Gas Prices Cheaper than Electricity Prices?

nope, still cheaper to charge since Consumers Energy where I live is still free.

 

that's a tough one - is there no other option available to you than that tier ?
obviously too late but if no other option, given those rates it was never going to make financial sense for you

I'd like to think I'd pay the little bit more and not burn gas.

 

It's been that way for me since I first got my 2012 PIP, with my 0.25/kWh ConEd-delivered power. I still charge, as part of my mission is to reduce carbon footprint. I have PV solar as well, and my utility power comes from renewables.

 

Those high electric rates just might make a larger battery car like the Volt more appealing for those who can get free charges at work.
With the PiP I was able to get enough free juice to get home or to the store and back home but with little to spare.
With the Volt or other large battery vehicle anyone charging at work could store an excess if the commute wasn't too long, in fact I see a Tesla there charging all day !

that's assuming you can deal with the moral issues of charging in excess of your commute needs

 

Keep in mind for short trips 5-10 mins your Prius is getting worse MPG so your electric will be cheaper and reduce wear etc.

 

for my typical driving, electric cost = about $2./gallon.

 

For me in Socal we pay about 14 cents a kilowatt. I find I get roughly 58mpg in HV mode with a high charge on the battery. If I drive around with a completely discharged EV portion of the battery I tend to get less MPG (roughly 50-51). So having that full charge available even if I'm not driving in EV mode at all, gets me about 15% better MPG in HV mode. So I add that to the price of regular here in So cal ($2.95 gallon at present) to calculate the electricity vs gas cost per mile. I also factor in the ease of getting a parking space in town by pulling into a charging station and the overall enjoyment of noise-free driving in EV mode. So even if electricity was a whisker more, I'd probably pay it for reasons others have posted including less wear and tear on the engine, etc.

 

Good point about fully charged battery and higher MPG. I'd noticed that too, never seen it mentioned before.

 

I charge at home to get to work and I have permission to charge at work for the ride home, so gas is really going to have to drop for it to be worth it to use more.

 

Sounds like you understand tiers well enough.

My advice: Get out of the expensive tier. Some people get out by installing PV, but conservation is simpler and cheaper. Our current home is a rental so I am not able to cut out all the waste, but we have yet to consume more than about 230 kWh a month.

 

Interesting. As for "fully" charged, you will find the car works the SOC down from 85% to around 70% so that probably accounts for some of the improved mileage having used more EV than the normal HV mode. I wonder if there might be better mileage below the 70% SOC simply because the car can use a bit of extra battery range for more efficient charge/discharge decisions than if the battery is "fully" discharged and operating just as a regular HV car.

 

Gas price around here is $2.49 per gallon and I pay 18-19 cents per kWh.

Based on the efficiency I am getting from both fuels, EV is still slightly cheaper.

 

^^^I am holding to my prediction of $2 buck gaso by Feb (in some places maybe NJ)

 

Cheapest RUG in NJ is around $2.35 and it's still dropping.

 

Does California have a provision for group consumer solar farms? We have these in Maine, and even with our much worse sun, people are getting PV electricity for around $0.10 per kWh. Up to nine electricity consumers can join together to purchase a large solar system, which is treated just like a net-metered system on your house. I would think that this would be ideal for renters and people who don't know how long they will be in their house. As long as you still live in the same electric provider's area, you can keep your share, and if you move out of the area, it is easy to sell your share since it is usable by anyone else in the area (without being on a particular house).

 

this, 100 times.

unless you have 10 kids or something, i don't understand how people dip into the third tier, especially when it's not summer. replace all lights with LEDs, which are now pretty cheap, and be diligent about turning off electronics, putting computers to sleep, etc. me living alone, when i'm not guzzling electricity for heating purposes because no one knows how to properly insulate apartments in california, i can consume less than 80 kWh/month. (as a side note, switching to a TOU rate is saving me $50/year, but SCE doesn't offer TOU rates, so can't help you there)

 

You must live in a cell like a monk Here is typical usage information from eia.gov My usage is about 650 kWh/month but only 15% of that comes from the power company.

How much electricity does an American home use?
In 2012, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,837 kWh, an average of 903 kilowatthours (kWh) per month. Louisiana had the highest annual consumption at 15,046 kWh and Maine the lowest at 6,367 kWh.

More details here http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3

 

Ditto. I use about 500 kWh. This is actually Tier 1 & 2 and is typical for a home my size in my neighborhood according to my PG&E bill. Since roughly 100 kWh is from charging my PiP, I consider myself pretty efficient. But there are occasions when family visit especially during the holidays where we push into Tier 3.

My break even point is somewhere around $3 a gallon depending on how much energy I use for the month. It's winter and I have 1 extra guest in my home for the next 3 months so I'm definitely already paying more to plug in. I still do it no hesitation because of the reasons below:

1. I get more miles per tank meaning I go to the gas station roughly 50% less often by plugging in. Worth it.
2. I already switched to a TOU plan. If I don't take advantage of night time charging then my average electricity use goes up for everything else.
3. Someone already posted it, I get maybe 60 mpg on HV plugging in and some 55 mpg without. I don't know how to do the math but there's some loss there to low speed driving in HV mode which I do in EV when I plug in.
4. I'm not convinced the environmental impact is better or worse coming out of my tailpipe, smoke stacks at a power plant, spent nuclear rods, blades that kills endangered birds at a wind turbine, or even manufacturing waste to fabricate PVs. What I do know is my electricity doesn't come from countries that are hostile to the West.

 

Not at all. My own home in Albuquerque is 2800 sq. feet, and our current rental is SW Colorado is 3800 sq feet.

We try to not waste, and to use efficiently. For example:

1. Electrical gadgets are bought with efficiency in mind. I know how much power a device consumes, and consumption is a high priority when I choose what to buy. E.g., my very nice notebook computer averages about 4-5 watts. My fridge+freezer 350 kWh/year.
2. We turn off lights when we leave a room. During the day sunlight is used instead of bulbs. All bulbs are either CFL or LED. I try to avoid phantom losses. We don't leave things running that are not in use.
3. During the winter we heat up a lot of water for tea and coffee, so I bought a $10 electrical water kettle. This uses about ~50% of the energy to heat a cup of water using a microwave. We do not heat up more water than we use.
4. If the house is uncomfortably hot in the summer (rarely), we cool off with personal ventilators rather than whole-house AC. In the Winter we warm up with clothes, exercise and sunlight preferentially, and only burn NG when the other methods are inadequate.
5. Clothes are dried on a line most of the year.

In short, we make an effort to live a low-energy lifestyle. No, it is not 'living in a cave.'

Over time I imagine dozens if not hundreds of little energy savings behaviors have accrued. In the beginning it takes effort to remember to do things an energy efficient way, but quickly it just becomes a habit, one I find difficult to even remember. You have behaviors you do not think about that are wasteful; I have behaviors I do not think about that conserve energy.

In our Albuquerque home, I invested in conservation and efficiency. Electricity consumption is about 120 kWh/month/2_people.

Finally, may I say that targeting your consumption to the 'average American' is a bad idea. Being an idiot and a pig is no way to live.