New to Prius: Plug-In vs Regular Prius

Glad to hear your decision. FYI, some owners don't plug in at all, and still get fantastic mpg. If the cost of plugging in at work is prohibitive, as you describe, and you don't want to sneak the way others are doing, just wait until you move and are able to charge at home. In the meanwhile, some businesses offer free charging while shopping, etc. That will give you an opportunity to see how it makes a difference. Also happy to hear you contacted Dianne, and hope you can make a deal with her. She is the best!

 

Welcome to our fold, fellow Pipper!

If a full plug-in charge costs you more than 50 cents, I'd say skip plugging-in and use gasoline instead. If is costs $1.65 per hour as you say, a 3-hour charge costs almost 5 bucks! That's a lot to pay for 12 miles of EV range. The same distance on gasoline would cost you about 70 cents.

 

Almost all commercial chargers (around here at least) are 240V, which takes about 80 minutes to fully charge a PiP. I think the break-even point versus gasoline is about $0.66/hr (given gasoline at $4.00/gal).

 

That sounds right. I forgot it wouldn't take 3 hours like at home. Even so, I might bend down to pick up a quarter, but I wouldn't necessarily plug in for that.

 

If you plug in a quarter, you have a 50% chance of getting a shock in a 110v outlet, and a 66% chance with a 220v outlet.

Fortunately, the quarter is too large to insert to the point of contact.

 

I think you might be talking about my chances of electrocution. My chance of a shock in both cases is almost 100%.

 

Nah, as everyone who as a child stuck a dime or penny in an outlet found out, the results are shocking. The fact that virtually 100% who did this as kids are now adults means they weren't electrocuted. Now, if you do it in bare feet on a wet floor, all bets are off.

As to the calculations:
Standard 110v outlets have Hot, Neutral, and Ground. The latter one couldn't shove a coin into no matter what, and only the hot would give a shock (or electrocution in the worst-case scenario). Neutral is essentially ground and wouldn't be expected to give a shock.

220v outlets have Hot (110V from Hot to Ground) on two prongs, and ground on the third.

So your chances of shock by randomly shoving something into the outlet are 1/2 and 2/3, respectively.