Gimmick Watch · Case file № 6 · Free nights + card bonus
Free Nights & Cool Summer 12 Reviewed TXU "Free Nights & Cool Summer": the nights are free — the gear that could use them is banned.
It's one of the top plans in TXU's online shop, and unlike some of its siblings, it publishes its Electricity Facts Label. The EFL prices the "free" result at 18.9¢ per kWh for a typical home — then bars anyone whose house could genuinely live at night.
The pitch
TXU's top-shelf plan
Open TXU's online shop for a Dallas ZIP and Free Nights & Cool Summer 12 sits near the top of the shelf, pitched in their words: "Get free energy charges every night, all year, plus a 25% bonus toward daytime usage all summer. Rooftop solar and other customer exclusions apply.*" The card advertises "18.2¢ per kWh at 2000 kWh" and a "$200 Visa® Prepaid Card Bonus."
If the engine sounds familiar, it should: this is the nocturnal sibling of the free-days machine we dissected in our first TXU case file. Same maker, same trick, hands moved to the night shift — with one difference in TXU's favor: this plan's Electricity Facts Label is public. So nothing on this page is estimated. We can just read it to you.
The EFL (Oncor area — Dallas–Fort Worth — dated August 6, 2026) prices the plan at 20.3¢ / 18.9¢ / 18.2¢ per kWh at 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 kWh — with every free night already included in the average. Hold that thought, and then read the eligibility line.
The receipts
The shop page on the left. The EFL on the right.
Marketing quoted from TXU's online shop (shopping.txu.com, ZIP 75205); fine print quoted from the plan's own Electricity Facts Label (Oncor, dated 08/06/2026, version ONXFNCOOLS12AC). Both checked August 6, 2026.
What the ad says
“Get free energy charges every night, all year, plus a 25% bonus toward daytime usage all summer.”
What the fine print says
The EFL defines the gift: “From 9:00 p.m. through 4:59 a.m. each day, you will receive a 100% credit on all Energy Charges.” Energy charges — one line item. The other one never sleeps: “TDU Delivery Charges Per Month and TDU Delivery Charges Per kWh will be passed through to customer as billed from the Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU).” Delivery is billed on every kWh, midnight included. Even the pitch is lawyered — it promises free energy charges, not free electricity.
Verdict 1/4 Free of one line item, from 9:00 p.m. to 4:59 a.m.
What the ad says
The shop page’s headline number: “18.2¢ per kWh at 2000 kWh.”
What the fine print says
That’s the EFL’s best cell. The full row reads 20.3¢ at 500 kWh, 18.9¢ at 1,000, 18.2¢ at 2,000 — and those averages already assume the nights are pulling hard. Per the EFL, they reflect “that an average of 41.16% of electricity usage occurred during the Free Nights Savings period,” as the EFL defines it. Underneath sits an energy charge of “20.6000¢” on all kWh and a “$9.95” monthly base charge.
Verdict 2/4 With 41% of usage already counted free, the average still starts with an 18.
What the ad says
“Cool Summer” is half the plan’s name — the “25% bonus toward daytime usage all summer.”
What the fine print says
The EFL: “You will receive an additional 25% credit on all Energy Charges during the Free Nights Savings period during July, August, and September. This additional credit will never exceed your total daytime energy charges (5:00 AM–8:59 PM) and has no cash value.” So: 25% of the energy charge on your night-window usage, three months a year, capped. At the EFL’s own modeled 12.73% summer-night share, that works out to roughly 0.7¢ per kWh.
Verdict 3/4 Half the plan’s name, worth about two-thirds of a cent.
What the ad says
The asterisk on the pitch: “Rooftop solar and other customer exclusions apply.*”
What the fine print says
The EFL spells out what the asterisk hides, in one sentence: “Customers with electric vehicles, batteries, and/or solar panels are ineligible.” An EV that charges overnight, a battery that refills after 9 p.m., solar that erases your daytime usage — these are the technologies that move double-digit shares of a home’s load into a 9-p.m.-to-5-a.m. window. All three are barred at the door.
Verdict 4/4 The plan bans exactly the customers who could beat it.
The math
How nocturnal would you have to be?
The free-nights engine has no moving parts: nights are free because the days are priced to cover them. Here, every kWh between 5:00 a.m. and 8:59 p.m. bills at a 20.6¢ energy charge — and in Texas, that window is where air conditioning does its work.
The EFL builds its own average out loud. Assume 41.16% of usage lands in the free window — TXU's three-year average for customers on similar time-of-use products — and the nightly credit shaves about 8.5¢ per kWh off the 20.6¢ charge. Add the $9.95 base and Oncor's pass-through delivery on every kWh, and out comes the published 18.9¢ average at 1,000 kWh. The disclosure reconciles perfectly. The price is just high.
So the only question that matters: how much of your usage has to happen between 9 p.m. and 4:59 a.m. before this plan's average matches a plain fixed-rate plan? Every additional point of night share is worth 20.6¢ on that slice — the EFL's own arithmetic, extended:
| To match a plain plan averaging | Your usage must be this nocturnal (9 p.m.–4:59 a.m.) |
|---|---|
| 14.0¢/kWh | 65% at night |
| 12.0¢/kWh | 75% at night |
| 10.0¢/kWh | 84% at night |
Arithmetic at 1,000 kWh/month: required night share = 41.16% + (18.9¢ − target rate) ÷ 20.6¢ × 100. Both anchors are the EFL's own published figures; the Cool Summer Bonus is held at the EFL's modeled value. Free nights credit energy charges only — delivery is billed around the clock — so shifting usage into the window saves at most 20.6¢ on the shifted kWh — up to 25.75¢ in July–September, when the Cool Summer credit stacks.
For scale: the free window is 8 of 24 hours — exactly a third of the clock. TXU's own customers on similar plans averaged 41.16% over three years, which is already usage leaning hard into the night — and it still produces an 18.9¢ average. To reach 10¢ territory you'd need roughly double the model: a home that runs more than four of every five kWh between bedtime and dawn.
Which is where the eligibility line stops being fine print and becomes the design. There are exactly three ways an ordinary house gets to 60–80% nocturnal: an EV charging overnight, a battery that fills up after 9 p.m., or solar panels wiping the daytime side of the meter. The EFL bans all three by name. What's left — delaying the dishwasher, running laundry at 9:30 — moves single percentage points.
Could it ever make sense?
The steelman: a night-shift worker who sleeps through the afternoon with the thermostat up, or a home that's genuinely empty every daytime hour, can push well past the 41% model — no banned hardware required. But per the table, even they need roughly two-thirds or more of their usage inside the window before this plan merely ties a plain plan — and the EFL's three-year customer average says most people who think they're night owls land near 41%. Pull a month of smart-meter data before you believe your own estimate.
Live rates · updated August 7, 2026
What Dallas–Fort Worth homes can get instead, today.
The cheapest of the 117 live Oncor-area plans we list, priced at 1,000 kWh with TDU delivery and base fees included. Where a price leans on a bill credit, we say so on the card.
APGE SimpleSaver 11
APGE SimpleSaver 12
Discount Power Bill Credit Bundle 12
Cirro Energy Bill Bonus 24
Cirro Energy Bill Bonus 12
Rates as of August 7, 2026 — always verify on the EFL before you enroll. See every Dallas plan we list →
The playbook
If this plan is on your screen right now
- Read the window, not the word "night." Free runs 9:00 p.m. to 4:59 a.m. Dinner, evening TV, and the brutal 5–9 p.m. cooling hours all bill at the full 20.6¢ energy charge.
- Remember delivery never sleeps. The credit hits energy charges only — TDU delivery charges are passed through on every kWh, free window included, plus the $9.95 monthly base.
- Compare averages to averages. The EFL's 18.9¢ at 1,000 kWh already contains the free nights at a 41% share. Line that single number up against the live table above — no time-of-use mental math required.
- If you own solar, an EV, or a battery — the plan already said no. The EFL rules you ineligible. Treat that as the tell: an offer that bans the load-shifters is telling you where its margin comes from.
- Price the $200 card honestly. Spread across a 12-month term it's about $17 a month if fully redeemed — and card bonuses of this kind carry their own redemption terms — read them. Weigh it against the per-kWh gap between 18.9¢ and the table above at your usage; at 1,000 kWh, a single cent of rate difference is $10 a month.
Quick answers
TXU Free Nights & Cool Summer — your questions, answered
What time do TXU free nights start and end?
Per the plan’s EFL: “From 9:00 p.m. through 4:59 a.m. each day, you will receive a 100% credit on all Energy Charges.” That’s an eight-hour window, every day of the year. The credit applies to energy charges only — TDU delivery charges are passed through as billed on every kWh, night or day, and the $9.95 monthly base charge always applies.
Why is my TXU Free Nights bill so high?
Because the daytime rate carries the plan. Every kWh from 5:00 a.m. to 8:59 p.m. bills at a 20.6¢ energy charge — and in Texas, that window is where air conditioning lives. Add the $9.95 base charge and pass-through delivery on all usage, and the EFL’s own average is 18.9¢ per kWh at 1,000 kWh — a figure that already assumes 41.16% of your usage happened at night. Use less of your power at night than that model and your real average lands higher still.
Can I have solar panels on TXU Free Nights & Cool Summer?
No. The EFL’s eligibility line is one sentence: “Customers with electric vehicles, batteries, and/or solar panels are ineligible.” Solar, EVs, and home batteries — the three things that most effectively shift a home’s billed usage into the free night window — all disqualify you from the plan.
Is TXU Free Nights & Cool Summer 12 a good deal?
Judge it by its own EFL: 18.9¢ per kWh at 1,000 kWh (Oncor area, dated August 6, 2026), with 41.16% of usage already assumed to be free. By the EFL’s own arithmetic, matching a plain plan that averages 14¢ takes about 65% of your usage at night; matching 10¢ takes about 84%. The free window is 8 of 24 hours. For nearly every lived-in home, a plain fixed-rate plan costs less — compare the live plans on this page. (One more EFL line: “This product is 3% renewable.” The statewide average is 37%.)
How does the Cool Summer Bonus work?
Per the EFL: “You will receive an additional 25% credit on all Energy Charges during the Free Nights Savings period during July, August, and September. This additional credit will never exceed your total daytime energy charges (5:00 AM–8:59 PM) and has no cash value.” In plain terms, it’s a credit equal to 25% of the energy charge on your night-window usage, summer only, capped. At the EFL’s modeled 12.73% summer-night usage share, it’s worth roughly 0.7¢ per kWh.
What is the cancellation fee for TXU Free Nights & Cool Summer 12?
The EFL lists a $150.00 early cancellation fee on the 12-month fixed-rate term. The energy price is fixed for the term; per the EFL, it can move only to reflect actual changes in TDU charges, ERCOT or Texas Regional Entity administrative fees, or new government-imposed fees.
How this case was built
Everything above comes from two places: TXU's own websites (the shopping.txu.com plan listings for ZIP 75205) and the plan's own Electricity Facts Label — "TXU Energy Free Nights & Cool Summer 12," Oncor Electric Delivery service area, dated August 6, 2026 (version ONXFNCOOLS12AC) — all checked August 6, 2026. EFL lines are quoted verbatim; every computed figure uses only the EFL's published components and its own 41.16% and 12.73% usage assumptions. The EFL lists TDU delivery charges as a pass-through without printing the amounts, so no delivery figure appears in our arithmetic — the comparison is built so it doesn't need one. TXU Energy and Free Nights & Cool Summer are trademarks of their owner; quotes are reproduced for consumer education and commentary. ChooseMyPower is independent and doesn't sell this plan — providers we do list pay the same flat fee, so no plan can buy a kinder read.
Enri Zhulati
Consumer AdvocateEnri knows the regulations, the fine print, and the tricks some retail electricity providers use. He's spent nearly a decade learning how to spot hidden fees, misleading teaser rates, and contracts that sound good but cost more. He writes the guides that show you what they're hiding — his goal is to help Texans avoid the traps and find plans that actually save money.
Sources
- TXU Energy Free Nights & Cool Summer 12 — Electricity Facts Label, Oncor Electric Delivery service area, dated August 6, 2026 (version ONXFNCOOLS12AC)
- shopping.txu.com plan listings for ZIP 75205, checked August 6, 2026
- ChooseMyPower — live Texas provider rate data (Oncor area)
Sources are cited for informational purposes. Data may have been updated since publication.
More case files
Same playbook, different logo.
TXU EnergyTXU Energy Smart 2000 Select 12
A $100 credit parked at double a normal home's usage — the cliff is in the name.
Express EnergyExpress Energy Flash Value 12
Engineered to win one sort button on the state's own shopping site.
Just EnergyJust Energy Smart Choice 12 (also sold as Amigo Power Perks & Tara Value Choice)
One spreadsheet, three costumes: the same 23.8¢ trap under three brand names.
Compare plans that don't need a bedtime.
No free windows to model, no eligibility lines to pass — every plan we list shows its real cost at your usage, TDU charges included, bill credits flagged.
See today's rates at my usageBack to Gimmick Watch — more case files as the ads roll in.