I was just informed of this today,

"For those of you who live on the economy (or have personnel living
on the economy), pay attention to the new billing system from Enel.
Essentially there are "peak" and "off-peak" hours to use electricity now.
Peak hours are from 0800-1900 Mon-Fri (excluding Italian holidays).
Off-peak hours are from 1900-0800 Mon-Fri and all hours on weekends and
Italian holidays.  Try to do anything that is electrically intensive
(washing/drying clothes, ironing, using dishwasher, etc.) during the
off-peak hours.  Doing so will save you money because Enel has raised their
electricity rates by 10% during the peak hours.  See the attachment for more
information."

I am sure this will make their difficult billing system even more difficult and expensive for us. And I am so glad that I get this info when the month is all ready half through. this started July 1.

We too just received our electric bill for the month, and on the back highlighted in Green and Red were the new billing hours they would be using. It makes sense that peak hours would be during the hottest parts of the day.... 

Unfortunately for us stay at homers, this means we cant do any cooking or cleaning during the day because it will be too expensive. It means i will have to stay up late just to finish laundry and dishes, and dinner has to be held later which really is not fun if you have small children that have am early bedtime.

In other words, this really screws things unless you can afford the 800 dollar electric bills they send you.

@ Angela:

While I appreciate your concern and your desire to put the information out to all, but be sure not to condem so quickly. 

1. I, for one, know that we recieved an insert in our bill at least a month ago, I believe it has been a few months ago, but not certain, which stated the same thing that was on the back of the bill this month.

2. Now you also want to claim that you can not cook, clean during the day. 

   a.  I might ask how much electricty are you really using sweeping & mopping all the tile floors in these houses? 

   b.  How much electricity is being used cooking on a GAS stove?

   c.  Maybe, just maybe you have a point with laundry, but really you can put a load in the wash when you go to bed, and then dry them when you get up (how much is electricity is your GAS dryer using?) or you could even hang them out to dry, like many Italians (probably due to electricity rates).

3.  Finally if you believe you can not afford to live on the economy due to the effeccts of your time schedule and the cost of electricity, then you should consider supplementing the family income to assist in maintaing your cleaning, eating schedule or move onto the American Fortress on the Support Site where you won't have to directly worry about the your electric usage, and you can continue to ignore your energy usage habits!

I have to agree with Larry. During the day light hours you should not be using that much electricity. Yes it is hot and you may need to run the airconditioner. But you should not have to have the lights on since you can open the gates on the windows and let some natural light into the house. You don't use any electricity when  you sweep the floor and maybe only a little bit if you use a vacuum cleaner on the rugs. As for laundry, you can cut back there as well by hanging the it outside. If you are washing towels hang them out until they dry and then throw them in dryer for 10-15 minutes to soften up. My dryer is electric so I know that it can get expensive to run, you just have to know where you can cut back. Washing dishes should use no electricity at all since the water heater is run by the gas. If you are going to stay up late just to clean the house you are going to drive up your electric bill that way also because you will have all the lights in the house on just so you can see to clean. Just a thought.

Wow--I do beleive that Angela's concern was sincere and she was simply putting it out there IN CASE someone did not see the notice attached to the bill.  I understand her concern with usage because it is a FACT that American's bill's are higher! So anything we can do to keep it down helps!  There was no need to put on a defense against her or to insert those American insults.  Thanks Angela!

Larry, thanks for your compliments that show how little you know.

First, I have to wash clothes every day. It is just  a part of having a family. I cant just throw a load of clothes to dry over night because the dryer provided by our wonderful housing warehouse has a timer that does not work! I have tried to get them to fix it or replace it for 2 years now with no luck. It will run and continue to run, using both gas and electricity, until someone manually shuts it off.

I do hang dry things, unfortunately most of that just smells like dirty naples and with my daughters allergies and severe skin issues, i can not hang her clothes out. they have to be washed in special detergent and dried with out dyes or frangrences. Otherwise she itches, and her skin gets infected. yes we are seeing the doctors here every month, she is on 10 different medications.  But thanks for being so understanding that some people have medical issues to deal with.

We do not use the air conditioner except at night, and we only cool 2 rooms of the house. We use fans and open the windows just like anyone else.

Our bill was still $700 last month even though I know we do not use this much electricity. But complaining about it to the NEX does nothing, we have tried that. We have tried to read our own meters but we still are having bills that entirely are too high.

In the states, we never used more than $150 a month and that was running AC all the timein a 2k sq ft house, in Florida. So no we do not "waste" energy. They friggin charge you way too much.

And no, i will not move on base. That place is full of issues and I much prefer my quiet, private, safe life on base. I will move back to the states before I move to that place.

Its not an issue of "cant afford to live off base" Its more of an issue of being taken advantage of because we are American living here., I know there is now way we are using 700 800 and yes 1200 dollars worth of electricity. We have NEVER in our lives used that kind of electricity.

Its funny how one month our bill is 150 or 200 and the next month it jumps up to 700 or 800 with no change in how we use energy.

Maybe you should just learn to read something and and keep quiet if you dont know the whole story or maybe ask why this is a concern for some instead of being so condescending and acting like you are so perfect.

For your information, we pay all our bills on time and have two savings accounts that we save to every month. I find it a problem however, that every month the electicity charge is different and bounces around in range. I can not predict it from month to month. That creates havoc in my budget (yes FYI we do have one) and spending 1400 on two bills in one month does not make me happy. Sorry if YOU love to give away your money for no reason.

Also funny how the telephone bill, in the landlords name, never changes in price. I just paid that bill today and I can tell you the EXACT amount it will be next bill as well. And yes, she gives me the bill and I pay it at the post office so I do know and see that bill.

get off your high horse Larry.

And just so you know and can not say I am making it up.

Last months bill 700

this months bill --- 110.

Now you tell me how that makes sense??? But i guess it just means that I am ignorant, uninformed and using too much electricity???

You are welcome to come and look at my bills if you think this is not true.

1.  Your first post is what really frustrated me, complaining about the timeliness of being notified, "... I am so glad that I get this info when the month is all ready half through ...", as it was put in with the bill a few months ago, and from the format of your post appears that you didn't read it on this month's bill either, but happened to receive it in an e-mail.  And as I stated before, it was great of you to post the information, in case others may have missed it on the bills as well; but your commentary bothered me, as I get tired of people constantly complaining about how bad Naples is.

2.  Then you continue in your next post talking about stay at homers and not being able to do anything and then you close by saying "... this really screws things unless you can afford the 800 dollar electric bills they send you."  So, I try to offer advice on how our family takes care of things and manages to keep the electric bill under $200 a month.

3. Now for your reply ...
    a.  I did not suggest you dry your clothes overnight, I had suggested you wash @ night, and dry in the morning as the gas dryer wouldn't utilize much electricity.
          (1) I am fortunate that I have not had any issues with housing; but really, you've put up with a faulty dryer for 2 years??  How much have you tried, have you taken it to the Base CO?  If you didn't want to take the much effort, you could buy one of those little timers that you can plug appliances into and use it to cut off the electricity to your dryer when you want it to stop, yes more effort for each load, but it is an option if housing won't assist you.
     b. "Our bill was still $700 last month even though I know we do not use this much electricity."  So, how much electricity is $700 in Italy?  How much did you use?  We tend to average between 350 - 500 kW per month, and as I said before, our bill has been under $200/month for the last 2 years.  Maybe we'll get the dreaded multiple thousand dollar bill I've heard about when we transfer out, who knows?! In the states, I am not sure of our usage, but our bills were rarely over $70; but we are not in the US now!
     c. I was not trying to get into your financial status, you were the one who said "unless you can afford the $800  electric bills"; also on that note, there is a reason military anyways (can't speak for CIV & Contractors) receive 747 Euro a month for utilities to make up the difference from our counter parts back in the states.
     d.  Finally ... if ENEL is ripping you off so badly because you're American; you had the foresight, or maybe just lucked out, to have your telephone in your Landlord's name, why not do the same for you electric service as well ... just a thought.

Also ... American's getting ripped off ... so far, looking though ENEL's website, I can only find info for 3kW service rates ... maybe if us American's weren't accustomed to using electricity so freely, we could keep the 3kW service instead of upgrading to 6kW ... not sure if that COULD be the reason "American's bills are always higher" as Jason let us know that fact.