Electric bill up 20% from $120 to $145

I would be interested in knowing where on earth you are, it would make the post more relevant.

Also as a curiosity, what kind of a plug in car do you have?

 

I think he's talking about Southern California Edison.

But yes, it would help if EVERYONE at least indicated the state they're in, if they're in the US.

 

Please update your profile info. It helps all of us. Go to http://priuschat.com/forums/profile.php?do=editprofile or User CP, near the top.

BTW, you'd fall over if you saw these rates.
Seattle City Light: Electric Rates & Provisions
2011 Rates

Electricity is such a ripoff in CA.

 

Mine actually went down.

30 kWh less than last month's bill, accounting for 21 nightly recharges.

It must be the draw from the gas furnace & electric oven having more of an influence than the PHV. When the margin-of-error is greater than total consumption, there isn't much to discuss. It's basically a wash. I wasn't expecting that.
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You shouldn't compare March to February, necessarily. You need to compare March 2011 to March 2012. You should also consider if you used other stuff more in March of this year compared to last year (ran the A/C more, etc).

Still, 25 dollars a month to charge twice a day is not a terrible increase. If we assume 10 miles per charge, and you charge twice a day 5 days a week, that's 100 miles per week, or about 450 miles per month for 25$. To go 450 miles in a regular Prius would be 9 or 10 gallons of gas, which would be $36 to $40 with gas at $4 a gallon. If if gas drops to $3 a gallon, yer still ahead...

 

Don

I'm interested to hear what energy substitutions or conservation measures you have chosen to avoid high tier rates, and what measures you are considering.

 

We have tiered rates in California. They start out at a baseline of somewhere around 11 cents a KWh and go up as you exceed your baseline amount. He's gotten himself up into Tier 4 which means he's exceeding his baseline by a significant amount. When you consider the total bill, he's actually only paying about 19 cents a KWh on average: (145.00 / 25) / 30 = 19.33333

 

But his (and my) marginal cost for charging the PiP is the Tier 4 = $0.294/KWh rate, which is around $0.92 per charge, assuming 3.1 KWh for a full charge.

You folks in the Northwest have the advantage of not having to burn fuel for your electricity. But down here, we see that big yellow glowing object in the sky a bit more than you do.

There are a some municipal-owned utilities around here that have significantly lower rates, I understand.

 

base line in California is a freaking joke. it's in mid 300 kW. for PG&E tier 4 tops out at 200% of base line. tier 5 is 200% or over.

 

The baseline actually depends on where you live in Southern Cal. But it is a joke here as well..

My mother lives in Walnut, CA.. her baseline is somewhere around 715kW per month. I live in the Tustin/Irvine area and my baseline is 235kW, even though my house is probably 4-5 times bigger than my mother's apartment. From what I read, it depends on the homes in the area, how extensively the homes use gas, etc etc. So Cal is divided into zones this way and your baseline depends on your zone.

 

I haven't payed an electric bill since last November... I love solar panels...

 

As luck would have it, my electric meter in Woodstock, GA was read the day before I drove my Pip home.

The EMC here charges 11.8 cents/kwh including taxes and fees.

I should have an electric bill next week.

It's been a funny month though; ran the A/C for a few days, ran the heat for a couple of days.

April '11 was $90 and 758 kwh, last month was 120 and 1059 kwh. peak usage last 12 months was Aug '11 with 1974 kwh for 249.

there's no tiers available, only "budget billing" with same amount each month based on previous 12 months usage average for the year.

 

Thanks devPrius. I realized that tiers must be the answer a couple minutes after I posted, and erased that question. Not quick enough

 

You are probably saying that $40 is cheap, and I agree. My point is that you may be able to pay even less than that, and clean up your energy source too.There are lots of ways to decrease electricity use by substitution that do not change lifestyle. I'm in the middle of a couple for our house:

1.Windows to replace gas heating of the house space
2. Water heating by gas instead of electric

Also, depending how many monthly kwh are tier 3 and 4 you may save money with PV or solar water heating.

 

Even if I go with the biggest system they can put on my roof (4.94Kw), I still can't eliminate my electric bill. What it will do, however, is drop me out of the 2 top tiers which are both 34 cents a KWh. Between the solar lease and the reduced electric bill, I should save $70 or more a month.

 

^^^

That's pretty much the answer, short of going off the grid completely. If you can drop yourself out of the top-most tiers, you are still paying - in my case SDG&E - but not paying as much. Our lowest bills are always May/June/July, because we don't need AC, don't need heat from natural gas, and don't need as much electricity for lighting. But I am a little concerned about what will happen once it heats up in July-October and how many $600 bills we'll see.

Solar is still expensive to install, the payback is minimal, and unless you lease the equipment, you own obsolete gear a year after it's installed. Even with government subsidies, it's still quite a lot.

New Prius or install a Solar array on the roof?

Maybe after a few "gag me" bills this summer, I will change my tune. Stay tuned, indeed!

 

I have a 4 bedroom house in San Diego and (pre-PIP) we use 250 kWh/mo max. Usually closer to 200. So it's only a joke if you run lots of computers, TVs, A/C, have older appliances, etc. I have all Energy Star, CFL, no desktop computers, no AC, and we're gone all day (that also makes a big difference).