Cash Power

August 18, 2009

“Cash power” as it is called, is a technology I had not seen before I came to the island.
Cash power can be described as the cross breeding of a parking meter with your utility meter.

To sum it up succinctly, cash power is a pay-in-advance system of purchasing electricity. One goes down to the utility company, tell them your name or account number, and hands over some money. In return, you walk away with a receipt that has a number code on it. When you go home, you enter the code into your keypad and the system adds the newly purchased kilowatt hours to the remaining balance.

The box in the picture sits on the wall of our kitchen. It has a display screen that shows how many kilowatt hours we have remaining. Every time one watt is used, a red light blinks. For the very curious or eco-concerned, the flashing red light provides an easy method to see how the usage changes when you plug in an appliance or turn on the stove. The cash power box also has a light that will display either in green, yellow, or red depending on the available kilowatt balance.

Our electrical usage has gone up in stages. When it was just me in the house with only a refrigerator, stove, fan, laptop, and a few light bulbs I used 2 or 3 kilowatts a day. Our shipment of household goods introduced a washing machine, a tv/dvd combo, radio/cd player, and other odds and ends to the electrical outlets scattered throughout the house. A dehumidifier purchased in Guam and a larger (and frost free) refrigerator to replace the small one I started with added a little more usage and we are now using around 5 kilowatts a day.

I spent many an Arizona summer and a few Oregon winters wondering how much a few extra degrees of comfort was costing me. Cash power takes the guesswork away. We are now able to track our usage as it occurs and there are no surprises when the bill comes at the end of the month. The kWH display screen works just as well for those on a carbon budget as it does for those on a monetary budget.

I’m sure the meter readers’ union doesn’t appreciate cash power as much as I do, but think of the business benefits. The utility company gets is money before it provides a service, doesn’t have to worry about late or non-payments, and doesn’t have the expense of reading meters and sending out bills.

On the macro-level, the island produces its electricity through the use of generators that convert diesel fuel into electricity. The residential rate is around 30 cents a kWH. I don't know if the utility corp has or is experimenting with bio-diesel or coconut oil as an alternative to straight diesel fuel.

The European Union has been funding projects to bring solar power to the small outer islands and atolls but I haven’t seen or heard of any large scale solar projects on the main island yet.