Houston TX businesses should realize that this means opportunity. It is an opportunity to learn about newer providers, and lower their electric bills. There is ample opportunity to find Affordable Energy prices, and give them a try. You can get 1, 2, 3 or multi year contracts. These will even out the highs and lows of summer cooling and winter heating. Why not know what your bill will be? It is said that in this economy, we don’t really know how available credit will be, or prices, or inflation. But, one thing is standing out. Consumers have decided to cut back on spending. They are saving money, paying off bills, and hunkering down.

That is disaster for the Texas economy. But it isn’t the end. To fight back Texas businesses absolutely must lower their costs of everything that they can. To make them better able to compete in a leaner market. We have seen market excesses in the past years, and they were totally unsustainable. They relied ultimately on unlimited credit, backed by phantom real estate equity that wasn’t really there.

So, why not lower your Texas electric bill right now? Is energy going to go that much lower? Can you afford to gamble? Do you even have a choice? Most businesses will see downturns in customer purchases. In fact, the U.S. is reporting the steepest decline in spending anyone alive has ever seen. If you have a business, and want to stay afloat, you must consider taking advantage of the small amount of opportunities available to you. And one huge one is with your electric bill. Sure, do what you can to upgrade old, energy inefficient freezers, air conditioners, heaters and the like. But, don’t leave out the obvious.

We know you don’t have the time to look into all the companies available. But, this article was written with you, the Texas business owner in mind. Just answer the simple electricity usage question below.

Do you use under 500,000 kWh per year, or do you use more?

If you use under 500,000 kWh per year (less than 42,000 kWh per month.) Go Here and sign up for Affordable Energy electricity today. Choose a 1, 2 or 3 year contract.

If you use more than 500,000 kWh per year, (more than 42,000 kWh per month.) Click Here, and fill in our form. We will connect you with an energy consultant that has been in the business since Texas electricity deregulation began. If you do use more than about 500,000 kWh per year, we can submit your energy usage to 15 or more electricity providers. We keep our customers by helping them to get great rates. Work with our consultant, submit your LOA, (Letter of Authorization) which allows us to look at your usage records, and we will come back to you in a day or two with the lower quotes we have received. It is an efficient and effective way for you to find out who your electric energy provider should be.

If you are in a contract, let us know the terms, just put the details in the CONTACT US FORM here. We will work with you to help you find very good solutions for your Texas commercial business.

Created by Energy Consultant for http://cheaptexaselectricrates.com

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I just received my LAST ELECTRIC BILL from, my Texas electricity supplier. Now I have been using the very same electricity savings ideas that I blog about here at Cheap Texas Electric Rates .com , but, when I opened my bill I was not impressed at my electricity savings at all. These ideas really have to work, yet my bill was about the same. And, actually it should have been lower because we went out of town for several days, and we had almost everything turned off.

So why was the electric bill the same?

Here are some of the things we did to conserve electricity.

1). We heated only the bedrooms at nite with “safe” space heaters. The idea being just heat a smaller area, not the larger ones that aren’t used at nite.

2). Turn off the central air/heater. This has to be costly and I know it is relatively inefficient on air conditioning. True it’s winter now, but the machine is old.

3). Keep heaters off during the day when we aren’t here. We do keep the central heater on standby at about 65 degrees. But we don’t expect it to come on.

4). On weekends, and afternoons when someone is here, open the curtains on the south side and let the sun heat through the windows.

5). Generally keep things cooler, especially under 78 degrees.

We expected these changes to have made a difference, even a significant one. True, we will start getting lower bills because we recently changed our Texas energy provider, but if we can lower our usage before that happens, we will get a double savings.

So, Why is the kWh the same? Why is the kilowatt hour usage the same?

I had to investigate. Here is what I did.

I know that the electric meter outside should be fairly reliable, but just to make sure, I read the meter to make sure the current reading was higher than the last reading showing on my bill. That is to rule out something like, “The electric company just estimated this month instead of reading the meter.” And I found that this didn’t happen.

So, I took my cell phone out and went to “stopwatch”. What I did was test my Central air, central heat, both of my infra red space heaters, and all the computers being on at the same time (3).

What I discovered was this. (Remember, when I tested things, I turned everything else off but the refrigerator, but I made sure it wasn’t actively cooling when I did my tests).

I found that during 30 seconds of use, the following items made the electric meter spin around “so many” times.

1).  The two infra red space heaters in 30 seconds   8 1/2 spins

2).  1 small infra red heater   in 30 seconds  1 spin.

3). 1 Large infra red heater  in 30 seconds 7 1/2 spins.

4). Central Heater in 30 seconds 10 spins.

5).  Central Air in 30 seconds 8 spins.

6). All computers in 30 secs  1/2 spin.

During this experiment the router, TV and refrigerators were not un-plugged at any time.

My attention went directly to the 2 space heaters. The smaller one was a 1000 watt unit, The larger one is a 1,500 watt unit. Yet we seem to pay a huge price for going from 1,000 watts to 1,500.  The smaller unit used 1 spin in 30 seconds, but the large one used 7 1/2.

So, when the 2 space heaters are used they use 8 1/2 spins in 30 seconds. The Central heater uses 10, but it stays off more of the time it seems than the 2 space heaters.

Conclusion: There is something wrong with the 1,500 watt space heater.

So, the only conclusion I can reach from this data is that the large space heater is malfunctioning. It is drawing a huge amount of electricity. I am not an electronics man, but there may be some sort of short with it. So I decided to get rid of it. And I got a second infra red space heater. But, I think I will contact a few fire departments and some safety folks and see if there are in fact safe space heaters. If there are, it should be readily known, and if they are wrongly marketed as safe, this should be widely known as well.

I will keep you posted on what I find out on this matter.

One thing is for sure no matter what type of space heater you have. NEVER EVER EVER put anything on top of ANY OF THEM to dry!

Apparently many people do this, and pay with their life because HUMANS FORGET!

Ok, Thank you: You can check your electric rates at our web site. See if you can get lower rates.

Article presented by Consultant Don of   http://cheaptexaselectricrates.com

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If you are a smaller business entity, CLICK HERE to get a very affordable rate for your business electricity.

If you are a larger commercial business, for instance: A bowling alley(s) or string of restaurants, buildings, apartments especially government subsidized apartment buildings, manufacturer, or other large user of electricity, in the city of Houston, county of Harris, Texas, contact us.

We will assign you your own electric consultant that will have your electricity needs bid upon by up to 20 companies. This will ensure that you do get the best rate available, and it will be done very efficiently. It may take a couple of days, but the savings and ease will be worth the wait. Many times we can get you a better rate with the same company.

So, whether you are a small business, or a huge commercial one contact us. If you have sites in different locations in Houston, or other Texas locations we can aggregate them together for you, and help you lower your Texas small business, or commercial rates. We can help you with both natural gas and electricity in Texas.

To contact a commercial energy consultant please replace the (at) in the following email address with @. Thank you.

consultant(at)cheaptexaselectricrates.com

http://cheaptexaselectricrates.com

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There is little direction, and there have been and will be massive layoffs in the future. Look at the scariest chart ever by seekingalpha.com So with all this gloom and doom what can you do? We can try to hang on to our jobs. We can try to stay networked so that if a job came up when and if we get laid off, we would have an opportunity of sorts. We can save our money. AND…

We can save money!

The energy bills that we generate are significant. And they are subject to growing at inopportune times. But there is GOOD NEWS! One is that we can save money by what we do around the house, or workplace. The second is where we buy our electricity, especially if we live in a de-regulated state. If you live in a de-regulated state, you can look up a good company to supply you with electricity. If you live in Texas or New York, you can check at  http://cheaptexaselectricrates.com You can easily cut your electric bill by 20% or more just by switching to a company offering better rates. Getting a year or more contract can even out the highs and lows of electricity cost.

Tips and tricks to saving money: Read this article about saving energy in your home

The next thing to do is think about how you use energy. Once people begin to realise that they save money every single time they flip a light switch off, they get into the act. This is where the other 20% can be saved. Although we don’t have any hard and fast numbers because well, people are different. Still, the main ideas here are the same.

In Winter:Thermostat should be set below 78 degrees. Every degree below that saves 2-3% of heating bills.

Space Heaters: Recommended are the infrared ones that don’t start fires

Think about how many rooms you really need to heat at night. Maybe it’s really only bedrooms. They represent a fraction of the total house space to heat. If you use space heaters to heat them, you will be much better off. Sunheat advertises their products to the public as safe. They state the product, “Cannot start a fire”. The product uses infrared and is powered by electricity.  The web address given is http://www.sunheat.com and the product is said to be able to heat up to 1,000 square feet and operates on less energy than a coffee maker.

Central Air, or Furnace

If you use your current central air/heat unit, make sure it has a high energy rating. Energystar.gov is helpful finding advice on energy-efficient products. Make sure you keep the units oiled every year, with filters cleaned or replaced on schedule. Sometimes you can close off the vents to rooms, but these days you could have a system that relies on all the vents and air ducts to be open. So you might want an expert to look at them.

Attic Insulation: Saving up to 20% or more of total energy bill

Make sure their is sufficient  insulation in the attic. It will pay to have a professional take a look. You can lose a ton of money on heating and cooling bills right here alone. So take the time to make sure it is right. A good 10-15% could be easily saved here alone. And the energy savings will continue long after you install the much needed insulation. Older homes have more of a track record of problems. But check your new home as well. If your electric bill is high, check your attic insulation first.

Water Heater: Savings 10-20% of water heating cost

The water heater is something that is often times over looked. First of all, I would insulate it. You can buy an insulating jacket that will cover the water heater size that you have in your home. The water inside once heated will cool down much more slowly, just like a thermos keeps drinks hot. Also, before you wrap it. Clean out the sediments that have built up inside it. Carefully attach a good garden hose to a nozzle at the bottom. Make sure the water heater is OFF, and has been off long enough to cool it down. You don’t want to get burned. While draining the water heater, you will need to open the hot water traps in all your sinks to allow the water in the water heater to escape. It should take with it the debris that has built up. When you fill the water heater back up, remember that the hot water lines are full of air and will need to let the air escape. It will escape through the faucets, then close them.

Air conditioner: Make sure it is serviced on the required schedule. Make sure you change filters as needed. Usually that means every month of operation. Make sure if it needs yearly oiling, to get it. Make sure it is the right size. And most of all, get one that has a great Energystar rating

Lighting: Switch to CFL’s

That is compact fluorescent lightbulbs. These use about 70-75% less electricity and can last as much as 8-10 times longer than a regular bulb. It is said that regular light bulbs act more like heaters than efficiant light sources. Use these especially in the areas that you need light a lot. You can recycle them at lamprecycle.org

These are some of the basic and most obvious ways to cut your electric utility costs significantly. Remember to also switch to a better, well if better means cheaper electricity rate. Texas and New York users can check here for their rates.

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Texas Levies Surcharges on Your Commercial Electric Bill

The Texas government has recently decided to add a new surcharge to your commercial businesses electric bill. If you operate a commercial or industrial business in the state of Texas and are paying for electricity then you qualify for the additional surcharge on your electric bill regardless of the electric company you have chosen to sell you electricity. Starting on 12/29/2008 for the Oncor Electric Delivery area (Dallas, Fort Worth) which is most of North Texas, and West Texas. Starting 2/2/09 for the the CenterPoint Energy utility area (Houston, Harris and Fort Bend Counties and South Texas) your electricity bill will now have a surcharge added under the TDSP line item. The new surcharge is called “Transmission and Distribution Service Provider (TDSP) Meter Surcharge” and is based on your businesses kW demand.

How to Avoid the Electric Surcharge

To keep this surcharge down you, should understand it as a “demand” charge. If you randomly use lots of electrical energy at one time the grid will have to stand ready to meet your need. This is expensive and hence the need for the charge. It sends a message to users that it is better for us all if commercial businesses in Texas can spread out their peak electric usage. But for those that can’t. let them pay the additional cost of having stand-by energy ready. So you will want to limit the amount of large machines running at the same time in your commercial facility. The KW demand increases the more machines, appliances, printers, lights, etc you have on at the same time regardless of how long they are on. Your KwH usage is the amount of electricity you use in total but does not apply to this surcharge which is based totally on demand usage. This electricity surcharge is officially a PUCT-approved pass-through fee. There are electric providers out there that will extrapolate some of the fees from the “energy only” charge and place it in the TDSP line item to make their electric rate look better. This is not one of those charges or schemes. No matter the Texas electric company you may be using you will begin to see this new surcharge on your electric bill. Another way to lower costs is to compare your Texas commercial electric rates. You can compare commercial electric rates here http://cheaptexaselectricrates.com

By Admin @ cheaptexaselectricrates.com

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