Congratulations to our Survey Winners!!

We have randomly selected the two winners of our survey response drawing to win the $100 prize. Hopefully your holidays will be a little brighter this coming season. Congratulations:

Kelly Taylor of Forsyth, IL - participant since May 2008. She has saved 19% off her bills for a total of $570.

Michael Kingery of Henry, IL - participant since November 2008. He has saved 35% off his bills for a total of $580.

Congratulations on saving another $100!

To all responders, we apologize for the late arrival of your 2010 Customer Survey. All surveys postmarked by November 15th were considered in the drawing of two $100 prizes. Thank you for your ongoing participation in the Power Smart Pricing program.

Some Customer Survey Responses

One of the questions on our customer survey asked "How could Power Smart Pricing be improved to make it work better for you?" We received about 1500 responses to this question, and the PSP blog felt that it was important to anonymously highlight some of the types of comments we received.

The Good
"It sure seems to work really well for me and i have suggested many others look into the service also as I feel that by saving 27% last year with PSP I did pretty darn well!! Thanks for offering me the opportunity to use PSP. Hopefully many others will also join the bandwagon. My son just signed up for the program after my rave reviews. I told him to use it as suggested and it will save him some of his hard earned money to be used somewhere else."

"It is just such an incredible program. Such an environmentally-responsible option that gives the customer control and makes us think about our energy use. We could not be happier with this program and how it is administered and how much money we have saved."

"I really don't use the computer to check my pricing. I don't have my computer on most of the time. If I'm not using it, I turn it off. Doesn't that save energy? I post the little grid that you mail to remind me of the high price times. I like things that are simple and not very high tech."

Great Suggestions
"Let me set the trigger for price alerts and change it via the web."

"A consumer blog where we can hear others ideas for saving on electricity." (working on it...)

"Have a plug in device that would show the hourly rate at a glance. It would alert you when the hourly rate is higher than the non- power smart rate."

Things For us to Work On
"Being able to check usage on-line and recieve a useage graph by mail each month, instead of having to choose one or the other."

"Daily email updates with hourly pricing."

"Easy access to pricing trends at the thermostat."

Why We're Passionate About This Program
"i realy don't know right now, i am just thrilled that my bill is smaller. in todays economy it is becoming impossible to live alone if you are making 12dollars to 14 dollars and hr.. your utilities and housing takes up over half of your income. with that we are always needing ways to save.. i have a limited income and cannot afford a lot of expensive gadgets, however , i am willing to try and do what i can . thank you for powers smart pricing,, please alert me by mail on any suggestions you might have regarding how i can save more."

So as you can see, we received comments of all different kinds. People want more information, they want less  information or they want to have a better way to customize how much information they are receiving. These suggestions and comments are the best way for us make sure Power Smart Pricing continues to improve for everybody.

One of things we have to work on, is to better communicate some of the tools we offer to our participants. A lot of the comments we have are customers asking for things that we already provide. So as a first step in the process, the PSP blog will be writing up a series highlighting tools that are available that people may not be taking advantage of.

Having passionate and active customers is the most valuable resource this program has. Thanks so much for all your input!

[Video] 'Tis the Season for LEDs

Now that everyone is digging up and dusting off their holiday lights, you might find that those old lights just aren't cutting it anymore. So if you're gonna be rushing out to the store to make sure you have the most festive house on the block, it might be wise to look at LED lights this year. Compared to the old incandescent holiday lights, LEDs are brighter, they last longer and (shh.. don't tell anyone) they'll cost you a whole let less on your electric bill. Whether you want to be big and festive or save an extra few dollars, LED's are your best bet. Check out the video below from the NBC affiliate from the Tri-State area. In the video, when Tafi Walker from Ameren Illinois gets on, I am pretty sure she is saying that each individual light bulb could save you up $3 over the month. That's a lot of extra lottery ticket stocking stuffers...

October is Energy Awareness Month

Considering the Power Smart Pricing website has the current price of electricity on its homepage, you would think that we would know all about Energy Awareness Month. Apparently through presidential proclamation in 1991, October has since been known as Energy Awareness Month. This tradition continues today:

 NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2010 as National Energy Awareness Month.  I call upon the citizens of the United States to recognize this month by making clean energy choices that will help build a stronger Nation, a more robust economy, and a healthier environment for our children.

Well, there you have it. It is, in fact, Energy Awareness Month. Maybe we need an Energy Awareness Month Awareness Month. To be honest, October doesn't seem to be the best month for something like this. At least out here in the midwest this is the time of year that the outdoor temperatures are pretty close to most people's ideal indoor preference. Therefore, people's bills are low and energy usage is not to high on the priority scale. For example, the highest price for today is 3.8 cents, or roughly 2 cents below the Ameren Illinois' flat rate.

The message however is great. Saving energy saves money. The more that our friends and neighbors can learn about the best way to do this better all our communities will be. So speak up and share the savings. The Power Smart Pricing Blog proclaims this month to be Power Smart Pricing Awareness Month!

Click here to learn more about what you can do for Energy Awareness Month.

Review of Microsoft Hohm & Blue Line Energy Monitor

This review is interesting because it's not from a website that's geared toward energy saving and conservation. There is a lot of good insight in here about what your experience could be like if you decided to invest in the access to all this new energy information.

This kind of feedback allows for easy experimentation. Does opening the windows and running four fans at full blast use less power than running the AC? And if so, how much lower is it?

The article is written from the perspective of someone who likes gadgets, but is generally clueless about how much electricity all those appliances are using. Best of all, he figured out whether it was all worth it. It's one thing to invest in energy savings, but if it costs more to install everything than what you'll save on your bill, then it doesn't make too much sense.

Personally, I found the most value from the basic real-time display. Stick it in some well-trafficked spot and you're sure to see it numerous times per day, getting a decent sense of how your home's power load varies through the day and throughout the year.

As for Power Smart Pricing customers, it is even more important to know how much electricity you are using in real-time. This extra piece of information would make saving even easier. It would essentially complete the whole cost picture. And think, this all in comparison to the vast majority of customers who see a snapshot once a month.

Read the full Ars Technica review here.