I saved $4 switching to PG&E EV electricity rates

How much does the extra 100 kwh a month cost you now ?
That is, how much has your bill increased using 400 kwh on the old tariff, to 500 kwh on the new tariff ?

 

I have solar panels so the results may be different. However, I'm finding that E9a may not save as much as E6. While the Midnight to 7am rate is considerably less on E9a the extra time and later hours at Peak rate may work against you especially in the hot summer months if you are using air conditioning. Of course you don't need much a/c in Milpitas as compared to Sacramento Alternately if one had a Volt or Tesla its clear the E9a rate would be better.

 

For the benefit of those in other parts of the country, Milpitas is in the south San Francisco Bay area, and typically there are only a dozen days or so each year where A/C is really useful (high temps above, say, 90F). OTOH, the normal summer high temperatures 100 miles away in the California Central Valley, where Sacramento is, is typically in the 100F+ range. The Alaska current coming down the California coast is what keeps things cool here, and it only gets hot when we get hot air flow coming from the Central Valley.

 

Then there's the difference in home prices. When we lived in Palo Alto, Los Altos, Santa Clara we never had A/C and only even thought about it 2 or 3 days a Summer. Of course solar panels work better in Sacramento.

 

Thanks for trying to answer my curiosity. Can you check a bill for the period 4/24 - 5/24, before you owned the PiP ?

Fwiw, I think you are doing OK on your marginal fuel cost for the car. Your marginal rate for electricity is less than 16 cents a kwh since part of your bill is a fixed amount, suggesting your cents/mile from electricity is somewhere around 5 cents compared to 8 cents/mile for the petrol miles.

 

No critique, but here is my run of the numbers --

A year ago you spent 4675 cents for 359 kwh;
12 months later 8317 cents for 514 kwh;
So the extra 155 kwh cost (8317-4675) = 3442 cents, equal to 22.2 cents/kwh.

Idling in a Prius ?
Short trips starting out with a cold ICE OTOH would not be a Prius forte, which you presumably run EV only.

 

I doubt you can wait till 9 pm to turn on the AC. It's been cool for the pass month in central CA.
I bet your bill will go up when it get hot.

 

For an apples-to-apples comparison between E-1 and E-6 and E-9 rate plans on PG&E, air conditioning avoidance and other similar behaviors have to be taken into account. In my case, I have to admit that when I went from E-1 to E-6, adding solar PV and my PIP in the process, I have been more hesitant to use the air conditioning, so my numbers probably look better than a fair comparison would demonstrate. Pool pumps, clothes dryer, dishwasher, PIP charging, etc can be moved to off-peak times somewhat painlessly, but air conditioning...

 

I think this is an interesting question without an answer: Is behavior modification an opportunity cost ? YMMV

E.g., after a while turning off lights not in use does not take any extra effort; at that point I consider it 'free,' and if the behavior only developed because of PiP ownership, then I don't think it is so much of a stretch to lump the consumption changes together. As another example, many Prius drivers find they are less aggressive on the roads than they had been in their previous cars. So while C&D might drive the Prius the way they drive a Mustang, Prius owners do not.

Unintended consequences, in a good way

 

Like when the California legislature is in session.

 

I live in Santa Cruz, in Northern California with PG&E power and have experienced something very interesting over the year since I bought the PiP and soon thereafter had a Smart Meter installed. Prior to the Pip we were averaging about 750 kWh/month and after about 400 kWh/month. Part of this is psychology - first, I convinced myself and my wife that we needed to conserve some to make up for the PiP charging load and second the arrival of the Smart Meter made me much more aware of power usage. Because of those two factors I also started a conversion to some CFL and mostly LED lamps plus automatic occupancy detector light switches. Then the Smart Meter and the PG&E web site allowed me to track usage and find lots of dumb power usage, which we eliminated. I continue to use the standard E1 tiered rate however since I could not see any big advantage to the alternatives.

A month ago I signed up for the PG&E "Smart Rate" which makes the majority of my E1 usage approximately 1 cent less per kWh except for 15 days per year where power is about 60 cents higher per kWh on the announced days between 2 and 7 PM. Today happens to be one of those days. In all over the last year I've saved an average of $100 per month on electricity costs. I can still charge the car whenever I want, carefully avoiding those 15 days between 2 and 7 PM.

Combine the electricity cost savings with an approximate $100 per month in gas savings driving the PiP over the previous Lexus RX and I am very happy. When at home we use very little gas just driving around Santa Cruz. My wife and I also take the Prius on frequent trips to Ventura, Tahoe, Arizona and Utah, finding it comfortable and easy on the wallet. I still have the Lexus and yes its slightly more comfortable, but its rare to use it now. We are taking a trip to the Trinity Alps next month and have about 20 miles of unpaved road plus 2 streams to ford so we will use the Lexus, but its extremely rare to need it at all.

 

^^ Do you find that you are taking more trips, due to having more money from the above mentioned savings ?

 

Yes, a few, but not many. Mostly we use a little rationalizing and take the gas money saved and use it for a nice dinner.

 

Here is my first attempt at inserting a graphic from the PG&E web site. It shows my usage over the last year. The blue line is me and I purchased the PiP on June 26th. Our typical usage went from about 24 kWh/day to approximately 12 plus a higher number on weekends when we do laundry and the like. I work at home so I am here using electricity all day.

• Sorry the graphic did not come through correctly so I tried to edit it out. - Mike​

 

Screw PG&E; use google docs