A rate with time discrimination, means that you will pay based on the time of day. There are peak hours, when electricity is more expensive, and also off-peak hours, when you will pay less. Generally, at night you will pay less than during the day. On weekends, it is also cheaper than on weekdays.
Check spending based on hours
The idea is power check your electricity consumption, depending on the hours of the day. That will help you know how many kWh you have spent during a month, starting at a certain time. You can also check how much you have spent on weekends and compare the hours that could be cheaper and the most expensive.
If you have a rate in which the price of electricity does not vary depending on the time of day, you will always pay the same. In that case, you won’t have to worry about turning on the washing machine at a certain time, turning on the oven after an hour to make it cheaper, or taking advantage of the weekend to use certain appliances.
Now, it is likely that, depending on your energy use, you are paying more than necessary and you could take advantage of time discrimination and move to a different rate. You will always be able to change, regardless of the company you have, unless you have a current contract and, therefore, a permanence.
What you can do is install the electric company app, such as Iberdrola, and go to the consumption graph. Not only will you see how many kWh you spend per month or how much the bill is; You will also be able to see hour by hour, day by day, what your consumption has been. You could add up the kWh you spent on the cheapest hours and do the same for the most expensive hours. Once you are clear about that, you can calculate whether or not you are interested in changing to a rate with time discrimination.
Changing habits, an option
Regardless of whether it is interesting or not for you in general terms, you always have the option of change some habits. If you are flexible, if you do not have to be tied to specific schedules, it may be more interesting to switch to a rate with time discrimination and thus save on your bill each month.
In this case, what you can do is use the higher consumption appliances, during the hours when energy is cheaper. For example, if you don’t care about washing clothes one day at 5 in the afternoon or putting them away at 10 at night, it is an option to save. The same when putting on the dishwasher, cooking, putting on the dryer…
Keep in mind that the higher the consumption of an appliance, the more you could save if you have time discrimination and use the hours when electricity is cheaper. You could notice significant savings, just by changing certain habits on some occasions. If you use home automation, and you know what devices you have connected to Wi-Fi, you can even turn them on remotely.
In short, as you can see, you can know whether or not you are interested in contracting a rate with time discrimination, simply by carefully analyzing the consumption you have had. You can see different periods of time and thus check, with greater accuracy, whether it is a good idea or not in your case.
