Understanding your bill |
Usage and Rates |
Conserving and Saving |
Getting Help |
Understanding Your Bill
The electric bill from Arizona Public Service (APS) is the most complex of all Verrado resident utility bills. Charges are divided up across over a dozen categories, and vary depending on the plan you selected. You can get a detailed definition of each on the APS website. Here, we will explain those that are usage-based and point out the ones that are based on the number of days in your billing cycle.
APS bills in units of "kilowatt hours" (abbreviated kWh). It's sort of a confusing concept, because it's a measurement of volume. It's a little easier if you think of watts as ounces or cups of water; then a kWH is a 50-gallon drum. So if you run a 40w light bulb for 25 hours, that's one thousand total watts consumed, one kWh, or one "drum" of electricity consumed. Most of your charges are based on the kWh you use in a billing cycle. Here's what they mean:
- Delivery service charge: maintaining the grid
- Demand charge (not on all plans): the highest single-hour usage in a billing cycle
- Environmental benefits: pays for customer incentive programs for renewable or high-efficiency upgrades
- Federal environmental improvement: pays for costs to meet EPA standards
- System benefits: pays for mandatory public policy programs
- Power supply adjustment: adjustor based on the cost of fuel to generate power
- Generation of electricity (on/off peak): cost of power you used
- Federal transmission fees: cost to move high-voltage power to the grid
- Four Corners: cost recovery for acquisition of units in Four Corners area
- LFCR (Lost Fixed Cost Recovery): a recovery adjustor for APS to get back some of the lost revenue it would have collected from solar customers
Usage and Rates
The rates you pay for electricity depend on the service plan you select. You can see which service plan you're on by looking at the top of your bill (as pictured above).Conserving and Saving
Of all the utilities, your electric bill may well be the place you can save the most money with some simple changes. The homes in Verrado are well built and well insulated, so you already have an efficient home to start with. Here are a few suggestions and resources for you to try.- Find your "vampires". These are devices that are sucking electricity whether you're using them or not. APS has a really nice view of your hourly usage throughout the day and night. Look at your overnight usage; that's probably stuff that's running 24/7 that you can manage. Power strips, chargers, computers, or anything with a "memory" are drawing power all the time. Do you really need them on?
- Switch to Low-watt Bulbs: An LED bulb uses 10% of the energy of an equivalent traditional bulb. All homes in Verrado have porch and driveway lights that run all night long. Think how much of a reduction that offers! Plus, LED bulbs almost never need replacing, which makes paying $10 a bulb feel a lot better.
- Consider Shade Screens: If you have windows with a sunny exposure, a shade screen will keep that room considerably cooler. You can buy DIY screen and frame kits at any hardware store and the only tools you need are a box knife and a hack saw to put them together.
- Stop Warming Things Up: If you want to save a lot of money on electricity, look around at any appliance that uses a heating element. This includes: washing machines, clothes dryers and dishwashers, to name a few. The heating element uses a LOT of power. Can you switch to cold water, speed cycles, or other energy-saving settings? Most newer appliances offer these settings. If you're feeling really adventurous, you can buy a collapsible clothes-drying rack for about $20. Put that sunshine to work for you!
I'm thinking about going Solar.
Deciding to add solar power to your electricity management plan is complex and done for a variety of reasons. The Utilities Council doesn't endorse or discourage solar.
Getting Help
Your Utilities Council is always available to answer questions or help you resolve issues. But, in most cases, working directly with the provider will get you the fastest results. We ask that you start there and contact us if they aren't able to resolve the issue to your satisfaction.You can also file a complaint with the Arizona Corporation Commission on their website.
Contacting APS:
Online: Use their Customer Comment Form
In person: The Buckeye office is located at 615 N 4th Street and is open weekdays from 8:30 - 5pm.
By mail (not bill payments):
PO Box 53933 Sta. 3200
Phoenix, AZ 85072
By phone: 602-371-7171
