Prime electric bill cost to operate

So adding $69 to the bill and the price is .11/KWH. It translates into 627 KWH. Considering the battery charge of 6.5 KWH according to some PPL on this forum, you have charged ~100 times in a month?

Actually your observation is consistent with my observation. Here's my historic electrical bill. Yes, we had a baby in August so the electricity shot up tremendously. But you get the idea.



You know how much more electricity has been used this month (from Dec - Jan)? About 300KWH~! by doing some subtractions between the two meter readings.

I have virtually counted how many times I charged mine: 15 times. If I do some calculation then 20KWH/charge~!

How much is the electricity? $0.17/KWH (Haven't received the bill yet but let's just continue to use tier 2 for a second). Then charging each time costs me 300x0.17/15=$3.4 How much is gas per gallon? ~$2.48/gallon. So I charged 1.37 gallons of gas equivalent of electricity to achieve only ~20 miles while that same amount of gas could take me 68 miles.

I know it is a very rough calculation and this past month has been cold but we don't use electricity to heat up the house. We burn gas. Granted, the furnace needs electricity to power up its fan but still I am not sure if charging the car makes any economic sense.

Oh yes, the MPG numbers have been beyond excellent. When I check my android app, it shows 199.99, 199.99, 8x, 7x. Great, but wait. Why the app doesn't show exactly how much KWH has been pulled from the wall outlet?

 

I looked at my last couple of PG&E electric bills, and I roughly estimate that I can only charge the car so many times before I'm into Tier 3, which is $.40/kwh. That works out to gasoline at $5.20/gal. Yikes! Summer running a/c is going to be worse. Maybe I'm going to have to look at getting solar. Any suggestions here?

 

It seems you are attributing an anticipated 300kWh increase in January solely to 15 charges of your Prime? Is this valid? In September you were over 400 kWh and you didn't have a Prime, did you? I know you said you just had a child, but what drove up the usage? If you only charged 15 times this month, you should be able to figure out the approx kWh used for charging from empty - what is it - 6.6 kWh per charge? What am I missing here? What else was going on in your usage?

 

I'm pretty sure that s/he was pointing out other additions to the electricity bill besides the car.

 

I use PG&E also and changed to their EV time of day plan. I think that I made a mistake. It reduced the off peak rate to about half but the peak time almost doubled. Reduce by half equals about 10 cents but double peak rate equals about 20 cents. I can change back once but I am also looking a solar, maybe this summer, and don't want to use the second change option until then.

 

You can't attribute all 300kWh to the 15 charges as some of the usage is from the household. You've been averaging above 350 kWh without the car since the baby arrived.

You didn't charge 1.37 gallons equivalent to achieve ~20 miles. You charged 1.37 gallons equivalent to achieve ~20 miles x 15 charges = 300 miles.

Let's look at it this way. It's 6.3 kWh to charge the car per full charge according to EPA.
6.3 kWh x 15 charges x $0.17 per kWh = $16.06.

This amount enabled you to travel 15 charges x 25 EPA miles per charge = 375 miles. (You mentioned several 199.99 times on your android app meaning you didn't use up all the battery. That's why I am using the full 25 miles instead of "~20 miles.") with $16.06 worth of gasoline at $2.48 per gallon gasoline, you would've traveled 324 miles. You get an extra 51 miles using electricity.

Your electricity bill according to your current average and year over year costs would be around 400 kWh for January of which approximately 90 KWh is the car. February would be a lot higher as you plug more often and reach tier 3 with 500 kWh.

 

I'm looking at the EV-A plan. To use that I'm going to have to make some lifestyle changes such as doing laundry and running the dishwasher on off peak hours. That's about the best I can do. Not sure it's going to save me much. I should probably talk to PG&E.

I got a bid on solar today. The payment to finance the system is the same as my current power bill, so nothing out of pocket. I could also pay cash out of my 401k, or use a home equity line. The only thing that concerns me is if I sell the house before the system is paid off, I want my money back out of the system; i.e., the new owner is going to have to pay for it in the sale price of the home, not me.

 

No I did not, not with the Toyota's PHV traction battery

Barely noticeable. It is disconnected and isolated from the system, only cells' self discharge which is extremely low for Lion batteries.

 

EV1 status should be 11.9 cents per kwh, but we have solar and at the end of year true up puts it at .02 cent per kwh. So yesterday for example it cost me .06 cents for 15 miles traveled.

 

Just change how you run everything to be off hours, pool pumps, dish washer and of course charging your car.

 

We can't change how we run everything. Besides the car I can run the dishwasher after 11pm, I was doing both of those already.

For me I think it may have been a bad choice; for others it might be a better idea. I will wait and see.

One more thing, if a person wants to change back they allow one more change but then you have to stay for 12 months. Just in case someone wants to try it.

 

All very interesting, thanks.

I have an 07 prius and was thinking about replacing it with a prius prime. While it wasn't a critical consideration, I just assumed that I would save money using ev rather than gas.

However, we are into tier 3 at home with Southern California Edison. According to the bill, tier 3 has an average cost (according to our bill) of $0.29 per KWH, so presumably additional energy would be at that price. (That's a separate problem . . . )

Gas around here is about $2.75 per gallon now so assuming 50mpg, the cost of driving on gas would be about $0.054 per mile.

I calculated the electric cost as follows: 133 mpge / 33.7 for 3.95 miles per KWH. $0.29 cost per KWH divided by the 3.95 miles per KWH gets me an electric cost of about $0.073 / mile.

So until my electrical cost goes down or the price of gas goes up, the gas miles would be cheaper, correct? Or am I missing something?

 

If you're with SCE, just call them and get switched to TOU-A. Then charge your Prime after 10pm for 11¢/kWh. You also get a monthly credit of about 10¢/kWh off your baseline amount. For me that $29/month credit. In exchange you'll be charged tier 3 rate for any electricity used between 2-8pm weekdays.

Btw... your tier 3 rate increased in Jan to 32¢. And in 2018 all SCE customers will be switched to time of day rates.

 

Or get solar. For the same amount you are paying for your electric bill before you bought the Prime, you could be paying on a no money down, low interest rate solar loan and pay a mear pittance for power to SCE. Plus you increase the value of your home, protect yourself from future power increases, etc. That's what I'm going to do.

 

Cost to charge using SMUDs TOU plan = .075 / KWHRs. I average 7 to 17 cents a day. Also have Charge point free for 3 months, so I charge there for nothing.
Bought the car 17 Dec and still have 1/2 a tank of gas. My average MPGe is something over 150 mpg
There are about 3 displays of mpg and 2 displays of charge left. Exactly what all the mpg displays mean puzzles me. The lower amount is perhaps average mpg in HV mode, still well over 150 mpg.
The car has a really professional feel and is a pleasure to drive, the most difficult part is NOT to tromp on the accelerator.

 

Do you charge everyday?

 

I think you are referring to the different trip meters.
1) Odometer reading - mpg since reset
2) Trip A - mpg since reset
3) Trip B - mpg since reset

So, for instance, you could start a cross country trip by zeroing out both the A and B trip meters. Then every time you fill up reset the Trip B meter. This would give you the mpg for that leg of your trip which you could then double check against the reading you got from the pump. Meanwhile, Trip A would give you the total miles for the trip and average mpg for the entire trip.

The two displays of EV range are for with and without climate control on. There is a little fan that shows up for the EV range with the climate control on while it is absent for the range with the climate control off.

 

I use about

Yes, but there are also a few things you can do without waiting.
1. Switch to TOU rates
2. Install a second electric meter for just the car. (Won't make sense for the Prime but may for a dedicated BEV)
3. Install solar.

The interesting thing is I just did 1 and had solar companies give me quotes. The act of switching to TOU rates made me conscious of when I used electricity. In fact, once I switched, I was able to switch so many things, like dishwashing, clotheswashing, drying, and purchasing energy efficient item, my electricity costs actually didn't change at all. I was well into Tier 3 rates. The solar companies said my electricity costs were so low, their solar lease options made no sense to me as the monthly lease cost more than my monthly bill.

 

TY, Makes sense.

 

I guess it depends on your individual situation and what utility you have/how much they charge. My wife and I are retired and I need heat in winter and a/c in the summer. We're in the house during the day a lot. Even with a gas furnace, the blower motor uses significant power. I have a freezer in the garage and there's no way my wife is going to give that up, since she's a food hoarder. I also have gas hot water and dryer and stove, which helps. Excepting what you say above, there's no way that I can avoid significant power useage during the day. When we were working, yes probably.