Guides
How electricity bills and rate plans actually work, explained from the billing side and measured on the 230 residential plans of the 123 utilities modeled on HomeWattCost. Every figure is recomputed whenever the data changes.
- Is time-of-use worth it?A typical home’s bill on each utility’s time-of-use plan against its standard plan, with no change in habits, and how much use you would need to move out of the peak to come out ahead.
- Fixed charges and minimum billsWhat utilities charge every month before you use a kWh, why the charge exists, and how it raises the real price per kWh of a small home.
- Tiered rates and baselinesPlans whose price per kWh rises once your monthly use passes a threshold: where the tiers start, how big the step is, and which homes it hits.
- EV rate plans comparedEvery EV and overnight plan modeled here: its cheapest hours, its overnight price, and what 1,000 miles a month cost on it against the utility’s standard plan.
- How to read your electric billFixed charge, energy charge, delivery and supply, riders and taxes: what each line means, worked through on a real tariff for a typical home.
- Electricity price trends by stateHow residential electricity prices moved over the last year and the last ten in every state, from EIA’s monthly data, and what drives the differences.