It's costing me around 40 cents a day (so about $12 per month) to charge my Tesla at home. I have a time of use plan and electricity is really cheap in the NW. After 10 PM the cost is 4.209¢ per kWh. Also, I probably average 20 miles a day driving.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
First Electric Bill with my M3: I am saving $$$$
- Thread starter Hoosiery Daddy
- Start date
i've had at least one ev (spark ev) since 2014 in the PGE territory. EVA used to be 8c off peak back then, with the prices of gas here that's 4x difference compared to a gas conterpart of the same model. Service, toll benefits are also some $. I was able to do about 3k a year savings all in all with one car (granted, it was a subcompact). Since then i also bought PacHy which additionally charges about 13kwhr daily . PacHy services are more of a regular car kind, although oil change still is just once a year. My last cycle bill (the electric part) was $115. anyhow between two cars I estimate should be at least 5k a year.
The caveat is that eva is 48c at peak starting 1 of sept. With summer AC use and EVA as is, that would easily push the bill towards $250 or more. Inner east bay is not too hot though. To cope with the peak and half-of-peak rate robbery, last year i have install 2x pw2, and now i have backup + off-peak pretty much the whole day for the house too (minus PW charging overhead for the house use during peak).
The PW investment was a bit steep for what it does though, ~13.5k which is being offset by SGIP rebate step 2 ($9280) (which i am still yet to get!). This rebate turns out to be the toughest to get yet. So the PW ordeal is probably ~$4250 net or so, which still is a bit steep for offsetting mere $600-800 a year (which may climb up though). Still though, it is also an automatic backup (we are losing power during storm season once or twice almost every year due to high winds in canyons). And now we don't care about when it is the best time to run dryer or electric oven anymore. The PW is able to offset completely up to 10kw, which is about peak oven + dryer consumption at the same time. That has to be worth something. And now i have a potential to pair it up with solar TOU in the future as well. If it weren't for SGIP, i am not sure if I really would do the PW though. Solar alone would have potential to erase my electric bills completely, but it would be order of magnitude bigger investment than the PW2, and i am not sure my house can effectively carry the amount enough for 2 evs. In the end the PW does seem like it has worked out well enough though.
Another caveat is that eva off-peak rates have been climbing pretty quickly (now 13c, so somthgin like almost 50% increase since 2014). And I think gas has eased a little bit since then, so now it is probably more like 3x less cost vs. gas, probably closer to 3x.
With M3 i expect the bills to go up a bit, as M3 is usually not as efficient as spark ev (i usually am able to drive between 4 and 6 miles easily per kwh with Spark).
The cost of M3 alone should make all these savings pretty laughable though. But most importantly, in the end one cannot quite put a cost on air quality, so I don't worry if I end up coming higher or lower. I am more inclined to view it as a personal contribution to stopping emissions. Bite the bullet once, enjoy a cleaner neighborhood for years to come.
The caveat is that eva is 48c at peak starting 1 of sept. With summer AC use and EVA as is, that would easily push the bill towards $250 or more. Inner east bay is not too hot though. To cope with the peak and half-of-peak rate robbery, last year i have install 2x pw2, and now i have backup + off-peak pretty much the whole day for the house too (minus PW charging overhead for the house use during peak).
The PW investment was a bit steep for what it does though, ~13.5k which is being offset by SGIP rebate step 2 ($9280) (which i am still yet to get!). This rebate turns out to be the toughest to get yet. So the PW ordeal is probably ~$4250 net or so, which still is a bit steep for offsetting mere $600-800 a year (which may climb up though). Still though, it is also an automatic backup (we are losing power during storm season once or twice almost every year due to high winds in canyons). And now we don't care about when it is the best time to run dryer or electric oven anymore. The PW is able to offset completely up to 10kw, which is about peak oven + dryer consumption at the same time. That has to be worth something. And now i have a potential to pair it up with solar TOU in the future as well. If it weren't for SGIP, i am not sure if I really would do the PW though. Solar alone would have potential to erase my electric bills completely, but it would be order of magnitude bigger investment than the PW2, and i am not sure my house can effectively carry the amount enough for 2 evs. In the end the PW does seem like it has worked out well enough though.
Another caveat is that eva off-peak rates have been climbing pretty quickly (now 13c, so somthgin like almost 50% increase since 2014). And I think gas has eased a little bit since then, so now it is probably more like 3x less cost vs. gas, probably closer to 3x.
With M3 i expect the bills to go up a bit, as M3 is usually not as efficient as spark ev (i usually am able to drive between 4 and 6 miles easily per kwh with Spark).
The cost of M3 alone should make all these savings pretty laughable though. But most importantly, in the end one cannot quite put a cost on air quality, so I don't worry if I end up coming higher or lower. I am more inclined to view it as a personal contribution to stopping emissions. Bite the bullet once, enjoy a cleaner neighborhood for years to come.
Last edited:
My car used 565 kWh, however my increase in my bill was 835 kWh. I used the higher amount in my estimate.
I'm not so sure. I've been seeing pretty large increases in my electric usage vs. what one would expect if only looking at the miles driven and reported Wh/mi.
Obviously this is hard to quantify because the other loads in the house aren't constant year over year, but I think there is a fairly significant amount of shore power used by the car when plugged in. I've noticed the green lights on the HPWC indicating that power is flowing when the car is not charging (charging is scheduled to start later at night)
I also think that the car itself uses more power when it is parked that is not indicated in the Wh/mi numbers reported in the odometer.
I'm not really up for fully tracking how bad this, but hopefully someone else will take this effort on.
I need to remind myself I didn't get this car to save money. I'm pretty much in a worst case scenario anyway. I live in a state with very high electricity costs, but not particularly high gasoline costs. I also work from home, so I don't drive much, and a lot of the driving I do is short distances which I think is generally pretty inefficient. Leaving my old ICE sit really didn't use any energy. I typically used to purchase gas about once every 3 to 5 weeks.
Love the car though. We've taken it instead of our SUV on a few road trips because its more fun to drive and the Autopilot is great. I've managed to put 3500 miles since mid June even though my typical work day average is less than 5 miles.
Eno Deb
Active Member
Yes, I doubt I would save anything if it wasn't for workplace charging. My employer has some kind of corporate bulk rate which is about 10c/kwh and they pass that rate along to us EV drivers. The residential rates around here are much higher. I'll look a little closer at the EV TOU rates when I have a better grasp how much energy I use to drive, but given the ridiculously high peak rates (40-50c) I doubt it'll save much.
make sure charge at night during off-peak hours with EV plan. It's 1/3 cost to me.
yes, you need either more mileage/cars to charge, or negligible house use (AC in particular), or time-offset it with PW or similar (or all of the above
But yes it can be amazingly efficient. I get typically $120 monthly electric bills for about 1MWh use.
ℬête Noire
Active Member
Turn that frown upside down! Think about how much longer it takes for me to pay off my solar install.When I read how little you guys are paying for electricity I weep.
Ballpark estimate is more like 12-13 years compared to a lot of Californians being able to recover full price in 3-5 years.Need more time to get a full and proper accounting of it all, especially the solar because I want to run a full year to really feel confident since it's relatively tight margins there. However the step to one EV (used for most of the miles) was definitely over $200/month drop in gasoline -> electricity costs shift. The 2nd EV won't be quite as much, maybe another $40-$50 for a total nearing $300/month. The extra $30/month in issuance for the Model 3 is offset by oil change etc. visits.
Sandiegodoug
Active Member
And it’s going up 11% in January!!!I'm waiting for someone in SDG&E territory w/o solar and not on EV-TOU-5 to do the same analysis and realize that they've just nicely padded Sempra Energy's bottom line.
Now start bawling. I get free electricity at night from TXU. The cost to run my Tesla - $0When I read how little you guys are paying for electricity I weep.
Eno Deb
Active Member
Hm ... nah, I just remembered what kind of climate you guys have to suffer through.
ℬête Noire
Active Member
It's a trap!
Well maybe not if you're using enough miles versus your early evening AC usage. Are they still charging 13c/kWh in the daytime on that plan?
It's the roughly 7c/kWh that some people are realizing over the month using Griddy that's really crazy. I wish Griddy had a buyback plan I could use on my solar, I'd clean up.
Agree with your point. what I conveniently skipped is the fact that my day time rate went up by 3c/kWh. But since no one is at home during day time, I keep my AC at a higher temp during day, and shift all of the electric workloads to night, like laundry, dishwasher and Tesla charging. So with careful planning my bill has come down by 20% from last year.
So this won't be a win-win for everyone.
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
EV + PV is a great combination.
I pay about 0.5 cents a mile to run our EVs from the PV in my backyard
Compared to an average ICE that gets around 27 mpg, the EV is 10 cents a mile cheaper to run. If the Tesla lasts 200k miles, it works out to $20,000 fuel savings.
I pay about 0.5 cents a mile to run our EVs from the PV in my backyard
Compared to an average ICE that gets around 27 mpg, the EV is 10 cents a mile cheaper to run. If the Tesla lasts 200k miles, it works out to $20,000 fuel savings.
woodisgood
Optimustic Pessimist
Coming from a 2008 Acura TSX, with 550 mi/wk commute, 27 mpg, premium gas around $4/gal = $325/mo.
30 day cost to charge Model 3 = $85. (0.13 off peak electricity rate)
Saving ~$240 per month. Of course there was no car payment with the TSX, but that $240 savings makes the net Model 3 payment so much easier to swallow.
30 day cost to charge Model 3 = $85. (0.13 off peak electricity rate)
Saving ~$240 per month. Of course there was no car payment with the TSX, but that $240 savings makes the net Model 3 payment so much easier to swallow.
How much does it cost to run your house now? Since your day time rate has gone up significantly.
It’s still not cheap here for Edison.
I don’t like TOU because it drives the rest of the days energy cost through the roof! Basically all my normal house useage will be 3X as much. Then I add on $0.12 a kw for night time car charging.
It’s technically cheaper for me to charge at a chargepoint station at $1.25 ah hour which comes out to $.21 a kw.
woodisgood
Optimustic Pessimist
Yeah the TOU plans really depend on your daytime or peak usage. We were able to shift most electricity hungry appliances to offpeak times (washing machine, dishwasher). Other appliances including heat are gas. No A/C here. Mostly LED lighting.
So cost to run house is about the same or might have even gone down slightly with behavior change.
So cost to run house is about the same or might have even gone down slightly with behavior change.
Similar threads
