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BillTruth

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The math your electric company hopes you skip

The rate they advertise is not the rate you pay.

Texas retailers quote a price at exactly 1,000 kilowatt hours a month. Your house does not use exactly 1,000 kilowatt hours a month. In between sit bill credits with thresholds, minimum-usage fees, base charges and your utility’s delivery charges — and that is where the difference between two plans that both advertise “8.9¢” turns into hundreds of dollars.

We read the fine print of every certified plan, month by month, at your usage. Then we show you the arithmetic.

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kWh a month

We spread this across the year using a Texas summer-peaking shape, roughly 1.6× in July and August against 0.7× in the mild months. That matters: a plan with a credit at 1,000 kWh earns it in August and misses it in March, and a flat assumption hides exactly that.

Finding your usage

A sample electricity bill with the usage line markedUnder the heading “Your electricity usage”, a line reads “Total kWh used this period, 1,146”. That number, or the average of twelve of them, is what to type in.AMOUNT DUE$187.42YOUR ELECTRICITY USAGETotal kWh used this period1,146Service periodJun 14 – Jul 15 (32 days)Average daily use35.8 kWhthis number
Every retailer prints it slightly differently — kWh used, total usage, energy consumed — but it is always a number in the hundreds or low thousands, near the meter reading dates. If your bills vary a lot between summer and winter, use the month-by-month tab instead; that is where credit thresholds decide winners.

Worked example

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This section fills itself with a real plan from the current market as soon as the first price check finishes. Enter a zip code above and the comparison works regardless.

How we count

Four things nobody else adds up for you

1

Your usage, month by month

A Texas house uses roughly twice as much electricity in August as in March. We spread your average across a summer-peaking curve, or use your twelve real numbers, or your meter data if you have it.

2

The fact label, not the headline

Every plan publishes an Electricity Facts Label. We parse the base charge, each energy tier, every bill credit and its conditions, and any minimum-usage fee — then check our reading reproduces the retailer's own published prices before we trust it.

3

Your utility's delivery charges

Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP and the rest charge a fixed monthly amount plus a rate per kilowatt hour, and it lands on your bill no matter which retailer you pick. Half the plans on the market quote a rate that excludes it.

4

Twelve months, added up

A credit that needs 1,000 kWh pays out in August and vanishes in March. We apply each credit only in the months you would actually earn it, then total the year. That total is the only thing we rank by.

The full method, with the formula and a worked example