Volt owners averaged 1000 miles between fill-ups in March

I agree, and acknowledge you can't ignore the cost of electricity.

I charge at home with a hardwired 240v charger and didn't think to put any kind of meter in the line when it was installed so I have no way of knowing. In addition to my home charging I get 7 hours on 110v every workday that I don't pay for, and I didn't pay extra for that charge in the courthouse garage last Friday (only place other than home and work I have charged).

For the real world effect of ownership though, so far I have gone over 2500 miles, spent $90 on gas and seen a $4 increase in what I pay for electric.

Once the solar goes in I'll pretty much have a set finance cost for the next 15 years but low (or negative) power consumption costs.

The worst TCO element right now is that I can't stop myself from driving it I love it so much, so if I don't slow down drastically soon the over mileage fee at the end of the lease is gonna kill me.

 

Isn't there a website that you can login to check the information on your charger?

Regarding the worst TCO, since you are leasing, you won't need to worry about the long-term battery (out of warranty) issue.

 

There are several brands of clamp on meters you can buy to monitor 240V use.

As for the OP - I think is great that some ... or many Volt owners go over 1,000 miles before having to gas up. But whether its 1,000 ... 5,000 or 10,000 miles ... when you DO use so little gas, how do you NOT justify buying a 100 mile range EV ? In essence, you use so little gas ostensibly because most of your trips are 95% - 98% within range! Couldn't you could just RENT an ICE car for the other 2% - 5% of your trips ... and pocket the $10,000 or more that the Volt would have cost? In our case, we have the EV ... and another car on the rare times we have to go farther than recharging is practicable. Don't get me wrong ... every mile traveled in kWh's works as our preference. But w/out the ICE weight, we're averaging 5.2 miles per kWh ... plus we can still seat 5 passengers.

 

In my first 1000 mile tank 700 miles were EV and 300 were ICE, so 70% of my driving was within the EV range. It took me less than 3 weeks to do that and 3 of those trips were outside the leaf range. I don't think renting a car one day a week every week is very practical.

 

Yes . . . I suppose if most of the 300 miles were in a lump sum then real EV'ing wouldn't work for you. Well I'm glad your choice is working for you.

.

 

Who is doing your solar install, if you don't mind my asking? My meter on a day like today - 70ish & clear skies - I use about 5-10 kwh for the day with my 5.2 kwh system. I don't even have the A/C running at the moment, just the HVAC fan blowing 24/7, fridge, chest freezer, hot water heater, and the standard plugged in items.

 

You can try to use this UK power meter. To change the plug type you can make a dongle

Electricity Power Energy Monitor Meter KWH Watt NEW !! | eBay

It's rated to 3750 VA or 15 amps.

I would trust this meter because this the go-to meter for folks in the UK, like the kill-a-watt is here.

It's not some random manufactured knockoff item of unknown origins.


Another site: http://www.maplin.co.uk/plug-in-mains-power-and-energy-monitor-38343

 

These won't work for hard wired app's . . . especially here in the U.S. with our different plug configuration ... without an adapter ... then there's the unit's limitation of 3750 watts ... that's about 15 or 16 amps and some EVSE's can pull more power than that. Get what you pay for.

 

I recall the volt charger is 3.3 kW, but I didn't realize it was hard-wired.

 

I'm really not at all handy and just a bit too frightened of working with electricity to try and jerry-rig something. The Myvolt.com website is supposed to get some more functionality soon and may start tracking power usage.

The 240v voltec charger is hardwired, they said it was a code requirement.

I'm leasing the solar system from a company called sungevity:

Home Solar Power - Buy or Lease Solar Panels for Home - $0 Down Solar Lease - Residential Solar Design, Financing, Installation and Service | Sungevity

Because I'm leasing there are no upfront costs, they get the credits for installing the PV system and I get all the power produced by the system and credits for selling excess power to the grid, which they guarantee at a minimum amount. The lease payments are less than the old power bill and set for the next 15 years at the time of signing regardless of what happens to power rates during that time. Also, because I don't own it they are responsible for all upkeep and maintenance.

 

I know they DO offer up a portable 120V charger with the car ... but don't know if 240V charging is at your own doing.

Maybe I too easily put the anal in analogy. Meet has zero carbs (sugar) ... where as taters, corn, etc have TONS of carbs. Sugar stores as fat. I'd stick with 100% meet ... if meet equals electricity.

 

I don't think my idea will work then. I threw it out there to see if it could help anyone. Oh well...

Mmm... kidding aside, are you really on a no-carb diet?

 

It's a nice find and Leviton is supposed to come out with a plug-in EVSE but the 220 plug style is different in the US too.

I don't understand the hard wire requirements. I have a 220 plug in my garage.

 

Hmmm...I think that 1000 miles between fillups is a HUGE accomplishment. And yes...I know that it required energy from another source. Having a choice for an energy source is a great feature. Is GM's initial strategy with the Volt (EREV) correct? IMO...yet to be seen. I've been following the Volt since the concept. While I am disappointed that the MSRP keeps me from a purchase, I still like the vehicle.

The Prius PHV sounds like it will be a nice vehicle also.

 

FYI:

On the commute home today I'll pass the 1000 mile point on my most recent tank of gas (about 7.5 gallons). Displayed lifetime reading is up to 115 mpg. I'll give actual figures as measured after my next fill up (probably in 100-200 more miles).

 

Some owners with aftermarket augmented gen-2 Prius see numbers very similar to that. It should be very interesting when the PHV data becomes available, since on-paper estimates often leave out detail that real-world conditions present.

How many days/weeks did it take to travel that 1000 miles?
.

 

I thought about going the after market conversion route, but my prius' hybrid battery was dying and I didn't want to deal with those headaches for a long time so a used prius was unattractive and I couldn't make the numbers work out well putting an expensive after market kit into a new prius. I'd be willing to bet some of those conversions end up out performing the PHV (Toyota appears to sometimes play it safe to a fault).

Anyhoo, here's the milegae data I have to date:

1. Tank 1 - full at dealer 3/30 - ODO = 16mi
2. Tank 2 - 7.6 gal on 4/4 - ODO = 480mi (464 mi tank, includes 200+ mile drive home from purchase in NY)
3. Tank 3 - 7.7 gal on 4/21 - ODO = 1481mi (1001 mi tank, set off several low fuel alarms to reach it but made 1000 mi tank)
4. Partial fill - 2.39 gal ($10) on 5/2 - ODO = 2081mi (600 mi tank)
5. Tank 4 - 7.43 gal on 5/8 - ODO = 2533mi (452 mi on the previous $10 partial fill)
Present ODO reading = 3521 mi (20 mile commute home today)

So to answer your question the last 1000 miles took me 17 days more or less.

Overall, I spent $93.47 at an average rate of $4.108 per gallon or about 22.75 gallons over the past 3500+ miles. My electric bill for April went up $4 from the electric bill in March.

 

Does your electric bill has a comparison to last year's data? Mine shows it. It is better to compare it with the same month from last year (before you had the Volt).

 

Thats a good idea, I'll check it out, but if I recall correctly the comparison is a postage sized bar graph that may not give me much detail.

 

Mine is the same. As it turns out, although I'm recording 300kWh/mo or so with the Kill-A-Watt, my usage last month was nearly identical to the previous year's total. I can't account for that. My wife, who works from home, had 2 more laptops in her office a year ago. That's about the only real change I can come up with (maybe a couple new CFLs too) and doesn't come close to explaining the difference.