My year with the Volt. Costs and Comparisons

I GAVE you that. 19.7 gallons of fuel used total. Do I need to take a picture of my odometer for you? I gave you the electrical consumption of ~6,600 kWh. Since my travel is fairly linear, why do you care if I traveled 2000 miles in July at 29 kWh/100 miles and 2000 miles at December at 31 kWh/100 miles? In the end, since my travel is linear, the average works within an acceptable range of error, unless you think me being off by 5% in either direction is going to affect anything. It won't.

You may feel the need to have to document your daily use because
1) You don't have OnStar
2) You don't have Voltstats

I have both. And my monthly reports allow me to get an average somewhere around 31 kWh/100 miles historical. In fact, based on recent data, I am probably OVER estimating my electric use. For the past 30 days, I have been at 31, a time where I would have expected to be closer to 33, but my driving habits have improved in the second half of the year, and my average is biasing downwards.

If you want how many miles I have traveled in a month, look at the Voltstats link I gave you. Everything is there. With the exception of the ~1.5 months where data wasnt being collected (I think mid Oct->November). Voltstats will show you the gas I consume per month, and the electrical distance I traveled. You can't use their MPG calculation because I signed on to the service after I put some miles on the car, and this screws up their calcs.

 

Volt Stats: Details for Volt #2012-11378 (@Voltdriver)

My electric efficiency (from reports I can easily retrieve).
January 2013: havent received it yet, but last 30 days are 31 kWh/100
December 2012: 30 kWh/100
November 2012: missing - likely 29 kWh/100
October 2012: 29 kWh/100
Sept 2012: 29 kWh / 100
August 2012: missing - likely 30 kWh/100
July 2012: 30 kWh/100
June 2012: 29 kWh / 100
May 2012: 28 kWh/ 100
April 2012: 29 kWh/100
Mar 2012: 32 kWh/100
Feb 2012: 35 kWh / 100 (when I first got the car, and didnt know what a heater did to the efficiency)

What do you get if you add all this up and divide by 12? 30 kWh/100

Congrats. You've exposed me. I have been putting 31 kWh/100 miles, and actually making the Volt electrical costs MORE than what they actually are. Instead of the Volt costing $371 for the last year in electricity, it cost me $359, a whopping $12 less. Definitely makes or breaks the argument.

 

Ok. I'm officially done wasting my time with this. I have spelled out my commute above, in in the blog. I have given you links to Voltstats that will give you monthly details, and will give you everything you need to know. The level of granularity has NO BEARING TO COSTS. It may make some difference to you if you actually give a damn about emissions or other greenhouse stuff, something that I make NO CLAIMS to care about or compute.

You are the reason the phrase was invented, 'you can lead an horse to water, but you can't force it to drink.' I'm not going to spoon feed you anymore. If you think your Prius plug in is great, spectacular. But since my summaries suffice for 95% of the people out there, and not the 5% assinine anal retentives remaining, I'm fine with that.

Congrats your you 80 MPG! No wonder you are defensive against the Volt.

 

Short answer, yes. See the attached bill. The rate I give (6 cents) is a close enough average between the on peak and off peak. I use more power with the car off peak, but I figure an average is close enough to the truth, and probably slightly weighted against my argument.

The demand factor, as explained from my blog, can be ignored, as it is unaffected by the car. In other words, the way I structure car charging, it does not increase the demand factor rate, therefore the only additional cost to charge the car are the actualy kWhs consumed. Demand factor is difficult to explain, but this is from my blog:

Demand factor by definition is the most amount of energy used during peak hours for any 15 minute period. That number, the demand factor, is multipled by a rate that changes seasonally. I can completely discount the demand factor from any costs associated with the Volt. Why? Because I know when we generate the peak rate. It happens when the clothes are being washed, the HVAC is on, and I am cooking on the stove. When I know those moments are going to happen, I simply throw the breaker on the car charger. If I allowed my car to charge during those peak moments, it would likely add about '1' to the demand factor, increasing my bill anywhere from $3.50 to $6 a month. Since I make the decision to disconnect the car during peak moments, my car does not affect the demand factor. All that is left is adding up the on peak hours and off peak hours, and that will average out somewhere around 6 cents per kWh.

 

It IS a comparison. To traditional gas cars, of which there is little to no ambiguity to what they would be getting for gas mileage. You are the one attempting to muddy the water. Everyone else gets it.

My blog isnt trying to compare one electric car to another. The comparisons chart gives a range of fuel economies of gas vehicles, and attempts to show the savings over those vehicles. Vehicles going from gas guzzlers, to very efficient cars like the Prius. I think I am MUCH more transparent in comparisons than just about every other site. I could have just compared to the national average of 22-23 MPG and called it a day.

 

Well, there are various forms of loss you could be referring to. Does it take into account that it takes about 13 kWh to charge a 10 kWh discharge? Yes. Does it amount to the trivial loss from heat from panel to the car? No. I am able to look at my aerovironment charge sessions, and they are inline with what I expect to see.