Hawaiian Electric rates highest in nation

[gtill]

HC, thanks,this means only one house wiring when building will cover the battery feed (with inverter) too. Being as I'm over 3000', and pretty rainy, do the Unisolar panels actually work as advertised, that is work even on overcast days? I believe it was you and Bullwinkle who had Unisolar?
Really appreciate this from someone who's doing it.

[kani-lehua]

november 13th bill on o'ahu:

4 people

752 kwh 29 days 25.9 kwh/day $235.99

customer charge: $ 8.00
non-fuel energy: 62.41
base fuel: 66.86
increase 2007: 9.63
energy cost adj: 78.76
irp cost recovery: 10.33

total: $235.99

"chaos reigns within.
reflect, repent and reboot.
order shall return."

microsoft error message with haiku poetry

[robguz]

I've never understood why this isn't more of an issue here and why it got no attention in the mayoral race. I live alone in a small house. Lights and fans aren't on much, stove, dryer are gas and I have solar hot water with the electrical backup turned off. My bill was $180. When I lived in a much larger 3 BR home in Oakland, CA I rarely paid over $100 even with the heater running for hours a day, electric dryer and water heater. The rates here are criminal, especially for such a low income area. With far more of our energy coming from wind, geothermal, and solar, our rates should be much less than Oahu's. The rest is primarily from oil and if gas is any indication, that costs about 10% more than in northern CA, an area with far above average utility rates. I know some municipalities run there own non-profit utilities and of course customers pay far less. Not that I'd trust them to get that right here, but something has to change.

[David M]

Pretty sure that any legal solar system has to be permitted and that requires engineered drawings etc. I suspect if you can get a properly designed system and your electrician will pull the permit, it could still be DIY.

David

Ninole Resident

[jade]

You can diy you just won't get the government rebates (which can be thousands of dollars).

[Kelena]

There is an organization in California called "The Solar Institute". They give classes in how to set up solar....detailed classes on designing a solar power system. I had this idea of a bunch of friends taking the class and then doing a kind of Amish barn raising -- that is, the group would go from house to house of the members in the group (say, five or six) and set up the solar system and thereby save the labor.

[MntnViewBlue]

I have a friend (only person in household) in HPP whos electric bill generally runs about $85/m. Used to be ~ $135/m. She has electric stove, dryer, waterheater, and laptop for a computer. Has always hung her clothes to dry as much as possible. She managed to shave $50/m off electric bill by turning off her waterheater, however she still has hot water. How? Her water pipes run through her attic so during the day she has HOT water coming out of her cold water pipes, cold water (from her off waterheater) in her hot water pipes. Her cold water pipes, even on cloudy days, average about 100 degrees. There is enough piping in her attic for her to take a shower and then the pipes reheat in 30-45 minutes. By making sure she uses all her hot water needs during the day, and using the pre-heat on her dishwasher, she does not even turn on her water heater. Her roof is light colored.

So for a cheap, DIY, unapproved, pre-heating solar system:

Black roof (if you must insulate to keep your house cooler, then insulate the attic floor)

Run HOT water pipes in attic on top of insulation, then to hot water tank

Depending on how hot your attic gets, you may also need to install an expansion tank

Or, if your pipes already run in your attic, just do what my friend does:
Hot faucet = cold water
Cold faucet = hot water

[macuu222]

And just hope that your pipes don't spring a leak!

[Beachboy]

quote:

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Originally posted by gtill

To further tighten their control, DIY solar is now banned in your house. Pretty soon restrictions will arise where any power production is totally banned, without HELCO getting their cut.

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Helco has it set up were as if any other form of energy was offered up to the community, they would not be able to offer up their energy cheaper than Helco. Hypothetical situation,say we get Geothermal set up in Puna. Everything goes smoothly for said Geothermal Company during set up Puna. You know, and I know Geothermal Energy is about as cheap as it comes. But said Geothermal Company can't offer customers cheaper rates because of a law that states basically any competing company to HELCO cannot offer cheaper rates! I believe when the voters of Hawaii voted against CON-CON, we lost our chance to change that law. I for one am tired of getting reemed by HELCO, and to think...they aren't even giving us a courtesy reach around with these crazy monthly rates![]

Do you guys remember when gas was going up this past spring? HELCO sure held out their hand quickly for a rate increase to off set oil cost. But if you think about it, oil has dropped over $100.00 a barrel since July. Why hasn't HELCO lowered our rates? HECO in Honolulu lowered the rates for the residents of Oahu with price drop. I just don't understand why we can't have it here? Don't get me going about infrastructure either! That is an issue that really rubs me wrong! There are less developed countries around than Hawaii County. Yet they have with them far superior infrastructure than us!!! Why? I just think things could be done more sufficiently here just for the fact that Hawaii is part of America.
Hell, even rural areas of Oregon can get cable installed. But you can't if you live in the middle of HPP!!!!

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Let's get together and over grow the government!!!!

[gtill]

Beachboy, right you are, I railed about geothermal until I learned the Hawaiian community was down on it. The location of the present plant is not the best, but they're saying that even from that location they could provide the whole island with power, and they are stuck on the HECO price.

I have heard that the pricing structure is coming to a renogiation time, and it isn't constitutionally protected. They say it was instituated to keep the small startups from getting killed, and I'm sure to allow rate hikes.

The reason the individual solar owner can't get a decent return for his excess generation is transmission lines. For years the prospect of going underground has been proposed, well now with a new president who wants new ideas, the time is right for a new beginning.

Damon's blog mentioned a company with a new prospect of electric cars, chargable at stations by battery exchange, not recharging. Plus Ford and Chevy are getting billions in bailout, and have promised EV production.

Give Hawaiians the chance to initiate and build the plant and Island wide underground power with stations island wide for battery exchange. Solar and wind could contribute, and the best existing oil fired units relagated to backup!

Everyone wants the unions to take hits, now it's HELCO and their shareholders chance.