$30,000 electric bill (1 month)

[Pia]

Thank goodness not mine Marina Market at Red Hook just posted their electric bill - see the link for full article..........

http://www.stthomasblog.com/?p=8847

Just a reminder how much electricity costs in the VI's and how important it is to turn off the a/c when you leave the room (I know you do but we do have a lot of newbies here that might not know) or I am sure villas will all become "green" and a/c will be a thing of the past - that or your rental week will be $10,000 vs $1,000

Pia

[needmesomesun]

I am always so surprised to not see way more solar panels and wind turbine setups on island. Is there a problem with using these on St. John?

[PA Girl]

We have stayed on other islands where the owners charged extra for using the AC. I wonder if it would be feasible to run the AC service through a seperate meter box?

I am seeing solar panels popping up in unlikely places in PA. We have talked about it but right now, the cost is too high.

[Exit Zero]

The bill is for April 2011 - it is for 33 days and it is for $20,868 - plus over 9K past due - they used 1,617 KW a day - by comparison my house uses an average of 8.7 KW per day - it is a supermarket with a multitude of refrigeration and AC and interior and exterior lighting - it works out to be less than .40 cents a KW - cheaper than residential charges per KW - if they use that much current why shouldn't they have to pay for it like we all do?
Most public utility power companies are pretty much a monopoly and leave customers with few if any options - WAPA has no grid to connect to and maintains separate plants on STT and STX - solar or wind on a residential basis are capital intensive and will never get an individual off the grid without a huge financial commitment on their part and is out of reach for most people in the VI.

[sherban]

http://www.abt.eu/en/news.asp?cid=1&nid=183

http://www.nucapital.nl/index.php?optio ... &Itemid=12

[waterguy]

Yes they should pay for what they use But the reason they pay less a KW is it costs less per kw used for the infostructur then it does for a home. .40 a kw is steep here we are paying between.03 and .07 depending on the time of day. Big customers and .12 homes

[BillVT]

While Sunset Ridge Villas currently does not have a/c, the homeowners association has been discussing installing a/c especially to improve rental opportunities in the summer months. Part of our investigations took us here:

http://www.ilandenergy.biz/about.html

Another possible alternative. Now if we can only find some energy conservation grants...

[Pia]

I had the same system in my old home in Kansas City - loved it but I don't see anyway they could dig (in a cost effective way) deep enough to run the "grid" 99% of locations on St John - heaven help you if you are trying to run through blue bitch

Pia

[BillVT]

Good point Pia. They can drill down but still... These WAPA bills are so daunting and are keeping us from doing the kind of upgrades that we would like to do. It would be nice if the government payed their bills like the rest of us though.

[Connie]

I saw that exit, about a 1/3 of that bill is past due...but...I know WAPA is killing everybody down there with their rates.

[augie]

I was told that WAPA's generators are very outdated and inefficient, but that, through fiscal mismanagement they still owe tons of money on them, and can't even plan on replacing them with newer and better ones until that debt is paid off.

[ScubaGirl]

I read this post today.....so when I got home I checked our power bill. We pay .12 per. It maybe the Great White North, but at least we can afford heat.

I say the power prices in the Islands, are just another reason why I want to live on a boat!