New Southern California edison time of use rates

[BrokerDon]

Wattbox being installed Saturday

My WattBox arrives tomorrow and I will try to take photos of the install.

Mine Wattbox is scheduled to arrive tomorrow too... And being installed by eMotorWerks recommended SoCal electrician Cosmin on Saturday morning. I'll try to get pictures and report back after our Wattbox is online at OhmConnect and billing as a sub-metered EV-1 rate at SCE.

I don't have AC so I don't think SCE would give me the Summer Discount Plan. I am in an all electric home so they could put one of their devices on my electric heating thermostat or my electric dryer. LOL

Yeah I'm got two friends who are also Tesla owners who don't qualify for SCE's Summer Discount Plan ("SDP") either because they don't have AC. We bought our 2006 built Mediterranean house in a "short sale" in 2009 and it came with four ACs (2 big Carrier central airs and 2 "split" Panasonic ACs). We get really nice SDP credits in the summer since we only use AC about 4 days a year and SCE computes our SDP discount based on our connected AC tonnage. We're near the coast plus our house has massive insulation and thermal mass so it stays pretty cool, even on hot SoCal days.

 

[Ampster]

The WattBox arrived today and I got it installed and configured. I am now waiting for Ohmconnect to contact me with the stuff I have to sign for my rate to go into effect with SCE.
Sorry about the sideways photo. I was having some problems with the photo upload.

 

[smilepak]

The WattBox arrived today and I got it installed and configured. I am now waiting for Ohmconnect to contact me with the stuff I have to sign for my rate to go into effect with SCE.
Sorry about the sideways photo. I was having some problems with the photo upload.

Cool. So u have a ClipperCreek off 14-30 NEMA and route that through the Wattbox?

How much was the installed cost?

I just bought the Leviton 40 amp 6-50 NEMA.

 

[smilepak]

Hmm SCE took down the pilot link, no longer exist.

 

[Ampster]

Cool. So u have a ClipperCreek off 14-30 NEMA and route that through the Wattbox?

How much was the installed cost?

I just bought the Leviton 40 amp 6-50 NEMA.

Right now we have a Smart ED, a Chevy Volt and a converted VW. None of them draw more than 3.3kWh so that is why I have the Clipper Creek. Currently there is a 14-30 receptacle but the wiring in the conduit is sized for 60 or 70 Amps. When we get our Model X sometime in late 2016 I have the infrastructure for 60 Amp charging.
The wiring of the WattBox was very simple. Only 4 wires. Two for the current coil and two for voltage. I had plenty of room in that grey junction box that feeds the 14-30 receptacle. The WattBox vender will reimburse $100 for an electrician. To get a reasonable estimate just show them the connection part of the instructions that can be downloaded. Expect to do the internet and configuring part yourself and write down your wifi passwords and network name as you will need them during that phase. It took me 30 minutes for the electrical connections and the only parts needed were a clamp connector shown in the picture below. Again apologies for the sideways photo, it was verticle when I uploaded it.

If you have the Leviton with a 6-50 receptacle there should be plenty of room for the current coil and the small wires for power in the j box for that receptacle.

 

[BrokerDon]

WattBox installation on Tesla HPWC complete. SCE / OhmConnect next...

My WattBox installation on our Tesla High Power Wall Charger ("HPWC") is now complete and our WattBox is online at eMotorWerks.com "JuiceBox Data Visualization Page".

I contacted eMotorWerks recommended installer Cosmin at Eurotech Electric 408-639-8268 who had his electrician Nic do a super clean install of our WattBox on our HPWC for ZERO cost to us (eMotorWerks paid for the WattBox installtion as part of the PEV Pilot Program). Super simple installation which took about an hour.

UPDATE: I finalized my OhmConnect / SCE PEV Pilot Program steps this afternoon all online... Nice! Hopefully this should enable our Tesla HPWC billing to be submetered on SCE's TOU-EV-1 rate plan which will shift our EV charging off our current TOU-D-B rate plan in the next couple of weeks... or when our new SCE billing cycle starts on the 6th.

In the meantime I'm earning OhmConnect Points by Adding my WattBox and Tesla to my OhmConnect account. Hopefully this will yield another $50 to $150 a year in savings... as well as only charge our Tesla when the grid NOT producing Dirty Power.

 

[Ampster]

I received, signed and turned in the paperwork, which Ohmconnect will forward to SCE. Now we will see how long it takes SCE to process.
There is some conjecture that SCE might not automatically put us on the EV-1 rate. I track my usage almost daily and as soon as I see another service account for the sub meter I am calling to confirm the TOU-EV-1 rate if it doesn't show up on that account. My billing cycle is around the 25th so if SCE does their part timely I shouldn't have too much lag time before the new billing starts.

 

[rxlawdude]

I received, signed and turned in the paperwork, which Ohmconnect will forward to SCE. Now we will see how long it takes SCE to process.
There is some conjecture that SCE might not automatically put us on the EV-1 rate. I track my usage almost daily and as soon as I see another service account for the sub meter I am calling to confirm the TOU-EV-1 rate if it doesn't show up on that account. My billing cycle is around the 25th so if SCE does their part timely I shouldn't have too much lag time before the new billing starts.

I'm getting my WattBox installed next Tuesday. I just sent Ohmconnect back the signed paperwork, so hopefully I'll be seeing cheap electrons flowing at night.

 

[ddimit]

They send your paperwork electronically to SCE. I sent mine in a couple of days ago and got a notice from SCE that I needed to dis enroll from the save the power day text alerts. Which i was able to do from my account on the SCE Webpage. The Next day I got a confirm they would go ahead and process the Pilot Application

 

[rxlawdude]

They send your paperwork electronically to SCE. I sent mine in a couple of days ago and got a notice from SCE that I needed to dis enroll from the save the power day text alerts. Which i was able to do from my account on the SCE Webpage. The Next day I got a confirm they would go ahead and process the Pilot Application

Thanks. Though SCE seems to be having trouble keeping their webpages working (usage data is only current through 8/15). Must be the H1B cheap labor they replaced Americans with.

 

[ddimit]

Yes my usage data has huge gaps over the last week as well. Its par for the course for them.

 

[Ampster]

Yes my usage data has huge gaps over the last week as well. Its par for the course for them.

Me too. I have also been having Enphase inverter drop out issues and thought they might be related. Now more likely SCE data issue unrelated to Enphase issue. My installer is coming next week to add filters to Enphase Envoy.

 

[rxlawdude]

Me too. I have also been having Enphase inverter drop out issues and thought they might be related. Now more likely SCE data issue unrelated to Enphase issue. My installer is coming next week to add filters to Enphase Envoy.

Ah, Enphase. Nice microinverters. As a believer in the technology and the market, I bought ENPH when it was well over $10.00. Then, last month the day I got my 70D, I bought TSLA. Obviously, I should never become a market analyst. :crying:

 

[Ampster]

I have heard they can sometimes suffer early fatigue. The installer only gets paid for failed hardware, not the time spent changing hardware.

 

[xav-]

Can someone please advise...

We just purchased a Chevy volt.

Until then, we were using very little electricity with bills averaging around $30 (a little more in the summer). I never really bothered to pay attention to our electricity bills but I believe our daily consumption is around 6 kWh. We pay 15 cents per kWh. I believe we use the standard plan (no time of use)

Now.. We got the volt.. The car has a 18.4 kWh battery which needs to be fully charged on a daily basis (on 110 V). Our electricity consumption will quadruple,

is it worth to switch to time of use? I just read about the on peak hours rates.. I did not even know it was possible to charge this much for electricity. It would cost me 3 times as much as to pay for gas at these prices.

Thanks

 

[wws]

Can someone please advise...

We just purchased a Chevy volt.

Until then, we were using very little electricity with bills averaging around $30 (a little more in the summer). I never really bothered to pay attention to our electricity bills but I believe our daily consumption is around 6 kWh. We pay 15 cents per kWh. I believe we use the standard plan (no time of use)

Now.. We got the volt.. The car has a 18.4 kWh battery which needs to be fully charged on a daily basis (on 110 V). Our electricity consumption will quadruple,

is it worth to switch to time of use? I just read about the on peak hours rates.. I did not even know it was possible to charge this much for electricity. It would cost me 3 times as much as to pay for gas at these prices.

Only 14.4kWh or so is usable, so your number is a bit high. But - absolutely go to Time of Use.

Also consider 240v charging to help fit in the TOU window. If you haven't already heard, the 120v "charge cord" (EVSE) provided with the Gen 2 Volts works just fine at 240v. (Inside the black box is a Clipper Creek board.) You just have to make a little plug adapter cord for it. It is limited to 12 amps, whereas the car can draw 15 or so amps from a higher power EVSE. But you can't beat the price.

 

[xav-]

Only 14.4kWh or so is usable, so your number is a bit high. But - absolutely go to Time of Use.

Also consider 240v charging to help fit in the TOU window. If you haven't already heard, the 120v "charge cord" (EVSE) provided with the Gen 2 Volts works just fine at 240v. (Inside the black box is a Clipper Creek board.) You just have to make a little plug adapter cord for it. It is limited to 12 amps, whereas the car can draw 15 or so amps from a higher power EVSE. But you can't beat the price.

Thanks for your reply. Glad to learn that it's 14 kW.

I live in a rental with the garage 120 feet away from the electric panel (separate building). My understanding is that it would cost at the very least $800 to install level 2 (assuming line up in the air) so not sure it's worth it considering today's gas prices.. Maybe I should revisit that?

Would not time of use back fire with my other electricity needs? For instance using the air conditioning on the week ends in the mornings after 8 am when it's hot? E.g. Paying 47 cents instead of the current 15 cents?

Thanks!

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Thanks for your reply. Glad to learn that it's 14 kW.

I live in a rental with the garage 120 feet away from the electric panel (separate building). My understanding is that it would cost at the very least $800 to install level 2 (assuming line up in the air) so not sure it's worth it considering today's gas prices.. Maybe I should revisit that?

Would not time of use back fire with my other electricity needs? For instance using the air conditioning on the week ends in the mornings after 8 am when it's hot? E.g. Paying 47 cents instead of the current 15 cents?

Thanks!

This SCE page suggests that weekend rates are the off-peak rate.
https://www.sce.com/wps/portal/home/residential/rates/Time-Of-Use-Residential-Rate-Plans/

Also, there's an implication that holidays are at the weekend rate.

That links to a pdf with more details of TOU-D:
https://www.sce.com/wps/wcm/connect...Rate_Sheet_TOU-D-A-B_12.22.14.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

The PDF refers to "most holidays" as being off-peak, which if it's like my utility in Maine it's the Federal holidays but not observance days where the day off is shifted to Friday or Monday. EDIT Google brought me to:

Time-Of-Use | Tools & Resources | Your Business | Home - SCE

That's for business and says of holidays:

Note: The lower off-peak rate applies on holidays. When any holiday falls on Sunday, the following Monday will be recognized as a holiday. Holidays are New Year’s Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas.

So it's the "major" holidays, not all Federal holidays.

 

[987S4]

Thanks for your reply. Glad to learn that it's 14 kW.

I live in a rental with the garage 120 feet away from the electric panel (separate building). My understanding is that it would cost at the very least $800 to install level 2 (assuming line up in the air) so not sure it's worth it considering today's gas prices.. Maybe I should revisit that?

Would not time of use back fire with my other electricity needs? For instance using the air conditioning on the week ends in the mornings after 8 am when it's hot? E.g. Paying 47 cents instead of the current 15 cents?

Thanks!

You're going to need to break out a spreadsheet and do the calculations to figure out what works best.

For my needs, TOU was absolutely necessary, but charging a Tesla is very different than charging a Volt. After changing to TOU my SCE bill wasn't drastically more expensive even with the Tesla since my house is usually pretty quiet from 8am - 7pm. After doing the math I should have switched to TOU even before the Tesla arrived.

If you call SCE I think they have a special hotline that helps analyze your bill and determine what works best. With the Volt you have the opportunity to skip charging so that brings another factor into the equation.

 

[xav-]

Thanks all..

I have researched pricing a bit.. It sounds like because I was using less than 9 kWh a day.. I was falling into the lowest tier of 16 cents of kWh (any time of the day).

The volt will now at least triple my electricity usage and likely move me to tier 3 pricing (29 cents per kWh). As such I will likely be forced to switch to time of use plan.

To time of use plan seems like a complete rip off with the "super off peak" rate just a couple cents lower from what I used to pay. The so called "off peak" rate is 28 cents per kWh (50 percent higher from what I used to pay). The "on peak" rate is in loan shark territory.. Up to 44 cents per kWh. Basically I will now have to basically minimize as much as possible electricity usage at peak hours between 2 and 8 pm (monitor AC usage etc).

Of course, Using 110 V the car takes 13 hours to charge (super off peak is from 10 pm to 8 am).. So I will have to charge the car for a couple hours at 28 cents per kWh or simply use gas. I believe at 28 cents per kWh gas is going to be cheaper. Getting level 2 charging will likely cost me $800, not a great option for a rental).

To summarize, in the end I don't expect to save much of anything at current gas prices. I am screwed. Thank you SCE.

Hopefully I am off.