What do you pay for electricity?

[beeeerock]

Here's a year's worth of power in British Columbia, using BC Hydro. My house is heated and cooled with a geo-exchange system (i.e, geothermal system, incorrectly described!), hot water tank is electric and most lights are LED. Family of 4 with plenty of lights/tv usage etc. We use natural gas for the stove and bbq only and typically see a bill for around 25 cents month, plus $14 in delivery charges... LOL

Car is getting about 32,000 km/yr of use. Virtually all of my charging is done at home, so the numbers reflect my car consumption as well.

We have a 5.2 kW solar array, grid tied, on the house. Doesn't produce much in the winter, because the panels are often covered with snow for weeks on end and the days are just too short to do much generating anyway.

Billing cycle is every two months and we are charged taxes and 18.3 cents a day for the connection in addition to the consumption below.

June/July 2016 1376 kWh @ $0.0829 471 kWh @ $0.1243 Bill Total: $202.86
August/September 2016 1354 kWh @ $0.0829 685 kWh @ $0.1243 Bill Total: $229.97
October/November 2016 1332 kWh @ $0.0829 2133 kWh @ $0.1243 Bill Total: $426.18
December/January 2017 1376 kWh @ $0.0829 4451 kWh @ $0.1243 Bill Total: $748.28
February/March 2017 1265 kWh @ $0.0829 2783 kWh @ $0.1243 Bill Total: $545.48
April/May 2017 1376 kWh @ $0.0858 1025 kWh @ $0.1287 Bill Total: $288.58 (rates went up)

That averages to $203 CDN per month. Solar generates about 6 MWh/year, saving $65-$70 per month on average... so probably $270-$275 per month without the solar.

Yes, we use plenty of electricity, but it reflects virtually all of our energy usage. BC Hydro is 98% green power, so we are essentially net-zero in terms of carbon associated with running our home and car.

 

[wayner]

My consumption ranges from 3000 kWh/ month in the shoulder seasons like May to peak at a little over 6000 kWh in Jul/Aug - I have a large house, two furnaces, two A/Cs two water heaters (gas on-demand), hot tub heated by electricity, pool heated by solar and NatGas.. Variable consumption rate in Ontario is now about $0.13/kWh in offpeak and $0.23kWh in peak. I also have solar panels and generate about 13 MWh/year but that is separate from my consumption given how microFIT works here in Ontario. My low months are a little under $500 and my high months are about double that. The good thing is that here in Ontario our electricity has very low carbon intensity since we use very little fossil-fuesl - mainly NatGas. As I type this 0.9% of the power being produced is from gas, 68% from nukes, 26% from hydro and 5% from wind. The carbon intensity is 5g of CO2 /kWh.

 

[rapoport3a]

The rates in Ontario just went down, i.e. the per kWh cost. The several subsidiary charges did not. Where I live, the per kWh cost off-peak-time is publicized as 6.5 cents. That real cost is 9.435 cents. A year ago, 13.609 cents, on a publicized rate of 8.7 cents. (Electricity rates are a political football here and will almost certainly go up after the next election, in June 2018.)

 

[wayner]

I think you are missing the Wholesale charge of 0.39/kWh that brings the rate up to 9.73. Plus there are a whole bunch of monthly costs as well that don't vary with usage.
Off-peakrate 6.5
Transmission 1.33
Distrib 1.512
Wholesale 0.39

and then there are a bunch of rate riders that are just plain confusing - some positive, some negative.

 

[Electricfan]

I pay 16 cents per kwh during the day. Zero at night. And during the day, I usually pay nothing if its sunny!

 

[dasRad]

The rates in Ontario just went down, i.e. the per kWh cost. The several subsidiary charges did not. Where I live, the per kWh cost off-peak-time is publicized as 6.5 cents. That real cost is 9.435 cents. A year ago, 13.609 cents, on a publicized rate of 8.7 cents. (Electricity rates are a political football here and will almost certainly go up after the next election, in June 2018.)

That's why I was asking for the all in price. Just divide what you pay by the number of kWh shown on the bill and ignore all the marketing and political posturing.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

If we paid for it, it would be .10 per kWh. We pay various tariffs so it comes out to about $30 per month using grid tied solar.

My usage is similar to yours about 2200 kWh per month (varies based on temps). House is about 6000 SF with two Model S's, a Zero FX 5.7 motorcycle and close cell foam insulated most of the house with new triple pane windows and all LED lighting. This includes a 50,000 gallon pool and an extensive outdoor lighting package and about 30 HD security cameras... our peak load before all the updates was over 4400 kWh WITHOUT the Teslas, so we have made significant efficiency gains (still using two old HVAC's 13 SEER and 70 AFUE Gas furnace), so I feel that is pretty good, once they blow - we are going to 97% AFUE and 22 SEER X 2, so they should further reduce consumption. I would go Heat Pump, but we get some cold snaps here about every couple of years. I also heat with a high efficiency wood stove using wood that I season in a solar kiln... it can throw 45,000 BTU with the right wood.... (we love it and it burns all the smoke too - so no complaints from the neighbors).

I wish I had a separate meter for the Teslas to gauge the load and have looked at getting a circuit level monitoring system, but at this point - who cares - I'm not paying for it anyway...

 

[mknox]

In urban Ontario, Canada, my all-in, loss adjusted, tax included rate is as follows:

Off Peak: 9.76 cents / kWh
Mid Peak: 13.02 cents / kWh
On-Peak: 17.04 cents / kWh

This is significantly lower than a year ago after the provincial government made some changes to the way costs are calculated (long, political story!).

 

[wayner]

Mike - is this just variable costs or does it include the fixed monthly costs allocated across an average kWh consumption?

 

[mknox]

Mike - is this just variable costs or does it include the fixed monthly costs allocated across an average kWh consumption?

Just the variable components. I pay the fixed costs regardless of whether I use 1 kWh or 1,000 kWh a month, so I am really just interested in the incremental cost to power my car.

 

[idealsol]

SCE Southern California
TOU plan
Charge only from 10:00pm to 8:00am weekdays or anytime weekends
.13 kWh

 

[cwerdna]

That's why I was asking for the all in price. Just divide what you pay by the number of kWh shown on the bill and ignore all the marketing and political posturing.

Yep. I've found that on the net (not just this forum), some people when talking about their electricity prices decide to arbitrarily exclude one or more components that make up what they pay for electricity and w/o specifying them. So, it becomes a useless apples to oranges comparison.

I posted what PG&E charges me and didn't leave out stuff they bundle into those rates (e.g. distribution, transmission, "public purpose programs", nuclear decomissioning, DWR bond, new system generation charge, etc.) I have no choice but to pay those. Leaving them out would be silly.

 

[dasRad]

Just the variable components. I pay the fixed costs regardless of whether I use 1 kWh or 1,000 kWh a month, so I am really just interested in the incremental cost to power my car.

I wasn't asking how much it costs to run the vehicle. Rather, I was asking what electricity costs in different jurisdictions. My "incremental" cost to run the vehicle would be $0.15617/kWh + 5% GST = $0.164/kWh. That's because changing the vehicle is all done at the higher, tier two rate.

Surely everyone receives a regular bill from their electrical utility and they are required to pay that bill, not just some portion of it. Take the amount of the bill and divide by the kWh delivered by the utility. Should be fairly straightforward.

 

[wallstguy]

Ontario rates took a significant drop over the last 2 months

Now paying:
6.5c/kw off peak - all of my charging (4.89c/kw USD)
9.5c/kw mid tier (7.12c/kw USD)
13.2c/kw on peak (9.9c/kw USD)

Theres probably about another 1.5 cents in delivery/other variable charges.

Period of Apr 24-May 24 (No AC) - 724 kw used
Period of June 19 (when i got my car back from accident) to present with AC - Pro-rated for a month = 1200kw
Month of June 2016 (before the X came in) was 823kw

Aug 15 - Sept 15 2016 (First month of the X) - Record 2,694 kw
Same time 2014 (was out of the country for 2015 that period): 1134kw

Previous record before the X was 1408 kw in August 2013.

 

[cwerdna]

wallstguy: The correct units are kWh, not "kw".

 

[wayner]

Ontario rates took a significant drop over the last 2 months

Now paying:
6.5c/kw off peak - all of my charging (4.89c/kw USD)
9.5c/kw mid tier (7.12c/kw USD)
13.2c/kw on peak (9.9c/kw USD)

Theres probably about another 1.5 cents in delivery/other variable charges.

Your numbers are a bit low on the delivery/other charges - I think mknox has the correct figures and he should know since he works in the industry.

 

[wayner]

Surely everyone receives a regular bill from their electrical utility and they are required to pay that bill, not just some portion of it. Take the amount of the bill and divide by the kWh delivered by the utility. Should be fairly straightforward.

But dividing your bill amount by usage doesn't tell you very much. Here in Ontario we have Time Of Use (TOU) pricing and you can see from the quotes in this thread that the variable rate doubles from offpeak to peak. So the cost can vary a LOT depending on when you consume it and how much you consume as there are often fixed costs of something like $50/per month. My highest bill last year was $2400 for two month usage in July and August. The all in cost determined by dividing that $2400 by my adjusted kWh usage gives $0.182/kWh. But that number is somewhat meaningless.

 

[lukex4]

I'm with Hydro-Québec and my last bill:

12.19$ fixed monthly cost
505 kWh x 0.0582$
Total: 30.10$ CAD (need to add 43$ for the water gas heater and HVAC)

No EV yet, waiting for my Model 3!

 

[BrettS]

But that number is somewhat meaningless.

I don’t think the number is meaningless. As with everyone else, it shows the overall cost of electricity for your house after all taxes and everything (including TOU) are taken into effect.

It’s not a good number for me to use to estimate my costs if I was going to move in next door to you as my usage times might be vastly different than yours. However as number to compare to the real world net cost of power for you to the real world net cost of power for me (and everyone else in this thread) it’s definitely valid data, and I think that was the intention of this thread.

 

[wallstguy]

Your numbers are a bit low on the delivery/other charges - I think mknox has the correct figures and he should know since he works in the industry.

You're right, I under estimated the delivery/reg charges.

Based on this: Residential Electricity Rates | Hydro One Brampton

Variable costs:
.065 + .008+.0074+.0057+.0049 - .0029 + .0036 + .0021 = 9.4c/kwh * 1.05 (GST) = 0.0985c/kwh

Thats on off peak.