A gimmick with its paperwork in order
The pitch is simple: pay nothing for electricity all day Saturday and Sunday, every week, for 24 months. Champion Energy Services sells Free Weekends-24 directly on its own site, in all five Texas utility territories, and the plan's Electricity Facts Label is one click away. The copies we pulled were generated the same day we checked, dated August 6, 2026.
That puts this review in a different category from the free-days plans that hide their price. TXU's Free Pass is sold by phone only, with no public EFL. Champion publishes everything: the free window, the weekday rate, the assumptions behind the advertised average. Champion is also not a fly-by-night name. It has been the retail arm of power generator Calpine since October 2015, holds PUCT certificate #10098, and generally earns strong marks from customers; our full Champion review covers the ratings and the complaint record.
So this is not a hunt for hidden fine print. The fine print is fine. The question is whether the structure wins, and Champion's own documents answer it. Sitting next to Free Weekends on the same shelf is Champ Saver-12, the company's plain fixed-rate plan, and at every usage level printed on the labels, the plain plan is cheaper than the free one.
Claims vs. fine print
Four claims on the front. Four footnotes on the back. Here they are, side by side.
The mailer says
"Free Weekends": a 0.0 cent energy charge all day Saturday and Sunday, from 12:01 am Saturday to 11:59 pm Sunday.
The fine print says
Free covers Champion's energy charge only. The utility's delivery charge, 6.0 cents per kWh in Oncor territory plus a $4.06 monthly fee, is billed on every kilowatt-hour, all week. A "free" weekend kilowatt-hour costs about 6.0 cents. That is still a real discount, but it is not zero.
Source: Free Weekends-24 EFL, Oncor territory, August 6, 2026
The mailer says
An advertised average of 13.7 cents per kWh at 1,000 kWh in Oncor territory.
The fine print says
That average assumes exactly 30.0% of your usage lands on weekends. A perfectly even week puts 28.6% there, so Champion's assumption is close to honest, which is rare in this plan class. The problem is the comparison the label invites: the same math on Champion's own Champ Saver-12 gives 13.0 cents. The free plan is priced above the flat one on the company's own labels.
Source: Free Weekends-24 and Champ Saver-12 EFLs, Oncor territory, August 6, 2026
The mailer says
"Fixed Rate," 24-month contract term.
The fine print says
The energy charge is fixed for the term; like every Texas fixed plan, the all-in price can still move if utility delivery charges or ERCOT administrative fees change. The number that never moves is the exit fee: $250 to leave early, double the $150 fee on Champ Saver-12, and the 24-month term is twice as long a lock on a lifestyle bet.
Source: Free Weekends-24 EFL disclosure chart, August 6, 2026
The rate Champion does publish
Credit where it is due: every number below comes from Champion's own Electricity Facts Labels, pulled August 6, 2026, and you can pull the same documents yourself from the sources at the bottom of this page. In Oncor territory, Free Weekends-24 averages 14.1 cents per kWh at 500 kWh, 13.7 at 1,000, and 13.5 at 2,000, built from a 10.4 cent weekday energy charge, a 0.0 cent weekend charge, no base charge, and Oncor's passthrough delivery. In CenterPoint territory it runs 13.5, 13.0, and 12.7 on a 10.5 cent weekday charge.
Now the sibling. Champ Saver-12, Champion's plain fixed-rate plan, charges 6.6 cents for energy every hour of the week. Its Oncor label averages 13.4, 13.0, and 12.8 cents at the same three usage levels; CenterPoint runs 12.9, 12.4, and 12.2. Same company, same $0 base charge, same delivery passthrough, shorter 12-month term, smaller $150 exit fee. At every printed tier, in every territory we checked, the flat plan undercuts the free one.
One practical note: Free Weekends does not appear in our live marketplace feed for any of the five utility territories as of August 2026. You buy it directly from Champion. That is not a red flag in this case, because the EFL is public and current. It just means you do your comparing by reading, and the reading says the discount is priced in before you ever skip a weekday load of laundry.
Free Weekends-24 is sold directly at championenergyservices.com, with a public Electricity Facts Label for every utility territory; Champion's customer line is 1-877-653-5090. The plan does not appear in our live marketplace feed as of August 2026, so the comparison below shows what the same money buys from providers that do list.
How the free weekend works
The weekend is defined on the label: all day Saturday and Sunday, from 12:01 am Saturday morning to 11:59 pm Sunday night. Friday night is a weeknight. That window is 48 of the week's 168 hours, or 28.6% of the calendar. Your smart meter's interval data decides which bucket every kilowatt-hour falls into; if intervals go missing, the EFL says usage gets proportionately adjusted to match the utility's total read.
During those 48 hours, Champion's energy charge drops to 0.0 cents. What does not drop: the utility's per-kWh delivery charge (about 6.0 cents in Oncor territory as of August 2026) and its monthly meter fee ($4.06), which bill on every kilowatt-hour and every month regardless of when you use power. The other 120 hours a week, you pay 10.4 cents for energy instead of the 6.6 cents Champion charges on its flat plan. The weekday premium funds the weekend gift.
The contract runs 24 months with a $250 early termination fee, waived if you move and show evidence. Champion's Solar Buyback can be added to the plan. None of this is buried; it is all on a two-page label. The structure is the whole story, which is why the math section matters more than the fine print.
Do the math on 48 free hours
Strip the plan to its trade: you pay 10.4 cents instead of 6.6 on weekdays, a 3.8 cent premium on most of your usage, to pay zero energy charge on weekends. Whether that trade wins depends on one number: the share of your monthly kilowatt-hours that lands between 12:01 am Saturday and 11:59 pm Sunday.
The break-even against Champion's own Champ Saver-12 is 36.5%. Below that share, the free plan costs you more. A perfectly even week gives you 28.6%, because weekends are 48 of 168 hours, and real homes sit close to even: the air conditioner, refrigerator, and water heater that dominate a Texas bill do not check the calendar. Champion's own label assumes 30.0% and still prices Free Weekends at 13.7 cents against Champ Saver-12's 13.0 at 1,000 kWh. At a truly even 28.6%, the plan pencils to about 13.9 cents, roughly $8 more per month at 1,000 kWh, about $100 more over a year, for the pleasure of the word free.
Against the wider market the bar is looser. The cheapest flat no-gimmick plan in our live Oncor feed averaged 13.8 cents at 1,000 kWh as of August 2026; Free Weekends needs about 30% of your usage on weekends to match that, roughly what Champion already assumes, so against the listed flat field an even home is close to a wash. The strict test stays in-house: Champ Saver-12's 13.0 cents undercuts every flat plan in our feed, and beating it takes 36.5%. The 7.0 cent all-in leader on the same feed is a bill-credit plan, a different game with its own trap.
Who can win this plan: homes that can push serious load into the window. An EV charged only on weekends. A pool pump scheduled hard. A lake house occupied Saturday and Sunday and empty all week. Those homes can clear 37% and come out ahead, and for them this is one of the more honestly built free-time plans in Texas; our free nights and weekends guide shows how the whole category compares. If you do not already know you are one of those homes, you are not.
28.6%
Share of the week's hours the free window covers (48 of 168)
36.5%
Weekend usage share needed to break even against Champion's own Champ Saver-12
13.7 vs 13.0
Cents per kWh at 1,000 kWh, Free Weekends-24 vs Champ Saver-12, on Champion's own Oncor EFLs (August 2026)
$250
Early termination fee on the 24-month term, vs $150 on the 12-month flat plan
Fine print, decoded
The five footnotes on the back of the mailer, translated into plain English.
| What the footnote says | What it means |
|---|---|
| "All price calculations assume that 30.0% of usage occurs during Weekends and 70.0% of usage occurs during Weekdays. Your average price will vary based on usage as reported in interval data from your advanced meter." | A perfectly even week puts 28.6% of usage on weekends, so 30.0% is a nearly honest assumption, unusual for this plan class. But if you travel or the house sits empty on weekends, your real average lands above the printed 13.7 cents. |
| "Weekend hours are all day Saturday and Sunday, from 12:01 am on Saturday morning to 11:59 pm Sunday night." | Friday night does not count. The window opens after midnight Friday and closes before midnight Sunday: 48 hours minus two minutes, as written. |
| "Yes, Early Termination Fee: $250.00. ... This fee will not apply if you move and provide a forwarding address or other evidence to verify you have moved." | You are betting on your weekend habits for 24 months. If the bet goes wrong and you are not moving, unwinding it costs $250. |
| "Interval data from your advanced meter will determine the usage at each time of use rate. In the event of missing intervals, each interval of the Interval Data will be proportionately adjusted so the sum of all intervals equal the Billed Usage provided by the TDU." | Your smart meter decides what counts as weekend usage. If readings go missing, the gap gets spread evenly across the period by formula, not argued over. |
| "The fixed energy charge from Champion Energy will not change for the duration of the agreement. The price applied ... may be different from the price in this EFL if there are changes in TDU charges ... or changes resulting from federal, state or local laws." | Fixed means Champion's side of the price is fixed. The utility's delivery charges pass through without markup and can move, which is true of every fixed-rate plan in Texas. |
What to do instead
For contrast, here is the live Oncor market on the day we published (August 2026). The cheapest all-in plan at 1,000 kWh was 7.0 cents per kWh, but it earns that number with a bill credit that punishes low-usage months; bill-credit plans cut both ways. The cheapest flat plan with no credits and no tiers was 13.8 cents at 1,000 kWh, and Champion's own Champ Saver-12 pencils to 13.0 on its EFL at the same usage, cheaper than every flat plan in the feed. Every plan below publishes its full Electricity Facts Label before you enroll.