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If you own an Electric Vehicle Do you qualify for lower Electricity rate?

Discussion in 'EV (Electric Vehicle) Discussion' started by ggcc, Jun 3, 2011.

  1. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    If burning is the worse, then maybe we can narrow down 'how' burning is the worse:



    After you burn ... you have ash. LOTS of ash. Clean coal has ash. LOTS of ash. I don't know how anyone can call the mountains and mountains of this stuff clean, considering its contents. With roughly 1/2 our nation's electricity coming from coal, and other power sources no longer being cheep ... the nation finds itself in a paradox ... and most don't even know it.

    .
     
  2. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    i used to think that as well but i was ignoring emissions caused from the mining and transportation of the coal.

    coal dust is an issue that i was unaware of that has been one of the debate points locally when discussing whether to allow West Coast ports to ship Coal to China.

    the Coal company has proposed spraying the open box cars with special "stuff" to reduce coal dust spreading thru out the country side as it passes thru our state.

    then they submitted a design where the cars would be unloaded in an underground terminal that has filtration that would prevent any of the dust from being scattered as it was put on the ship, etc.

    all of this sounds like a lot of financial commitment on the Coal company's part on a bunch of upgrades to the terminal but i have doubts these upgrades will work as advertised.

    we had the same issue with the Centrailia Coal Plant and the owners who promised jobs, rail upgrades, money into the local economy (support for school systems) all of which dried up within 5 years but the plant will be here for an additional 25 years when all is said and done

    problem is, Coal Companies have no problems making promises, but dont do nearly as good a job keeping them
     
  3. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    When a TVA Spokeswoman says "Coal Ash is no more dangerous than any other particulate pollution..."

    RUN!!

    Run far, Run Fast!
     
  4. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    A plug-in doesn't necessarily give any savings vs. a very efficient car (e.g. Prius). It depends on the person's electricity rates, current usage, tiers and arguably the marginal rate for electricity once the EV/PHEV is added.

    In some areas, electricity is very expensive or can get that way, esp. if the user already is in the higher rate tiers.

    For PG&E, Rate Options sums up the choices for residential and Pacific Gas & Electric - Tariffs has the schedules. Understanding Baseline Quantities shows the baselines, depending on the area and whether you have natural gas. I'm in area X and have natural gas.

    It doesn't take into account the size of the house, apartment, etc. Assuming 30 days/month, that means my baseline is 330 kwh/month in summer and 351 kwh/month for winter. I'm in a almost 2500 sq ft. 5 bedroom house by myself and am usually able to stay under the baseline.

    If there was a large family here, it'd be virtually impossible to stay under the baseline unless offset by solar (I don't even know if it'd be enough).

    How many kwH are you using in a month now? How much did it cost? You can try plugging those numbers into http://www.pge.com/myhome/myaccount/charges/ and put in a zip code like 95136. I'm sure the rates will be much higher than yours.
     
  5. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    That's why I said Dave's was the wrong question: The context was the cost of installing a PV system (big investment). And the right question is the relative cost of electricity via PV vs. the cost of your local grid electricity. The EV will use the same amount of electricity no matter where you get it. But the cost will depend on how much you have to pay for electricity, and in some places a PV system will reduce your lifetime cost of electricity. And the PV system has large environmental advantages, which are important to some people but not others.

    As for comparing a Prius with an EV, cost of ownership is only part of the equation. I'd rather use hydro electricity (or wind or solar if those were my options) than burn gasoline, even if the electricity cost me twice as much as gasoline. In fact, my total cost of ownership is considerably more for the Roadster than for the Prius due to the large disparity in purchase price. I bought the Roadster because I'd rather pay more and use electricity than pay less and use gasoline. (The Roadster is a lot more fun to drive, but that's not why I bought it. I bought it because I wanted to drive electric and I was dissatisfied with the lack of power in the Xebra, which struggled on steep hills and could not go on the freeway. And Nissan had screwed up my Leaf order, and the EV Porsche project was not working out.)
     
  6. dbcassidy

    dbcassidy Toyota Hybrid Nation, 8 Million Strong

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    That it!!! I going to apply for a residential sized nuke plant. Then I can set my own rates. (Just got to get through the regulation permitting process and also not piss off the neighbors).
    I will have all the power I need for E.V. charging.:LOL::LOL::LOL:

    DBCassidy