I'm in a Facebook group for my neighborhood and earlier this year someone asked for recommendations on which electric company to use. I glanced at the responses because I knew our contract was coming up for renewal with TXU. One neighbor mentioned having success with Energy Ogre. I had never heard of that company before, but the respondent said they had saved significantly after switching. Normally I don't place a lot of stock in things I read online, but this was a neighbor I actually knew in real life, and a couple other neighbors piled on and mentioned similar savings. I was definitely intrigued. From what I gathered, you sign up and pay a subscription fee and Energy Ogre analyzes your electricity usage from the past year. They take that info and review all the plans available to you and figure out which one will be the most affordable, based on your historical usage. So, your electricity service will come from someone else, but Energy Ogre is responsible for making sure you're on the best plan possible. I was skeptical at first, because I thought I had done a good job of reviewing plans through sites like whitefence.com on my own in the past. Did I really need to pay someone $10/month to do that for me?
Our electricity bills go sky high in the summer. We have a 4,200 square foot house, an inefficient setup for our two zones, a less than stellar-ly insulated addition, a husband who is perpetually hot, two adults who work from home, and we have a pool. There is A LOT of usage going on in our house. I figured it was worth a shot to see what this company could do for us. When our contract with TXU ran out, I signed up with Energy Ogre. Based on our prior usage, they found a plan with Reliant that they believed would save us money. We made the switch and held our breaths.
I wanted to let a few months go by before seeing if it was worth it and before sharing the scoop with my friends. I don't like making recommendations unless I can personally attest to them first. Well, this is my official endorsement. The results have far exceeded our expectations. Here are our bills from last year versus this year for the summer months:
June 2015 - $343.99 June 2016 - $179.18
July 2015 - $450.86 July 2016 - $217.34
August 2015 - $484.92 August 2016 - $216.30
September 2015 - $405.14 September 2016 - $218.43
Total: $1,684.91 Total: $831.25
I'm in shock. I can't believe that our bills have been cut in half. It was absolutely worth the money to use this service. It's not going to work in an area where one electric company has a monopoly, or if you haven't lived in your current residence long enough. But, if you live in a deregulated city and have been in your place for at least a year, I totally recommend giving this website a shot if you think your bills are too high.
