How Would you like your Utility to do this???

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Pierre C Belarge

Pierre C Belarge

Senior Member
Location
Westchester County, New York
Allegheny Power, based in Greensburg Pa, has sent out to each customer 2 CFL lamps. Then they are charging them .99 per lamp for 12 months, the fee hidden as a surcharge in the monthly bill.
They did not ask to do this, they just sent them to each customer, as they thought the customers were taking too long to change over to the energy savings lamps.
That would not go over very well where I am from. I cannot believe a large company would/could do something like this.

http://ecmweb.com/ezone/power-company-light-bulbs/
 
nope

nope

too much southern redneck in this ole man. ain't :grin: nobody gonna charge me for something I don't agree to up front.
I'll throw away $100 but I'd not let them get away with that stunt.
(I'm not a real CFL fan anyway)
 
At least you are getting bulbs sent to you. BGE has added a charge to your bill to subsidize the lower price of the bulbs that some retailers have agreed to sell. You get charged regardless.
 
A small store here said the local POCO came in and changed out their ballasts and bulbs for free. I had not heard about this program. I'm not certin if there are any hidden charges.

Remember that it costs the POCO money to generate electricity so the more they can get you to save the more money they make.

I mentioned in another post a while back that I just got a 4 pack of 100 watt CFL's for .99 cents with the local POCO sponsering the program.
 
POCO contracting ??

POCO contracting ??

cowboyjwc said:
A small store here said the local POCO came in and changed out their ballasts and bulbs for free. I had not heard about this program. I'm not certin if there are any hidden charges.

Remember that it costs the POCO money to generate electricity so the more they can get you to save the more money they make.

I mentioned in another post a while back that I just got a 4 pack of 100 watt CFL's for .99 cents with the local POCO sponsering the program.
Click to expand...

Don't know the licensening requirements in your area, but if POCO did that here, they best be presenting a contractor's license.
 
cowboyjwc said:
A small store here said the local POCO came in and changed out their ballasts and bulbs for free. I had not heard about this program. I'm not certin if there are any hidden charges.

Remember that it costs the POCO money to generate electricity so the more they can get you to save the more money they make.

I mentioned in another post a while back that I just got a 4 pack of 100 watt CFL's for .99 cents with the local POCO sponsering the program.
Click to expand...

So if we all quit using electricity altogether POCO will make billions??:grin:
Just bustin' chops this morning.....:wink:
 
augie47 said:
Don't know the licensening requirements in your area, but if POCO did that here, they best be presenting a contractor's license.
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A contractor's license?

I would think they would need a sale certificate/license of some sort.


*****

Hopefully, some lawyer recieved a shipment of CFL's that he did not order but was required to pay for....and the lawsuit starts.
 
curious george said:
So if we all quit using electricity altogether POCO will make billions??:grin:
Just bustin' chops this morning.....:wink:
Click to expand...

Oh heck my chops have been busted by the best and I'm married. You're going to have to do a lot better than that.:grin:

And you're not to far off. The story here goes that, a few years back the local POCO locked in a price on coal at $19 a ton for 20 years thinking that they were getting a heck of a deal and laughing at their good fortune until the price of coal dropped to $9 a ton. I don't remember the amount of coal they use, but they take a huge hit.

augie47 said:
Don't know the licensening requirements in your area, but if POCO did that here, they best be presenting a contractor's license.
Click to expand...

I think they have contractors, but I don't really have a problem with just changing bulbs and ballasts.
 
cowboyjwc said:
Remember that it costs the POCO money to generate electricity so the more they can get you to save the more money they make.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't they have to find a way to keep your meter from slowing caused by the use of less electricity?

Or were you referring to them having to build fewer new generating plants?
 
The local poco at my pinpoint is encouraging all customers to 100% swap out of all incandescent light bulbs and replace them with cfl's. They run tv ads about it, with a local celebrity making the pitch. I guess there are no forum members over there who would know that cfl's don't fit minature base lamp holders, go well into appliances, are not rated for enclosed fixtures, cannot dim unless rated for such, or a host of other ills. But the company gets to put "Green" in its ads now.
 
I am all for using them and can even deal with laws to force the use where possable but dont force me to buy them from poco at an inflated price.They only cost about $2 each
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
Allegheny Power, based in Greensburg Pa, has sent out to each customer 2 CFL lamps. Then they are charging them .99 per lamp for 12 months, the fee hidden as a surcharge in the monthly bill.
They did not ask to do this, they just sent them to each customer, as they thought the customers were taking too long to change over to the energy savings lamps.
That would not go over very well where I am from. I cannot believe a large company would/could do something like this.

http://ecmweb.com/ezone/power-company-light-bulbs/
Click to expand...

This is the corporate America I could do nicely without. These people at the highest eschelon of the power company are able to force their product on you without any oversight from the government. The government, upon learning of it, allows it, and it amounts to a taxation without representation, since no elected official voted it in thru a due process. Corporate America is in my pocket to the tune of approximately 36% of my pay every week. The 1st and 2nd day of the work week are for big businesses and Uncle Sam. :mad: The 3rd day of the week is for my computer expenses to stay connected on the Mike Holt site, day 4 is for tape for my wirenuts and day 5 is for beer and pretzels. :D
 
LarryFine said:
Wouldn't they have to find a way to keep your meter from slowing caused by the use of less electricity?

Or were you referring to them having to build fewer new generating plants?
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More along the lines of generating plants, but also just the cost of doing business.

If they have to burn 10 tons of coal at $19 a ton ($190) if they can get us to save energy then they only have to burn 5 tons of coal ($95). Now don't believe for a second that I am ignorant enough to think that that savings will get passed on to us. They will still charge you the same price, but maybe "you" drop your bill $50 a month.
 
cowboyjwc said:
If they have to burn 10 tons of coal at $19 a ton ($190) if they can get us to save energy then they only have to burn 5 tons of coal ($95). Now don't believe for a second that I am ignorant enough to think that that savings will get passed on to us. They will still charge you the same price, but maybe "you" drop your bill $50 a month.
Click to expand...


It really depends on your utilities model of business. Remember that there is a wholesale market for electricity and most utilities never pay more then wholesale for any power. For example if the market price for power is $ 90 per MWH and I can generate it for $ 65 per MWH I will start generating. Now if power drops to $ 45 per MWH. Then I will turn off all generation that is more expensive then that to run. So if your utility is a net generator of power they may make there money when power is expensive if they are a net buyer of power they make there money when power is cheap. The other thing that affects profits is regulation but That gets a lot more complicated.
 
MJJBEE said:
It really depends on your utilities model of business. Remember that there is a wholesale market for electricity and most utilities never pay more then wholesale for any power. For example if the market price for power is $ 90 per MWH and I can generate it for $ 65 per MWH I will start generating. Now if power drops to $ 45 per MWH. Then I will turn off all generation that is more expensive then that to run. So if your utility is a net generator of power they may make there money when power is expensive if they are a net buyer of power they make there money when power is cheap. The other thing that affects profits is regulation but That gets a lot more complicated.
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Well sure there's a lot more to it and mine is a net generator (Edison). Yes we are deregulated out here, but nobody is really sure how it works.
 
A POCO charging $12 for a bulb, when I can go to Costco and buy an 8 pack for less than $10.

There are postal regulations about companies shipping you products that you've not ordered...they are called gifts.

IMHO the way that this 'should' be handled is to require buyers of low efficiency bulbs to pre-pay for enough electricity to raise the 'up-front' price of these bulbs enough to get people actively choose the best light for the application. I like the pre-pay approach, because this 'tax' is going to pay something that the customer is already buying.

I'd similarly put a mercury deposit on the CFLs to get them properly disposed of.

The idea is that for many applications, CFLs are a better choice than incandescents, but often the incandescents are better, so level the playing field and educate people to choose.

-Jon
 
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