Smart Meters and Time of Use Billing
 

You may be able to reduce your electricity bill by taking advantage of time-of-use (TOU) billing. Time-of-use billing is intended to shift the demand to off-peak time as much as possible. You will not save any money (in fact you will probably pay more) unless you start to shift when you use appliances into the off-peak periods. Your bill will probably increase if you use appliances during peak periods. The main purpose of time-of-use billing is to reduce the load during peak hours so that it is not necessary to build more (non-green) power plants.

In Toronto off-peak hours are between 9 pm and 7 am weekdays and all day on weekends and holidays.

There are some myths about smart-meters which are addressed here.

Many newer appliances are designed to allow delayed start (up to several hours.) Clothes washers and dishwashers often have this feature. Even if your appliance does not do this automatically, you may be able to save money by delaying operation until off-peak.

Here is a TOU chart for a Monday

Bullfrog Power provides green energy (from wind-tubines).There are two methods of paying for electricity supplied by Bullfrog Power in Toronto:

• Unbundled - pay the standard TOU rates charged by Toronto Hydro and an additional premium of 3 cents per kWh directly to Bullfrog Power (two separate bills, one from Toronto Hydro and the premium from Bullfrog Power)
• Bundled - pay Bullfrog Power directly and then an additional Provincial variable Provincial Benefit (one bill from Bullfrog Power)

Apparently it costs less to use the unbundled option although I haven't done the arithmetic to verify that.