Read My Story About How

PG&E Helps Me Save Energy

and Money

It pays to conserve energy

by Kevin Eslinger | Dec 10, 2013

I'm an environmental scientist and am strongly driven toward highly efficient living. Despite my large single family house being 2005 construction (thus pretty darn efficient) and the fact that I work very hard at being one of the most energy efficient homes in my area, PG&E still thinks it's fair to charge me as if I'm an energy waster (I've paid as much as ~$0.20-$0.30 per kilowatt hour on average, and have paid as much as ~$0.40 per kilowatt-hour at the top tier!). Considering PG&E is a monopoly and in 2006 spent *millions* of dollars to scare people into not allowing the much cheaper and greener/cleaner SMUD to offer electricity service in West Sacramento & surrounding areas, I'm stuck paying PG&E's monopoly prices for their dirtier, higher carbon-intensive electricity than SMUD, with no end in sight. If I had SMUD's lower rates and much cleaner energy, I would find a happy medium between quality of life and energy conservation, but with PG&E's horrific unfair pricing (that does not take into account the fact that I have 5 active adults living my home, yet am still one of the most energy efficient in the area), I have gone to extremes in an attempt to bring my bills as far down as possible so PG&E gets as little money out of me as possible. I only run my pool filter once a week (which makes cleaning the pool much more difficult but it's worth it to not give PG&E more of my money). I've put in dim 2.5watt LED bulbs all over the house instead of much nicer/brighter ~9watt LED bulbs. I let my house get down to 60 degrees at night in winter, and up to 82 in summer. On a daily basis I'm thinking about ways which make my life less comfortable but which have the benefit of minimizing PG&E's profits. With SMUD, I would save *hundreds* of dollars per year *AND* could opt for guaranteed 100% solar from the SMUD grid. Although my roof does not have good exposure for solar, one day I dream of getting solar on my house so that PG&E will not get a penny of my money for their dirty electricity and despicable, fear-tactic, monopolistic business practices. That's my story of my energy conservation.