That was a wind!

HydroOne Power Outages

We were relatively unscathed by the wind storm Sat., Dec. 11th. 

The bears tipped a bit, but they are tied to the railing. I stood Momma Bear up.  No damage.

Cinnamon and I took off. First he spotted the black squirrel, and that kept his attention for a bit. 

I wandered down to the fencing, dropping my trailcam memory cards, to check out my new ribbons. They are fraying. I wonder what I can do about that. They were all there, though, that is a bonus.

Two dead sumacs went over. I cut them up in order to be able to lift them, and threw them onto the long grass. They are suffering.

The poor elm lost another branch.  It was a beautiful tree [Ode to an elm], and housed several bird families. Branches are falling off one-by-one. It landed on the grassy field, and I need not worry about it.

There are quite a few branches down, and Cinnamon and I did an inspection. The 12.5 mm of rain sat on the top of the frog pond ice, and will melt at some point. This is to be a milder week. Cinnamon knew not to walk on it!

Cinn likes the leaning tree branches!

 The force of the wind is amazing. This horizontal birch tree trunk has dirt on the end. It must have bounced up. The other one does, as well. I went back and cut up enough that I could move it off the trail. 

We kept inspecting!

I took my skilsaw down to the forest. I did some work, but the wind was still bad, and I thought I'd stop. This is a non-mental note to cut up this tree on the point. (Taken care of Monday afternoon, after a hearty lunch!)

I might just leave this fallen tree. It's not on a trail. The piece that remained is pretty interesting. 

Heading back to the house, Cinnamon was tired. The bear, upper left in the photo, was blown right off the cupboard, as well as the tree man, on the step beside Cinn.

There are a few outages nearby. We were close! For those of us getting up in the night, we like our night lights! From 195,956 without power in Ontario, they have made major repairs, and only have 77,000 more households to go as I write this Monday morning. This morning, Tuesday, only 26,459 to go. The rural areas take the longest. 

Hydro-Quebec restored service to about 330,000 customers, with 80% of customers affected by the storm.

This doesn't compare to the horrific tornadoes in the US. Such a disaster. In B.C. they are slowly rebuilding highways from the flooding. 

         

It just poured rain on Saturday, followed by wind. 

About 100,000 people without power in Ontario!

There are many people who will be having a candle lit Christmas Eve! I hope they embrace it in the spirit of the season. I've cooked a turkey on a BBQ! It builds character.
Mind you, it's not as bad as the 7 people dead from tornadoes in the southern states, but there will be those who complain.

Thanks to those Hydro crews who are working away tonight and tomorrow. This is true for all those who work on days when the rest of us celebrate a festivus! Hubby is taking chocolate into our local emergency room!

 

Hydro Time of Use bills –what's it all about, Alfie?

Hydro Time of Use bills are quite the thing. I understand where they are coming from, peak power, such as air conditioning weather, put great demands upon the system. 

Electricity Prices Switch to Time-Of-Use-Prices November 1st

For many, it is new, and they are unable to read or understand their bills. You really have to read the literature that they send with the bills, which can be confusing for some. As with all bills, you have to be familiar with what is 'normal', what to expect, and how to read bills of all kinds. 

Missing your monthly bill for your VISA card is no excuse not to know what you need to be paying. They'll penalize you for that! This is why many people have gone for electronic bills, in order not to miss a stray or stolen bill. This doesn't work for us, in the county, since a power outage (ironically), or other issues, might mean we cannot access our bills. 

I'm the one who pays the bills on-line and, if anything happened to me, hubby would still receive the bills on paper, and know what he owed. Lots of seniors I work with might have another issue, not knowing how to pay bills, or ignorance about the billing and payment process, when a spouse dies. It's something new to learn.

Time of Use Bill explained <=click here for hydro's explanation
I find any changes to our bills and I have to reread them and figure them out. I'm a bright woman, but it might take some figuring. Heaven help those who are ill for one reason or another, but this is part of responsible home ownership. They changed the VISA bill presentation, and many of us complained. It just didn't make sense. What do I owe? is the simple question, they confounded that with what you owed last month. We pay it off every month.

The Time Of Use (TOU) metres are tricky. 

They have decided to charge you less for using hydro at off-peak hours. That doesn't work for those who are retired, who like to do laundry and dishes during the day. It does work for busy families with kids. Our clever kids run the water heater only at night, on a timer. It doesn't heat water during the day. On normal days, when they are at work, they don't use much hot water. Sensible! When they need to (when we are staying over!), they turn it on during the day. A great idea. But, again, we go to bed earlier than the young people and don't want to run appliances at bedtime. We want to sleep in peace.

There is another charge on our bills:  Starting May 1, 2013 you may notice a change to your delivery rates. A new 'Smart Metering Entity Charge' of $0.79 is in place from May 1, 2013 until October 31, 2018. This is rather ironic, since we aren't on TOU billing.

Don't hesitate to call and ask:
If you still have questions, we're here to help. Call us toll-free at 1-888-664-9376 between 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. EST, Monday to Friday.

There are different kinds of pricing: e.g., TOU and Tiered pricing

We're still on tiered pricing, living in rural Ontario.

Here is where your monthly payments go!

What are the complaints about TOU?

• Not getting bills –MPP Hillier says he gets many complaints about this issue.
• Inaccurate bills –your metre must be away from trees and bushes.
• Only estimated bills for up to a year, causing huge burdens and catch up bills for many.
• Some have found their bills have doubled or increased by 40%.
• Some metres are defective.

My local MPP is on the bandwagon for tearing apart the system. There are many issues with HydroOne: corruption, poor customer service, debt loads, but he is doing his constituents a disservice by garnering press attention for "wake up call" attention-seeking headlines, and shame for not teaching people how to solve their immediate problems (equal billing, paying regularly). 

How to Test Your Smart Meter for Accuracy

 There is a nice feature which allows Ontario Hydro customers to view and monitor their energy usage conveniently online. You must create an on-line account.

Visit our read your own meter section to learn how and when to submit your own meter reading online though our My Account website.

  IMPORTANT: This option is only available to a customer whose:

• smart meter has not yet been installed;
• account has not yet been switched to Time-of-Use pricing, or
• smart meter is not yet communicating regularly through the Automated Meter Reading (AMR) wireless network.

 Tools~ Knowing is the key to savings

 Use Hydro's simple tools to help you spot your best energy savings.

    
    

Local MPP fed up with hydro...

You know something is wrong with Hydro One when more than half of the calls that come into my offices in Perth, Carleton... He offers links for the complaint process:

Hillier intervenes and assists on behalf of the Constituents of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington. I cannot follow him on Twitter, since he has blocked me, but his staffer does use Twitter well. (Some politicians are not keen to hear differing opinions, nor criticism of their actions. Fordism wasn't invented by Mayor Ford, but it is the new verb!)

It occurs to me that if you have not received a Hydro bill in months (see the story below), wouldn't you check to see what you've paid in the past and pay something monthly? If you have issues with the system, go on equal billing. This is what happens to us for now. Rural hydro is a different issue, since there can be many physical barriers to the metres in the country.

Comparing costs

Public Citizen followup: Hydro One boss apologizes to Mountain couple for bungled billing, bad service

...customers can get through to hydro by phone or email to...paid off a $2,367 bill last spring, not receive another bill for months on end...couple has not received a bill since August and fear...