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Should I charge 8am [question about SCE time of use rates]

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I have been setting my charge time to be 9pm because I assumed the middle of the night was when it was cheapest. But then I got this email and it says super off peak is at 8am.

I mostly do local driving so I only use 10-15% of the battery most the time. I saw this in my email from SCE. I live in Lake Forest CA / Orange County. Does this apply to me, should I charge at 8am to get the best rate? Because it seemed everyone says charge at the middle of the night. Is it because its most convenient for most people's live style and they assume every single person must be driving before 8am?

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If you took a second and looked at the actual rates on that plan, you would see that, for winter months, super off peak and off peak are the same 16c kW charge. So for winter time you should charge anytime between 9pm at night to 3:59pm in the afternoon.

This was pretty easy to find on SCEs website, all I did was search google for "SCE time of use rates". Were you not able to find this when you looked?

Time-Of-Use Residential Rate Plans

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If you took a second and looked at the actual rates on that plan, you would see that, for winter months, super off peak and off peak are the same 16c kW charge. So for winter time you should charge anytime between 9pm at night to 3:59pm in the afternoon.

This was pretty easy to find on SCEs website, all I did was search google for "SCE time of use rates". Were you not able to find this when you looked?

Time-Of-Use Residential Rate Plans

View attachment 639759

I've seen that many times, through google, which is why I set my car to charge at 9pm. But I wasn't sure if I formed my question correctly or read the graph correctly to achieve my goal of charging and the cheapest time (without other variables such as what time I go to work).

I just want to make sure setting my car to charge at 9pm was the cheapest. I don't know what that email meant (the graph on my first post). But I just wanted to be sure.
 
Interesting that the rates still appear as if people are leaving home during the day like pre-pandemic times. I had actually read something that power bills (unsurprisingly) had gone up with people home all the time.

I have had my car scheduled to start charging at midnight, if needed. Maybe our rates are different due to area and also solar panels
 
Rates and TOU rates will vary based on your utility. There's still the general assumption that charging at night is the best/lowest cost time to do it (which remain true for much of the country) but in California where there is excess solar now to the point where they have to curtail (i.e. turn it off) the price is now lowest in beginning of the day. Rates change every season by the way, so what's true right now may change in a few months starting in Summer.

If you haven't gotten solar panels yet, I would get it sooner rather than later because Net Energy Metering (where you get credited your fully billed kWh usage rather than actual value of generation) will go away at some point (or at least force batteries to be installed).

The duck curve is real and getting worse and worse:
ScottMadden_DuckCurve_Figure2_XL_518_385_80.jpg
 
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Rates and TOU rates will vary based on your utility. There's still the general assumption that charging at night is the best/lowest cost time to do it (which remain true for much of the country) but in California where there is excess solar now to the point where they have to curtail (i.e. turn it off) the price is now lowest in beginning of the day. Rates change every season by the way, so what's true right now may change in a few months starting in Summer.

If you haven't gotten solar panels yet, I would get it sooner rather than later because Net Energy Metering (where you get credited your fully billed kWh usage rather than actual value of generation) will go away at some point (or at least force batteries to be installed).

The duck curve is real and getting worse and worse:
ScottMadden_DuckCurve_Figure2_XL_518_385_80.jpg

That makes sense. I thought it was weird that the super off-peak was in the day.
 
btw: depending on how much your drive, and how much you are home, a ToU plan might not save much if any at all. Note that 41 cent peak charge for ac in late afternoon and evenings. Also cooking if you have an electric range/oven.

I've run the ToU plan numerous times, and they don't show any savings. In fact, SCE even shows that my total bill would increase slightly if I went to ToU.
 
I have been setting my charge time to be 9pm because I assumed the middle of the night was when it was cheapest. But then I got this email and it says super off peak is at 8am.
Off-hand, I'll guess that your utility is notifying you of upcoming changes as winter end approaches.

During the sunny season, rates are lowest when the sun is shining. It's a (solar) PV thing