Last month, we signed up for wind energy from our electricity company. We just paid our first bill with the wind energy charge, and it was pretty easy on the check book. We used 857 Kwh this month (as opposed to 1073 last year – yea! keeping the temp. higher and drying clothes on racks instead of the dryer is working!). The total windsource charge was $32.67. But then there’s a “windsource adjustment” that subtracts $18.78 from the bill (I assume this is a state refund type of thing, sort of like the tax break for buying a hybrid car). So the extra charge for using wind energy for all of our electricity came out to $13.89 for the month. That’s in July, which is a high energy month (even though we’ve been keeping our thermostat at about 78 degrees, the ac has still been running quite a bit, just to maintain that level). Most months of the year we don’t use more than 500 Kwh, so our average windsource expense is probably going to be under $10/month. And it’s money very well spent.
boomie says
Cool. Wish they had that choice in my area.
SavingDiva says
I’ve been looking into using the windpower option, but I’m not sure how it works. Do you buy chunks before you pay your bill? How do you pay your bill with them? I’m a little confused at how this process works, but I’m really interested in using this type of renewable energy.
FrugalBabe says
Hi SavingDiva,
Our power company gives us the option to either buy a certain number of 100 Kwh chunks each month, or to buy as much as we actually use each month. We went with the option to buy all of our power from windsource. We had to agree to do it for a year, and they take care of the rest. We used 857 Kwh last month, so they bought 857 Kwh from a wind farm and charged us the extra expense. It was a very easy process and took about 5 minutes to get started. Call your electricity company and see if they offer something like that – it’s probably getting more and more common as people become more aware of renewable resources.