reason don't seem to appreciate being intermittently scalded and frozen." I hope they are not in the shower all evening. There are technological solutions as noted above, but otherwise people will need to adjust their habits (It's a shock in North America where we have had flat rates forever, but the rest of the Western World has been on variable rate for a long time, because energy has always been more expensive outside of Canada/USA.)

3. The main energy consumption for a washing machine is for heating the water. If you have a gas water heater I wouldn't worry much about what time you do your wash. If you have an electric water heater, consider cold water wash to save energy.

4. "We sometimes put a load in before going to bed but the noise is annoying." Try to figure out why it is so noisy.

5. "And perhaps I'm a little paranoid, but I don't particularly like leaving an appliance, especially the dryer, running while the family is sleeping." Yes, you are paranoid. Do you turn off your furnace, hot water heater, and refrigerator at night?

6. "And if you can take a little more whining, after 7 in the evening tends to be relaxing time with the spouse to catch a hockey game, American Idol or the latest hijinks on the Big Bang Theory. It's not the most fun time to do chores." And were you previously doing laundry while making and eating dinner from 5 to 7? What's so difficult above moving a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer during commercials or between hockey periods? And you can sort and fold laundry in front of the TV.