1st Electricity Bill since purchasing the tesla.

[KJD]

If you do the math I am only at 16.1 cents per kwh. In retrospect I shouldn't be comparing the previous month I should've compared last year. I am doing that now and it looks like my actual increase in kwh is only about 5-600. I'm sure I used more electricity in the house with christmas lights and some electric heating. I also think because I'm charging outside in the cold and preheating my car before my daily commute I'm probably using alot more energy. I did have sentry enabled at home for the 1st week. I'm sure there are probably many factors that attribute to this but the savings from gas to electric is not as high as Tesla makes it sound.

Do you have a garage ? Parking inside, even an unheated garage will keep the car and battery pack warmer than parking on the street and charging is more efficient that way.

Are you charging using a 120 volt outlet or a 240 volt outlet ? 240 is also much more efficient that 120 volts.

 

[OCR1]

I pay .11/KwH on my Time of Use plan. That translates into .04/mile. I drive about 800 miles per month so that comes out to about $32 worth of electricity.

It’s still a lot cheaper than what I was paying for gas.

 

[VV1975]

Do you have a garage ? Parking inside, even an unheated garage will keep the car and battery pack warmer than parking on the street and charging is more efficient that way.

Are you charging using a 120 volt outlet or a 240 volt outlet ? 240 is also much more efficient that 120 volts.

I'm using a 120 V. My garage is a mess and I'm working on cleaning it out and putting a charger in. I agree this is probably a significant impact also.

 

[ucmndd]

I ... only drove the car for about 950 miles during that time frame.

This is the only thing that really matters in your original post. 950 miles accounts for about 250kwh of energy. Maybe 350kwh if it’s really cold and you’re a lead foot and doing a whole lot of cabin preconditioning.

You’ve got another ~500kwh being used somewhere, but it’s not your car. Start looking.

 

[P3dStealth]

I'm in Suffolk County Long Island NY (expensive electric) and people aren't going to like this but I am seeing very little fuel cost savings over my Hummer h3. I'm seeing significant range loss because of the cold. I am now tracking my power with an emporia vue. So far it's not looking good. I've use $16 in 150 miles. I'm charging on a normal outlet.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XYJCDYT/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_97.fEbYSMDYK5

 

[KenC]

So what was everyone's experience when it comes to looking at your Electricity bill the first month?

I purchased my Tesla on 12/17 and just got my first electricity bill and I have to admit I'm a little shocked. No pun intended.

My previous bill I used 657 kwh and was charged $106.07. My current months bill in which i charged for only 19/33 days of the billing cycle. I used 1452 kwh and was charged $236.99. My work only has a level 1 charger so I don't use it as often as I should. I have also super charged 2-3 times and only drove the car for about 950 miles during that time frame.

Does this sound right or does something not make sense? I know I wouldn't have spent $130 in gas for 950 miles.

Not knowing your efficiency, but if you're around 300Wh/mile, then you get roughly 3.33miles/kWh. Divide that into 950 miles, and you used roughly 285kWh. Not counting inefficiency using 120v charging, and not factoring in preconditioning. Still seems quite a bit less than the 500-600kWh you've estimated.

 

[cwerdna]

(state electric prices last updated Dec. 27, 2019):

https://www.chooseenergy.com/electricity-rates-by-state/

I don't know where they get those numbers. From my current PG&E bill --- $.29/kwh (Tier 2) for transmission plus $08.7/kwh generation. Those are winter rates. Summer is way over $.50 at tier 2. My Model 3 could put us into Tier 3. If we lived in a condo it would be different, but we don't.

Of course the power has to be on for those charges!

The claim of 14.97 cents/kWh for residential in CA is pure fantasy. Many of the major utilities in CA also are expensive. It also claims the year before it was 15.66 cents/kWh in Oct 2018. Ha! PG&E mucks with their rates ALL the time (every few months). They're not on the downward direction and generally in the upward direction.

I'm on E-6 (see page 1 of https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-6.pdf). The lowest rate any time of year on tier 1 is 20.3 cents. If I go above tier 1 (which is about 300 to 327 kWh per 30 day billing month, depending on time of year, I'm in area X, code B), the minimum is about 29 cents/kWh.

If one isn't on a TOU-plan but the default non-TOU plan of E1, see page 1 of https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-1.pdf. Ranges from 23 to 51.9 cents/kWh. Baseline is the same for E-1 vs. E-6, IIRC.

EV2-A (page 2 of https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_EV2 (Sch).pdf) exists but they kill you on the time bands (see page 3). Electricity ranges from 16.9 to 48.1 cents/kWh depending on time of day and year.

BTW, I never just look at generation and transmission cost, nor should anyone else. I just look at the total price per kWh. I cannot just opt out of various other charges built into the total per kWh price (e.g. "public purpose programs", nuclear decommissioning, DWR bond, new system generation, charge, etc.) It makes rate comparisons impossible if each person leaves off random charges on a whim that are part of the total per kWh cost.

 

[P3dStealth]

I am going to use 50% of my battery and track actual mileage then charge up at home track cost.

How much more efficient is having a wall charger? They want $800 to install one here.

 

[richtrav]

I use about 2000 kWh/month, higher in the middle of summer or abnormally cool winter months (for South Texas) and lower in other months. But I have electric everything - two cars, house heat, water heater, oven, dryer, water well, lots of AC in summer, etc. The cars probably average about 20-24 kWh/day between them both. At .10/kWh (for a 100% renewable plan) I'm pretty happy that roughly $200/month payment is covering so much. I used to spend well over $100/month on gasoline alone, way more when gas was closer to $4/gallon.

 

[SageBrush]

OP: Did you pre-heat your ICE ?
These conversations are always a difficult exercise in getting to an apples to apples comparison.

 

[DrtyJrze]

I'm using a 120 V.

I've use $16 in 150 miles. I'm charging on a normal outlet.

Seems like we have a theme developing: A real wall connector is needed for efficiency. The regular plug is for emergency use only.

It would be helpful if those with higher cost mention if they are using a true wall connector, along with the other variables (winter, constant pre-con, sentry mode, etc)

 

[TimothyHW3]

This is the only thing that really matters in your original post. 950 miles accounts for about 250kwh of energy. Maybe 350kwh if it’s really cold and you’re a lead foot and doing a whole lot of cabin preconditioning.

This is around the rated km value, but if I take a wild guess, I assume he runs sentry full on all the time so his vampire drain could be huge. That and adding at least 15-20% charging loss on his slow charger. But still too much.


OP, just install a meter behind your plug and see what you consume. Or write down how many times you filled up the car or at least the kWh used since day 1 of the month until the 30th(reset a monthly trip meter)

Then you will know.

 

[P3dStealth]

I have a regular outlet. I have to preheat because it's winter in New York and my doors sometimes don't open. I am using sentry mode when I park at a train station everyday. I will try turning it off this next week and start tracking everything on Sunday to get real numbers.

Is there a federal rebate again now for installation of a nema 14-50 outlet in my garage?

 

[SSedan]

Do you have a garage ? Parking inside, even an unheated garage will keep the car and battery pack warmer than parking on the street and charging is more efficient that way.

Are you charging using a 120 volt outlet or a 240 volt outlet ? 240 is also much more efficient that 120 volts.

240 is NOT more efficient due to the voltage as is implies when making simple statements. There is a baseline 3-400ish watt consumption for charging, you plug the car in and it has 1200 watts available the car is only getting 75% of that at 900watts into the pack Plug it into an outlet that delivers 2400watts and you get 2100 into the pack. Doubled the power to the car but got 2.33 times the result in the pack. 240outlets deliver more power overall so the baseline charging consumption is an ever smaller portions of what the car is getting as you increase power to the car.

This is the only thing that really matters in your original post. 950 miles accounts for about 250kwh of energy. Maybe 350kwh if it’s really cold and you’re a lead foot and doing a whole lot of cabin preconditioning.

You’ve got another ~500kwh being used somewhere, but it’s not your car. Start looking.

Heating a pack takes a lot of power, not saying he used 500kwh for it but betting it was enough to need consideration.

 

[DrtyJrze]

240 is NOT more efficient due to the voltage as is implies when making simple statements. There is a baseline 3-400ish watt consumption for charging, you plug the car in and it has 1200 watts available the car is only getting 75% of that at 900watts into the pack Plug it into an outlet that delivers 2400watts and you get 2100 into the pack. Doubled the power to the car but got 2.33 times the result in the pack. 240outlets deliver more power overall so the baseline charging consumption is an ever smaller portions of what the car is getting as you increase power to the car.



Heating a pack takes a lot of power, not saying he used 500kwh for it but betting it was enough to need consideration.

I think they meant efficiency because there’s less of that baseline energy being loss due to significantly less time being spent charging. Not that the base consumption was any different.

 

[TimothyHW3]

I have a regular outlet.

How many kW is that? 1-2kW?

Most likely while preheating you are sucking a lot from the battery and nothing from the grid, because the car can pull up to 18kW when preheating if it is AWD and around 12-13kW from RWD.

Sentry will probably get you at least 5-6kWh loss during the day. That is about 30 miles of rated range or about 15 miles real world winter range.

 

[turns2stone]

Zero change on my bill so far. I have free electricity on the weekends, so I try to only recharge Fridays after 8pm. Otherwise my rate is $0.165 or something.

 

[TydalForce]

So, dig into the specifics of your bills for this month and the same month last year. Forget the cost, look at the kwh.

I got my Model 3 on the 14th of December, and my bill rolled over ~ end of the month, so I'm looking at half a month of use (probably increased by me working/playing in the garage with the heater on)
Between this year and last year, my distribution charge went up, but my generation charge went down-- I was only greater by 39kwh which mathed out to just ~$4, but there was a $40+ dollar difference between my two bills -- somehow last year I got a $46.69 federal tax credit on my bill. I have no idea where that came from but it made the difference between this year and last year much more dramatic.

tl;dr - look at the units and all the line items on your bill, there may be more than just your car.

 

[SSedan]

I think they meant efficiency because there’s less of that baseline energy being loss due to significantly less time being spent charging. Not that the base consumption was any different.

When people keep repeating 240 is more efficient others endu assuming it is the voltage. I am just offering a why.

 

[Nocturnal]

Don't look at your bill, that's pointless as there are far too many variables. Look at your lifetime average watt miles and then figure out your usage from there.

Anyone who takes the 30 seconds to figure this out will be pleasantly surprised. We are all saving a ton, whether we realize it or not.