Many people don’t really pay attention to their monthly hydro bill. Your hydro bill is comprised of electricity consumption, delivery charges for the service, regulatory charges and taxes. Having a better understanding of how your electricity consumption is calculated might save you some dollars every month.
The first thing to know is that electricity usage is calculated in kilowatt-hours. A kilowatt-hour is 1000 watts used for one hour. For example, a 100 watt light bulb operating for 10 hours would use one kilowatt-hour. The number of kilowatt-hours (kWh) multiplied by the kWh rate equals cost of usage.
In Ontario, the kWh rate is set by the Ontario Energy Board and it’s based on time-of-usage (TOU). The rate is split into three groups: 1) Off-peak hours, 2) Mid-Peak hours, and 3) On-peak hours. The peak hours vary between summer months (May 1 to October 31) and winter months (November 1 to April 30).