How do energy and water companies differentiate between day use and night use?

Question

I've heard that water and energy cost less at night for some reason, and started wondering how the utilitiy companies know? Does the meter register less use at night?

Answer 1

They don't know. But at night when most people are not using electricity and the power company doesn't need to generate so much, they turn off their least efficient generators, making the cost to the electric company to make it (and not to the customer to buy it), less.

Water costs the same day or night, but lawn sprinklers in the middle of a hot day cause more water to be lost by evaporation, so you will need to use less if you water at night.

Answer 2

Often, utilities cost less at nonpeak times. This encourages us to spread our usage out throughout the day, instead of everyone putting strain on a system at the same time.

Many utilities don't differentiate.

My electricity provider charges x number of dollars per kilowatt for the first Y number of kilowatts, no matter when use, for example.

But, I could sign up for a special program with a special meter that registers when I use the electricity and what the price is at the given time I use it. Someone I spoke to that does this, waits till the cost is nothing or next to nothing to do the bulk of her laundry. She jokes that she does her laundry for free. (This is at 2 a.m. usually.) The company's Web site provides a running ticker of the current price, allowing program participants to choose when to use their energy.

If you're interested in such programs, call your utilities and see what they offer. Do ask though about special meter rental costs for these programs.

Answer 3

During the daylight hours there is a higher demand for electricity, therefor the electrical utilities increase the cost rate to encourage conservation.  This is done to reduce the need for enlarging generation and distribution capacity.

Because most water utilities must purchase power to pump water their operating cost rise during the daylight hours.  Also like the power utilities they trying to encourage conservation for the same reasons as the power utilities.

Some meters, both electrical and water, have a data recording ability for not only usage, but time of use.  This is know as TOU metering in the utility industry.

Answer 4

In my area, the utilities install dual meters. Theoretically, you use  power through one during the day and the other at night.

Answer 5

your meter can record the time of usage