What a monthly total cannot tell you
A free-nights plan gives away electricity between fixed hours and charges more for the rest. Whether that is the best deal in Texas or the worst thing you could sign depends entirely on when your house uses power. A single number on a bill does not contain that information, so the free tool refuses to rank those plans rather than guess.
This is the one thing the free tool structurally cannot do, and it is why the full analysis exists. What you gain is a whole category of plan that is invisible to you today.
Bill-credit plans have the same problem in reverse: they pay you a credit at 1,000 kWh and quietly punish you at 999. With thirteen months of real readings we can count how many months you would actually have landed under the line.
What we found when we checked
One bill got the plan right. It got the number wrong by 21%.
We ran our own free tool on a real Houston house using a single July bill, then pulled twelve months of that meter's actual readings from Smart Meter Texas and compared them. This is the whole case for the full analysis, and it is our own numbers rather than a hypothetical.
| Month | From one bill | The meter | Off by |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 871 | 630 | +38% |
| February | 598 | 498 | +20% |
| March | 725 | 635 | +14% |
| April | 850 | 698 | +22% |
| May | 1,164 | 939 | +24% |
| June | 1,396 | 1,197 | +17% |
| July | 1,375 | 1,375 | the bill |
| August | 1,543 | 1,186 | +30% |
| September | 1,270 | 1,100 | +15% |
| October | 1,123 | 892 | +26% |
| November | 808 | 534 | +51% |
| December | 787 | 673 | +17% |
| Year | 12,509 | 10,357 | +21% |
The plan was the same either way, so the ranking survived. What did not survive was the arithmetic hung off it: the projected saving came out at $408 a year when the true figure was $328, overstated by 24%, and in the direction that flatters us.
Eleven of eleven estimated months came out high. That is a bias, not noise: a regional seasonal pattern overshoots a house that swings less than its region, and the only thing that shows whether yours does is your own meter.
What you get
- Every plan priced on your real hours
Including the time-of-use and free-nights plans, ranked properly for the first time, against what your meter recorded rather than what an average house does.
- The estimate replaced by fact
We told you roughly 14,200 kWh from one August bill. Your meter says 12,780. Every conclusion gets re-run on the real figure, and sometimes the answer changes.
- Your load shape
What share of your electricity you buy overnight, on weekends, and in the four hours that cost the grid the most. This is the number every plan is secretly priced against.
- Your always-on floor
What the house draws at three in the morning when nothing should be running. This has nothing to do with switching plans and is usually the cheapest money in the report.
- The bill-credit count
How many of the last thirteen months you would have fallen below a credit threshold, for every plan that uses one.
And then, once
We come back before your contract ends
Your end date is on the bill you already sent us, so we do not have to guess when to get in touch. Some weeks before it, you get an email: rates have moved, here is what we told you last time, and here is whether it still holds.
If you want it re-run, it is $39 again. If you do not, nothing happens and nothing is charged. There is no subscription and no card kept on file.
Always true
We are still paid only by you
Scout takes no commission, referral fee or rate adder from any electricity company, on this or anything else. It is the only reason we are able to tell you that your current plan is fine and you should do nothing, which is a real outcome and happens often.
How it works
Your usage data belongs to you, and Texas has a state-run portal that hands it over free. The only slightly fiddly part is the first login, which needs details off your bill.
- 1
Run the free tool
One bill, one minute. You get the whole comparison and the month-by-month working, free, whether or not you go further.
- 2
Download your data
At smartmetertexas.com, go to Data, then Usage, then Export. You get IntervalData.csv: thirteen months, one row per fifteen minutes.
- 3
Send it to us
Upload the file. Nothing is installed and we never need your provider password or account login.
- 4
Read the report
Back within two working days, with everything above and a plain recommendation, including staying exactly where you are if that is the answer.
What it costs
Two of these three are free, and they stay free. The comparison is free, the report is free, and watching your contract is free. The only thing we charge for is reading your meter's real 15-minute data, because that is the part a monthly total cannot do.
The $39 tier is not open for orders yet, and the button below will not take your money. Paid advice on picking a retailer requires PUC broker registration; the application is in and takes up to sixty days.
We could take pre-orders. We would rather not take money for something we are not yet permitted to deliver.
Always
Free
the comparison
- Every plan we can price, ranked
- The full month-by-month working
- The report as a document you can keep
- We watch your contract and warn you before it lapses
- No account, no email required
The full analysis
$39
once, not a subscription
- Thirteen months of real meter data
- Time-of-use plans finally ranked
- Your load shape and overnight floor
- Bill-credit months counted
- We come back before your contract ends
Business
Quoted
per site
- Above about 50 kW nothing is published
- We run a sealed bid to every desk
- Demand, power factor and tariff class
- The sales-tax exemption most plants miss
Business pricing is quoted per site because nothing above about 50 kW is published. How that works →
Reasonable questions
Why is it not two years of data?
Because Smart Meter Texas holds thirteen months and no more. That is a full seasonal cycle plus one, which is what the analysis needs, and we would rather say so than imply we can see further back than we can.
Do you need my electricity account login?
No. You download your own file from the state portal and send us the file. We never ask for a password to any account, and we cannot switch anything on your behalf even if we wanted to.
What if the answer is that I should do nothing?
Then that is the report, and it is a common one. Being paid by you rather than by a retailer is what makes it possible to say. A broker earning a rate adder has no way to tell you to stay put and still get paid.
Why once instead of a monthly subscription?
Because a residential plan is a decision you make roughly once a year, and charging you every month for the eleven months in between would be charging you for nothing. You pay when there is a decision to make.
Will you sell my usage data?
No. It is used to produce your report and for nothing else. It is not sold, not shared with retailers, and not used to make you a target for anybody's sales team.