Facts About
Your Electric Bill
Understanding your electric bill and knowing
how much energy various appliances use will
help you get the most out of your energy dollar.
The greatest portion of your electricity needs
involve heating, cooling, food refrigeration,
water heating and lighting.
The following pages are designed to give you a detailed
description of all the items on your Minnesota Power bill.
If you have further questions about your electric bill or energy use,
please call us at 1.800.228.4966.
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Understanding Your Bill...
1 Your personal account number.
3 A summary of current and previous balances,
payments received, and billing period for
electric and non-utility charges. Additional
details of charges are on Page 2 of the bill.
1
Account: 222222
E
L
P
Bill Date: July 16, 2014
Please Pay $159.93 By July 31, 2014
M
A
2 Billing Summary
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2 The Billing Summary is your total
amount due.
Name: JOSEPH JONES
Billing Period
June 9, 2014 July 9, 2014
3
Questions To speak with a Minnesota Power
representative, please call (218) 722-2625 or toll free
(800) 228-4966, or write us at 30 W Superior St Duluth,
MN 55802-2191. To pay your bill by phone or online, call
Speedpay at 1-866-228-0739 or visit our website at
www.mnpower.com.
Total Amount Due . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
S
$159.93
Electric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Current Charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$80.36
$80.36
Previous Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Previous Balance & Current Adjustments Due . . . . . . . . .
$79.57
$79.57
Amount Due . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$159.93
Other financially responsible persons listed on this account: JANE JONES
Details continued on back of this sheet...
Message Center
On November 5, 2013, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) approved Minnesota Power’s Boswell Energy Center Unit 4 (BEC4) Mercury Emission
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Name: JOSEPH JONES
Account: 222222
Bill Number: 37923886
Bill Date: 07/16/2014
5
22 DULUTH DR
AITKIN MN
Meter
#
Start
Date
999999 06/09/14
Start
Read
Read
Code
End
Date
62,057 regular 07/09/14
2000
1500
1250
1000
750
500
250
0
Aug 2012
S
Aug 2013
The average kWh per day for this meter is 25
For the same period last year it was 59
The average daily cost for this meter is $2.68
08/10/2014
Usage
62,807 regular
This Bill
Next Scheduled Meter Read:
E
L
P
Read
Code
750 Kilowatt Hours (kWh) used
Service Charge
300 kWh @ $0.05098
200 kWh @ $0.06735
250 kWh @ $0.08168
Total Energy Charge for 750 kWh
Affordability Surcharge
Renewable Adjustment 750 kWh @ $0.00614
Transmission Adjustment 750 kWh @ $0.00033
Boswell 4 Plan Adjustment 750 kWh @ $0.00156
Resource Adjustment
Minnesota Sales Tax (6.875%)
Total charge this service agreement
M
A
1750
kWh
End
Read
Billed for the Last 24 Months
4
AK F I OD EMDK
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Residential Service Rate: 20A
30 days
6
8.00
8
15.29
13.47
20.42
49.18
0.51
4.61
0.25
1.17
11.47
5.17
80.36
7
9
11
13
10
12
Once complete, we will significantly reduce
two-year record of your 10 The Renewable Adjustment charge includes
4 This graph depictsThea pie
chart to the right shows what percentage of your monthly bill is related to the
Residential Costs
emissions
from54%
our largest coal-based
the costsThese
for additional
renewable energy
electric power (kilowatt-hour)
use. and distribution of electricity.
generation, transmission
are average percentages
Generation
for the year 2013 for your specific customer category.
Individual monthly
percentages
Transmission
4%
generation
unit.
The BEC4 Plan is a multiand
transmission
to
deliver
this
energy
to
our
Service
Rate
code For more information, call Minnesota Power at 218-722-2625
vary from
the average.
Distribution
42%
5 The Residential may
pollutant
solution
for reducing mercury,
system.
We
are
investing
in
renewable
energy
or
1-800-228-4966,
or
visit
www.mnpower.com.
identifies your classification of service. This
particulate
matter,
sulfur dioxide, and other
projects
as
economically
as
possible
to
meet
Fuels
used
to
generate
electricity
have
different
costs,
reliability
and
air
emissions.
For
more
information,
call
Minnesota
Power
at
example is of a single family dwelling.
218-722-2625 or 1-800-228-4966, or visit www.mnpower.com.
You may also
contact Standard
the Minnesota
of Commerce
pollutantsat being addressed by the U.S.
Minnesota’s Renewable
Energy
ofDepartmentair
www.commerce.state.mn.us; or the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency at www.pca.state.mn.us/programs/electricity.html.
6 Total kilowatt-hours (kWh) used during a
Environmental Protection Agency while also
25 percent renewable energy by 2025.
billing period.
significantly reducing wastewater from BEC4
charge
11 The Transmission Adjustment
MOVING? Please call 1-800-228-4966
in advance.
Thank you!
operations
in Cohasset,
Minn.
Service
Charge
is
the
minimum
monthly
fee
includes costs for new transmission facilities
7
Changing your name, phone number, or just the mailing address?
covering the cost for connection to our system.
Resource
Adjustment is a combination
that are necessary for reliable
delivery
of the
13 onThe
Please
fill out and
check box
reverse
side.
of
two
charges.
The first portion of this
electricity
to
customers.
The
amount
you
are
charged
per
kWh
varies
8
Name change:
Reason why
charge
is
applied
to the cost of our state
depending on your monthly usage. There are
charge
New phone number:
12 The Boswell 4 Plan Adjustment
mandated
Conservation
Improvement
five separate rate blocks; the more electricity
recovers the cost of a Minnesota
Public
New mailing address:
Program
which
promotes
energy conservation
you use, the more you will pay per kWh. The
Utilities Commission approved
environmental
City
State
Zip code
through
education
and
outreach.
The second
fee for your monthly energy usage is the
retrofit project, Minnesota Power’s Mercury
is
fuel
and
purchased
energy
based
on the
Total Energy Charge.
Emission Reduction Plan
(BEC4 Plan).Home
The#:
REQUIRED:
Cell #:
fluctuating
cost
of
fuel
used
in
our
generating
BEC4 Plan addresses the Mercury Emission
Work #:
Account#:
9 The Affordability Surcharge recovers the
stations and power purchased from other
Reduction Act of 2006, the Mercury and Air
costs of a rate affordability discount program
energy providers as needed. Due to the
Toxics Standard Rule, as well as other new
for income-qualified residential electricity
varying costs of fuel, this line item will vary
state and federal emission control regulations.
MPW001-F100-01 (10/02)
customers.
from month to month.
Other things you should know about your Minnesota Power bill
Billing
Payment Options
Budget Billing
Most customers’ electric meters are read by an
automated reading system. An electric device
connected to your electric meter provides Minnesota
Power with accurate monthly usage of your household
or business.
Minnesota Power offers these options to pay
your bill.
Budget Billing levels out seasonal highs and lows
on monthly electric bills. The budget amount is
based on your past 12 months’ usage divided into 12
equal payments. You pay the same amount for your
electric service each month, so budgeting for monthly
expenses is simplified. The current status of your
budget billing account is shown on the reverse side of
your bill. There is no charge for this service.
You may experience an occasional estimated bill. We
estimate your consumption based on historical usage.
Actual readings subsequently correct any overcharge
or undercharge that may result when an estimate
must be made.
Visit mnpower.com or call 1-800-228-4966
for more information.
• Western Union Speedpay
-- Recurring Payment Plan – free when using
checking, savings or money market accounts
-- One-Time Payment
-- Pay-in-Person – using Western Union
Convenience Pay locations
• Walmart – Customer Service desk
• Mail
• Drop Boxes - Duluth and Little Falls only
Seasonal Changes
Other Reasons for Change
During hot weather, there is increased usage because
of air conditioners, fans, refrigerators, freezers,
dehumidifiers and laundry appliances.
Find tips for saving energy throughout the year
at mnpower.com/seasonsofsavings
Residential electric bills follow surprisingly uniform
patterns from year to year. When a bill is higher than
usual, it arouses curiosity. There are many reasons
why your use and cost of electric service may vary.
with a billing period. Your reduced usage, therefore,
would be spread over two bills. It’s likely too that
you’ll use more electric energy getting ready for a
vacation and when you return home again.
Cold weather requires more heat and use of
furnace fans, humidifiers, roof and gutter cables,
supplementary heaters and auto engine heaters.
Holiday entertaining requires extra cooking, lighting
and use of decorations.
The charts show average use factors for heating and
lighting and how they vary seasonally.
The Ups and Downs of
Your Electric Bill
Usage During Vacation
It’s natural to expect your electric bill to decrease
substantially when you’re away from home. But while
you’re away, your refrigerator, freezer and water
heater continue to operate — unless you turn them
off. Also, your vacation schedule may not coincide
• Your lifestyle may change, your family grows,
you entertain more often or you have more
houseguests.
• The age and condition of your appliances often
affects their cost of operation.
• You may leave lights or appliances on unnecessarily,
wasting electricity and affecting your bill.
Variations are caused by the length of the billing
period. In general, for every day’s difference in the
billing period, your energy consumption increases or
decreases by 3 percent.
Appliance Operation Costs
The following costs are based on energy
consumption of typical appliances and their average
use. Your appliances and use patterns may vary
somewhat, so you may want to figure exactly what it
costs to operate your appliances. It’s not difficult to
do if you have the right information.
All electric appliances have the “wattage” or
“amperage” and “voltage” indicated somewhere
on the unit (amps x volts = watts). You can use
this figure to determine your cost of operation. For
example, an electric space heater with 1,500 watts
costs about 13.65 cents per hour to operate. Here’s
how that figure is reached:
1,500 watts ÷ 1,000 = 1.5 kW each hour
1.5 kW x 9.1 cents/kWh = 13.65 cents/hour
Many electric appliances are thermostatically
controlled. Because they turn off and on
automatically, they use energy intermittently.
Average Home Energy Use
The following figures give you a basis for estimating
appliance operating costs. These estimates are
based on Minnesota Power’s average residential
customer cost of 9.1 cents per kilowatt-hour. (Average
Minnesota household use is 750 kWh per month.) Your
average cost may be slightly lower or higher than 9.1
cents depending upon your usage, rate classification
and the community in which you live.
You can check with your local public library to see if
it has an electric usage monitor called a Kill A Watt™
available for checkout. This tool allows you to assess
how efficient your appliances are by monitoring their
electric consumption.
If you have further questions about your electric bill or energy use, please call us at 1.800.228.4966.
Average Appliance Usage
*These estimates are based on Minnesota Power’s average residential customer cost of 9.1 cents per kilowatt-hour. (Average household use is
750 kWh per month.) The residential rate is subject to approval, modification or acceptance by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.
AverageAverage
Monthly kWh
Monthly cost*
Household Services
Washer (average is 12 hours/month). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9. . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 0.82
Dryer (average is 16 hours/month). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104. . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 9.46
Water heater (52 gallon, quick recovery) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400. . . . . . . . . . . . . $36.40
100kWh (base running) tank + 100kWh per person (double for infants)
Water heater (energy efficient model or one with blanket). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350. . . . . . . . . . . . . $31.85
50kWh + tank add 100 kWh per person (double for infants)
Range (family of 4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Refrigerator (conventional). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Refrigerator/freezer (upright, 2 door, 14 cubic feet). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Refrigerator/freezer (side by side). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Freezer (15 cubic feet, manual defrost). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Freezer (15 cubic feet, frost free) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dishwasher (with heating unit) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Oil burner (use low/average/high based on outside temp). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Furnace fan (use low/average/high based on outside temp) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Supplementary electric heaters (watts x hours). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Room A/C (depends on size, use and weather conditions). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228. . . . . . . . . . . . .
$6.83
$5.46
$8.64
$13.38
$6.92
$13.83
$2.37
$5.46
$9.10
$27.30
$20.75
Average
Monthly kWh
Average
Monthly cost*
Central A/C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360. . . . . . . . . . . .
Television (Tube) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56. . . . . . . . . . . .
Television (Plasma). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72. . . . . . . . . . . .
Television (LCD). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27. . . . . . . . . . . .
Television (LED). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24. . . . . . . . . . . .
$ 32.76
$ 5.10
$ 6.55
$ 2.46
$ 2.18
Other Appliances
Dehumidifier (depends on size of unit and hours of operation). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255. . . . . . . . . . . . $ 23.21
Auto engine heater (watts x hours) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75. . . . . . . . . . . . $ 6.83
Lighting
5 room house (winter months). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50. . . . . . . . . . . .
8 room house (winter months). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80. . . . . . . . . . . .
Standard outdoor 100 count holiday lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150. . . . . . . . . . . .
Midsized LED 100 count holiday lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. . . . . . . . . . . .
$ 4.55
$ 7.28
$ 13.65
$ 0.27
Other High-Use Items
Roof and gutter cables (usually 7 watts per foot, multiply watts x hours) . . . . . . . . . . . 82. . . . . . . . . . . . $ 7.46
Home computer and printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28. . . . . . . . . . . . $ 2.55
Electric blanket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22. . . . . . . . . . . . $ 2.00
tips
for efficient
energy use
Take the next step ... demonstrate the Power of One®
Check out these tips for saving energy in your home.
Learn more about how you use energy.
Complete a free Your Home Energy Report and find
out if a home energy analysis is right for you. Take
the next step to develop a customized action plan
for achieving your energy-saving goals. Visit us at
mnpower.com/portal
Replace furnace filters monthly.
This will improve the efficiency of your furnace,
extend its life and reduce dust in your home.
Clean refrigerator and freezer coils.
For refrigerators, clean on a biannual basis and
more often if you have animals. For freezers, clean
more often if stored in dusty areas. You can also
clean the coils on your window air conditioner and
dehumidifier.
Turn off lights when not needed.
a conservation
program
Don’t forget to visit
mnpower.com/powerofone
for additional energysaving tips, tools and rebate
information.
Take the next step by installing energyefficient ENERGY STAR® qualified light bulbs and
fixtures. Lighting represents up to 10 percent of an
average home’s energy usage.
When not in use, turn it off ...
or better yet, unplug it.
Televisions, chargers, computers, and other plug-in
devices that are simply turned off can still use as
much as half the energy they do when they’re
turned on.
Turn down the thermostat in the winter
and turn it up in the summer.
As a rule of thumb, for each one degree reduction
in temperature in the winter you can save 2 percent
or more on your heating and for each degree you
raise the temperature in the summer, you can save
3 percent or more on cooling. You may want to
consider installing a programmable thermostat.
Wash your clothes in cold water as
much as possible—and only full loads.
About 90 percent of the energy used is spent
heating the water. Take the next step and install
an ENERGY STAR® qualified clothes washer.
Plug air leaks in your home.
Inexpensive foam strips and caulking can
cut your heating and cooling loss by
10–25 percent.
Have your furnace tuned up annually.
Take the next step by installing a new, high-efficiency
furnace with an ECM fan motor.
Get rid of that second refrigerator
or freezer.
The second refrigerator or freezer in your garage or
basement can cost you several hundred dollars over
its lifetime. Take the next step and replace that old
refrigerator or freezer with a new ENERGY STAR®
qualified model. Visit mnpower.com/refrigeratorrecycling
to learn how you can get rewarded for recycling your
old unit.
Every unit of energy you save is one less you pay for.
One change, one choice is all it takes.
Power of One®... it begins with you.
Your Powerful Partner™
mnpower.com
Your
Powerful
Partner™
mnpower.com
30 W. Superior Street, Duluth, MN 55802
1.800.228.4966 | mnpower.com
11188 | 08/4/14