OK, I took another look at my latest energy bill and got out the trusty calculator.
Total use for month of Nov 7-Dec 7: 521 Kwh. Total charges including taxes: 66.78.
Average cost per Kwh: 12.8 cents. That's a lot lower than I estimated, so this was a worthwhile endeavor.
Actual electricity tiers for my area are:
Baseline, 391 KWh (last year it was 330): .1143/Kwh
101-130% of baseline: .12989/Kwh
131-200% of Baseline: .22986/Kwh
From PG&E's rate book:
201-300% of baseline: .32146/Kwh
Over 300% of baseline: .36969/Kwh
Back in '97, before I made some changes to consumption, the monthly electric use was about 1,000 Kwh/month. Using the above rates, my November bill would have been another $130, or a total of 196.88 (not including additional taxes).
What is kind of vexing about these tiered rates is the double-talk on the part of the utility company. They give lower rates to business customers, saying that business customers are cheaper to serve per Kwh because they use more energy. So, if using more energy makes it cheaper per Kwh to provide the service, then charging three times as much to residential users for using more electricity per month is counter-intuitive. I realize that conservation is important, but I think business as well as residential customers should be encouraged to conserve via increasing tiered rates, as well. Instead, medium business customers are charged a flat rate per Kwh. OK, end of rate rant ;-)