Hint – Free Electricity is Not Free
You’ve seen the ads. They’re everywhere!
The Electricity Companies or Retail Energy Providers are selling a variety of “Free Energy” plans targeting residential electricity customers across Texas. These plans have become very popular in all parts of Texas especially Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth.
Many of the largest Energy Companies are offering Free Electricity Plans, most with slightly different terms and conditions but all with catchy names to grab your attention. Some examples include:
The question most residential electricity customers are asking is, “Are Free Electricity Plans a Good Deal for Me?”
The answer for the vast majority of residential electricity customers is, NO!
It’s a simple reason and here’s why.
The large Energy Companies simply charge a higher than market rate for their Non-Free hours to cover the cost of electricity used during “Free” hours.
As an example, at the time of writing this, Direct Energy’s 12-month Free Power Weekends plan offered a rate of 13.4 cents/kWh compared to their standard fixed price offering of 7.1 cents/kWh for the same term.
That’s an 89% premium on their Non-Free hours compared to their standard fixed price rate!
Since weekends only account for about 27% of total weekly hours, most customer’s electricity bill will be substantially higher on a “Free Electricity” Plan than if they signed up for a competitive fixed price.
There is a very small percentage of residential electricity customers who can take advantage of the Free Hours plans but those are the folks who only use the vast majority of their electricity during the Free Hours.
If you are curious how these Free Electricity Plans add up for your home, check out EIQhome.com.
EIQhome.com uses Artificial Intelligence to constantly scan the market for the lowest cost electricity plans run against your smart meter data to calculate the lowest cost electricity plan for your home. There’s no obligation or monthly fee, it’s totally free and unbiased.