How much does it cost per month to charge the PIP?

With incentives and the tax credit the cost of my PIP was in the same ball park as a Prius 3 (25.2K plus a 0% interest 60 month loan).

Compared to a standard Prius (averaging 62 mpg) and using the assumptions in my original post driving a PIP would save ~$1,000 per 100,000 miles driven. ROI

 

I am aware of the 3 TOU zones. If it were just me and the misses, maybe we could do it. But with other people in the house, it becomes a hassle. I would have to turn into an environazi questioning everyone's electrical move.

The point I was tryin to make is that once you are in tier 3 with a TOU plan, you can easily say a full PiP charge costs $0.50 - $0.60 a day. But this comes at the expense of higher usage costs at other times of the day. So my monthly electrical bill pre-PiP was $50 a month. That's below average according to PG&E. The PiP added an additional $30.

If I switched to a TOU plan my usage would go up slightly to say $60 according to my calculations. The PiP would decrease to $15 a month. So I save a grand total of $5 a month while being a total a$$ to my family just to brag that PiP costs very little to charge. I think most of you can agree that is not a good trade off.

And why is this? If everyone is mindful of TOU, I should save more. It's because the PiP puts me well into tier 3 rates of $0.50 per KWh for peak time. It's a huge jump from tier 2.

 

Just curious... have you looked at how you would do under the new "EV" TOU rate that no longer has tiers? It should be available for PG&E customers in the very near future.

I haven't gotten around to looking at the impact of the new rate since I happen to have a usage pattern that fits well with the old E9a rate and existing users on that rate can stay on it for another year or so before they will be switched over to the new rate.

 

Have they released expected rates on it yet? I'm anxiously waiting for the release. Last I checked, the website has no details until the plan is approved by lawmakers.

I'm currently stuck in limbo. I use too much electricity to make E9 worth it. I use too little for solar. Solar companies won't even talk to me unless I have a minimum $100 electric bill.

 

You can find the proposed rates in a PG&E presentation given at an electric auto association meeting. As far as I know, the rates in the presentation have been preliminarily approved and will likely be the rates given final approval.

The presentation is at:

EV Rates PGE 080512.pdf

 

Before we added the Solar to the roof, we were always in Tiers 4 & 5. We were paying an average of 26 to 28 cents a kWh for the month. I tended to use the monthly average to compute my charging costs, rather than the 30 or 34 cents a kWh that I would be paying towards the end of the month. Whats interesting is that after we got the PiP, our monthly usage was actually down as compared to the previous year. I suspect this was due to usage patterns of other things in the house changing. So the PiP has had little impact, or little direct impact.

 

To offset the PIP, I put power strips around the house to shut off stuff when no one's using it and even with the PIP, my power bill went down.

 

Yes. But the rest will be dropped off after it is saved

 

I would think that using monthly averages may throw off the real costs as each day has its tiers. And, since the PIP is a new addition to the household, you should be calculating at the highest tier for each month for all that month's recharges as if you added a new freezer, not a replacement.
In the end, 3 kWh per day or so is not a lot but it may be a deal breaker for some.
I wonder how much an all electric car would cost at tier 4 or so.

 

I already had this. I added a $5 digital timer to my Tivo. (I normally record shows during just a ~6 hr time window). This saves 40 watts, 18 hrs per day or almost 22 kwh/month, which is 7 full charges per month. I found 26 watts of other standby loads that I cut out -- which is another 6 charges per month. Since I actually charge at work and only charge at home on weekends and a few odd days, my electric bill has gone down.

Mike

 

Interestingly I am doing the same but fewer on time Amazing how those small saving per hour but every hour of the day how much it adds up. I just wish I could find LEDs to replace the 4 foot fluorescent tubed light fixtures.

 

You may not want to bother with that. LEDs are not necessarily better in Luminous efficacy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (lumens/watt) than many linear fluorescent lights. T8 is pretty efficient. T12 is older and worse but still not terrible.

CFLs are usually worse in luminous efficacy than straight fluorescent tubes.

Try digging around for some specs for LEDs you're thinking of and compare to specs from linear fluorescents. You'll see what I'm talking about. You can find some specs for the latter by Googling for stuff like philips t5 lumens watt and philips t8 lumens watt.

 

Great discussion. Since the PIP doesn't pay for itself for several years for most people, this is why few people buy the PIP and instead opt for a Prius III. The 11 mile range of the battery also is inconvenient vs. the effort to charge. If it was larger but at the same price, say like the Volt battery, then perhaps the PIP would be worthwhile. Maybe battery technology in the future can allow this.

 

I agree, got mine in Nov also, charge once per day with wall outlet. Have not seen any diff.

 

I disagree. I think it makes perfect sense. Go to the store, train station local stuff ice never comes on. What does NOT make sense is NO SPARE.

 

It makes sense in that where the spare tire is normally on a regular Prius is now covered by the larger li-ion battery (vs. the much smaller and lower capacity NiMH).

It's an unfortunate tradeoff. However, the PiP wouldn't be the first car to have no spare. There are a bunch of non-plugin vehicles that either have run-flats or give you slime.

 

I agree. It's unfortunate that people feel this way. I mean, literally, you can buy a car (Prius Three) worth $25k for $25k. Or you can buy a car worth $30k for $25k. Seems like a no brainer I me. But the market has already shown that people don't want to deal with the rebates or think 11 miles is a hassle as you pointed out. Even if you never plug in the PiP, it gets 1 mpg higher EPA highway fuel economy than a standard Prius. You start saving immediately.

 

The problem with fluorescent bulbs, tube or otherwise, is the disposal of them at the end of their life. LEDs last a lot longer and don't need special handling when they die and need to be disposed of.

Every where I can I have replaced incandescent bulbs with CFLs or LEDs. Any CFL that dies is getting replaced with an LED. Unfortunately, we have a couple of ceiling fans that I can't use LED bulbs in. Either they don't make a bright enough equivalent LED bulb (candelabra base), or they simple don't make one for the base I have (intermediate base, which is in between a candelabra base and a standard edison medium base). Or, in the case of the bathroom vanity mirror, one that doesn't look ugly or is bright enough.

 

A lot of the answers to the original question seem complicated to me. Here is a simple answer: Just as gas is sold by the gallon, electricity is sold by a unit, called the kWh. It takes about 90 kWh of electricity to charge your Plug-in Prius once per day for a month. It does not matter what kind of charger you use, or whether it is 240V or 120V.

To determine the cost, multiply your electricity rate by 90. If your rate is $0.10 per kWh, it costs $9.00/month to charge your Prius once per day.

The only problem with this is knowing how much a kWh costs. Rates vary widely, and most electric companies break their charges into Tiers. You need to study your bill to know how much you'll pay for the 90 kWh of electricity each month.

 

you have a typo - 90kwh per month