5.10 Pick the right rate plan: free, and it can cut tens to hundreds a month

For zero dollars, your bill could drop by tens or even hundreds of dollars a month — just by choosing the right rate plan. California's three big utilities — SDG&E, SCE, PG&E — each offer several rate plans: some charge by time of day (time-of-use / TOU), some don't. For the same usage, different plans can cost very differently.

Which one fits you depends on how your usage is spread across the day, and the default plan you're on may not be the cheapest. How do you find out? Simple: download the past year of usage data from your utility account (Green Button data), send it to us, and we'll re-run your whole year on every plan and tell you which is cheapest — completely free. This step doesn't even require you to install solar.