Hydros Peak Saver Plus program

[Dara]

Rodcaster, their aim is to have everybody get one of their free thermostats and then Ontario Hydro/Government will have control of at least your air conditioner in summer.

 

You aren't eligible for a free thermostat if you have a gas furnace and no central air on it.

 

Remember, when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, we have power, but we still have a whole bunch of shut down coal plants and NO gas plants to replace them yet...there will be power shortages due to the government screwing up and they want as much control over it as they can get.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Dara

[bigugli]

Never wise to let some button pushing bureaucrat have more command and control over the details of your lives.

 

Personally, I sleep quite comfortably at 60F. My wife wants 75F or warmer. Those with circulatory problems need warmer. Many cancer patients need warmer.

What right does some snot nosed bureaucrat have to make the lives of the frail and sick more uncomfortable.

[irishfield]

Exactly Bruce... I'll beg or steal if need be to keep the house at 23C with Jen at home again this week. Furnace is turned up and the fireplace is burning in the basement.

[Old Ironmaker]

Big Brother is watching. A good honest bank robber needs to use a bike for a getaway car because cars have GPS to tell the cops where they are, they know where I am because they triangulate my cell phone, money has a tracking devise imbedded in it to track my c notes, my passport has a tracking chip in it so I can't sneak out of the country on a covert mission, they can see me when I'm on my PC, they can see all my xxx videos I made, my landline is bugged by the Organized crime unit because my name ends in a vowel, when I use my bankcard they know I'm buying chemicals to make meth, they monitor my emails, website use and tweets to combat terrorism and monitor my political subversive activities, I must tell them how many K's I put on my vehicles to get my sticker so my car insurance can go up, my fishing license actually sends a message to the ministry if I foul hook a fish, the GPS on my boat tells them I'm fishing in a sanctuary and records me taking more than the limit, now they will be able to mess with my wife by turning up the heat and lowering it thinking she is having hot flashes and I think the house is haunted by demons. Man I must be important.

 

How do I know all this, I read it on OFC so it must be true.

[Headhunter]

 

Big Brother is watching. A good honest bank robber needs to use a bike for a getaway car because cars have GPS to tell the cops where they are, they know where I am because they triangulate my cell phone, money has a tracking devise imbedded in it to track my c notes, my passport has a tracking chip in it so I can't sneak out of the country on a covert mission, they can see me when I'm on my PC, they can see all my xxx videos I made, my landline is bugged by the Organized crime unit because my name ends in a vowel, when I use my bankcard they know I'm buying chemicals to make meth, they monitor my emails, website use and tweets to combat terrorism and monitor my political subversive activities, I must tell them how many K's I put on my vehicles to get my sticker so my car insurance can go up, my fishing license actually sends a message to the ministry if I foul hook a fish, the GPS on my boat tells them I'm fishing in a sanctuary and records me taking more than the limit, now they will be able to mess with my wife by turning up the heat and lowering it thinking she is having hot flashes and I think the house is haunted by demons. Man I must be important.

 

How do I know all this, I read it on OFC so it must be true.

We'll stop you when you're wrong O.I.!

HH

[zenon11]

The province always needs to be able to meet max electricity demand. If you can lower the amount of power needed at peak, it ends up lowering costs. Peaksaver is a way for residential customers (like you and me) to be able to help lower peak demand. They have similar programs for companies (demand response for example). If they can lower the cost of electricity on the spot market (it's expensive for the province to buy power at peak times), then the cost for electricity goes down. This wouldn't impact your whole bill (which has delivery, regulatory charges, etc.), just the kWh amount you pay. The price per kWh is changed every 6 months, so any savings would be reflected then. It's actually a pretty good program to lower peak demand.

[Dara]

The province always needs to be able to meet max electricity demand. If you can lower the amount of power needed at peak, it ends up lowering costs. Peaksaver is a way for residential customers (like you and me) to be able to help lower peak demand. They have similar programs for companies (demand response for example). If they can lower the cost of electricity on the spot market (it's expensive for the province to buy power at peak times), then the cost for electricity goes down. This wouldn't impact your whole bill (which has delivery, regulatory charges, etc.), just the kWh amount you pay. The price per kWh is changed every 6 months, so any savings would be reflected then. It's actually a pretty good program to lower peak demand.

 

 

If the province had done things properly in the first place, we wouldn't be having these problems now.

 

Mr McGuinty wanted his name in the history books as an enviromental saviour.

 

Thats not what he was elected to do, its what he did on his own, now we all get to pay for his legacy after he has run off like a little coward

 

 

Just my opinion of course

Edited February 12, 2014 by Dara

[zenon11]

 

 

If the province had done things properly in the first place, we wouldn't be having these problems now.

 

Mr McGuinty wanted his name in the history books as an enviromental saviour.

 

Thats not what he was elected to do, its what he did on his own, now we all get to pay for his legacy after he has run off like a little coward

 

 

Just my opinion of course

It actually has nothing to do with McGuinty. Conservation is a policy that all parties support. It doesn't matter who is in power with whatever policies they put in, you always want to lower demand.

 

Electricity works sort of like our roadways, you always have to be able to meet peak demand (which is why the 401 is 16 lanes wide). If you can lower the amount of power people use and spread it around, you need less power to be able to draw upon to meet peak demand. So if traffic was more spread apart instead of being bunched up during rush hour, the 401 could be 8 or 10 lanes instead. Power works sortf of the same way; you have to be able to meet peak demand. If you lower peak demand, you lower costs.

[Headhunter]

That makes sense Zenon, however what I can't get my head around is the fact that as a residential consumer, paying the highest rate of the day when I fire up my stove/oven, essentially equates to me and my family subsidising the province's industries power bills.

So, if I need to save money and still do the day to day living thing, according to our wonderful provincial government, I should be doing laundry in the middle of the night or weekends.

I guess I should also alter my family's meal times so I can save money there as well! Dinner will be at 3:00pm or after 8:00pm. And the price of hydro is expected to rise by 50% in the next decade...

Now, according to the news this morning, the Hydro workers could well be on strike soon! Pickering is past it's due date to be de-commissioned, Bruce is privately owned (thanks Mike Harris!) Darlington has so many cost over runs, I could go on.

Yet those "in the know" want me and my family to pay pay pay, while they cut/subsidize private industry.

Am I missing something here?

HH

[Dara]

It actually has nothing to do with McGuinty. Conservation is a policy that all parties support. It doesn't matter who is in power with whatever policies they put in, you always want to lower demand.

 

Electricity works sort of like our roadways, you always have to be able to meet peak demand (which is why the 401 is 16 lanes wide). If you can lower the amount of power people use and spread it around, you need less power to be able to draw upon to meet peak demand. So if traffic was more spread apart instead of being bunched up during rush hour, the 401 could be 8 or 10 lanes instead. Power works sortf of the same way; you have to be able to meet peak demand. If you lower peak demand, you lower costs.

 

 

It has everything to do with McGuinty

 

 

Who in their right mind offers to pay 60 cents for something they can only sell for 10 and also says its ok if you can't deliver all the time, I can pay extra to another guy who will guarantee delivery any time I need it but I will pay you both anyway because I can just raise taxes to do it...just so I can get my name recorded for saving the world

[jimmer]

The Hydro One debate will go on for ever. I was told (by electrical inspector) heating with electricity was the way to go when I built my house 26 years ago. There isn't a day that goes by that I wish I could come face to face with that person again. I never turn my baseboards on unless I'm away and have always heated with wood. As far as not using during peak periods, we do it, but the rate will continue to go up so they can meet their bottom line. They still need the level of revenue to operate on the present scale, so the less hydro used by the masses, the more you will pay for it.

[zenon11]

 

 

It has everything to do with McGuinty

 

 

Who in their right mind offers to pay 60 cents for something they can only sell for 10 and also says its ok if you can't deliver all the time, I can pay extra to another guy who will guarantee delivery any time I need it but I will pay you both anyway because I can just raise taxes to do it...just so I can get my name recorded for saving the world

Peaksaver has nothing to do with the Green Energy Act. Peaksaver is conservation, while the Green Energy Act addresses generation and putting more renewable energy into the grid. It's an entirely different debate which would get rather heated. We should put energy policy as another topic like religion and politics, no matter what you wouldn't change your mind and I wouldn't change mine.

Edited February 12, 2014 by zenon11

[lookinforwalleye]

If a Government of any stripe ( but especially a Liberal) sorry could not resist!!! tells me here try this it`s good for you he can kiss me !!!

Edited February 12, 2014 by lookinforwalleye

[Dara]

Peaksaver has nothing to do with the Green Energy Act. Peaksaver is conservation, while the Green Energy Act addresses generation and putting more renewable energy into the grid. It's an entirely different debate which would get rather heated. We should put energy policy as another topic like religion and politics, no matter what you wouldn't change your mind and I wouldn't change mine.

Right, its as different as dalton is from Kathleen....but she is still signing go aheads for more wind farms

 

except now its for natives to put wind farms on crown land

[iFish4real]

I guess the best thing to do, like Les Stroud used to say , would be to get off the grid If I could afford a house out in the country that's what I would do for sure...

[bigugli]

I guess the best thing to do, like Les Stroud used to say , would be to get off the grid If I could afford a house out in the country that's what I would do for sure...

You can still reduce your reliance on the grid while still living in an urban environment. Of course, your neighbours may not like you much. I still remember the screams from down the street one morning in Beamsville. One of my buddies had got a deer in the evening and hung it from the birch in his yard overnight. His neighbours and children got the full view at breakfast. What a comedy that was. ROFL

Then there's the looks of disgust from the yuppies as he rolled home on his 4 wheeler with another doe strapped on the front rack.

 

I had one neighbor who was always calling the fire dept because of the smoke from my woodstove which wa our primary heat source.

Edited February 13, 2014 by bigugli

[aplumma]

I guess the best thing to do, like Les Stroud used to say , would be to get off the grid If I could afford a house out in the country that's what I would do for sure...

I live in the country and it isn't any cheaper. lol I get the pleasure of paying more for the land that surrounds me. The biggest advantage is I can pee off the front porch and no one will see or care.

 

Art

[lew]

I live in the country and it isn't any cheaper. lol

 

It is when you can buy a home for 1/2 the price you'd pay in the city LOL

[iFish4real]

I live in the country and it isn't any cheaper

I was thinking about installing solar panels, a geothermal system that would give me heating/cooling, a well for water and a septic so, with that I guess I could get off the grid . I know it would be a bit of an investment but if I could put it in he mortgage would be easier...since I don't have the money to pay it up front

 

just an idea, I'm not very knowledgeable about life out in the country but I'd like to try

[Dara]

I kinda doubt that a bank would give you a mortgage on a place that is off the grid.

 

Way too chancy for them.

 

If you lost power and froze the pipes and such, or just walked away from it, they would be stuck with a bad investment.

 

If you aren't handy at all, or experienced in country life, off the grid is not a place you should be

[iFish4real]

 

if you aren't handy at all, or experienced in country life, off the grid is not a place you should be

I'm electrician so I guess I could handle the handy side

[Old Ironmaker]

BigUgly you wrote,

 

"I had one neighbor who was always calling the fire dept because of the smoke from my woodstove which wa our primary heat source."

 

That kind of hits close to home with me. We had the neighbour from hell that burned unseasoned wood and we lived downwind of him. My wife has a chronic lung condition and when the smoke billowed from his stack she sometimes had to leave the home. I know you don't burn anything but good dry hardwood that should not give off smoke of high opacity but it does effect some adversely.

 

This guy was nuts and when he knew it bothered her he then started burnt anything he could on the beach that is 30 feet below the cottages and the smoke would come right into ours all day and night long. I had to get the authorities involved and he never really stopped even after he was fined. I later learned his main source of income was collecting from injury law suits for assault by previous people he irritated. Tough way to make a living.

 

Unfortunately he committed suicide, shot himself 9 times. (just kidding he moved and blamed me for turning the neighbors against him, man what a nutbar).

Edited February 13, 2014 by Old Ironmaker

[Dara]

I'm electrician so I guess I could handle the handy side

 

 

you had previously stated that you are NOT knowledgeable about life in the country...beats me

 

being al electrician you gotta know off the grid would be way different

Edited February 13, 2014 by Dara

[bigugli]

BigUgly you wrote,

 

"I had one neighbor who was always calling the fire dept because of the smoke from my woodstove which wa our primary heat source."

 

That kind of hits close to home with me. We had the neighbour from hell that burned unseasoned wood and we lived downwind of him. My wife has a chronic lung condition and when the smoke billowed from his stack she sometimes had to leave the home. I know you don't burn anything but good dry hardwood that should not give off smoke of high opacity but it does effect some adversely.

 

This guy was nuts and when he knew it bothered her he then started burnt anything he could on the beach that is 30 feet below the cottages and the smoke would come right into ours all day and night long. I had to get the authorities involved and he never really stopped even after he was fined. I later learned his main source of income was collecting from injury law suits for assault by previous people he irritated. Tough way to make a living.

 

Unfortunately he committed suicide, shot himself 9 times. (just kidding he moved and blamed me for turning the neighbors against him, man what a nutbar).

Funny thing was the neighbor was upwind of us 90% of the time, unless the wind blew in off the lake. He also like to complain about the wood pile, and the compost, the berry stains on the front sidewalk, the smell of manure from the chicken barns, bird bangers, etc.... The bylaw officer would show up and we'd both have a few chuckles at his expense. The citiot move to Niagara for the rural small town quiet, without once considering what life in an agricultural town was about. He lasted 3 years.

[aplumma]

Don't get me wrong I wouldn't move back to the city for anything. I am happy out in the country and the taxes are just the cost of freedom and privacy.

 

 

 

Art