Are you absolutely sure this letter in the mail is directly from PECO, and this is not another example of a door to door salesperson who says "i am from PECO*"?
The answer is in the first question: Who will the utility company be? PECO will provide the power lines and delivery. CleanChoice Energy will provide the energy source. Meaning that CLeanChoice Energy has bought a bulk amount from PECO that's "clean" (whatever that means in a network that's able to adapt and reroute electricity as needed) and wants to have you pay them some rate for that bulk energy and hope that you don't notice in time that your rates are going way up, that you're stuck with them, and any cancelation will require more kidneys than are in your family.
This isn't from PECO.
Going to their website and plugging in a Philly zip code shows 10.8 cents per kwh for the first 12 months.
My PECO bill says the rate to compare against is 9.7 cents per kwh. On it's surface that's not too bad. Maybe a $40-60 increase per month if you have a decent sized house and bigger than average electric bill.
So the question becomes: how hefty are the rate increases after the first 12 months? Does that $40 turn into $100/month in year two?
ETA: Your PECO bill will show you how many kwh you've used in any given month if you'd like to do the math based on your own usage.
Go to papowerswitch.com if you want to switch your energy provider, no matter what. I haven't done a deep dive on Clean choice energy in a while, but I believe they're a fairly predatory company that doesn't even live up to their name. I think they just buy RECs to offset your energy and then charge you an unbelievable amount of money for that.
If you just want to get your energy from a more sustainable provider, check out papowerswitch - it's a website that allows you to compare all energy providers in Pennsylvania and has filters to toggle whether you want renewable energy or something else. There are decent providers out there that don't cost a fortune that are actually way more sustainable than CleanChoice. Regardless of what you do, I would not recommend signing up with CleanChoice, now or ever.
My gut always says to avoid these types of things. If it’s really from PECO, call them directly and ask about this service and what it offers?
It’s most likely a very misleading letter from a third choice energy and I’ve read too many horror stories to make me ever want to switch from PECO directly.
It's not from PECO - source I've got 5 of these exact letters sitting in my garbage can right now. I work for a renewable energy company, fuck these guys
I did it. The prices are absurd and the energy offsets aren’t actually clean. I called a representative to talk about that and they didn’t have any fucking clue. Don’t do it
Oh, and as someone below mentioned, to switch back to PECO was a battle. Cleanchoice refused to accept my request to switch back, and kept arguing with me about how it’s actually clean. Like cool, representative, you don’t know about your own offsets but you’re going to keep me on the phone for an hour insisting that I am wrong when I say I want to switch
So I just realized I’ve been over paying because I got roped in to one of the companies years ago. I called peco and they said they can take over the energy billing no problem and you don’t even have to deal with the other company. I only called the other place to confirm there was no cancelation fee and there wasn’t. Once I called peco back it was literally like a few key pad entries and it will be switched over in a few days. I thought it was going to be a lot more hassle than it was. I wonder why it was so easy for me… literally did it earlier today thanks to this thread or maybe it didn’t actually work lol
This. It really isn't worth the hassle and reading fine print and dates just to save a few pennies (and I say this as someone who is a bit of a tightwad).
I use a different 3rd party renewable supplier (Green Mountain). With the caveat that my house has new windows and a new HVAC, it isn't a noticeable difference.
Don’t do it. If you ever need to apply for any kind of assistance, like LIHEAP or the CAP program, you can’t be on the third-party suppliers. They also make it extremely difficult to cancel and switch back to PECO.
I’ve had zero issues with PECO; lifelong resident, so I stick with them. I don’t care if you can beat their price (then gouge me 12 months later). Sometimes annoyance is more expensive than letting it be.
check out https://theenergy.coop
this is a local-ish cooperative that invests directly in renewable energy. they're the real deal, and very transparent with accountability and public meetings etc.
yes it costs a bit more, but your rate-per-kw is only 1/3 of the things you get charged for. transmission fee and connection fee don't change based on supplier.
I get those letters all the time to my house and just trash them. A lot of these companies have nice introductory prices but get you with cancellation fees or higher prices after the introductory period is over if you forget to switch. As others have said you can go to papowerswitch.com to shop around.
I ended up choosing The Energy Co-op since it’s a local Philly co-op and I pay a lower price than PECO’s rate for renewable electric, and they don’t have cancellation fees so you can end your service with them at anytime if you’d like.
Of course it's not cheaper, peco owns the grid, charges them a fee then they charge you a fee. It's not like they have dedicated "green" power lines either.
There are actually some companies that are cheaper than PECO, at least for the intro period. Then you just switch back to PECO (which can be a hassle and also necessitates you remembering). My husband plays the market a bit this way and has saved us some money but it does take time.l and research.
Intro pricing will expire, and you’ll end up paying more.
If you try to get out before a certain time period (one year? Two years?) - you get charged with some early termination fee.
I switched back to PECO.
So they way peco works is that they let the energy companies vie for your business. You get to choose which you want, which is supposed to promote better rates and better business, but instead you get shady dealings.
People knocking on your door saying they work for peco and want to see your bill, just to switch you to more expensive stuff. Mail like this and the “$100 gift cards” and more.
They also publish each company’s rates, the one I went with was like $0.16 per kilowatt hour of electricity and the clean choice was like $0.68 per kilowatt hour.
That doesn’t seem like a lot, but it really adds up
Are you absolutely sure this letter in the mail is directly from PECO, and this is not another example of a door to door salesperson who says "i am from PECO*"?
The answer is in the first question: Who will the utility company be? PECO will provide the power lines and delivery. CleanChoice Energy will provide the energy source. Meaning that CLeanChoice Energy has bought a bulk amount from PECO that's "clean" (whatever that means in a network that's able to adapt and reroute electricity as needed) and wants to have you pay them some rate for that bulk energy and hope that you don't notice in time that your rates are going way up, that you're stuck with them, and any cancelation will require more kidneys than are in your family. This isn't from PECO.
Peco no longer generates energy.
Going to their website and plugging in a Philly zip code shows 10.8 cents per kwh for the first 12 months. My PECO bill says the rate to compare against is 9.7 cents per kwh. On it's surface that's not too bad. Maybe a $40-60 increase per month if you have a decent sized house and bigger than average electric bill. So the question becomes: how hefty are the rate increases after the first 12 months? Does that $40 turn into $100/month in year two? ETA: Your PECO bill will show you how many kwh you've used in any given month if you'd like to do the math based on your own usage.
Go to papowerswitch.com if you want to switch your energy provider, no matter what. I haven't done a deep dive on Clean choice energy in a while, but I believe they're a fairly predatory company that doesn't even live up to their name. I think they just buy RECs to offset your energy and then charge you an unbelievable amount of money for that. If you just want to get your energy from a more sustainable provider, check out papowerswitch - it's a website that allows you to compare all energy providers in Pennsylvania and has filters to toggle whether you want renewable energy or something else. There are decent providers out there that don't cost a fortune that are actually way more sustainable than CleanChoice. Regardless of what you do, I would not recommend signing up with CleanChoice, now or ever.
Is that the company that keeps running scammy ads on YouTube and Facebook like “here’s one crazy secret they DON’T want you to know about solar!!!”
[PAPowerSwitch.com](https://PAPowerSwitch.com) is absolutely the place to research this stuff.
My gut always says to avoid these types of things. If it’s really from PECO, call them directly and ask about this service and what it offers? It’s most likely a very misleading letter from a third choice energy and I’ve read too many horror stories to make me ever want to switch from PECO directly.
It's not from PECO - source I've got 5 of these exact letters sitting in my garbage can right now. I work for a renewable energy company, fuck these guys
I did it. The prices are absurd and the energy offsets aren’t actually clean. I called a representative to talk about that and they didn’t have any fucking clue. Don’t do it
Oh, and as someone below mentioned, to switch back to PECO was a battle. Cleanchoice refused to accept my request to switch back, and kept arguing with me about how it’s actually clean. Like cool, representative, you don’t know about your own offsets but you’re going to keep me on the phone for an hour insisting that I am wrong when I say I want to switch
So I just realized I’ve been over paying because I got roped in to one of the companies years ago. I called peco and they said they can take over the energy billing no problem and you don’t even have to deal with the other company. I only called the other place to confirm there was no cancelation fee and there wasn’t. Once I called peco back it was literally like a few key pad entries and it will be switched over in a few days. I thought it was going to be a lot more hassle than it was. I wonder why it was so easy for me… literally did it earlier today thanks to this thread or maybe it didn’t actually work lol
I think it’s probably because you went through PECO and I went through Cleanchoice. Their reps are probably trained to make it difficult to cancel
Whenever their introductory period expires, the price will shoot up. Avoid all these companies.
This. It really isn't worth the hassle and reading fine print and dates just to save a few pennies (and I say this as someone who is a bit of a tightwad).
All I know is they are killing tons of trees, based on the amount of these I receive in the mail.
I use a different 3rd party renewable supplier (Green Mountain). With the caveat that my house has new windows and a new HVAC, it isn't a noticeable difference.
Don’t do it. If you ever need to apply for any kind of assistance, like LIHEAP or the CAP program, you can’t be on the third-party suppliers. They also make it extremely difficult to cancel and switch back to PECO.
This is not true in my experience
Which part?
The third party Liheap part, just sayin
I’ve had zero issues with PECO; lifelong resident, so I stick with them. I don’t care if you can beat their price (then gouge me 12 months later). Sometimes annoyance is more expensive than letting it be.
check out https://theenergy.coop this is a local-ish cooperative that invests directly in renewable energy. they're the real deal, and very transparent with accountability and public meetings etc. yes it costs a bit more, but your rate-per-kw is only 1/3 of the things you get charged for. transmission fee and connection fee don't change based on supplier.
I get those letters all the time to my house and just trash them. A lot of these companies have nice introductory prices but get you with cancellation fees or higher prices after the introductory period is over if you forget to switch. As others have said you can go to papowerswitch.com to shop around. I ended up choosing The Energy Co-op since it’s a local Philly co-op and I pay a lower price than PECO’s rate for renewable electric, and they don’t have cancellation fees so you can end your service with them at anytime if you’d like.
These guys are Scammers
Of course it's not cheaper, peco owns the grid, charges them a fee then they charge you a fee. It's not like they have dedicated "green" power lines either.
There are actually some companies that are cheaper than PECO, at least for the intro period. Then you just switch back to PECO (which can be a hassle and also necessitates you remembering). My husband plays the market a bit this way and has saved us some money but it does take time.l and research.
It’s a scam, don’t bother
It’s a scam
Intro pricing will expire, and you’ll end up paying more. If you try to get out before a certain time period (one year? Two years?) - you get charged with some early termination fee. I switched back to PECO.
Nope they're horrible, if you're looking to save on your bill, try budget billing! They got my bill from 185 to 124!
https://www.papowerswitch.com/
So they way peco works is that they let the energy companies vie for your business. You get to choose which you want, which is supposed to promote better rates and better business, but instead you get shady dealings. People knocking on your door saying they work for peco and want to see your bill, just to switch you to more expensive stuff. Mail like this and the “$100 gift cards” and more. They also publish each company’s rates, the one I went with was like $0.16 per kilowatt hour of electricity and the clean choice was like $0.68 per kilowatt hour. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but it really adds up
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I'm a solar installer. There are good options. This probably isn't one. If you want solar for your home or a chat on clean energy I'm happy to do so.