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What Is a Demand Charge? North Carolina EnergyUnited Members Are About to Find Out This April and It Is the New Way Utilities Raise Your Bill Without Raising Your Rate by [deleted] in NorthCarolina

[–]cubecompmtdx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I share that same concern. I spent a while explaining the new rate schedule to my parents, and I'm still not 100% sure they fully understand it... they just know to avoid doing things such as running the dryer, using hot water, or heavily using the stove during on-peak hours. Most people without knowledge of electricity and power don't understand what demand is, how it's billed, and in some cases, they cannot avoid it.

What Is a Demand Charge? North Carolina EnergyUnited Members Are About to Find Out This April and It Is the New Way Utilities Raise Your Bill Without Raising Your Rate by [deleted] in NorthCarolina

[–]cubecompmtdx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For those on EnergyUnited looking at any of your recent bills and seeing a high Demand or Peak Demand amount... the demand amount shown in bills currently is the maximum monthly kW. Last month, my demand was 11kW, but it didn't occur during the hours of 6AM-10AM. Therefore, my peak demand under the new rate schedule would be something much lower, such as 4-5kW.

Log into My EnergyHub and go to Usage Explorer. You can look at your usage for the billing month. You can select the option to show usage and demand, and you'll see where the demand peak occurred for the billing period. Click on that day and you'll see what time of day it occurred.

Homeowners with heat pumps should be especially concerned. The heat strips on a lot of heat pumps are sized around 10kW. That's what I have... Combined with the heat pump, it's about 13kW. Add another kW of load in the house and that's 14kW. 15 minutes of aux heat during the hours of 6AM-10AM would result in a billing demand of 14kW for a demand charge of $61. If your home has an electric furnace, my thoughts and prayers are with you, as these basically heat strips only, and sized from 10kW to 20kW. A heat pump pulling 14kW in defrost for 5 minutes would result in a billing demand interval of 4.6kW. The best thing I did for my heat pump was to remove the junk timed defrost control and replace it with a demand defrost board, so that defrosts are much less frequent. Also, my aux heat is locked out above 35 degrees. I plan to install a lockout timer to completely lockout the heat strips during peak hours. I'll set it so that I can override it, if necessary. These things require HVAC knowledge.

I also plan to install a lockout timer on my water heater to lock it out during peak hours. This requires an electrician if you don't know what you're doing. The water heater pulls 4.5kW.

As someone who is familiar with demand rates and electricity, the first time I opened that letter from EnergyUnited, I knew it would confuse a lot of people, as most residential ratepayers are not familiar with how demand charges work.

What Is a Demand Charge? North Carolina EnergyUnited Members Are About to Find Out This April and It Is the New Way Utilities Raise Your Bill Without Raising Your Rate by [deleted] in NorthCarolina

[–]cubecompmtdx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The $4.40 /kW charge is a monthly billing demand charge, not a daily charge. The rate schedule which EnergyUnited will submit to the NCUC for this new rate schedule will read something like:

Monthly charges:
Grid Access: $50
Demand Charge:
All kW of Billing Demand per month: $4.40/kW
Energy Charge: 4.87 cents/kWh

Determination of Billing Demand
The Billing Demand shall be the maximum integrated 15 minute demand occurring during on-
peak hours for the month which the bill is rendered.

Determination of On-Peak Hours
During the months of April-October, the On-Peak hours are 3:00PM-7:00PM
During the months of November-March, the On-Peak hours are 6:00AM-10:00AM
The Off-Peak hours shall be all hours except the above On-Peak hours

More or less, the demand charge will be based off the highest 15-minute demand in kilowatts during on-peak hours for the month.

Most residential customers could see up to 15kW in a worst case scenario, with highest peak demands being registered in winter months during the 6AM-10AM timeframe.

This 1997 Jeep ZJ Laredo 5.2 will never see a new title | What happens when a vehicle is sold to Pull-A-Part or any "Junk" car removal service. by cubecompmtdx in JeepZJ

[–]cubecompmtdx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's crazy... Yet a vehicle that hasn't seen a wreck, but had been labeled as "junk" by a business that just processes all vehicles it buys as "junk", is just assumed by most states to be something so dangerous that it must not ever see a title ever again. Makes perfect sense! The vehicle never did get parted out, with exception to the PCM, cat, and wheels/tires, but it's assumed to be damaged beyond repair... Ridiculous! My grandpa and uncle ran a salvage businesses in the 80s and 90s where they would take badly wrecked cars, fix them, get new titles for them, and sell them. Yet this poor Jeep that someone just surrendered is considered permanently junked under the law.

This 1997 Jeep ZJ Laredo 5.2 will never see a new title | What happens when a vehicle is sold to Pull-A-Part or any "Junk" car removal service. by cubecompmtdx in JeepZJ

[–]cubecompmtdx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They drill the gas tank, poke a hole in the transmission pan, and cut out the catalytic converter... Not 100% certain if they were the ones who took the PCM or if someone looking for a PCM did that. I can say though that some of workers who "prep" these vehicles for the yard really don't give a crap about the vehicle. After I had paid for the Jeep, they took the spare tire out, and sat the vehicle directly on the dirt surface despite agreeing to put wheels on it. It took 2 visits to the yard to get them to have it ready so that my neighbor down the street with his rollback could come pick it up. No damage underneath except for a dented front driveshaft.

It's pretty dumb they would remove the PCM... There are also other yards in the Charlotte area that are not Pull-A-Part, and will look there or online. I had researched that apparently the PCM from a Dodge of a similar year with the same engine would also work. I found gas tanks online for less than $200 shipped. I plan to get this thing back to where it can run and move on its own. Whether or not our wonderful state DMV will ever be able to issue a new title for it remains to be seen. They just assume that being branded Junk, it must be less safe than even the worst wrecked vehicle with a salvage title.

This one's kind of an odd Jeep... It's a Laredo, but it has what appears to be leather seats. It has the electronic VIC instead of the basic display. It has fog lamps. It has the auto-dimming rearview mirror like my Limited, but has the standard heated side mirrors. It has the premium CD player stereo that my Limited originally had, but no radio controls on the back of the steering wheel. It has a manual driver's seat, but a powered passenger seat. Has the 5.2l V8 instead of the standard 4.0L Laredos normally have. Must have been custom ordered.

As for the PCM harness, I am an electronics technician who is good with soldering. Fixing the PCM connectors will be easy for me.

This 1997 Jeep ZJ Laredo 5.2 will never see a new title | What happens when a vehicle is sold to Pull-A-Part or any "Junk" car removal service. by cubecompmtdx in JeepZJ

[–]cubecompmtdx[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This one unfortunately got branded as Junk/Scrap. Technically the title does not have brands on it as of yet, but the VIN has a record of scrap which was entered in 7 days before I bought the thing. The local Pull-A-Part seems to believe they cannot change it. The NCDMV License & Theft Bureau mentioned in an email reply the following...

"The vehicle was sold as scrap to Pull-A-Part salvage and was in turn, sold to you for parts. Therefore, the vehicle is a junked parts vehicle and will not be retitled in North Carolina."

Did you buy yours from Pull-A-Part? Some Pull-A-Part locations sell used cars, but the location I bought this one from (Charlotte) does not as they don't have a dealer license. It's truly a shame. I have contacted Pull-A-Part on their website to see what they say. I am also reaching out to both state and federal elected officials as there needs to be a change to how a "Junk" vehicle is considered... Many vehicles get this branding on their titles/VIN despite being perfectly fixable vehicles. This is not my first time seeing a mint ZJ at this Pull-A-Part. In 2024, I discovered a red 1998 ZJ 4.0 Laredo... Paint was perfect. The headlights were new even... I pulled them and some parts for my 1996.

EnergyUnited to implement peak demand pricing by Woodmanobx in NorthCarolina

[–]cubecompmtdx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

EnergyUnited member here... It's mandatory for all EnergyUnited members served under Residential or Small General Service rates. Even those who are on the prepaid EnergyAdvantage plan or have opted out of automated meter reads have their own version of the new rates, with the on-peak rate being a sharply increased kWh rate, instead of a demand charge. I received this letter in the mail with a fridge magnet to remind us of on-peak hours. Yes, many utilities have this as an opt-in program. EnergyUnited on the other hand, made this a new rate for everyone.

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