Does energy cost less at night?

Question

My mother always told me it was cheaper to take a shower, do your laundry and wash your dishes at night. Is this true? Our bills have gone through the roof this winter, our highest being $430. We're in Texas, but we still have the heater running. I never thought it could get this cold here. I have small children so, we can just grin and bear the cold.Thanks.

Answer 1

No...energy cost depends on usage, nothing else. Contact your electricity provider for tips about energy savings. Also look into better insulation of the home and a more efficient heating system. The time of day may ensure more availability, but not lower prices. Good luck

Answer 2

Depends.

For most homes the energy cost is the same day and night, it would be just to complext to bill differntly depending on the time of day. For industrial consumers it is often worthwhile for the electrical companies to give them incentives to use less energy in peak hours and more in off-peak hours. Electricity is not easily stored and often in off-peak hours it goes to waste.

The reason is that some electricity sources are best when constantly producing their maximal energy. Examples would be coal plants or nuclear plants. Shutting down the electricity production for an hour or two due to low demand just is not justifiable with them. Other sources of electricity such as natural gas can be turned on or off quicker but the cost per watt is more. Finally some sources of electricity like wind or solar are not always there when needed.

With modern electronics making it cheap to measure consumption time it may start becoming more cost effective for more electricity suppliers to provide different billing depending on time of usage to the small scale home user.

From a environmental perspective, moving energy usage to off peak hours at the home is "good" but only a minor factor.

Answer 3

Generally not to the consumer, but if your local power company is buying off the national power grid they must pay more for the electricity during peak hours.

Basically you can't store alternating current so at night when less energy is used by business and the average consumer, the prices to buy off the national grid are usually lower and if enough people hold off on chores until demand and price falls your power company could afford to cut the rate, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Answer 4

Our Energy Supplier has what is know as "Peak" hours. During those hours, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., we pay more per killowatt hour for our electricity. It has to do with supply and demand. The more energy that is demanded, the more you can expect to pay for it. So you mother is correct when she says that energy is cheaper at night.

Answer 5

It's that global warming that is freezing you guys in Texas.

The fact that this is one of the worst winters in decades in the US seems to be lost on the global warming crowd.

But to answer your question - no - unless your utility actually charges less at off-peak hours, which I have never heard of.

mbjewelery: How about that. I have never heard of that.

Well check with your utility. If that is the case, then I guess your mother is right.

Answer 6

http://www.wwf.org.uk/core/index.asp
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0702/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page