Off-peak: it s like a sale!

Transcription

1 WIN with TOU (see page 3) DECEMBER 2014 NEWS ON ELECTRICITY FROM Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution Ltd. Off-peak: it s like a sale! The off-peak price for electricity kicks in every night at seven o clock and runs until seven the next morning. On weekends and holidays, the off-peak price applies around the clock. Time-of-use (TOU) rates and price periods are reset every six months by the Ontario Energy Board as winter and summer plans. The current winter schedule is in effect until April 30, The price tags and savings for the household activities in these representative examples reflect the current time-of-use Ontario commodity prices for electricity and do not include delivery, regulatory or other charges. Winter TOU schedule inside *Estimates of savings are courtesy of the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).

2 Thermostat, energy display and remote control all in your new smart thermostat free from Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution. Press here to access all the standard thermostat features or check out your home s current electricity use. Watch here to know when the electricity price is higher than off-peak, for example, at mid-peak or on-peak (the yellow light comes on). Foundation Smart Thermostat & Home Energy Gateway by Energate Inc. Look here for how much electricity your home is using and what it costs per hour. Use this... not this... to adjust the furnace you forgot to check before you got on that plane.* To get your free professionally installed thermostat: 1 (855) * Remote access available only if you have a wireless router connecting your home network to the Internet.

3 Get your bill with E-Bill E-Bill is online in Newmarket DOWNtheLINE What do you get with E-Bill from Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution? Less paper and a lot more convenience. If you sign up for E-Bill, you ll no longer receive a paper bill by mail. Instead we ll send you an when your monthly bill is ready to view online. More details available at nmhydro.ca/ebill. Setting up your online account You ll need an online account with us in order to use E-Bill. It takes only a few minutes to get set up. Start by getting a recent copy of your bill as you ll want to refer to it. (If you already have an online account, you can skip right to the next section.) 1. Visit nmhydro.ca, click on the My Account tab, and select the Enable Account Access link. 2. Enter the account information requested (it s on your bill) and follow the prompts to create your online account. Now you re ready to select E-Bill. Selecting your E-Bill option You re seconds away from switching to E-Bill. 1. Make sure you re still logged into your online account. Or go to nmhydro.ca, click on the My Account tab, and log in. 2. Open the My Account menu and scroll down to select the E-Bill Options link. 3. Under the Bill (E-Bill) options, change your billing option to Bill (E-Bill). 4. Follow the prompts on the screen to confirm your selection. If you have questions about E-Bill, call us in Newmarket at (905) E-Bill is available only in Newmarket at the moment, but it s coming soon to Tay. WIN Time-of-use (TOU) electricity prices with can certainly save you money. But if TOU you re a customer of Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution, TOU can also win you money (and prizes). Prizes: $500, $100 & ipad Enter our online Win with TOU prize draw by demonstrating your knowledge of how time-of-use rates work. Answer a few simple questions about when you can save the most on the price of electricity, and we ll enter you in a draw for prizes including a chance at a $500 credit on your electricity bill. We ll also award $100 gift cards to ten customers randomly selected from all those who qualify for this draw. Visit nmhydro.ca or tayhydro.com and follow the link to Win with TOU for your entry form and full contest rules. And see the tear-out TOU schedule on the end flap for the current rates. Extra for PAP customers: ipad Air We always reward our pre-authorized payment plan (PAP) customers with chances at extra prizes when they win contests. Win any of the eleven prizes in our Win with TOU contest and if you re also registered for either of our pre-authorized payment plans, we ll enter you in a bonus draw for a free ipad Air tablet. To enroll for pre-authorized payment, visit nmhydro.ca or tayhydro.com and follow the link Sign up for pre-authorized payment. Or call us in Newmarket at (905) or in Tay at (705) for more details.

4 Shift to save with TOU electricity Tear out this schedule for time-of-use periods and keep it handy. The lowest price is in the green! Winter (November 1 April 30) Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 7 am 11 am 5 pm 7 pm Winter off-peak: 7 pm - 7 am & all day on weekends & holidays 7.7 /kwh Off-Peak 11.4 /kwh Mid-Peak 14.0 /kwh On-Peak The current time-of-use (TOU) rates listed above are set by the Ontario Energy Board and in effect from November 1, 2014 to April 30, Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution Ltd.

5 Cooking up energy savings in the kitchen Cleaning up for less Almost half the electricity consumed in an average home is gobbled up by six major appliances. Your refrigerator and freezer top the list as using the most. Rounding out the rest of the big six are the electric stove/oven, dishwasher, clothes dryer and washer. In this issue, we look at lowering your energy costs for cooking and cleaning up in kitchen. A window to cooking conservation If your oven has a window, don t touch that door. About 20 per cent of the oven s heat is lost when you open the door so use the window to check on food. If your oven has a convection feature, learning to use it will save you electricity. Because a fan circulates the hot air around the inside of the oven, cooking takes less time at a lower temperature resulting in reduced electricity consumption. You can also turn off the oven a few minutes before the cooking time is done as the remaining heat will finish the job. On top of the stove, match the element to the size of the pot or pan for maximum energy efficiency. And when practical, use an electric kettle to boil water because it uses half the electricity to get the job done as a stove element. Smaller appliances use less electricity As a rule, go small whenever you can in your kitchen. For smaller portions of food, there are many things a microwave oven can do better and faster using less energy than the stove so it s the more economical choice. In fact, a microwave can often accomplish a similar task with up to 50 per cent less electricity than a conventional stove because the energy goes into heating up the food, not the oven. Consider that a microwave doesn t require preheating, further avoiding electricity use. Dishing on the dishwasher After the meal, it s time to cue the dishwasher. A full dishwasher uses the same amount of electricity to run as one that has only a few items in it so try to operate it full. Drying cycles that turn on the heating element increase electricity use so look for an energy-saving switch that allows dishes to air dry. If your dishwasher has a short-cycle or econowash feature, use it. About 85 per cent of a dishwasher s electricity is used to heat the water so the shorter the cycle the more energy saved. Check out off-peak savings (see cover story) The easiest way to save money with your dishwasher is to set it to operate in off-peak periods when electricity is at its lowest price. Check out the price tags in our cover story to see the savings you get with off-peak. During the week, off-peak pricing runs from seven every night until seven the next morning. On weekends and holidays, it s off-peak twenty-four hours a day.

6 DECEMBER 2014 NEWS ON ELECTRICITY FROM NEWMARKET-TAY POWER DISTRIBUTION LTD. DOWNtheLINE The SmartPlug: you can have it free With your new Smart Thermostat! The SmartPlug* makes any electrical outlet in your home smart. And you can have it free, while supplies last, when you register for the free Foundation Smart Thermostat from Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution (see inside for our smart thermostat offer). SmartPlug talks WiFi & electricity Install the SmartPlug in an electrical outlet in your home and once it is connected to your home network you can track the electricity use of any appliance plugged into the SmartPlug s top receptacle. For example, plug a humidifier into the SmartPlug to see how much electricity that device consumes when running. You can monitor appliances electricity consumption in real-time on a computer, tablet or smart phone. SmartPlug needs smart thermostat Setting up SmartPlug is easy and we re here to help. It must be added to the same home network that hosts your smart thermostat. You can do this through your personal energy portal at ntpower.myenergate.com. Once it s set up, you can use SmartPlug to learn more about the electricity consumption of various appliances in your home. For example, plug the power bar connecting your TV and home theatre system into the SmartPlug to see how much electricity you use on movie night! Here s a typical application Remember, your SmartPlug needs the free smart thermostat from Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution to be in place first for it to work. Once you get your smart thermostat installed, we ll get in touch to offer you your free SmartPlug. Board of Directors Robert Betts Phillip Daniels Paul D. Ferguson Andreas Ott Tom Taylor Tony Van Bynen Scott Warnock DOWNtheLINE is published for the customers of Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. If you have any comments about issues you ve seen in DOWNtheLINE, please call, write, fax or us. Publisher Paul Ferguson, PEng Editor Iain Clinton, CA Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution Ltd. 590 Steven Court Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 6Z2 Tel: (905) Fax: (905) nmhydro@nmhydro.ca info@tayhydro.com Website: Website: DOWNtheLINE is designed and produced by RBWS Inc. *The SmartPlug is a plug-in load manager device supplied to Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution by Energate Inc.