Electricity cost more than gasoline these days.

Here in Austin (TX), currently it's a little over half that, although it might go up to nearly that in the summer; the more you use, the more per KWh they charge, and with summer air conditioning...

However, the city has a program whereby you can pay them $50/year (yes, per year!) to charge at any of the ChargePoint chargers around town, including those at my workplace. And for home charging, they have a program that, if I read it correctly, can fix home-charging costs at $30/month. This time of year, might or might not break even, but potentially significantly cheaper in the summer.

I did a calculation earlier showing that it's about 1/4 of gas, but I missed some fees that raise it considerably...

With Austin's subsidies described above, running it on EV looks to cost slight over half of running it on gas. Without the subsidies, EV looks like around ~80% of the cost of running on gas. Then again gas here is running more like around $2.20/gallon, plus of course the P.Prime on gas is about as frugal as they come!

 

Thanks for the link. I am on PG&E and looking at solar also. Anyone else have any ideas or links about getting solar for someone who knows just above nothing? Other sites I have seen are for advanced people not for someone just trying to figure how to get a good system.

 

Get several bids from reputable companies.

I wouldn't get an old fashioned string inverter system. Go with micro inverters or optimizers (I think optimizers are the best choice). Make sure you get a good warranty (20-25 years, in-house, parts and labor, plus a long roof penetration warranty). I like companies that are also roofers like Petersen Dean or West Coast Solar. You don't want to have problems with your roof post installation. Just my $.02.

 

First thing it to figure out how many kw-hrs you want to generate per year.
(sum up a year's worth of bills or go to your account on the PG&E web site)
Then see what size system is required to do this...all rough approximations.
(many web sites can help with this)
Then get quotes and see what they say...ask more questions.

BTW, this is the right time of year to get started, since it takes a month or so to get quotes and pick, then ~2 months to get scheduled in and get all permits and inspections. Just in time for sunny season.

Mike

 

Good Ideas. I am probably going with micro inverters or optimizers. Still learning about those.

 

Here in Atlanta, GA cost per kwh (including all the junk fees and sales tax) is 13.5 cents for off peak, and 5.3 cents for super off peak. Gas is $1.99 at Costco. So I'm saving 66% when charging super off peak and 15% off peak.

 

Here is what I would do, based on what I know now.
Take your total kwh you need for a year.
Assume some number of miles to drive that you want to charge at home for the year.
Use a number such as 4 miles per kwh to get the number of kwh for your car.
(In my PIP I get a bit more than 5 m/kwh (mostly 35-45 mph roads). In my Leaf I get about 4.7 m/kwh (more freeway)
Add these together, subtract about 60-70 kwh per month to your bill to ~$10/month. (including some future rate increases)
Don't go too much over this unless you plan to increase your usage.
And don't worry too much about it...this is all fine tuning

Mike

 

Conservation is still a lot cheaper than PV,
So cut down on waste and improve efficiency in the house first, then size the PV

E.g., my household consumes about 2000 kWh a year in electricity and we drive 17k miles
I anticipate my array (per PVwatts) collecting about 1.8 kWh a year from each installed watt
I figure 4.5 miles per kWh from the cars

So...
16,000 miles divided by 4.5 miles/kwh = 3550 kWh annual for the cars
2000 kWh annual for the home

5550/1.8 = 3000 watt array

 

yeah - if you want to live in a cave. But some of us have electric instant hot water devices. Some of us have electric ovens and stoves. Some of us have room heaters that are electric so we don't have to run central heat ...... Some of us have to face 90 degree days where cooling is necessary. And some of us enjoy the benefit on recharging multiple cars off the roofs, which when zeroed out & fully amortized is a lot cheaper than gasoline. Just sayin'
.

 

I don't live in a cave, but you do have to throw up straw man arguments to rationalize waste and inefficiency.

Just saying.

 

Geeat. So while I'm taking a deep breath - what part of "wanting' to reduce pulmonary disease by using less renewables is spoiled? And what part of reducing terrorists' funds vis-a-vis reducing use on non-renewables is 'spoiled'. And what part of spending a ton of dough on PV - so that we use less of our flimsy grid - so there's more grid use for others is spoiled?
.

 

I think the household usage is pretty good and will hold steady.

I figure the car is going to use about 150 kWh per month; 6.6 kWh X 20 to 25 days a month.

Question I have is when the system is sized for a rated amount how much should I reduce the the net from the rated considering location from equator, shade, cloudy days and that kind of stuff? I assume I will start smaller then add later but I would like to get it close to start.

 

pvwatts is magic, but you do have to figure out shading separately

 

My utility charges .075/ KWhr + they throw in a small credit for TOU. I get free charging at the Casino, L 2, plus I'm building a climbing point basis for endless free gasoline. On Wednesdays They have Vets day = $20
Enough to build more points. So I tend not to use ChargePoint at all. (.35 a KWhr). Oh I also installed solar panels.

 

I bought my first prius (2001) to limit the amount of poison I spewed into the air daily. Now the prime let's me go to work spewing none! That's more important than cost to me.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Thanks for that rate sheet a couple pages back, makes a convenient guide to the equivalent per gallon cost to electricity cost. Perhaps it should be placed on a sticky in the "important threads" area at the top? It's an eternal question that will keep being asked by people (for good reason).

Solar's a good idea for many people. I don't have it because of the cost, and not knowing how much longer I'll be here. But don't forget conservation. Switch your lights to LEDs. Do you need lights on in rooms you're not in? What about "vampires" (appliances and such that constantly draw current even though they're just in a standby state most of the time). As I posted elsewhere, before getting the Prime, I was only using about 85kwh/month. I'm one person and live in an area that doesn't require A/C, but still that 's pretty good, compared to when I look at other single people's electricity bills (and no, I don't live like a monk in the 1400s).

One humorous aside: sometimes old school is nice. When I jog or walk or go outside, instead of an ipod, I still use my ancient USB plug-in style MP3 player (with all of 128mb of memory!) Instead of constantly having to keep it plugged in to be recharged all the time, the thing runs on 1 "AAA" battery -- of which I use Eneloop Rechargeable batteries -- which I recharge in a 1W solar "AA" and "AAA" recharger that I bought for $12 on ebay (I bought 2 of them, I've used them for years and they still work great; fully recharge the AAA battery in 2hrs). I know in the grand scheme of things that's a drop in the bucket, but I still use the player (it has enough memory to hold 5-6 podcasts in it at a time) -- and in effect, it's been a "solar" MP3 player for the last 10 years or so.

At any rate, electricity may be more expensive than gas now, but a year from now we might be looking at $5 gallons again. The Prime (at least for 25-30 miles) gives you that option of either/or.

 

Who cares what elec costs. We are Primers and don't take any guff.

 

San Diego must be high cost for electricity, I pay 0.19 per Kwhr as long as I stay in Tier 1, I am in process of switching to TOU rates.
It is still cheaper than gas which is $2.70 right now. But I also figure not using gas will save money in long run by reducing wear and tear on the gas engine components.

 

iI absolutely agree. We 200,000,000 morePrimes, Bevs, Nat gas etc that day may never come.