You people assume credits will always exist and stay the same. What happens when they don't?

Anonymous wrote:I knew it was coming, but the rate increase really hurts. I looked at my account. I used the same amount of electricity last month as October 2023. My bill is almost $100 higher.

What on earth can we do??

Do you have a smart thermostat? That's one idea such that you can program it to automatically alter the home temperature during the summer when the A/C is running (and similar in winter if you have electric heat) vs. having to remember to change the temperature all the time.

I also had an old central A/C unit replaced and noticed my electric bill declined fairly significantly...however, it's hard to justify a $7500 - $10,000 investment just to save maybe $300 per year during the high usage summer months. In my case, my unit had broken and needed to be replaced and it was just interesting to notice the energy savings.

My roof is too shaded (massive tree over it) for solar panels. Any other options?

jsteele wrote:If you are able, get solar panels. You can still get a 30% tax credit until the end of the year. Plus DC has very high SREC payments so the system will pay for itself quickly.

I second this. Solar has been one of the best decisions I ever made.

Anonymous wrote:I was told that I would not qualify as my roof is slate

You can get solar on a slate roof, it just takes extra care to install the brackets.

DC Water has also had horrendously high charges for years, with DC residents bearing the financial responsibility for the utility's overly bloated payroll and massive projects to rid the Anacostia and Potomac rivers of toxic sewage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very pro solar panels but I don't think it's very responsive to OP's plight. Many people cannot get solar panels. We live in a condo building and the building management doesn't want to give up roof space (currently used as a deck) for panels. We suggested building a portico over parking spaces with panels but this was deemed infeasible. So we gave up -- solar panels are just not an option for us, or for anyone who rents, or for lots of other people who don't have a place to put them or can't afford the upfront cost of installation even with the tax rebate.

So for the vast majority of people, it's not a solution.

If you rent an apartment in DC your electric bill is much lower than it would be if you were paying for electricity for a house.

Yes but you may still experience higher PEPCO bills. Generally speaking, people who live in apartments have lower incomes than people who own SFHs, so they are MORE likely to struggle with utility costs going up, not less.

My former $100-125 summer Pepco bills a few years ago were doable, but Pepco charged me $365 for the month of July. It totally blew my utility budget out of the water for summer. I'm in a condo and we've explored solar panels but run into similar issues as a PP mentioned. We also considered adding them to our parking area.

Same. It's especially hard because our condo fees have also gone up due to increased expenses for trash/recycling, landscaping, building maintenance, and building utilities. It seems like all bills have doubled. The other problem is that with everything being so expensive now and people feeling so stretched and stressed, it makes it much harder to do a building project like solar panels. During easier times that was a more feasible project to take on and I think we would have gotten buy in more readily, but now people are like "I don't have the bandwidth for this" and it just doesn't happen. And now with the tax credit going away, it's just not going to happen.

I wish we'd pushed for them 5 year ago but we'd just moved in and it wasn't on our radar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very pro solar panels but I don't think it's very responsive to OP's plight. Many people cannot get solar panels. We live in a condo building and the building management doesn't want to give up roof space (currently used as a deck) for panels. We suggested building a portico over parking spaces with panels but this was deemed infeasible. So we gave up -- solar panels are just not an option for us, or for anyone who rents, or for lots of other people who don't have a place to put them or can't afford the upfront cost of installation even with the tax rebate.

So for the vast majority of people, it's not a solution.

If you rent an apartment in DC your electric bill is much lower than it would be if you were paying for electricity for a house.

Yes but you may still experience higher PEPCO bills. Generally speaking, people who live in apartments have lower incomes than people who own SFHs, so they are MORE likely to struggle with utility costs going up, not less.

My former $100-125 summer Pepco bills a few years ago were doable, but Pepco charged me $365 for the month of July. It totally blew my utility budget out of the water for summer. I'm in a condo and we've explored solar panels but run into similar issues as a PP mentioned. We also considered adding them to our parking area.

I was told that I would not qualify as my roof is slate

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very pro solar panels but I don't think it's very responsive to OP's plight. Many people cannot get solar panels. We live in a condo building and the building management doesn't want to give up roof space (currently used as a deck) for panels. We suggested building a portico over parking spaces with panels but this was deemed infeasible. So we gave up -- solar panels are just not an option for us, or for anyone who rents, or for lots of other people who don't have a place to put them or can't afford the upfront cost of installation even with the tax rebate.

So for the vast majority of people, it's not a solution.

If you rent an apartment in DC your electric bill is much lower than it would be if you were paying for electricity for a house.

Yes but you may still experience higher PEPCO bills. Generally speaking, people who live in apartments have lower incomes than people who own SFHs, so they are MORE likely to struggle with utility costs going up, not less.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something doesn't make sense. Spend 26K to save 1500 a year in electric bill.

get 1/3 as a federal credit, so now it is $15k.
get annual SREC revenue and then factor in the savings on the energy bill, you have a 4-5 year payback and then after it is annual profit. Over 20-30 years, it is into the 6 figures.

+1

That’s why people need to get solar ASAP, although given how long it takes to actually get them installed after permitting or whatever other red tape it might almost be too late.

Also, DC Solar for All has options for renters:
https://doee.dc.gov/solarforall

Anonymous wrote:I'm very pro solar panels but I don't think it's very responsive to OP's plight. Many people cannot get solar panels. We live in a condo building and the building management doesn't want to give up roof space (currently used as a deck) for panels. We suggested building a portico over parking spaces with panels but this was deemed infeasible. So we gave up -- solar panels are just not an option for us, or for anyone who rents, or for lots of other people who don't have a place to put them or can't afford the upfront cost of installation even with the tax rebate.

So for the vast majority of people, it's not a solution.

If you rent an apartment in DC your electric bill is much lower than it would be if you were paying for electricity for a house.

Switch your supplier from PEPCO to a community solar provider

Anyone who owns a SFH or rowhouse in DC and doesn’t do solar is a moron. In the summer months it’s literally an +$800/month increase in my bank balance relative to paying full freight to Pepco.