Texas Electricity Ratings

Does Power to Choose Fail Texans? Power to Choose site should offer a clearer rating system for retailers. Find out how their rating method actually fails Texas electricity customers and where you can get better help when you shop. Most Texans seldom shop for electricity. On average, you shop for a new power plan once every year. So it makes sense to build a site to help customers make a relatively infrequent choice for an electricity plan. But Power to Choose fails customers in several ways. In Part 1 of this series, we’ll examine their rating system and show how Texas Electricity Ratings helps better.  Where Power to Choose Fails The Texas PUC designed the Power to Choose to be impartial and not favor one provider over another. But unfortunately, the problem is that there’s no objective standard for what earns a top rating. As a result, this gives a woefully insufficient picture of how well a company actually performs. So let's look closer. Murky Grading System  The Power to Ch

How Does Crawl Space Improvement Reduce Cooling Cost? It might be dark, damp, and full of spiders, but if your crawl space isn't sealed it could be raising your electric bills. Find out how easy it is to seal and save on your Texas electric bills. Anyone who has walked from his or her front door to a car in August in Texas knows just how humid Texas can get. If your home is built on a pier-and-beam foundation, you may think your crawl space is a cool spot. At least the raccoons think so, right?  Even though that dark and damp crawl space may be cooler than the sunlit exterior, it isn’t really that cool. That's because a damp unsealed crawl space invites humidity into your home. Not only can the humidity damage your home; it can also drive up your electricity bill . If you have HVAC ductwork under your home, that humidity is making your system run longer. That's because higher humidity makes your home warmer. So, you crank down the AC lower to feel cooler.  You have a coup

Can You Save Money Setting Back Your AC? Yes, setting back your AC can help you save on your cooling bills this summer. We sweat the details to you why and ways you can set it up! In the relatively short Texas winters, residents cut down heating costs by setting their thermostats a little cooler and wearing warmer clothing. However, Texas summers call for people to set back their thermostats a little warmer, run ceiling fans at full speed, and shed layers of clothes. But does setting back your AC save electricity ? Yes, you can save 10% per year when you set your thermostat back 7° to 10° for eight hours per day, according to the US Department of Energy. But you need to understand how your home’s cooling works to maximize your savings.  Heat Is Drawn To Cold In winter, you want to keep the heat in. But in summer, you want to keep the heat out. Heat is drawn to cold like mosquitos to a toddler’s chubby arms and legs.  Newton’s Law of Cooling states that heat will transfer to cold more

Can You Get The Best Texas Electric Rates? Don't just shop rates when your plan ends. Shop Texas electric rates strategically to get the cheapest rates. Learn how now! The old investing adage of buy low, sell high is a decent way to think about planning your Texas electricity shopping. Of course, you don’t sell your electricity, but you can avoid investing when the price is high. You might ask how this is possible since your home consumes power year round. After all, you can’t just stop using power when prices get high in winter and even higher in summer. Well, you have to shop for the best Texas electric rates strategically.  Changing Power Plans In Summer Texas power prices tend to be highest in the summer. So locking in a fixed rate power plan in summer is rarely a good option. If you do, you wind up paying summer prices all year long. Wouldn’t you rather pay fall prices? And over the long term, that’s precisely what you do.  Last year, my electricity plan expired in July. No