1st Electric Bill after getting Prime...

Depends where in California you live; the northern part of the state seems to be really getting the shaft, particularly in housing and utilities, compared to here in Anaheim, in the south. We're in the slummy area but stuff IS cheaper down here. My kid's house, same size as mine, but he's in Huntington Beach, 12 miles away, cost him $100k more than mine, and mine is VERY nice. I guess slummy is good!!, Har, har!

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I changed my bill to the SCE to Time-of-use plan and its actually saving me money. Last year 2016 in May my bill was $330.37 2017 with car plunging in once a day a night is now $101 savings. Last June my bill was $409 this year 15 day in my projected bill is $309 that will be another $100 savings. so far so good.

 

My costs appear to have gone up about $1 per day. I've had the Prime for about five weeks and I've only filled up once. Seems like it's worth it. I'm also in SoCal.

 

My billing for May was higher than last year at May but I have used the AC earlier this year in the house. So hard to judge . But love the car either way.

 

I turned the a/c on and plugged the car in.
Western PA 8cents/Kwh

 

Long time, PiP owner @bisco has a similar problem in Boston. So I developed this formula for the electric mode cost per gallon:

A simple formula gives the EV equivalent to the local gasoline cost:
$EV/gal = (MPG/100) * $/kWh * kWh_per_100mi

• MPG - found at www.fueleconomy.gov
• kWh_per_100mi - found at www.fueleconomy.gov
• $/kWh - local cost of electricity, $ per kWh

So this is what three popular, plug-in hybrids would cost in Huntsville, $0.10/kWh:

• $1.13/gal - 2014 BMW i3-REX
• $1.30/gal - 2017 Chevy Volt
• $1.35/gal - 2017 Toyota Prius Prime
• $2.76/gal - 2012 Toyota Plug-in PiP ($0.19/kWh)
• $1.45/gal - 2012 Toyota Plug-in PiP ($0.10/kWh)

"Driving around town in a Prime is like buying gas at $1.35/gal."​

So let's use Prime and San Francisco electrical rates:

• ~$2.16/EVgal = (54/100) * $0.16/kWh * 25kWh/100mi (average)
• ~$2.84/EVgal = (54/100) * $0.21/kWh * 25kWh/100mi (April 2017)

Now if your electrical rate is higher than $0.16/kWh, the cost to operate the car goes up which I understand is the case with residential users. My most recent Google reference claims "20.4 cents per kilowatt hour". So I did the calculation twice.

You might check this PG&E page on residential rates: Rate Plan Options

• Tiered Base Plan
• Time-of-Use Plans
• Electric Vehicle Base Plan

Good luck!

Bob Wilson

 

Yep, and we see dirt cheap electricity rates around here. Good to know it's decently clean already and getting cleaner by the day.

 

My May bill was considerably lower this year due to it being cooler in Connecticut and no a/c was required in the house.

 

My plan/dream was to add solar to my house, which came online late last august and then acquire a plug in prius (the prime name wasn't known at the time of solar signing). Two weeks ago i took delivery of a blue magnetism advanced prime. I plug it in mostly in the morning after 730 when my panels begin to produce. My drive to work is 3.5 miles one way and down hill all the way to work. As far as my electric bill goes.... it is now only a meter read fee of $21. And my solar lease is $138 a month for 20 years. I currently produce 120% to 300% of my needs. So my prime hasn't effected me very much if at all.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

This highlights the irony of home solar cells. Unless there is a storage system, the actual EV charging comes from the grid. This is not a bad thing as so much of the base has to run at night anyway. Just a better solution would be solar cells in the parking lot at work or other day time destinations like restaurants or shopping areas.

Bob Wilson

 

My bill for charging daily is.07 to .09 cent per kilowatt. Comes to about .0594 to charge it one full charge. So for only charging once a day for 30 days comes 17.82 or less. That fluctuate sometimes it's only $14 a month sometimes it is $17 depending on the amount of days and how often I charge it. But even said that is still a very cheap price to pay for. I live in Upstate New York.

 

WOW... we should be "In Like Flint" then, when ours gets here. I'm retired - so no daily commute - and I anticipate charging ours only 12 to 20 times per month... probably RARELY from a "zero" SOC... AND at only about .10/kWh OR .06/kWh, depending on kWh usage so far within any given billing cycle when it's plugged in.

And HOPEFULLY by September, our Prime will get its at-home charges "courtesy" of sunlight, as we'll be going solar soon....

 

Huh? The charging would "come from the grid" even if the residential solar cells are "producing" more energy than the residence (on the whole... with the car getting charged) is using at the time? And... why would using "solar cells in the parking lot at work or other day time destinations" be a better solution? Wouldn't such places also involve charging "from the grid"?

Sorry, but other than your mention of "a storage system", I'm simply not following / understanding what you're saying here....

 

I believe that what Uncle Bob is getting at, is that during the day the excess electricity from your solar panels is being sent to the grid, if you don't have a storage system to store your electricity on site. Meanwhile your car is probably sitting in a parking lot at your work where it could be getting electricity from solar panels if those existed at your work. For most people who have solar panels, the electricity they use to charge at night actually comes back from the grid, not from their solar panels. Yes you did send electricity to the grid, and that electricity is now coming back to you. To my way of thinking though, I think you should have storage on site where you could get electricity you actually generated from the sun back into your car and of course to your home appliances. The on-site storage is particularly important to me, in the event of an earthquake or other major disaster in our area, I would rather have the electricity stored at my house, and not have to rely on a possibly broken grid. Unfortunately at this time, on-site storage of electricity is extremely expensive, and not offered very frequently by the installers in my area.


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You mean like this one?

2011 Southwest blackout - Wikipedia

 

I must live in the most expensive place for electricity. My cheapest rate (SDG&E) is 0.19 per kwhr.

 

Wow, yeah!! I guess I was luckily just out of the area affected!!

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California, with its environmental and leftist agenda, is about the most expensive for power in the US. We also have the most expensive gasoline.