Very High Electric Bill

[Malujerry]

Just to clarify...having the extra meter installed like others mentioned would be an additional cost for an electrician to come out. I'd have to get a price on it to see from my electrician.

I also have the option of switching like you to the "Time of Use" plan. However, the customer service rep warned me that electricity is more than triple during peak summer (June 1-Sept 30th) and you must keep this plan for a year. She said very rarely do customers elect this plan. During the months of July and August, no one is home most of the time, but a good part of June and September, there are 2 days a week when my wife is home with the kids. Given the fact, I only drive 600 miles a month, I don't think it's worth switching to this plan as I have a feeling it will cost me a lot more money. For you, who drives over 2400 miles a month, it's probably much more worth it.

Yes, completely true. I have no one at home during the summer.

But the meter change for the time of use service is free.

 

[mbhforum]

Yes, Long Island, NY is one of the more pricier places in the country to live. Don't get me started...

 

[Todd Burch]

you're also in Virginia where it's currently 61 and you can go golfing, while he's in the northeast (Long Island) where it is currenlty 46 and we've been able to skate on our pools for the most of the past 2 months

It was 26 a few days ago. I'm from Chicago so I know what cold is and have 100,000 miles driving the S, plenty in temps below 15°F. This ain't my first rodeo with the S and cold weather, and I stand by my statement that 450 Wh/mi average for 1500 miles of driving would be a really high average usage for a typical driver.

Having said that, I think the preheating, the wife working from home, and the heat press are a significant part of the consumption the OP is seeing.

 

[mbhforum]

I cannot wait to get my electrical bill again in two months to see the difference after disabling the preheating and API polling.

 

[brkaus]

I cannot wait to get my electrical bill again in two months to see the difference after disabling the preheating and API polling.

read your meter daily/weekly/etc for a bit and see how your power usage is going. You could also skip a charge one day and compare to the next.

 

[David29]

Yes, completely true. I have no one at home during the summer.

But the meter change for the time of use service is free.

Depending upon the ratio of peak to offpeak rates, peak usage can really eat up any savings from offpeak rates for charging. So I will be very interested to know if people can really save money with TOU rates for their whole house without solar power, because normal daytime usage could rapidly eat into the savings. Especially if you live in an area where you need much daytime energy use for space conditioning (heating or cooling). I imagine you'd have to manage the household energy usage carefully.
In my own case, I have a separate meter just for charging, and even then my savings are small. If I preheat or precool the car in the peak periods -- which is sometimes necessary -- man, it is expensive!

 

[brucet999]

Depending upon the ratio of peak to offpeak rates, peak usage can really eat up any savings from offpeak rates for charging. So I will be very interested to know if people can really save money with TOU rates for their whole house without solar power…

In the NE, where you live, probably not. In temperate, low humidity, coastal CA, electricity from high-priced SCE for a 2400 sq ft house works out $75 cheaper per year under TOU than our former tiered rate. Being able to add a MS charging at 12.5 cents per kWh overnight instead of driving us into tier-4 rates is a big bonus.

 

[Malujerry]

Depending upon the ratio of peak to offpeak rates, peak usage can really eat up any savings from offpeak rates for charging. So I will be very interested to know if people can really save money with TOU rates for their whole house without solar power, because normal daytime usage could rapidly eat into the savings. Especially if you live in an area where you need much daytime energy use for space conditioning (heating or cooling). I imagine you'd have to manage the household energy usage carefully.
In my own case, I have a separate meter just for charging, and even then my savings are small. If I preheat or precool the car in the peak periods -- which is sometimes necessary -- man, it is expensive!

So I have already done the math backwards I think. Year without Tesla, 10-11k-kWh and year with tesla 18-19k-kWh. I multiplied out the difference using the standard rate and it came out to be hundreds of dollars more compared to what I actually paid for the year on TOU with a Tesla.

But again, no one is really home during the day at any season and we go out of our way to wash dishes and do the laundry on nights or weekends. And of course, use a smart thermostat with a timed schedule for the AC.

 

[rpo]

I'm in Seattle too. While we did have 5.96 cent rates in 2016, that is only for the first 10 KWh per day in the summer and 16 KWh in the winter, After that, the rates are 12.57 cents. Given that basically every house uses up the base rate just in being a house, all Tesla charging occurs at 12.57 cents per KWh

So, you say you use 1,000 KWh a month and have $50 bills, but with SCL 1 MWh a month is $112 in the Summer and $100 in the winter, or double what you quoted.

Just trying to keep the data straight so people don't wonder why they don't have $50 bills. Nobody has $50 biils with a MWh of usage.

SCL is supposedly prototyping a EV charging program which would be nice because 13 cents per KWh is a bit steep if they are trying to encourage EV equipage.

Ah, that prompted me to go pull up old bills on the SCL website. First, you're definitely correct. I also made a mistake and overestimated my usage. I have been using about 900 kWh SINCE having solar installed. Prior to that, I was using about 450-600 kWh per month, so I never made much of an impact on the 2nd tier. That explains why my bills were about $50 a month.

 

[mbhforum]

Ok so a little more than 24 hours later from Friday 7am to Saturday Noon and I just compared my meter outside. I've used 44kwh which averages out to over 2640kwh for 60 days! This is still way too much usage which leads me to believe my issue wasn't vampire drain or preheating the car although this is a small sample size.

I did charge my car last night for 2.5 hours. So tonight I won't charge my car and see if there is a difference.

I just purchased a Sense and hopefully will have that hooked up by next weekend. Although Sense might take a few weeks to recognize all of my equipment.

 

[thefortunes]

Depending upon the ratio of peak to offpeak rates, peak usage can really eat up any savings from offpeak rates for charging. So I will be very interested to know if people can really save money with TOU rates for their whole house without solar power, because normal daytime usage could rapidly eat into the savings. Especially if you live in an area where you need much daytime energy use for space conditioning (heating or cooling). I imagine you'd have to manage the household energy usage carefully.
In my own case, I have a separate meter just for charging, and even then my savings are small. If I preheat or precool the car in the peak periods -- which is sometimes necessary -- man, it is expensive!

Last electric bill:
882 kWh @ $0.074 = $65.27 Low energy charge (11pm-6am and weekends)
177 kWh @ $0.137 = $24.25 Regular energy charge (6am-5pm and 9pm-11pm)
92 kWh @ $0.179 = $16.47 High energy charge (5pm-9pm)
Time-of-use cost $105.99

1151 kWh @ $0.120 = $138.12 Regular (non-time-of-use) would have been
Monthly savings equal $ 32.13

The only "managing" we do is charging the Teslas (620 kWh of the 882 kWh in the "low" period above) and running the dishwasher during the "low" period and doing laundry mainly on the weekends.

I'll take 23% savings or ~ $400 annually by telling the dishwasher to start a couple hours later and doing laundry on the weekends instead of at night.

 

[Steve Hoyt]

You ought to be out here with our great PUC running the show.

Here's my last months rates on an E6 solar plan, for part of the month. You can see why some people might value the free supercharging of the past.

 

[David29]

Last electric bill:
882 kWh @ $0.074 = $65.27 Low energy charge (11pm-6am and weekends)
177 kWh @ $0.137 = $24.25 Regular energy charge (6am-5pm and 9pm-11pm)
92 kWh @ $0.179 = $16.47 High energy charge (5pm-9pm)
Time-of-use cost $105.99

1151 kWh @ $0.120 = $138.12 Regular (non-time-of-use) would have been
Monthly savings equal $ 32.13

The only "managing" we do is charging the Teslas (620 kWh of the 882 kWh in the "low" period above) and running the dishwasher during the "low" period and doing laundry mainly on the weekends.

I'll take 23% savings or ~ $400 annually by telling the dishwasher to start a couple hours later and doing laundry on the weekends instead of at night.

Excellent! I use a lot less but our rates are much higher.

 

[Topher]

Heat creating appliances can be huge power hogs. Not sure what heat press you had, but I have seen them at 1500 Watts. Is it being left on between uses? Is the standby loss significant?

I recommend getting a Kill-a-watt or similar meter, or consulting a energy consultant.

Thank you kindly.

 

[Mr X]

Very Non Existent Gasoline Bill.

 

[mmccord]

Huh? The lowest electric rates in the USA are about 9 cents per KWh but you are quoting 5 cents.

I pay between 8&9 cents/kwh at night, and only a penny more during the day, in NY, including delivery and taxes.

 

[Swift]

I pay between 8&9 cents/kwh at night, and only a penny more during the day, in NY, including delivery and taxes.

View attachment 219810

Westchester rates are easily double that and it looks to be worse when the Indian Point nuclear plant spins down.

 

[8lincoln30]

Installing a second meter is cheap and easy if your Tesla outlet is running off a subpanel. I bought this remanufactured meter online for less than $40 and the box was about $30 at Lowe's, I think. I felt comfortable installing myself given that I was working with a subpanel. The Tesla outlet is the only load connected to the meter so it's an accurate reading of only the electricity the car draws.

(Note: if you want to ensure it's up to code, etc, you can buy the parts and have an electrician do it. I am aware that my installation may not be perfectly up to code, but I have no qualms about its safety. I'm limiting the car to 24 amps because the subpanel itself was wired to a 30-amp breaker in the main panel. Feel free to suggest improvements that would comply with code, if necessary, but please don't admonish me for doing it myself.)

 

[DarkMatter]

A 14-50 on a 30 amp breaker is not to code unless it's for a fixed load like an installed stove that only needs a 30 amp circuit. It's also no big deal, as there are multiple breakers which can pop along the way.

 

[8lincoln30]

Yup, I have two 30-amp breakers (main and sub) that could pop. I would have loved to do it with 50-amp breakers, but the wire run from the main to the sub is too high gauge for that, and redoing that run would be extremely difficult.

Upon plugging in the Tesla for the first time, it drew 40 amps without popping breakers. I let it go for a minute or so to see if it would; it didn't but I dialed back to 24 to "comply" with the my breakers and the recommended ampacity of my wiring. I'm pretty happy with the setup.