Last updated: October 27, 2026. Power to Choose listings, Electricity Facts Labels and CenterPoint delivery rates checked October 27, 2026.
“Free nights” is one of the best marketing phrases in Texas electricity. Nobody likes paying for power, and running the dryer and dishwasher for nothing after 11 p.m. sounds great. But the provider still has to buy the power you use in those hours. So the price you pay the rest of the time goes up.
Whether that trade works for you comes down to one number, the share of your electricity you use during the free hours. I live in Fort Bend County, in CenterPoint’s territory (we moved here in 2025), so the plans below are the ones that show up for my own ZIP code. Below I show how to find your number and what today’s plans need it to be.
Quick answer
- Today on Power to Choose, CenterPoint’s area had 10 time-of-use plans. 9 had free hours: 5 free nights, 1 free weekends and 3 free daytime plans. At 1,000 kWh their labels showed 10.3¢ to 17.9¢ per kWh, against a median of 12.95¢ for plain 12-month fixed plans (Power to Choose export, Oct 27, 2026).
- “Free” covers the energy charge only. CenterPoint’s delivery charge of 6.5333¢/kWh, plus $4.90 a month, still applies to every kWh (CenterPoint).
- The break-even share decides it. In our example, a free-nights plan beat a plain plan at 1,000 kWh only when at least 26% of the usage fell between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
- The advertised price assumes a split. Today’s labels assumed 30% to 43% of usage in the free hours. Yours may be lower.
- Check your own split with the “Energy Data 15 Min Interval” report on Smart Meter Texas, which keeps up to two years of data (SMT guide).
How free nights and weekends plans work
Your smart meter records usage in 15-minute intervals (PUCT). A time-of-use plan uses those intervals to price each kWh by when you used it. Today’s free-hours plans in CenterPoint’s area came in two styles:
- A 0¢ energy rate during the free window and a normal energy charge the rest of the time (five plans).
- A credit for the energy charges on usage in the window (four plans). One free-nights plan works this way, with a high energy charge and an extra summer credit, and so do the three daytime bundles.
In both styles, only the provider’s energy charge goes to zero. Delivery is passed through from CenterPoint at cost for every kWh, so a “free” kWh at 2 a.m. still costs you 6.5333¢. Several plans also add a monthly base charge.
Why the daytime rate is higher
Someone has to pay for the free kWh. That someone is you, during the paid hours. The table below shows the energy charge each plan bills outside its free window, straight from its EFL. Compare it with about 5.93¢, the energy charge implied by the median plain 12-month plan today. The free-weekends plan charges 10.9¢ on weekdays, and the credit plan charges 18.6¢ on every kWh before its credit.
What Power to Choose showed today
I downloaded the full Power to Choose offer list on October 27, 2026 and pulled every English-language plan marked time-of-use in CenterPoint’s territory, then read each plan’s Electricity Facts Label (EFL). I haven’t named providers, because the point is how the plans are built.
| Type | Free window | Paid-hours energy charge | Base charge | Free share the EFL assumes | Term | EFL price at 1,000 kWh | Break-even free share* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free nights | 11 p.m.–6 a.m. daily | 5.55¢ | $9.95 | 35% | 8 months | 11.6¢ | 11% |
| Free nights | 11 p.m.–6 a.m. daily | 6.63¢ | $9.95 | 35% | 12 months | 12.3¢ | 26% |
| Free nights | 11 p.m.–6 a.m. daily | 7.25¢ | $9.95 | 35% | 24 months | 12.7¢ | 32% |
| Free nights | 11 p.m.–6 a.m. daily | 7.71¢ | $9.95 | 35% | 36 months | 13.0¢ | 36% |
| Free nights (bill credit) | 9 p.m.–4:59 a.m. daily | 18.6¢ | $9.95 | 43.13% | 12 months | 17.9¢ | 73% |
| Free weekends | All of Saturday and Sunday | 10.9¢ | $0.00 | 30% | 24 months | 14.7¢ | 46% |
| Free days (bundle) | 9 a.m.–4 p.m. daily | 4.6¢ | $0 + $49.99 one-time | 33% | 3 months | 10.5¢ | none: cheaper at any split |
| Free days (bundle) | 9 a.m.–4 p.m. daily | 4.6¢ | $0 + $49.99 one-time | 33% | 3 months | 10.5¢ | none: cheaper at any split |
| Free days (bundle) | 9 a.m.–4 p.m. daily | 4.3¢ | $0 + $49.99 one-time | 33% | 3 months | 10.3¢ | none: cheaper at any split |
The tenth plan had separate peak and off-peak rates by season, but no free hours. Statewide, the export listed 52 English-language time-of-use plans across all delivery areas.
The cheapest-looking plans, the free-daytime bundles, run for just 3 months and require a one-time $49.99 setup and carbon-offset purchase. PUCT rules let the EFL spread a one-time cost over 12 months for the average price (16 TAC §25.475(g)(2)(D)(ii)), but on a 3-month term you pay all of it in a quarter of that time. Spread over 3 months instead, the 4.6¢ bundles need about 7% of usage in its free hours to beat the example plain plan. Short terms are often priced low anyway (the median plain fixed plan of 6 months or less was 10.85¢ today), so find out what you roll onto when it ends.
The credit-style plan is the other one to watch. It needs about 73% of usage in its window outside July to September. Its own label assumes 43.13%, and it still shows 17.9¢ at 1,000 kWh, well above the plain median. Its EFL also says homes with EVs, batteries or solar panels are ineligible.
The math: when free hours win or lose
Delivery is the same on both plans, so leave it out. For any month:
Free-hours plan: base charge + paid-hours energy charge × kWh × (1 − free share)
Plain plan: base charge + energy charge × kWh
Set them equal and you get the break-even share. Here’s a worked example.
For the example, the free-nights plan uses the components on one of today’s 12-month EFLs: 6.63¢ from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., 0¢ from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., and a $9.95 base charge. The plain plan is made up: about 5.93¢ (5.927¢ before rounding) with no base charge, which reproduces today’s 12.95¢ median at 1,000 kWh exactly. Both add CenterPoint delivery.
| Share of use, 11 p.m.–6 a.m. | Free-nights bill | Plain-plan bill | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $139.85 | $129.50 | free nights costs $10.35 more |
| 20% | $133.22 | $129.50 | free nights costs $3.72 more |
| 25% | $129.91 | $129.50 | free nights costs $0.41 more |
| 30% | $126.59 | $129.50 | free nights saves $2.91 |
| 35% | $123.28 | $129.50 | free nights saves $6.22 |
| 45% | $116.65 | $129.50 | free nights saves $12.85 |
The break-even moves with usage, since the base charge matters less in a big month:
| Monthly use | Break-even share at night | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| 500 kWh | 41% | 203 kWh between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. |
| 1,000 kWh | 26% | 256 kWh between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. |
| 1,500 kWh | 21% | 309 kWh between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. |
| 2,000 kWh | 18% | 362 kWh between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. |
For context, the free window is 7 of 24 hours, or 29% of the day. A home that used power evenly around the clock would land near there. An electric vehicle charged after 11 p.m., or a pool pump and laundry on timers, push the share up. Cooking, TV and AC in the early evening fall outside the window. Measure; don’t guess.
Free weekends work the same way. Saturday and Sunday are 2 of 7 days, about 29% of the week, and the plan above needed around 46% of usage on weekends. Picture a home that’s mostly empty on weekdays and full on weekends, with laundry saved up for Saturday.
How to check your own split with Smart Meter Texas
You need about 15 minutes and your bill. Smart Meter Texas registration asks for your ESI ID, meter number and current provider (SMT residential user guide).
- Log in. On the Dashboard, set Report Type to “Energy Data 15 Min Interval”.
- Choose a start and end date. SMT keeps up to two years. Use a full year if you can, or at least one summer month and one mild month.
- Click “Export My Report” for a CSV file you can open in Excel or Google Sheets.
- Add a column that marks each interval as free or paid. For 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., that’s intervals starting from 11:00 p.m. through 5:45 a.m., 28 of the day’s 96. For free weekends, mark Saturdays and Sundays.
- Add up the kWh in free intervals and divide by the total. That’s your free share. Do it month by month as well.
Then compare your share with the break-even for each plan you’re considering, at your own usage. Summer usually matters most, since that’s when the bills are biggest. For more on the download, see our Smart Meter Texas guide.
What the EFL shows for these plans
Every plan’s EFL must give average prices at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh, including all recurring charges (16 TAC §25.475(g)). For a time-of-use plan, those averages only hold for a particular split, so the labels state an assumption. One of today’s assumed that “35% of the Average Monthly Use” falls in its free hours; another, that “30.0% of usage occurs during Weekends.” On a time-of-use EFL, look for:
- The free window, to the minute, and whether it covers every day.
- The assumed free share behind the 500/1,000/2,000 kWh prices.
- Paid-hours energy charge, base charge and one-time costs, so you can redo the math with your own share.
- How missing interval data is handled. One EFL says you may not get credit for free-hour usage if your interval data isn’t available when the bill is made.
- Eligibility and payment conditions, such as no EVs, batteries or solar, or required autopay with a $5 fee if you aren’t on it.
- Term and cancellation fee, from $15 per remaining month to $250 flat on today’s plans.
The rest of the label reads like any other EFL; our guide to reading an Electricity Facts Label goes through it section by section, and the Power to Choose walkthrough shows how to filter time-of-use plans in or out.
Who should consider one
My take: free nights plans suit a fairly small group. Maybe you charge an EV overnight. Maybe the dishwasher, laundry or pool pump already runs on timers after 11 p.m., or the house sits empty most weekdays. For everyone else, a plain fixed-rate plan is easier to price and usually wins, because the paid-hours rate carries the cost of the free ones. Your own 15-minute data will tell you which group you’re in.
If AC drives most of your bill, remember that the hottest hours fall outside an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. window. Here’s what central AC costs to run in Texas. For the wider picture, see the average electric bill in Texas, CenterPoint delivery charges explained and electricity prices by state. Moving soon? Start with setting up electricity in a new Texas home.
FAQ
Are free nights electricity plans really free?
No. The energy charge is zero or credited during the window, but delivery charges still apply to every kWh, and the other hours cost more.
What share of usage do I need in the free hours?
It depends on the plan. In our example, about 26% at 1,000 kWh. Today’s free-nights plans needed anywhere from about 11% to 73% against our example plain plan.
Can I switch off a free nights plan if it isn’t working?
Yes, but check the cancellation fee on the EFL first. Today’s ranged from $15 per remaining month to $250.
Do free nights plans work with solar?
Some don’t allow it. At least one EFL today excluded homes with solar panels, batteries or electric vehicles, so check before you enroll.
Sources
- Power to Choose (PUCT) offer export, downloaded Oct 27, 2026, and the Electricity Facts Label linked from each of the 10 English-language time-of-use plans in CenterPoint’s territory (EFLs dated Oct 15 to Oct 27, 2026).
- CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric Rates Report, 10/1/2026 and the PUCT TDU delivery charges page. Checked Oct 27, 2026.
- 16 TAC §25.475 (effective 01/06/2022), PUCT. Checked Oct 27, 2026.
- Smart Meter Texas Residential User Guide and PUCT, Metering. Checked Oct 27, 2026.