Blog Archive

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Glasgow, Your All Digital Cable Television has Arrived



If you purchase your internet service from Glasgow EPB, you should know that, by the end of 2015, we plan some really big equipment upgrades and those upgrades will open the door to even faster speeds for our service, and we hope to be able to provide those faster speeds at the same rate you are already paying.

If you purchase your cable television service from Glasgow EPB, there are also some big changes coming. These changes are necessary to make room on Glasgow’s broadband network for the more robust internet speeds we have planned. For some of you, the upcoming change will mean that an old friend or two in the house – I’m talking about any older televisions that do not have a digital tuner, may not work as it is after November 1. But we do have a solution or two that should make this transition easy.

We are about to convert all of our old analog television channels to a digital format. That means we can condense several channels into the space presently being used by one channel, and we can use all of that freed up space to allow the internet services to flourish. But, if you have a television without a set top box, and if that television is old enough that it has no digital tuner, then you are going to need a DTA box from us if you want to keep that television going. We are going to rent them for $3 per month, but you also might want to just upgrade to newer television technology and save yourself the extra $3 per month. That decision is totally up to you.

If you have any television that has a picture tube, then it almost certainly does not have a digital tuner. If you have an older flat screen television (think pre-2008) it probably doesn’t have a digital tuner either. Remember, this only matters if you presently run a cable directly to your set without using one of the EPB set-top boxes. If you have a box then none of this matters to you and everything will keep working fine.

Everyone has a full month to ponder this and decide how they want to proceed. We are running both our digital lineup and the old analog lineup together now, so you can start moving toward the DTA box or toward replacing your non-digital tuner set any time. But remember, after November 1 the analog channels will disappear as part of our work to upgrade the internet service, so make plans for your changes during October. As always, if you have any questions about this matter, please give us a call at 270-651-8341 or email Eddie Russell at eddie@glasgow-ky.com or Facebook message us through our page at https://www.facebook.com/glasgowepb 
Tuesday, September 1, 2015

My August Bill in 2015 and 2016


Now that August is over, you might want to review your energy usage for the month, just like I am doing. Although we had a remarkably mild August, we still had a very steep peak demand back on August 4, and, had our 2016 rates been in effect, it looks like my bill would have been about $6 higher under the new rates. You can, and really should, check out how the new rates would have impacted your home or business and see your comparison, just like the one shown above for my home, by going to https://portal.glasgow-ky.com/login.php and logging in, or signing up if you haven't yet done so. We are sure that you will find the information interesting.

After you sign in you can click on the icon titled "New Bill" on the left side of the page and you will see your information just like mine above. At my house, the bill under the new rate would have been a little higher for one reason -- on August 4 at 3:00 pm my home was pulling 2.61 kW, and if I had gotten it down to 1.5 kW, I would have actually saved money under the new rate.

I was trying to keep my home's load down that afternoon as the weather was quite hot and EPB was using several methods to advise the community of a possible peak demand for the afternoon of the 4th. I made sure no one was running major appliances during the afternoon. I also set my thermostats to pre-cool my home in the morning so that I could comfortably raise the temperature setting to 80 degrees in the afternoon, but I still wound up with a little more load on peak than I wanted. It got really hot that afternoon and, even with my thermostat set to 80 degrees, the air conditioning kicked on during the 3:00 peak hour and that set my demand at the 2.61 kW shown above. When you check your bill comparison, you might find that you did better than me by keeping your load below 2.61 kW, or you might find that your home's air conditioning and other major appliances combined to give you an even higher Coincident Demand Charge. If you were higher, then that is why we are talking about this months before the new rate goes into effect -- so you can be making plans to have a low kW demand during Glasgow's peaks. You still have several months to practice.

We know that over 2/3 of our electric customers also have internet service. If you have access to the internet, we cannot give you better advice than to sign up for your personal EPB meter portal and login often to monitor your energy usage, as well as look at the old vs. new bill comparisons to help you understand how to change your energy usage in 2016 to minimize your energy costs.