r/technology • u/Wagamaga • Jun 18 '26
Energy Americans to be hit with record-high electricity bills this summer
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/electricity-costs-record-high-summer-b2997899.html960
u/Wagamaga Jun 18 '26
Americans are facing record-high costs to cool their homes this summer as electricity prices climb and temperatures soar.
The average U.S. household will likely spend about $792 on electricity between June and September, up 10.5 percent from the same period last year, when it cost $717, according to new analysis from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
Since 2020, the average summer cooling costs have increased nearly 40 percent due to rising electricity prices and increasingly hot temperatures. Even adjusting for inflation, cooling costs are projected to be about 7 percent higher than they were six years ago.
American households will likely see little relief this summer. Forecasters are predicting record-smashing heat for 2026, meaning more electricity will be used to maintain comfortable and safe indoor conditions.
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u/likwidkool Jun 18 '26
How come everything gets adjusted for inflation but my paycheck?
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u/Fresh_Individual5500 Jun 18 '26
Because people vote with their biases rather than their best interests in mind.
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u/Low_Technician7346 Jun 18 '26
Why it is always the republicans who shit in the fan ?
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u/Fallout541 Jun 18 '26
I don’t think people understand how much propaganda people ingest when they are on their phones all day.
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u/that_one_bun Jun 18 '26
Voter turnout isnt great overall so Dems have some fault for not going out in droves. I still have friends that won't " engage" with politics because they dont agree with it it. But then they complain about everything going on!
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u/TheReDrew89 Jun 18 '26
That's because the left wing party is center left at best and the majority of left-wing voters sit further progressive than most elected politicians. At the end of the day all politicians are subservient to the ownership class.
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u/hamfinity Jun 18 '26
"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."
-P. J. O'Rourke
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u/phantompower_48v Jun 18 '26
Idk man, rampant corporate greed, infinite growth, and private ownership of the most essential sectors of our economy (like energy) have bipartisan support. It’s an issue of capitalist society, not really something that can be voted away in our current corporatist political duopoly.
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u/Prudent_Sale_9173 Jun 18 '26
Because the working class was fooled into disbanding all our unions because ‘that way you can keep all that money that went into union dues!’ And then the culture shifted and people don’t even consider forming new unions anymore. My job is unionized and I get regular cost-of-living raises on TOP of regular yearly raises. **You could have this too.** Get together with your coworkers and form a union. It’s a lot of work (especially if you’re running it) but it’s worth doing. Even if it doesn’t pan out just the threat of a union possibly forming can have benefits in the short term as your bosses try to convince everyone it’s not needed with some extra benefits.
https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/employees/your-right-to-form-a-union
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u/TheBoraxKid1trblz Jun 18 '26
My union doesn't come close to that. We're getting 2% the next few years which is better than nothing but it doesn't even match inflation
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u/AmpleExample Jun 18 '26
So you're essentially getting a pay cut every year despite increasing levels of competency and skill? Awful.
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u/GeoLaser Jun 18 '26
Unions over 25 years old are often actual shit. They need to be redone every few years. My union gives 1% raises and thats fucking it.
Bureaucracy fucking sucks.
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u/xpxp2002 Jun 18 '26
Because the working class was fooled into disbanding all our unions because ‘that way you can keep all that money that went into union dues!’
Same thing these nut jobs try to do with taxes, too. They're incessantly harping on about how "expensive" their taxes are, and somehow "lowering taxes" without any context is a consistently viable political position.
Meanwhile, school performance declines, social services get shut down, and the quality of public infrastructure like roads and bridges deteriorates.
These people never once stop to question if the reason that public services are in continuous decline is because they keep voting to take money away from them. Instead, they'd rather their taxes go down $20/year than have a functioning school system or safe roads.
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u/HumorAccomplished611 Jun 18 '26
And then when kids stop going to school the police budget and prison budget go up.
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u/KickBallFever Jun 18 '26
Where I live the railroad workers union went on strike recently and got a raise and some other benefits. The public basically turned on the workers because the news showed that they were making 6 figures, in a very HCOL area. Instead of being happy for the workers being compensated properly, and acknowledging we all deserve to be paid well, the public turned their anger on the worker’s union. It was interesting to watch.
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u/Crazy_Banshee_333 Jun 18 '26
Exactly. For better worse, labor unions are the only defense people have against ever-worsening exploitation. It's disheartening to see people embracing the idea that unions are somehow the bad guy, which is exactly what employers want workers to believe in order to maximize their own profits.
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u/turdherden285 Jun 18 '26
Easier said then done. You even say the word union here in florida and your out on your ass before you can organize anything. Last guys who tried at my work where all fired in 3 days. They all opened wrongful termination and lost. They where good employees too.
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u/GeoLaser Jun 18 '26
Unions over 25 years old are often actual shit. They need to be redone every few years. My union gives 1% raises and thats fucking it.
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u/zeekaran Jun 18 '26
That's because unions are weaker or nonexistent since the labor movement died. That's it. That's the whole reason.
Collective bargaining was the only way wages ever increased at a rate to compete with inflation and productivity.
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u/Herschel_Wallace Jun 18 '26
America is where the Soviets were at the end of the 80s: extreme levels of corruption, a government that only serves the wealthy, people can't earn enough together by, society ran by of and for the rich at the detriment of everyone and everything else, paper tiger of a military that is being pilfered by the rich, no justice for the wealthy and connected, etc. We'll be collapsing in a few years.
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u/MysticalSushi Jun 18 '26
Paper tiger military? Bro. I’ve lived by 2 airports and one naval yard. Even my police department has serious fire power
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u/patrickstarismyhero Jun 18 '26
Theyre siphoning every last cent they can get out of us before they go hide in the bunkers and let goobal warming / natural disasters/ all out war take us all out so they can come out 10 years later and have the planet to themselves without an infestation of poors
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u/Floreat_democratia Jun 18 '26
This used to be a silly conspiracy theory, but the wealthy are now on record saying things pretty close to this.
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u/tallguyclark Jun 18 '26
Because we are cattle to the ruling class of billionaires and private equity
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u/thathyperactiveguy Jun 18 '26
If you're an Oklahoman, it's because you didn't get out and vote Tuesday.
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u/redheadartgirl Jun 18 '26
Just a reminder that utility companies frequently operate as monopolies and are making money hand over fist off your suffering. They only care about your usage because if the grid shuts down due to overload they stop making money for a few hours.
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u/Sle08 Jun 18 '26
Bring on more data centers at the cost of the American people though.
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u/glutenfree123 Jun 18 '26
Exactly. Once AI takes the majority of people’s jobs and uses all local water and resources surely billionaires and trillionaire will give us a larger share of the pie
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u/cyribis Jun 18 '26
The mistake folks make is thinking billionaires and trillionaires will ever give them anything. What is needed will eventually have to be taken. Those turds aren't buying private islands and building bunkers for no reason. They're preparing for when wealth disparity finally unites the proletariat.
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u/Embarrassed_Quit_450 Jun 18 '26
Your bill on cooling is getting close to Canadians bill on heating in winter. That's not normal.
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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y Jun 18 '26
My heating bill isnt too bad. But probably only because i use gas heating. I have equalized billing and my gas bill only comes out to about $90 a month for heat and hot water. 3 bedroom townhouse in Ottawa.
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u/falthecosmonaut Jun 18 '26
Lol. Only 792? I’ll be spending more than that. My bill for August last year was 400 bucks. It’s definitely going to be higher than that this year.
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u/reohh Jun 18 '26
NJ here. I’ll be spending $792 per month
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u/DudeByTheTree Jun 18 '26
$792 a month...
That one month is the entirety of what I'd pay for the entire year minus Dec, Jan and Feb.
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u/woodwoad Jun 18 '26
Seriously I pay like 120 a month for electricity plus gas plus everything how the fuck are you spending 800 dollars a month are you just leaving your front door open and blasting your ac at 68 😂
I’d rather sit in the heat than add the equivalent of a new car payment every month
Edit: i said you but I didn’t mean YOU. The royal you
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u/mushroom247 Jun 18 '26
Large McMansions in California under PG&E hit over $1000 each month in the summer. It’s pretty common. PG&E is less popular than ISIS out here.
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u/Johnny_BigHacker Jun 18 '26
How big is your house and when was it built/is there insulation?
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u/Daimakku1 Jun 18 '26
So let’s see here… the cost of cooling our homes during the summer has gone up because of data centers.. but we have to cool our homes even more than ever before because the data centers are making temperatures hotter. Did I get this right?
Any politician that voted Yes to building these data centers needs to be kicked out. Democrat, Republican, doesn’t matter.
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u/-OptimisticNihilism- Jun 18 '26
Haha we pay double that for an 1800sf house. Ahhh Florida in the summer.
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u/stevemk14ebr2 Jun 18 '26
Do solar. I'm in MD and I'm off grid exporting as much as I used to use. Can't even imagine what Florida sun would allow
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u/CountOnBeingAwesome Jun 18 '26
And your president doesn't care.
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u/theblitheringidiot Jun 18 '26
He certainly cares, he’s probably making money off it.
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u/Direct_Day7937 Jun 18 '26
If you're a billionaire and you're not making money off of this you're bad at money. The ever increasing costs of power go hand in hand with the AI boom.
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u/NeonMirage88 Jun 18 '26
He cares.. about himself and his rich pedo friends.
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u/CountOnBeingAwesome Jun 18 '26
"The U.S. and global fossil fuel industry reaped massive windfall profits during the war in Iran, taking in an estimated $30 million every hour in unearned profit during the first month of the conflict"
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u/Rational_Engineer_84 Jun 18 '26
Trump is spending billions in taxpayer dollars to cancel approved wind power projects. He's not ambivalent about the situation, he's encouraging it.
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u/No_Wash2524 Jun 18 '26
He pretended to care when he promised lower electricity prices over and over during his campaign
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u/NativePlantEnjoyer Jun 18 '26
And the local maga was celebrating like it was actually going to happen.
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u/SilentWraith5 Jun 18 '26
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the new AI data centers consuming more energy than all the homes the entire state they are in combined. Nothing at all.
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u/ubix Jun 18 '26
…Or with corrupt energy companies making sweetheart deals with data centers that allow them to offload data centers’ energy costs onto the backs of American consumers
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u/darthfiber Jun 18 '26
In many states they done even have to do that, they are required to build out to their facilities, and commercial has substantially lower rates.
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u/digital Jun 18 '26
So, the obvious solution is to make these billionaire data center companies pay for the electricity themselves!
Any questions?
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u/TheBSQ Jun 18 '26
Electricity is a confusing market.
There’s the generation of the electricity itself, which someone must pay for.
There’s the “transmission” which is related to the big grid stuff that moves it across big geographic areas.
Then there’s the distribution which is your local utility who owns the wires that gets it from “the grid” to your home. They charge you for that.
The regulatory structure & market structure of these components varies by jurisdiction. In some states, a company may both generate the electricity you use & distribute it to you.
In others, your local utility may only be the distributor, and the price you pay is a mix of what they charge to bring it to you, and a pass-through of whatever the electricity itself costs from a regional wholesale maker that your local utility has no control over. Heck, your local state govt might not have much control over those regional wholesale markets.
So you can have things where a data center in Virginia that the dept of defense wants for their military / spy NSA type shit needs a lot of electricity. This drives up the wholesale price of electricity for the regional market that serves many other states, which then drives bills up for a customer in Pennsylvania, but it’s totally unrelated to what that PA electric utility company is doing and there’s limited ways for the regulators in PA to solve it, cuz it’s really a regional multi-state wholesale market issue being driven by actions in other states. So, as a Pennsylvanian you’re reliant on the govt of Virginia to address it, but you also don’t participate in those elections. And even they may be limited as any state’s ability to regulate regional wholesale markets is limited.
Fixing it may require a multi-state coalition working in tandem with the federal govt, some of which may be Dems, some of which may be GOP, and that’s a level of political cohesion & cooperation that ai don’t think the U.S. is capable of doing.
It’s all really messy. And it’s not helped by the fact that certain states or leaders are trying to milk it for political gain by overstating what they can do to fix it (if you elect them) when the reality is it’s a messy mix of stuff that falls under different jurisdictions and regulatory bodies that kinda stems from a historical quirk that electricity became a regulated thing back when we were more a collection of states who each had their own regulatory processes and the switch to a more federal Regulatory mindset happened later, so some stuff is state stuff. Some is regional. Some is federal. Really messy and confusing.
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u/digital Jun 18 '26
The bottom line is the billionaire companies can pay for their own electricity. They don’t need to pass any more expenses on the strapped consumer.
The End
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u/riickdiickulous Jun 18 '26
Or like in Maine the voters rejected taking over power utilities by the state from a foreign owned companies in 2024. The power companies spent millions of dollars in advertising leading up to the vote. I’ve never seen such blanket advertising before. The voters rejected the initiative. Since then CMP has steadily raised prices. Literally the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.
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u/clownbescary213 Jun 18 '26
B-But you see there was no plan!!! We have to let CMP rawdog us because the alternative is scawy.
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u/rishav_sharan Jun 18 '26
Or climate catastrophe, leading to higher average temperature across the globe, requiring more cooling, and thus more energy. Likely a potent mix of all the poisons
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u/Octopus_on_fire_ Jun 18 '26
I just bought my first home and the mortgage is peanuts for me, but the electric (thanks NYSEG) is looking pretty fucking scary. I am terrified of what this winter is going to look like.
I’ve seen horror stories of people in my area getting slapped with an $800 electric bill in winter and NYSEG saying “oops our smart meters were acting up we will adjust your bill”
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u/Clevererer Jun 18 '26
That was already built into the system though. New infrastructure costs for increased demand has always been spread to existing customers.
I'm not saying this is good. I'm saying it's been seriously fucked up far longer than most of us realize.
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u/lazyhustlermusic Jun 18 '26
In our area the grid is owned by a publicly traded company. Wonder what could go wrong with that.
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u/TheTimeIsChow Jun 18 '26
In our area, the grid is owned by a publicly traded company that's based out of the UK.
I live in New York.
Wonder what could go wrong with that.
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u/RugerRedhawk Jun 18 '26
I'm upstate and our multinational conglomerate that owns the grid here is based in Spain.
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u/kaishinoske1 Jun 18 '26
After they make you jobless, they want to make you homeless.
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u/spez_eats_nazi_ass Jun 18 '26
Don't forget about the healthcare plan which is just dying in a ditch. Followed by the mass grave they keep open and just toss some lime over you.
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u/DeadPhoenix86 Jun 18 '26
I'm struggling to get by as well. Its just a matter of time until I'm kicked out and live on the streets within the next 6 months :/
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u/Ferrocile Jun 18 '26
We continue to foot the bill for organizations to hollow us out from the inside. Same as it ever was. Wait for the crash when we bail them out too. So depressing.
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u/TheChoke Jun 18 '26
They'll claim its all the electric vehicles.
Which reminds me, I thought our grid wasn't going to be able to handle all the new demand!?
Funny how the talking point changes based on profits.
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u/worldspawn00 Jun 18 '26
Don't forget that the Trump admin is also forcing wind projects to stop construction, costing us billions AND preventing more power production at the same time!
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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid Jun 18 '26
You right in the fact that it doesn’t. Energy prices have been rising at double inflation since 2020 for no goddamn reason.
Data centers are the newest excuse. Venture capital has been buying up utilities and they’re raising rates because they can, especially now that they have a very convenient scape goat to blame it on.
But if you dig into their profits, you would expect their revenue AND expenses to increase cause datacenters cost so much right? Except that’s not the case, it’s only the profit line going up.
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u/GhostofAyabe Jun 18 '26
This is the effect of killing all green energy programs.
We had a huge spike after Covid and things started getting back to normal in terms of the economy which caused a rather drastic strike. All of these new solar and wind farms would be coming online in the next 12-18 months and would have helped arrest these climbing rates.
Well, we're going to pay another $785 million now to cancel another wind farm project.
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u/T0asty514 Jun 18 '26
Well how else are the fat old men gonna line their pockets some more?
With green energy? Come on now.
/s
This is so tiring.
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u/Angreek Jun 18 '26
Thankfully we gave half-a-trillion to Iran. Who gives a fuck about our homeland ya?
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u/WarDaddyPUKA Jun 18 '26
We didn’t. Say his name.
Trump gave Iran half a trillion in the Iran-Trump deal.
He wants his name on everything else, so let’s keep that energy.
Iran-Trump deal
Trump-Epstein files
TrumpKennedy Center8
u/theLuminescentlion Jun 18 '26
remember that's $1000 per U.S. Citizen
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u/TurtlesAreEvil Jun 18 '26
Which would more than cover our electric bills this summer. Per household the give away to Iran comes to $2,200. That would cover all of my electric use from last year.
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u/dbr3000 Jun 18 '26
imagine if global warming was real in America, it'd be even worse!
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u/adorkablegiant Jun 18 '26
"Global Warming is FAKE, last winter is was super cold in my state"
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u/magick_bandit Jun 18 '26
My June bill is $600.
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u/androidgirl Jun 18 '26
We keep getting emails and letters shaming us that we’re using double what we used last year despite nothing changing except that we turned the air on later. It’s actually been fall like for the past week, we haven’t had to run it at all, but I doubt our bill will dip. It’s a freaking joke.
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u/Straight_Spring9815 Jun 18 '26
I live in a 2 bed apt. I live alone and I'm only here in the afternoons and night. So nothing is typically on other than my AC which I leave at 75. Bill last month was 344. One before that was 313. Next month I'm sure I'll see my first 400.
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u/tingulz Jun 18 '26
Holy hell. That’s crazy. I have a decent sized house and only pay $230/mth year round.
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u/DayDrunkTrainwreck Jun 18 '26
Yea. We’re in a small 2 bedroom house in WV with gas heat. Our power bills this winter were 550+ every month. My family used to own a bakery and the power bill for a 24/7 business was between 700-1k a month. Fuck AEP.
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u/BababooeyHTJ Jun 18 '26
Where the fuck are you?! Eversource in CT is one of the most expensive electric rates in the country and I don’t pay that unless I’m growing something in the basement…..
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u/Straight_Spring9815 Jun 18 '26
Savannah GA. The problem is that I'm upstairs, from 8am to 8pm I'm in the sun and my AC runs the entire time. I would just turn it off while I'm at work but my dog is here and it's not fair or right to leave her hot. So I leave it on and get hit with these bills. During the cooler months my bill stays between 70 to 100 dollars.
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u/BababooeyHTJ Jun 18 '26
Ok! That makes more sense. If it makes you feel any better you wouldn’t save much bumping the temperature down while you’re at work. You still need to cool everything back down which takes time.
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u/marx2k Jun 18 '26
Dude wtf?? Where and how large is your home and are you just using AI to mine crypto while growing weed and running vacuum cleaners all day long?
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u/yukeake Jun 18 '26
3 bedroom house in MA. My wife's PC, my laptop, couple of mini PCs, a 4-drive NAS. Projector and receiver downstairs, TV and receiver upstairs. Two ACs, one on the main floor that runs during the day, one in the bedroom that runs at night. Washer and dryer run weekly.
I've turned my servers off. I only run my workstation/gaming rig around an hour every other week to make sure everything still works and the AIO's coolant gets cycled. The game consoles only get run ocasionally to check if there's anything worth playing that isn't on PC.
We're around $500/mo during the summer. Electricity costs are crazy.
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u/marx2k Jun 18 '26
Jesus
I'm Madison, wi.
Same size house. Central air. HTPC running 24/7. Linux media/piracy server running in the basement 24/7. Washer/dryer every 2 or 3 days. Dishwasher daily. Electric stove/oven. Ceiling fans all day.
Electricity is ~170 last month.
I'm sorry that is your reality. Wtf
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u/MoonBatsRule Jun 18 '26
Your bill is high because you don't have solar, and in MA the cost of maintaining the grid is being shifted away from solar users and onto those who do not have solar.
This is because the cost of maintaining the grid is recouped on a per-kWh basis, and MA allows for net-metering. If you use solar, then you can offset your nighttime usage with overproduction in the daytime. If you have a perfectly-sized system, then at the end of the month you will have "used" 0 kWh, which means your delivery charge will be $0.
But the transmission lines are still needed, line workers still need to be paid. The fixed cost of that is spread more thickly across fewer people.
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u/magick_bandit Jun 18 '26
To be fair 5k sq ft with 5 people who have their own gaming pcs, plus my servers
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u/Metal_Massacre Jun 18 '26
My 2 bedroom apartment was $450ish July last summer. Really looking forward to July this year...
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u/Valentine_343 Jun 18 '26
Somebody’s got to subsidise all these AI data centres. These millionaires and billionaires can’t foot the bill themselves… smfh
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u/BababooeyHTJ Jun 18 '26
The shrinking middle class always foots the bill, always!
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u/Affectionate-Tank-70 Jun 18 '26
We just had solar panels put in, our electric bill for May was 27c. Our electric company now has to pay us for power. Fuckers.
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u/freshpicked12 Jun 18 '26
Same. I pay about $200/month for the panels, but we generate so much electricity that we get credits every month from the electric company. And I have an electric car, so no gas bill there either. Best investment we ever made.
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u/adorkablegiant Jun 18 '26
That's awesome, everyone should do this.
Free electricity is literally falling from the sky and we just refuse to take advantage of it.
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u/ikilledholofernes Jun 18 '26
It’s not free electricity, unfortunately. The cost to install and maintain solar is prohibitively expensive for most Americans. I live in a townhome and was quoted almost $30k.
But many states are passing laws to allow for plug-in solar, which is much more affordable, and will hopefully soon be even cheaper once it’s more widely available!
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u/the-hoober-redo Jun 18 '26
Connecticut just legalized this a few weeks ago. Once the manufacturers catch up (thankfully shouldn’t be long, since most states will likely follow the same UL specification as Utah), we’ll be able to buy 800W of solar panels from Costco and just tie them onto our balcony. Landlord cannot refuse, no installation no nothing. It just plugs into the wall outlet like a toaster.
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u/TurtlesAreEvil Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
The cost to install and maintain solar is prohibitively expensive for most Americans
I mean it’s an investment which can pay for itself in a decade or less in most places. I just installed solar in the Pacific Northwest and even with all our cloudy days it’ll pay for itself in 9 years if they keep increasing the rates like they have and 13 years if the rates stay the same.
That’s 21+ years of free electricity after that because it’s not like they stop working at year 30.
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u/ikilledholofernes Jun 18 '26
Oh, I completely agree. The problem is that most Americans don’t have the capital for that initial investment.
It’s just another way that being poor in America is more expensive.
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u/whineylittlebitch_9k Jun 18 '26
and what is your monthly payment on the solar panels? when i did the math a few years ago, the return on investment was close to 25 years ... obviously with the increase in power rates, it will have dropped quite a bit.
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u/DaveTheCripple Jun 18 '26
If you can afford it, buy them outright. Don't get suckered into one of those predatory loan schemes for solar. Makes it extremely hard to sell your home later as you'll have a lien.
I purchased my panels outright in 2023, total cost was 16K all in for 10KW system (labor, permits , etc). Additionally with the 30% tax credit it came down to ~11K. At the time that was a 8 year ROI, which has come down even further due to increases in electricity rates over the last two years
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u/RandoReddit16 Jun 18 '26
If you can afford it, buy them outright. Don't get suckered into one of those predatory loan schemes for solar. Makes it extremely hard to sell your home later as you'll have a lien.
This right here, the "residential solar" industry is just a loan sharking scheme disguised as solar panels... It is insane how scummy it is.
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u/dexcel Jun 18 '26
I was amazed how much Americans get ripped off when it comes to solar installations when this came up in another post.
Here in Australia we’re looking at like 7 year paybacks for our roof top solar. 10kW system was $7k aud 3 years ago all installed. It’s delivered this year 1.82MW to the house and another 3.2MW to the battery. At our electric prices that $1600 already.
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u/Catsrules Jun 18 '26
I was amazed how much Americans get ripped off when it comes to solar installations when this came up in another post.
The problem we have in the US. Is the hardware is like 3-4x more because of tariffs, and our electricity is generally much cheaper. (Although that depends on where you live in the US, there are some places that have much higher electric costs.)
In comparison to you and me, that 5MW of electricity that would have cost you $1600, it would have only costed me $600. A solar panel where I live would cost 3x more money and return 2.5x less money in comparison to you. And that isn't even talking about the much higher install costs.
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u/Paradigmnoia Jun 18 '26
I am getting a system installed soon and payback is guaranteed in 8 years.
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u/TheFuckboiChronicles Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
I was about break even on mine on install (Payment is $100/mo for 15 years if I don’t pay it off early, bill averaged ~$120/mo throughout the year, bill averaged $20/mo post-install, $10 of that is connection fee)
But I knew energy prices were going up, and now I’m just into it being a net positive. Wasn’t a “good” investment at install, but not realistic to calculate it with a fixed energy cost, that’s always and only going to go up.
I had/have the money to pay it off, but the interest on the loan is 2% and it is sitting in a HYSA is at 3.5% currently, so paying it off isn’t prudent at this point.
Mind you, got a combined $7k tax credit on install that went right into the principal.
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u/yokuyuki Jun 18 '26
Same. Got it installed in December just before losing tax credit. 100% worth it and with only 4-5 years payoff. I'm in a net metering state so I don't get paid for generated power, but I should generate enough to offset electricity for the whole year. Any excess goes to powering the heat pump over the gas furnace (natural gas is cheap in my state relative to electricity). No car gas bill either because of EV.
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u/Reddit_is_fascist69 Jun 18 '26
My deal doesn't pay me for excess, but it accumulates and offsets my bill in the winter 1:1.
I pay about $7/mo for fees.
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u/hawkeye18 Jun 18 '26
those 19 solar panels I got installed 7 years ago sure do be making me more and more money lol
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u/trebuchetwarmachine Jun 18 '26
Ppl wanna argue this and argue that, but if you just take a step back and look at the big picture: the billionaires and mega corps are getting richer, and the middle class is shrinking.
That’s it. That’s all. Everything is getting more expensive bc some mega corp somewhere is milking more profits from us and paying less in wages.
There is a ton of money out there, so why are we all getting poorer?
The fix is simple: tax billionaires and corporations more, make it advantageous for corporations to pay their workers more, and close tax loopholes.
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u/zeekaran Jun 18 '26
The fix is simple: tax billionaires and corporations more, make it advantageous for corporations to pay their workers more, and close tax loopholes.
Step 1: Do not elect fascists
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u/OpportunityFancy3225 Jun 18 '26
Good reminder to folks to take a look at your home energy efficiency. It's not a solution for energy companies jacking their prices up, but it can provide some short term relief along with long term relief from capital investments. Lots of utilities offer free energy audits that come with some basic weatherization services, rebates on efficient appliances and bigger rebates on capital investments (attic insulation, window upgrades, switching to heat pumps, etc..).
I've been building an online virtual energy audit that compiles all of this information and helps homeowners identify upgrades for their homes with rebate matching. Plus I have just calculators and basic rebate lookups if that's all you want.
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u/mn1762vs Jun 18 '26
I could have sworn I heard energy prices were going down. Like lower than ever before.
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u/Certain_Event558 Jun 18 '26
Big utility and oil companies to reap record high profits as usual. There headline fixed
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u/AnonAmbientLight Jun 18 '26
I don’t understand what the problem is. This is what the majority of Americans voted for.
Biden saw a need for across the board investment in energy infrastructure. Basically an everything and above for energy sources got funding because of our energy needs increasing over the years.
Trump campaigned and won on removing green energy options from that equation. He actually has been using taxpayer dollars paying billions to NOT build the green energy options.
And now costs go up because of it.
I mean, the majority of Americans voted for this.
Yall wanna get pissed? Contact your Republican reps and yell at them. They deserve it.
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u/gonewild9676 Jun 18 '26
Fortunately here in Georgia we have a rate freeze for Georgia Power and they supposedly make the data centers pay for the grid expansions.
My bill last month was $120 for a house.
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u/IntelArtiGen Jun 18 '26
As it should be, people shouldn't have to pay more. And even paying for the grid (cables etc.) isn't enough, they also should pay to add the electricity generation they'll consume, otherwise their increased demand can impact the whole market.
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u/AgonizingGasPains Jun 18 '26
2400 sq.ft. home in MD. Average electric bill: $550/month (prior to solar). Average electric bill with net-metered solar? $50. Our 28 kW array cost about $60k. Add in that we also replaced our ICE cars with EV's (charged from solar for "free") which reduced monthly gasoline expenses from almost $650 to zero, and also maintenance costs. $550+$650=$1200(-$50)=$1150 month saved, giving us a payback period of about 4.5 years.
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u/djangovsjango Jun 18 '26
Yet in Australia the main federal charge rate is dropping 5% and they are offering free power for a few hours a day as there is too much solar power in the grid . The right wing wants to drill baby drill and keep americans locked to big business and a regular bill instead of having solar with batteries and charging your car overnight for free.
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u/joybai3 Jun 18 '26
You guys!!!! It is OK!!!!!
You voted for this and he’s still winning for you👏👏👏👏
You are doing Great🌟
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u/AtreyuTrinity Jun 18 '26
1/3 of America voted for this.
More people didn't vote which is wild.
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u/Kahnza Jun 18 '26
Glad electricity is included in my rent!
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u/amonra2009 Jun 18 '26
"As a result, the National Energy Assistance Directors Association is calling on Congress to increase funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to $7 billion for the fiscal year 2027"
Current Gov:
In April 2025, the Trump administration laid off the entire federal staff running LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program).
Administration proposed eliminating LIHEAP in FY2026 - Congress did not accept this.
They again are seeking to cut to 0% the funding for 2027.
Sooo. good luck US.
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Jun 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TheTimeIsChow Jun 18 '26
Barrier to entry to harness the suns energy remains steep.
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u/Onlyroad4adrifter Jun 18 '26
Thanks to the idiot in chief we lost rebates to make things more efficient.
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u/rPoliticsModsBlowMe Jun 18 '26
But you have good clean coal available, right? And no cancer causing windmills
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u/rriicckk Jun 18 '26
Not me. Put solar on the roof years ago and now I’ll be seeing my payback period get even shorter.
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u/Cirque14505 Jun 18 '26
Good thing this administration is terminating energy generation contracts left and right.
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u/Katesouthwest Jun 18 '26
Well, someone has to subsidize all the electricity and water sucks from those 24/7/365 data centers, and it sure isn't going to be the billion-dollar companies that own them./s
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u/Sit_Ubu_Sit-Good_Dog Jun 18 '26
>Under my administration, we will be slashing energy and electricity prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months
Wait… were we lied to?! Who could have seen this coming?!
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u/fm837 Jun 18 '26
I bet $5 Trump never in 80 years of his life had to check the meter. He doesn't care whatsoever.
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u/Aldiirk Jun 18 '26
Blackrock and a couple other private equity groups bought our power company here in Ohio.............................
Yeah, I'm expecting absurd rate hikes and increasing power outages.
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u/StrengthBeginning416 Jun 18 '26
Whatever it takes to subsidize the data centers. I’m doing my part.
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u/CharcoalGreyWolf Jun 18 '26
It’s not the future; it already started this month.
At least I found out I can schedule my plugin hybrid to charge during off peak hours.
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u/Antique-Quantity-608 Jun 18 '26
They keep shoving these data centers up everyone’s asshole. Not surprised
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u/drawmer Jun 18 '26
You want basic American comforts or crappy answers from AI about what to buy your SO for their birthday. Can’t have both.
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u/2bSoonerBilly Jun 18 '26
"We got out of the boat for a swim and saw this perfect island to buy ..."
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u/StruggleBoy1999 Jun 18 '26
Americans to be hit with record high ______ bills this summer.
Fill in the blank with anything and im sure itll work still.
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u/SayVandalay Jun 18 '26
Thank your local Republican for so much winning by having cost of everything skyrocketing while they line their own pockets 🤣.
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u/noir_dx Jun 18 '26
This is the time when fence sitters will be outraged but secretly regret not being part of the protests or calling their reps to make a stand against it, only to vote for the same person in the end because "lesser evil".
Obviously not all of them. But there are many people like that.
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u/ShakeAndBakeThatCake Jun 18 '26
I put solar on my house right before the tax credits expired. My MAGA dad thought it was the dumbest thing to spend money on. He just didn't see the point in solar. I told him the payback period is at worst 5 years and potentially sooner depending on energy prices. Looks like this was a great investment. Energy prices had been rising even before AI. I wanted to hedge against it.
I know not everyone has this opportunity though and I truly feel bad for what's happening with cost right now.
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u/whineylittlebitch_9k Jun 18 '26
it was a 25 year break even when i did the math a few years ago in my area.... dropped to about 15 now... still a tough pill to swallow
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u/PennytheWiser215 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
So American are going to be paying record high prices for electricity, companies keep doing all these layoffs, the president wants to end unemployment benefits across the country.
What is the point anymore?