Is that both the energy (or "Generation") and delivery portions of the charges? If so, that is astoundingly cheap! My TOU rate in eastern MA is 4x that in offpeak periods....
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whitex
Well-Known Member
Polling is not going to cause the car to draw that much more current, especially when you are driving so car is already awake. When you say your round trip commute is 30 miles, that's 15 miles each way, how long does it take? 15miles would use approximately 5KWh, but if it takes you an hour to get there and your heat it on all the time, that could be another 4KWh which would explain 50 miles gone. Do you preheat the car before leaving the garage? Also, you are talking about rated miles, not ideal miles right?
I'm in Long Island also. I drive 100 miles a day, about 35kwh/day, 6 days a week. My electric bill has doubled from $150 a month to $300 month. I used to spend $600/month on gas, so no complaints. This is after one year of ownership. Yes high numbers, I drive fast, heat on, pre heat, etc.
I had switched to Time of use service for free right after the tesla. Most people are on the standard 180 plan, and go to the 188 TOU plan like me. Attached is their generic plan and my actually bill.
I had switched to Time of use service for free right after the tesla. Most people are on the standard 180 plan, and go to the 188 TOU plan like me. Attached is their generic plan and my actually bill.
Attachments
I'm confused. It seems like you're conflating two different things -- the second meter and the nighttime rate. The .001/kw rate is from midnight to 7am right? And the second meter is to help you separate your bills so you know how much electricity is your car using. But you don't actually need the second meter to get the .001/kw rate. All you need to do is set the scheduled charging time right?
I believe I spoke to a misinformed rep who told me the only way to get a reduced rate is to get a second meter installed. I am calling back today to confirm my options.
Just asking the obvious but want to confirm, I usually leave my car plugged in all night even if it finishes charging by 9pm. I assume this wouldn't drive up my usage unless I had vampire drain, correct?
martinicus
Member
Right, if you pre-heat it will draw that power from the house, but other than that it will just vampire drain from the battery if it's not sleeping. It's fine to leave it plugged in. Have you tried TeslaFi for data logging? It has good sleep management options that will show what percentage of time is spent sleeping vs idling.
I have PSE&G in NJ. Thought about switching to a Time of Use plan, but I have solar panels that generate all my home's power, and the combination of solar net metering and Time of Use make things quite complicated.
After this situation, I considered signing up for TeslaFi but I didn't want to now poll the car with something else until I figure out the issue unless it helps me actually solve my issue. FWIW, my drive in to work this morning, 37 degrees outside, climate control on 70 degrees and mostly AP driving:
16.4 miles distance, 6.2 kwh total used and 379 wh/mi
I started my drive with 242 miles left, and now I have 221.
These #'s seem normal based on what I've seen int he forums and don't appear to be an issue with my battery. My car lost 2 miles overnight most likely due to the cold. So I had it charged to 244 miles originally.
SabrToothSqrl
Active Member
That matches what I typically see for vampire drain. That 2 rated miles is about 2/3rds of a kWh, or 20kWh/ month.
In MN, I drive about 600 miles a month and use a bit over 225kWh/month. I don't preheat, the heated steering wheel, for me, eliminated that need.
An energy monitoring device may be very helpful for you. I believe someone mentioned one called "sense"? I have one called EGauge.
Sense is very user friendly and much easier to set up. EGauge is awesome, but there is a lot more involved in getting it set up and running.
Are there billing periods prior to your Tesla ownership in which your wife's business was running? If you can compared those bills to the previous year that may give you a rough idea of if it increased your power use.
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.
Thanks for linking!
Wow, so much easier to set up, but not as reliably...'stable'.
Here is a blog I posted about our EGauge data gathering. Ever try to lose weight without using a scale?
Yes, I am going to look into Sense and some other ones. This might be my best route since I kinda wanted to do that anyway in my home. My wife started her business back in December, but only really started using the Heat Press int he last 2 months. She mentioned sometimes she leaves it on for long periods even if she's not using it. I told her SHUT IT OFF. Time to put some smart plugs in her home office
Get a Kill-a-Watt device and measure power draw by the business' new equipment. You would be surprised at the power draw of "heating presses" and other things that stay hot. A coffee maker runs at ~1000W when it is brewing, for instance. Know your draw for the whole house - look into a Ted 5000 device you can monitor the whole home's power draw. Teslas do have a little extra draw from the battery if you don't put the car into deep sleep mode. This is to maintain computer operation.
Kill A Watt Meter - Electricity Usage Monitor | P3
TED - The Energy Detective
Charge an EV overnight when the grid is in a lull. From about 3am to 6am is best. Not 9pm-11pm or earlier evenings. The grid has much more excess capacity in the early morning (fewer restaurants cooking, business businessing and other industry work) The need for a good EV growth profile is to get charging done during the "cool" hours of the grid. Also, note that cooler night-time air temperatures makes long-line transmission more efficient.
thefortunes
Active Member
My off-peak just went up from $0.06 to $0.07 per kWh this year. Doesn't sound like much, but wish my business could just ram through a 16.7% price increase.
martinicus
Member
I'll drop in a link for Neurio too - pretty similar to Sense: Neurio - Home Energy Monitor
Here's a screenshot from yesterday. Charging in the middle of the night, a spike when preheating the car, and a cloudless spring solar day
Here's a screenshot from yesterday. Charging in the middle of the night, a spike when preheating the car, and a cloudless spring solar day
I'll drop in a link for Neurio too - pretty similar to Sense: Neurio - Home Energy Monitor
Here's a screenshot from yesterday. Charging in the middle of the night, a spike when preheating the car, and a cloudless spring solar day
View attachment 219567
@mbhforum Do you really need to preheat every weekday for 30 minutes? As you can see from @martinicus 's graph, it can cause quite a spike in energy use. When I've needed to to preheat my car, I only need it on for 5 to 10 minutes (if that) and it gets nauseatingly hot in just those few minutes. Most of the time, I just end up using the heated seats instead.
Your graph of sun followed by a somewhat steady consumption is very similar to the evening demand period that California is trying to solve with batteries. Peak demand there is 6pm-9pm and Solar PV alone isn't enough.
Regarding pre-heating the car - why not just charge based on an expected time you will leave and pre-heat at the same time? Total Consumption should drop that way. I always try to tell people to start charging in the latest possible time frame in the morning hours so that completion of charge happens either just prior to or even "after" the expected time of leaving. Say you want to leave at 8am, set charge completion to be 8:15am so that the battery is warm right through the time you would leave.
Regarding pre-heating the car - why not just charge based on an expected time you will leave and pre-heat at the same time? Total Consumption should drop that way. I always try to tell people to start charging in the latest possible time frame in the morning hours so that completion of charge happens either just prior to or even "after" the expected time of leaving. Say you want to leave at 8am, set charge completion to be 8:15am so that the battery is warm right through the time you would leave.
