My electricity costs 34 cent per Kw/h and I can’t afford solar panels or a renovation to air to water heating while the government insists we shouldn’t use oil / coal anymore nor logs or turf to heat our homes

edit: I live in Ireland

▲

hunterpayne 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's 7x the cost that I pay in the Pacific NW. Where are you?

▲

Keloran 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I am going to assume based on the fact that the article is about Ireland, and Ireland uses the euro, the commenter is in Ireland

	▲	keane an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Also the mention of turf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B3rd_na_M%C3%B3na

▲

dymk an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm in the PNW and I pay 11c/kWh (well, I would, if I didn't have solar). Seattle is 13c, King County averages 16c. Where are you paying 5c/kWh? That's exceptionally cheap.

	▲	loeg 32 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Seattle is nearer 14c (13.75) and likely to increase over the next decade (because of nonsense like[1]). [1]: This alone will increase costs by something like 4c/kWh from these 70 year old dams: https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/skagit-riv...
	▲	hunterpayne 41 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Near Vancouver.

▲

s1artibartfast 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Paying 50 cents here in California. Running the electric oven costs literal dollars. However, this isnt new. Im hoping the data centers bring more attention to our state run cartel and push it over a tipping point.

▲

delichon an hour ago | parent [-]

18 cents here in New Mexico. You must be getting premium government services for paying all of that in California.

▲

an hour ago | parent | next [-]

[deleted]

▲

lotsofpulp an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

California utility prices are a function of income.

https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/electrical-ene...

	▲	mh- an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Only the fixed portion is. So about $20 of my $400-800 monthly electric bill is income-based.
	▲	s1artibartfast an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Not really. There is a standard rate and then the companies are required by the state to offer an opt in low income tier. There was a push a year or two back to make it fully income based, where you would have to give the power company your w2 to determine your rate, but it was rejected (for now)

▲

IncreasePosts an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

At 34 cents per kwh how can you afford to not get solar?

▲

WheatMillington 29 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

What kind of question is that? Without knowing anything about the person's geography or local cost of solar, how can you make such a bold assessment of affordability? I live in New Zealand where the capital cost of solar is very expensive and the climate is OK-not-great for solar generation. Even at 30c/kwh the payback (without batteries) is still 15 to 20 years. Not an obvious choice, especially as the capital cost is still declining.

▲

simonw an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The Sam Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

▲

hinkley an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Being poor is expensive.

	▲	bawolff 9 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I mean, if you own a house (you cant put solar on the roof of something you don't own), you probably do have access to loans. Houses make great collerateral. Not neccesarily saying it makes economic sense to get a loan to install solar, just that homeowners usually aren't the poor class that saying usually applies to.