How to save on your utility bill during off-peak hours forAPS and SRP.

If you pay a monthly bill, the chances are you are paying more than you need to.

Less than half of the company's customers are on the most economical plan.More than half a million people are paying too much for electricity.

The company raised rates while changing its residential rate plans.Customers who didn't choose their own plan were moved to one of the new plans.The customers were put on the plan that was most similar to their old plan.

The company is allowing customers to change their rate plans twice a year in order to find the best deal.Customers have to stick with a new plan for 12 months if they make only one change a year.

It's difficult to sort through the plans.We will help with that and Salt River Project rates in an upcoming story.Customers may need to learn how some of the more complex plans work to save money.

Did you know that cooking dinner while running the washing machine and air-conditioning at the same time on just one day in the month can lead to a fee higher than $100 on some plans?

Do you know that running a pool pump during off-peak hours can cost twice as much?

There are certain types of people who are best suited to use the plan.To pick your best plan, you need to know the basics.

There are five plans available.The more complex components of these plans are explained in greater detail, but this is what you have to choose from.

The company uses your own energy-usage data from the past year to show what your expenses will be on the various plans.To use the tool, customers must set up an account.

If you used this tool a year ago, you should revisit it.The tool uses the last 12 months of your energy usage to determine which one will have you paying the least and your usage may have changed in the past year.

Some customers prefer the simplicity of a more costly option even if they can save a bit on a certain plan.

Some electricity-rate plans charge more for a basic service fee than others.Before you use a single unit of energy, you owe this amount.

The general idea is that APS charges a lower basic service fee on more complicated rate plans that require customers to be aware of when they use electricity.

A higher basic service fee is usually paid by customers who don't want to manage their bill or use electricity when it's needed.

The premier choice rate plan has the highest service fee at fifteen dollars a month.For people with low usage, the lowest service fee is $10 a month.

The energy charges are on your bill.Residential customers pay for every kilowatt-hour of electricity they use.

Customers can see how much kilowatt-hours they use by watching their electric meter change.Once a month, utilities read the meter and charge customers for all the kilowatt-hours they have used.

In the summer, utilities charge more for a kilowatt-hour of electricity than in the winter.Power is more expensive on the market when they need to buy it from other utilities because they have to turn on more power plants to meet demand.

You can comprehend the most basic rate plans if you understand so far.The basic service charge and energy charge are only included in the rate plans.

Only customers who use less than 600 kilowatt hours a month are eligible for the lite choice plan.This plan is an option if you are moving into an apartment or small home that doesn't use a lot of electricity.

Only customers who use between 600 and 1,000 kilowatt hours per month are eligible for premier choice.New customers will be forced to try a more complicated rate plan for 90 days before they are allowed to move to this plan.

An Arizona specialty is called a time-of-use rate.In Arizona, these types of plans are used more than anywhere else in the country.

A time-of-use plan charges less money for electricity used at off-peak hours of the day and more for on peak hours.The peak hours are 3-6 p.m. on weekdays.There are no weekend hours.Some utilities have different on-peak windows.

Customers who shift their big appliances to run on off-peak hours will be rewarded.That's easy with things like pool pumps, washers, dryers, dishwashers and such, but not so easy in the summer with air-conditioning.

Most customers who are on a time-of-use plan simply limit the time their air-conditioning runs during those hours by turning up the thermostat, though there are those who choose to cool the house as much as possible before 3 p.m.

Saver Choice is a plan that uses time-of-use rates without getting more complicated.Customers can save $2 a month on their basic service fee if they choose this plan.

The saving potential is in the hourly rates.During off-peak hours, the Saver Choice plan charges 10.8 cents per kilowatt hour.Depending on the season, it charges 23 to 24 cents per kilowatt hour between 3 and 8 p.m.

It costs more to run the dishwasher on peak than it does off peak.

If you want to save money on a time-of-use rate plan, or on one of the more complex demand-rates discussed below, you have to understand where you use most of your energy.When you use that electricity, you have to change.

"shift, stagger, save" is the slogan used byAPS.It is intended to explain how customers can shift their electricity usage to off-peak hours, and how they can save energy by doing things like leaving lights on when not in the room.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, air-conditioning and heating are the biggest energy users in homes.

In Arizona, air-conditioning accounts for 70% of customer bills in the summer.

The Energy Department says that water heating, lighting and refrigeration make up 27 percent of household energy use.Natural-gas customers in Arizona pay less than electric customers for this category.

Only 21 percent of the energy used in a home is used by the laptops, TVs, washers, dryers, video games and other devices.

It's not going to break the bank if you watch television during on-peak hours.It's not running a ceiling fan or charging your phone.

If you use the Saver Choice plan, you can run an air-conditioner for four hours a day during off-peak hours in July, when it costs 11 cents per kilowatt hour.Air-conditioners don't usually run for four hours straight, so let's say it cycles on and off for a total of 4 hours throughout the day.

Your actual usage will include additional cooling on the weekends and probably a mix of on- and off-peak usage.This example shows how shifting larger appliances like air-conditioners off peak can add up to big savings for those who can do it.

July will have 23 weekdays when on-peak hours are in effect.The plan includes 92 hours of off-peak air-conditioning for 23 days.

People who can't adjust their energy usage will pay a penalty.

This July, it will cost you about $88 if you run the same air-conditioning plan for four hours a day.

TheAPS Saver Choice plan has a "super off-peak" period from 10 a.m. to 3 pm, weekdays from November to April when the kilowatt-hour cost drops to 3.2 cents.For 23 days, heating the home for four hours a day would cost less than $12.

Demanding rates is the next step in the rate-plan labyrinth.There are two plans with these special fees.

Why would someone choose a plan with an additional fee?Because the cost per kilowatt hour used is substantially lower on these plans, and they can result in an overall lower bill, but only if customers understand how they work and can ensure nobody in the house breaks the rules, even for just one hour each month.

More than half of the customers could save money if they switched to a more complicated rate plan, according to the company.

This is a difficult decision point.Many customers don't try for what might be a few dollars a month less because of the risk that they will set a high demand charge and wipe out their savings.

Some customers are "natural savers" because their weekly schedule means they don't normally use a lot of electricity when it's most expensive and can therefore take advantage of these plans.

Others try to conserve during peak hours.Others are unaware of how demand fees work even though they pay them.

What is a demand fee?Pick the hour when your home uses the most electricity to set your demand fee.The higher the demand fee, the more electricity is used.

The single 60-minute period out of the 20-some weekdays in the month is used to calculate your demand fee.

Who knows what their hourly demand is?It's not a common dinner-party topic.

The highest demand will be told by the meters.The digital display on the meter scrolls through readings of the time, date, kilowatt-hours used and "demand register" which is the highest hourly demand recorded on peak hours that day.

When that demand point is highest, customers can log in and check their hourly demand on theAPS website.Without a special meter, you can't see what your household demand is.

If you want to learn more about this, SRP has an online tool that will show you the demand for various appliances.The tool gives you a good idea of how much each appliance can contribute to a demand fee, even though the SRP rates are different.

The Saver Choice Plus rate plan has a demand fee of $8.40 per kilowatt.An average air-conditioner draws about four kilowatts of power.The demand fee for the month is $33.60 if that appliance runs for an hour.

There is no way to avoid paying a demand fee.The other components of the bill are lower even though there is an additional demand fee.No single hour sets an excessive fee if energy use is limited.

The Saver Choice Max plan has higher demand fees and lower kilowatt-hour charges for customers who feel they have mastered the demand-fee puzzle.