Prior to my model 3 I had an Ioniq EV. Regular charging cost me about $60 per month. I’m using the same charger but now since switching to Tesla my electric bill went up about $250 above that. My charging habits are essentially the same, anyone have a similar experience, I purchased now the Tesla OEM charger, thinking maybe that can help.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
High electricity usage for charging
- Thread starter EVsoph
- Start date
Changing the physical charger will have zero (absolutely, positively zero) to do with your cost of charging.
You did not provide anywhere near enough information for anyone to attempt to help you figure out details, but the fact that your cost to charge an ioniq and a tesla are different is like saying something like "I had a prius before and it cost me $80 a month to fill it with gas, now I have a BMW 4 series and it cost me $250.... whats up with that?"
In any case, save your money on the charger because that is not going to change how much it costs you to charge, unless you have a time of use plan in the middle of the night that your current charger is not capable of filling your car during.
Upvote
0
danarcha
Member
Have you checked the "Charge Stats" section of the Tesla mobile app to see how many kWh per month you are using? I drive about 9000 miles per year and typically use about 250 kWh each month at a cost of about $35. Unless you are driving a couple hundred miles per day, something is wrong with your situation.
I'm charging with the mobile charger that was provided with the car (now an extra purchase) plugged into a 14-30 outlet (typical electric dryer outlet).
I'm charging with the mobile charger that was provided with the car (now an extra purchase) plugged into a 14-30 outlet (typical electric dryer outlet).
Upvote
0
Upvote
0
There isnt any way to say that, though. This is winter, with comparatively higher EV consumption. We dont know what the OPs electric usage pattern in their home is, and how it compares to last winter. We dont know what the OPs electrical plan is, and whether it is one that has a time of use setup that charges for more during certain parts of the day. than others. We know that weather plays a part in increased consumption for EVs.
We dont know how far the OP drives, and if that has changed in any way. We know that electrical plans have increased prices, we know that winter has been very cold in much of the country (more heating use), etc.
We have zero information to help them figure it out.
Upvote
0
That seems really high. Are you saying that you are paying over $300 a month charging Model 3? What is your electric rate? Even if your rate is like $0.33/kwh, you would be getting about 900 kwh for $300. And with Model 3 in winter, you should at least get like 3 miles per kwh. Did you drive 2700 miles in a month or anywhere close to that?
Upvote
0
Without knowing your driving/charge habits and the details of your electricity plan, it's a hard question to answer.
Your electricity plan may have a Time of Use policy where they might charge you an extremely high amount during peak hours, and you might have been charging during those hours if you didn't know about it.
Your electricity plan may have a Time of Use policy where they might charge you an extremely high amount during peak hours, and you might have been charging during those hours if you didn't know about it.
Upvote
0
Sorry.
My electric usage went up 50% since switching to the Tesla. So im comparing this to my prior EV which I was using for 3 years and stable electric usage at home. I had that car throughout the winters as well.
I use about 10-15% of my battery every day and plug in a every night as recommended by Tesla.
Using a level 2 charger. 40 amps. Same charger I was using on my prior car.
The only think I can of is that I have it set to start charging later at night for cheaper electric rates. Could it be that my non Tesla charger is not communicating well with this delayed charge? My prior EV I charged when I plugged in without any delayed setting.
My electric usage went up 50% since switching to the Tesla. So im comparing this to my prior EV which I was using for 3 years and stable electric usage at home. I had that car throughout the winters as well.
I use about 10-15% of my battery every day and plug in a every night as recommended by Tesla.
Using a level 2 charger. 40 amps. Same charger I was using on my prior car.
The only think I can of is that I have it set to start charging later at night for cheaper electric rates. Could it be that my non Tesla charger is not communicating well with this delayed charge? My prior EV I charged when I plugged in without any delayed setting.
Upvote
0
When you say “my electric usage went up”, do you mean your actual draw went up, or are you just paying substantially more in supply/delivery fees?
As others have said, there is no way to answer your question without more information.
Upvote
0
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
Look at you bill's kWh section. Then compare how many kWh you used. Tesla's app also allows you to check kWh usage. This will eliminate factors from pricing changes. If the kWh used per month (compare the same month a year ago, given your general consumption may vary month to month) are roughly the same (they should be if your usage have not changed much) then you know the difference is from electricity pricing changes. It could be you got switched to a different electricity schedule or you are charging during peak hours (if you are on a peak pricing plan).
If instead you are comparing usage from a warmer month to a colder month, your usage (including home usage) might have just went up due to colder weather, not necessarily because you switched an EV.
If instead you are comparing usage from a warmer month to a colder month, your usage (including home usage) might have just went up due to colder weather, not necessarily because you switched an EV.
Upvote
0
srs5694
Active Member
No, Teslas communicate just fine with J1772 EVSEs. @jjrandorin is 99.9% right when he says that the choice of EVSE will have nothing to do with energy use. The 0.1% where he's wrong is that the EVSE's speed (in amps) can affect the efficiency of the charge. Teslas remain "awake" when they're charging (using more energy to run their computers), and they'll usually "go to sleep" when that's done (more on that shortly), so all other things being equal, a faster/higher-amperage EVSE will be more energy-efficient than a slower/lower-amperage EVSE. This difference is trivial, though, at least between, say, the 40A EVSE you've got now and Tesla's 48A Wall Connector. Furthermore, if you switched to the Wall Connector to get that extra 8A of speed, you might need to replace your current wiring and circuit breaker, and that would cost far more than the energy you'd save by charging 8A faster, even over a span of many years. Also, it's only the LR variants of the Model 3 that can handle 48A charging. The SR variants top out at 32A, so switching from a 40A to 48A EVSE would have absolutely no effect with them.
Others have posted several suggestions about what may be going on, and I have some others. First, Teslas have certain advanced features, such as Sentry Mode and cabin overheat protection, that use energy. Most other EVs lack comparable features, so they can be more energy-efficient when they're parked somewhere. These features' impact don't show up in EPA energy-efficiency ratings, but if you've enabled most or all of these features, they could account for some of the effect you're seeing. Even just checking your Tesla app frequently will wake the car up, causing it to use more power. I'm skeptical that even all of these features would add up to a 50% increase in kWh used compared to an Ioniq, but they might account for some of it. You may want to check your cars' settings with this in mind. Anything that requires the car to stay awake or that uses energy for heating or cooling, will increase its energy use.
There are also some obvious things to check, like your tire pressures and climate settings. If your tires are underinflated, that'll increase your energy use; and if you're driving in the winter with the heat cranked up higher than you had it set in the Ioniq, that'll impact efficiency. For that matter, I notice that your location is New York. If the bill you're looking at included the period near the end of last month with the abnormally frigid temperatures in New York State, then your car's efficiency will have dropped significantly during that period, assuming you took it out at all. That might account for a 50% increase in energy usage during the period in question, but probably not for a whole month.
Furthermore, I don't believe you've posted evidence that it's your Tesla that's consuming the extra power. If you use electricity to heat your home (either whole-house or even just a space heater in one room), then that cold snap would have significantly increased your home's electricity use.
You may want to consider using a tracking app or service. These will help you understand where your car's energy is going. I use TeslaFi for this, but there are other options. TeslaFi is Web-based, but most of the others use cell phone apps to access the data. Anyhow, using TeslaFi, you can see if your car is spending too much time awake, what the efficiency of each drive is, how much energy pre-heating the cabin is using, and so on. There are some caveats, though. These tools can sometimes keep the car awake for too long, thus creating the problem you're trying to investigate, although I expect that most of them have default settings to avoid that problem by now. Most of them also cost a little money, and they require giving a third party at least limited access to your Tesla account. I believe there's one that's basically an open-source, self-serve version of TeslaFi that you can run yourself on a computer you maintain so as to avoid this last issue, but I don't recall its name.
There are also ways to track home energy use on a per-device basis. I've never looked into them, so I can't give any specific recommendations. A network-enabled EVSE will give you some EV-specific tracking data, but it won't be as specific as what you'd get out of TeslaFi or a similar app. It would tell you if your car is charging every hour or two, as it might if you enabled Sentry Mode at home. IMHO, it's not worth replacing a working "dumb" EVSE with a network-enabled one just to monitor this in your situation, but it's worth considering this capability if you need to buy a new EVSE for some reason.
Upvote
0
I think I know what's going on here.
Have you recently gotten into pottery, and you've been firing the kiln every single night?
Or... by chance, is there a really thick orange extension cord running from your house into the neighbor's backyard, and are there sparks flying into the air 24/7 as if someone is welding giant metal dinosaur sculptures?
While one of those is the most likely cause, there's also a slight possibility that you just had Spectrum cable TV installed, and you've got 2 (maybe even *3*) DVR boxes. Two or three DVR boxes would definitely cost you $250/month.
Have you recently gotten into pottery, and you've been firing the kiln every single night?
Or... by chance, is there a really thick orange extension cord running from your house into the neighbor's backyard, and are there sparks flying into the air 24/7 as if someone is welding giant metal dinosaur sculptures?
While one of those is the most likely cause, there's also a slight possibility that you just had Spectrum cable TV installed, and you've got 2 (maybe even *3*) DVR boxes. Two or three DVR boxes would definitely cost you $250/month.
Upvote
0
KWh used this month: 1127
kWh used this month last year: 720
Everything stayed equal in terms of household usage.ie: no, no electronics or other electricity draw
Our heat is gas not electric.
I was charging EV last year as well
Can sentry mode (I have it turned off at home) etc cause such an increase?
kWh used this month last year: 720
Everything stayed equal in terms of household usage.ie: no, no electronics or other electricity draw
Our heat is gas not electric.
I was charging EV last year as well
Can sentry mode (I have it turned off at home) etc cause such an increase?
Upvote
0
Okay, so your actual usage is up by 40%
Now how much have your demand/delivery charges gone up in that time period as well? Hint: the answer is > 0
Sounds like everything is as-expected based on usage and rate increases. Welcome to 2023.
Upvote
0
UncleCreepy
Member
Seeing that you are in NY where it's pretty cold these days, I'd like to offer another possible explanation:
You said that you charge your car every day but only need a fraction of the energy stored.
In cold temperatures, the car will warm up the battery before it starts charging. So your consumption while driving is not actually this high, it's from heating the battery. It gets worse the less you drive. You basically use a huge chunk of the electricity bill to warm your battery without actually getting any mileage out of it.
You're probably better off not charging every day and/or charging right after you arrive home so that the battery is still somewhat warm.
You said that you charge your car every day but only need a fraction of the energy stored.
In cold temperatures, the car will warm up the battery before it starts charging. So your consumption while driving is not actually this high, it's from heating the battery. It gets worse the less you drive. You basically use a huge chunk of the electricity bill to warm your battery without actually getting any mileage out of it.
You're probably better off not charging every day and/or charging right after you arrive home so that the battery is still somewhat warm.
Upvote
0
Gauss Guzzler
Safety Score = 42
OK, so you're using a lot more power. Now check your odometer (swipe the music tab) and you'll see miles driven and average consumption (should be 250-350 Wh/mi). Multiply them together to get your total Wh usage from driving (divide by 1000 for kWh). Finally look at the year total charging energy usage on your phone app, which should be ~10% higher (subtract public charging if applicable).
If all that checks out, you're just using more power for some other reasons like dinosaur sculpture welding.
Upvote
0
Midnightsun
Active Member
The difference is 407kwh. Most of that must be increases from the utility unless you are paying 0.62/KWH which is what you would need to pay to get $250 more on your bill which you say in the initial post. What about distances you are driving? Has nothing changed since you upgraded from the Ioniq or are you the type that goes to work and comes home every day with the same route and little else in between? The Ionic only had a 40kw battery if I am not mistaken. Regardless, something is not adding up and I think there is an additional draw somewhere you have not accounted for. Not sure how homes are normally heated in NY but here if one is gas fired, normally the basement will have baseboard electric heaters just like the garage would have. If the winter is harsh then yes your electric bill will increase even if you heat with gas as the base boards kick in more often as well as the blower in the gas system.
Upvote
0
Um. I tend to agree with all the other posters here, but there is the Question of where all the energy is going.
So, last year, 720 kW-hr. This year, 1127 kW-hr. You had the Ioniq last year, the M3 this year. So, yeah, you've got this thing bashing about in your head that the issue might be the Tesla. Far be it from me to argue; in the many years I've spent troubleshooting bizarre problems from a distance, the customer is sometimes wrong, but is mostly right.
So, let's see if we can figure this out, to a greater or lesser extent.
First off: The Tesla eats electrical energy, sure. But the question is whether it eats excessive electrical energy. The first back-of-the-envelope calculation is to use the Charge Stats information in the Tesla App. Tesla_App->Charge Stats, then select Month. It'll tell you how much energy you've plonked into the car for the current month, and on a month-by-month basis going back until you either got the car or the Charge Stats function was updated to have the monthly data.
Second.. The tricky bit is getting how many miles you drove during some or any of those months. You may have to do some estimating. You can set the car to measure how far its driving by setting up a distance range in the odometer section of the car's control panel.
But, put in an estimate. Say you got, say, 150 kW-hr in December. If you divide that by the miles driven in that month, you should get a number between 0.25 kW-hr to 0.35 kW-hr per mile. If you're getting, say, 1 kW-hr/mile... then your estimates are out in left field somewhere, or Something Is Wrong. Report back, please?
Other, stranger things might be happening. For example, there's this Scheduled Departure thingy in the Tesla's Charging Screen menu. Say, for some bizarre reason, there has inadvertently been set a departure time of, say, 2 a.m.. At which point, if the car's plugged in, it'll charge the battery, warm up the car, and get it all set for leaving. Except (a) you're not leaving at 2 a.m. and (b) it takes about an hour for the car to figure out that you're not, and to turn off everything. And during that time all that's happening is that your garage is sort of getting warm and the car is using electricity.
Finally: As it happens, my house has solar panels on the roof. As a result, I kinda mentally track power usage on the house, and have been doing so since 2004, when the panels went in. Interestingly, even though the house has gas heat, the electrical usage goes up in the dead of winter. Why's that?
Forced hot air, that's why. There's a Reason the HVAC is on 240 VAC, and it's that blame blower fan. Yeah, air conditioning runs the compressor, but it's amazing just how much the HVAC air flow eats electricity. If it's been cold, it might not be the car (Plus or minus a question about the scheduled departure settings), it could just be the air keeping your toes warm. And that includes any electric space heaters. And the fact that the lights are on more when it's dark out.
Now, the SO and I are empty nesters, our children having flown. But a couple of live bodies leaving the house, well, it was kind of amazing how the electrical usage dropped. And it wasn't like I was running around turning off lights.
People who get seriously torqued about this kind of thing (I'm not one of them) will actually put a clamp-on ammeter on various wires on their breaker box. Well, lots of people got hobbies. But doing that can give one an idea of Where All That Energy Is Going. And that comment above about how much juice a cable box eats.. Cable boxes eat a lot of energy, so much so that the EPA is trying to get the manufacturers of same to cut back.
On another thread, some punter was having issues with the breakers going to the NEMA14-50 socket in his garage popping at intervals, and that's with a 32A load on a 50A circuit. Probably a bad breaker, but I pointed out over there that, along with the zillion other things that might be going wrong, a partial short might be running around. Now, I understand you have a wall connector with a J1772 cable, and that's been there for a while. So, unlikely that it's got an issue. But "Unlikely" doesn't mean "Can't Happen". If you can find a clamp-on ammeter and find out if the car is drawing current when it's not supposed to be, well, might be something there.
Good luck!
So, last year, 720 kW-hr. This year, 1127 kW-hr. You had the Ioniq last year, the M3 this year. So, yeah, you've got this thing bashing about in your head that the issue might be the Tesla. Far be it from me to argue; in the many years I've spent troubleshooting bizarre problems from a distance, the customer is sometimes wrong, but is mostly right.
So, let's see if we can figure this out, to a greater or lesser extent.
First off: The Tesla eats electrical energy, sure. But the question is whether it eats excessive electrical energy. The first back-of-the-envelope calculation is to use the Charge Stats information in the Tesla App. Tesla_App->Charge Stats, then select Month. It'll tell you how much energy you've plonked into the car for the current month, and on a month-by-month basis going back until you either got the car or the Charge Stats function was updated to have the monthly data.
Second.. The tricky bit is getting how many miles you drove during some or any of those months. You may have to do some estimating. You can set the car to measure how far its driving by setting up a distance range in the odometer section of the car's control panel.
But, put in an estimate. Say you got, say, 150 kW-hr in December. If you divide that by the miles driven in that month, you should get a number between 0.25 kW-hr to 0.35 kW-hr per mile. If you're getting, say, 1 kW-hr/mile... then your estimates are out in left field somewhere, or Something Is Wrong. Report back, please?
Other, stranger things might be happening. For example, there's this Scheduled Departure thingy in the Tesla's Charging Screen menu. Say, for some bizarre reason, there has inadvertently been set a departure time of, say, 2 a.m.. At which point, if the car's plugged in, it'll charge the battery, warm up the car, and get it all set for leaving. Except (a) you're not leaving at 2 a.m. and (b) it takes about an hour for the car to figure out that you're not, and to turn off everything. And during that time all that's happening is that your garage is sort of getting warm and the car is using electricity.
Finally: As it happens, my house has solar panels on the roof. As a result, I kinda mentally track power usage on the house, and have been doing so since 2004, when the panels went in. Interestingly, even though the house has gas heat, the electrical usage goes up in the dead of winter. Why's that?
Forced hot air, that's why. There's a Reason the HVAC is on 240 VAC, and it's that blame blower fan. Yeah, air conditioning runs the compressor, but it's amazing just how much the HVAC air flow eats electricity. If it's been cold, it might not be the car (Plus or minus a question about the scheduled departure settings), it could just be the air keeping your toes warm. And that includes any electric space heaters. And the fact that the lights are on more when it's dark out.
Now, the SO and I are empty nesters, our children having flown. But a couple of live bodies leaving the house, well, it was kind of amazing how the electrical usage dropped. And it wasn't like I was running around turning off lights.
People who get seriously torqued about this kind of thing (I'm not one of them) will actually put a clamp-on ammeter on various wires on their breaker box. Well, lots of people got hobbies. But doing that can give one an idea of Where All That Energy Is Going. And that comment above about how much juice a cable box eats.. Cable boxes eat a lot of energy, so much so that the EPA is trying to get the manufacturers of same to cut back.
On another thread, some punter was having issues with the breakers going to the NEMA14-50 socket in his garage popping at intervals, and that's with a 32A load on a 50A circuit. Probably a bad breaker, but I pointed out over there that, along with the zillion other things that might be going wrong, a partial short might be running around. Now, I understand you have a wall connector with a J1772 cable, and that's been there for a while. So, unlikely that it's got an issue. But "Unlikely" doesn't mean "Can't Happen". If you can find a clamp-on ammeter and find out if the car is drawing current when it's not supposed to be, well, might be something there.
Good luck!
Upvote
0
