When rates doubled, I took 5 minutes to cut my electric bill nearly in half in Connecticut, one of 30 states where you can choose your rate
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Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post or video. I do not have any financial affiliation with utility companies, and I don't make any commissions from you using the electric rate shopping link featured in this article and video. This information is accurate as of the time of publication, but actual rates will vary widely over time, in the thirty states that allow you to choose the provider of your electricity.
In about a dozen years of content creation here a TinkerTry, I've never written any one article or produced one video that saved my readers and viewers so much money with just about 5 minutes of their time. This is thanks to our ability to choose our energy supplier.
Video
In this video, I give you step-by-step instructions. If you prefer words over visuals, written directions appear below. While the methods shown here are specifically geared toward Connecticut residents, the way you can shop for electricity in the US in 29 other states tends to be very similar, starting with Google Searching for shop electricity (yourstate), then making sure the site you choose to use is legitimate, preferably ending in ".gov".
Backstory
On November 17 2022, I don't believe most Connecticut residents saw this:
- Attorney General Tong Statement on Eversource and United Illuminating Supply Rate Increase
(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong released the following statement regarding new Eversource and United Illuminating standard service supply rates effective January 1. Eversource supply rates will double from 12.05 cents per kWh to 24.2 cents per kWh, resulting in an $84 per month increase for the average user. United Illuminating supply rates will go from 10.6 cents per kWh to 22.5 cents per kWh, resulting in an $83.09 increase for the average user.
“This is a massive increase that will be unaffordable for many Connecticut families and businesses. We pay far too much for our energy in Connecticut as it is, and these winter rates are nothing short of punishing. My office has intervened on behalf of consumers at each and every rate case before the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission because we know how much the cost of energy impacts family budgets. We have next to no ability to challenge these supply rates, which is frustrating. Our supply rates always fluctuate between winter and summer, but this is not normal. We are seeing a huge global spike in gas costs due to the war in Ukraine and Russian manipulation of gas supplies. Both as a country and a state, we need to take a hard look at our energy sources and reduce our reliance on sources like natural gas that produce these wild, unaffordable surges in rates.”
Once February of 2023 arrived and residents starting receiving their January bill, they were pretty surprised.
If you live in Connecticut and you'd like to remove nearly half of your total bill every month for the next 8 months, this article with video will help you greatly.
Step-by-Step Instructions for Connecticut Residents
Prerequisite - you'll need to have a login set up for Eversource or UI to follow-along, but I expect that if you call them instead, you can get the 3 pieces of information you need verbally as well.
Step 1) Log in to your Utility
- Visit Eversource Sign-in or UI Sign-in and at the top of page 2, take note of your
A. Account Number
B. Ref Num
C. Customer Name Key
Click/tap to enlarge, click/tap again to zoom.
Step 2) Visit EnergizeCT
- Visit
energizect.com/rate-board/compare-energy-supplier-rates
and choose your supplier, I went with the lowest cost option from Townsquare Energy, getting me 8 months at $0.1067 per kWh. This site changes frequently, see which option is best for you at that moment in time. If you have options to choosing a provider that offers higher RECs (Renewable Energy Credits) than the minimum allowed in your state, that may be preferable from an environmental impact standpoint, but unfortunately those options may be higher priced.
Step 3) Fill in the form
- Provide your address and contact information
Step 4) Fill in the utility details
- Fill in the 3 items from abc above, and agree to the terms
Step 5) Set a calendar reminder to let you know when the contract ends
- This way your future self can avoid unpleasant surprises, proactively shopping a few months before your contract ends is better, avoiding the chance of reverting to the utility's rate which is usually higher.
- Here in Connecticut, it appears the rate is likely to change on July 1 2023, so I created a calendar entry on my iPhone to do my electric rate shopping then, even though my contract doesn't expire until November 2023.
That's it! In 2 or 3 months, you'll see much lower rates on your electric bill.
Tip jar
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Sources
See also at TinkerTry
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See also
Transcript
This is an unedited copy-and-paste of the YouTube video automatic transcription:
0:01
how do we do it
0:10
in over 10 years of producing videos
0:12
I've never come across a way to save
0:14
readers or viewers of an article or
0:16
video of mine hundreds of dollars per
0:18
not per month not just intentionally but
0:22
in reality within a month or two of
0:24
changing your electricity providers you
0:25
can save a large amount of money right
0:27
here in Connecticut is what I'm focused
0:29
on but a majority of the population in
0:31
the United States has electricity choice
0:33
you can choose your electrical provider
0:35
and uh here in Connecticut January 1st
0:37
2023 our lecture rate went up it doubled
0:39
from 12 to 24 cents roughly that was
0:43
kind of brutal there's only a portion
0:44
your bill about half the bill is your
0:45
electric rate
0:46
so let's say your bill instead of going
0:49
up 2x goes up about 1.5 to 1.7 x depends
0:53
on how big your bill is I first signed
0:55
up for an electric provider
0:57
um going shopping for electricity
0:58
because I just moved my house to heat
0:59
pumps when moving in last October of
1:03
2022 and I'm like oh a couple months
1:05
later I caught the news electric grades
1:07
doubling I should go shopping quick just
1:09
in case there's a problem and maybe I
1:10
can head off a huge lecture bill in
1:12
January I moved to 16 point something
1:14
cents back in early December now here in
1:18
February 2023 I was able to move to 10
1:20
point something cents I think it was
1:21
10.67 so stay tuned for this video where
1:24
I show you exactly how I do that your
1:26
state may differ on what you actually
1:27
click on but the process is basically
1:29
got the same is the same log in get your
1:31
electric bill copy and paste a bunch of
1:33
information off the electric bill as you
1:34
sign up at some web portal and then wait
1:36
a month or two or maybe up to three I
1:38
guess it depends on when you do in your
1:39
billing cycle to see the new electric
1:40
rate reflected on your next bill you
1:43
also have to set a calendar reminder so
1:44
you don't forget to go shopping for
1:45
electricity again we whenever your
1:47
contract expires so back in December I
1:51
chose a plan of 16 point something cents
1:53
that was going to last me three years
1:54
sounded cool but then here in February
1:56
of the next year just a few months later
1:58
I'm realizing oh eight months is measly
2:01
but 10.67 cents is very appealing so I
2:04
went to
2:05
eight months at 10.67 cents and set a
2:08
calendar entry to go shopping for
2:10
electricity again I think Connecticut's
2:12
going to renegotiate its rate and I
2:14
don't think it'll be 24 anymore and I
2:16
think that happens July 1st of 2023 so
2:18
at that point I want to log in and check
2:19
there's no early termination fee and
2:22
there's no monthly cost to enrolling in
2:24
a different electric provider at this
2:26
time in Connecticut
2:28
recently out of spec Dave published a
2:30
video and um it's similar to my video
2:33
now he also lives in eversource
2:35
territory it took a little different
2:37
approach than what autospec Dave did
2:39
where he used a different service
2:42
locator that I did I did what I think a
2:45
typical
2:46
customer would do and just literally
2:47
just type in shop electricity in
2:49
Connecticut those three words are
2:50
probably a decent start and you'll see
2:52
what happens here that we get
2:55
energized CT is the first non-add so the
2:57
first four hits are adds the first
2:59
non-ed is right there
3:01
and then there's a government portal
3:02
which is a second hit that just gives
3:05
you an overview but you'll notice it
3:08
actually also points to
3:10
energize CT
3:12
okay so they both point to the same
3:15
place giving an extra legitimacy to that
3:17
URL energyct.com all right so we're
3:20
there
3:21
how do we do it
3:23
all right so I really should have just
3:24
gone here in the first place supplier
3:26
rate finder simple from energized.com
3:29
home page residential for eversource
3:33
and it's that simple
3:34
you don't have to do the fancy stuff in
3:36
the left you don't have to know your
3:37
current electric bill but if you do know
3:39
how many kilowatts you burned last month
3:41
that can be helpful so now you'll see me
3:43
logging into my eversource account
3:49
okay I'm logged in eversource I'm going
3:51
to click on viewbill
