Prime electric bill cost to operate

Could be.

If some one would post a youtube video how how to remove the seat, I'd take a look.
I suspect their is a cavity in there somewhere, that would have hold the circuit for the solar charger that we don't get to have.

jp

 

and a nimh battery, it think.

 

our electric bill came back rather high as well. I charge it from empty at night 5 times a week. i'll have to investigate more but my math is way off

8.8 kWh x 18.4 cents a kWh here in LA (need to confirm) x 5 times a week = 36$ a week but it's more like $48 increase on our bill per month!

 

Did you bump into a new tier ?

If the cost really is 18.4 cents a kWh, then
One week = 6.5*5*0.184 = $6 a week
Then 6*52/12 = $26 a month on average

Note that ~ 5.5 kWh go into the battery and about 1 kWh is wasted during one full charge

 

Send me a "conversation" with your home address. I'll send you a spare, watt meter and you can report the actual charge applied to the car over a week.

When done, send it back.

Bob Wilson

 

ill need to confirm but i start my charge at 11:45pm - offpeak i believe

let's say my wife isn't too happy hehe

 

Presuming use of the bundled L1 EVSE, right ?.

 

Source: "Kill A Watt"™ Electric Monitor



Bob Wilson

 

I sent an email to P3 support asking if they make, or are considering a 240 Volt version. Haven't heard anything and it's been over a month.

 

I think, with nothing but external wiring, you could make a KillAWatt into a 240V device. You'd have to be a little clever.

 

You mean like only run 1 hot leg through it and multiply by 2? More trouble than it's worth. I don't know how that would work since the 220V voltage is across both hot legs and Kill A Watt is a standard 110 V device.

 

Or buy two and have on each leg.

Bob Wilson

 

Yes.

Depends on what it's worth to someone.

On a 240V charger, one hot is the return for the other, and no neutral current should flow. Many don't even have a neutral connection on the plug.

 

Ebay is flooded with cheap analog 240v meters that the utility companies no longer use.
I regret forgetting to buy one for my L2 charger installation last month.

 

Bob can you post a picture of your voltage meter reader thing? Can you tell us how it is working and is it helping you figure out how much you're spending on electricity to charge your Prime?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

There are:

• "Kill A Watt"™ Electric Monitor - used for 120 VAC charging
  
• https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0946/4384/products/juicebox_front_1024x1024.jpg?v=1459174803 - now installed at a local shopping center, 210 VAC, 40A.
  
• ChargePoint account - gives me a monthly summary of charging

Understand I'm not that anal about recording every kWh since often the 'free' ones have no display or like the ones at Whole Foods, wipe out the value when charging completes.

Bob Wilson

 

I agree $70 seems too excessive.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I installed a simple kWh meter which cost about $15, not including the box, cover plate and conduit offset which added another $10 or so:





Our electric rate is $0.209/kWh regardless of time of day. So it's fairly easy to figure out how much the home EVSE unit adds to the household electric bill.

I don't have any full-month figures yet because I just got this installed on the 5th of the month. Since then, I've driven the Prime about 220 miles and used about 55 kWh net of one or two times I've used a free public ChargePoint station. That works out to about $11.50, or about $0.052 per mile.

The least expensive gas station in our general area is charging $2.46 per gallon. So, the EV cost is equivalent to about 47 mpg.

Virtually all of my driving is in the city, often in stop-and-go traffic. So that seems pretty good to me.

(BTW, the photo of the meter was taken just after it was installed. It is showing 3842 watt-hours. The display changed to kWh once it reached 9999 watt-hours. Also, for some reason the EVSE is drawing only 6.48A or 1526 watts. This is probably because the car was close to fully charged. More typically, the meter shows about 15A and 3600 watts. When the car is fully-charged or not plugged-in, the EVSE has an idle power consumption of about 3.5 watts. The EVSE unit is a Leviton EVR-40.)

 

Nice job

 

Could this be a DIY install for a fairly clueless person like me ?