Texas heatwave & off-peak charging

[tonybelding]

We were lucky to not have a real Texas summertime heat wave for a couple of years, but now it's catching up with us. I've seen the fire trucks going past my place, and sometimes smelled smoke in the air. A couple of days ago I met a lady who said her house was only saved by a timely water drop from a helicopter.

Texas has set new records for peak electricity usage. We haven't had any blackouts or brownouts, but I have experienced some power "blinks" once in a while during the daytime.

We don't have off-peak rate programs here. When I charge my car, the cost is the same no matter what time of day, and as a result I've rarely ever bothered to charge my car on a timer. Whenever I plugged it in, that's when it started charging. Now that's changed. I don't want to charge my car when it's 97° inside my garage and the power could blink at any moment. That can't be good for the car, it can't be good for the charging hardware either. And you know, I don't want to be part of the problem.

I tried programming it to start charging at 3 AM, when the outdoor temperature was projected to dip below 80°. I left the garage doors open at night, so air can circulate. That seemed to work OK.

 

[Electroman]

This year I signed up for a plan with free electricity from 8pm to 6am from TXU. The catch is I pay 3c more during day. So far my bills haven't reduced from last year and so I am not sure if this plan is saving me money or not. I will know at the end of the summer

 

[JasJ]

gogriddy.com

wholesale rates that change every five minutes.... even with the powerspike this week to insane levels, we are still on track for $0.086/kw average this month (includes transmission fees).

One day this week at 6am, the wholesale rate was -1 cent.... yes, they paid me to charge my MS (sort of - still have transmission fees of about 4 cents)