Any significant increase in home electricity bill?

[miatatony]

I'm currently trying to decide on a spark EV lease, or possibly financing a gasoline Spark, and I'm just running through all the details of cost. How much of an increase did you notice on your monthly electricity bill?

My old miata currently is in the shop for a broken water pump, it's possible there might be a head gasket problem which would mean I need a new car before Fall for a 35 mile highway commute to SFSU everyday, and looking at the $200 a month lease price, I realized I would save around $180 a month on gas alone compared to my miata, we also have multiple charging stations in our parking garage which is great. If the added electricity bill isn't too much then this looks very tempting as a cheap mode of transportation for a few years, until I graduate and can afford another miata .

 

[SteveC5088]

Your electricity bill will increase. But how much depends.

Questions: Is that 35 mile commute one way or round trip?

At home, do you have a garage or someplace where you can conveniently plug in overnight?

What is your power co? PG&E? If you have an EV, they have special rate structures, like time-of-use, or a different baseline kwh limit. Call and ask -- you will need to determine what works best for your situation.

In my situation, I added a second EV meter (it's pretty expensive), so I pay a different rate for the EVs vs the rest of the house power. But in the long run, I'll pay less per mile than if I stayed on the residential meter. Our two cars only cost me $20-25 to charge (night-time mostly), and they drive about 600 electric miles each month.

Bottom line, though, is that the electric car will cost you about 1/3 what your gasoline-powered car does per mile. If you charge only at home, that $180 per month would be more like $60. If you charge at SFSU, you will save more.

By the way, I sold an old Miata when we got our Volt. I wound up driving my wife's old Passat wagon (ugh), so I checked out the Spark EV and jumped at it. A word of warning: Once you drive electric, you may never go back to that Miata.

 

[miatatony]

Thanks for the info. Yeah we currently have PG&E, I'll have to contact them when I get more serious. 1/3 the price still seems like a good deal, I'd be charging the car in my garage at night, and it's 35 miles each way, but the only thing I'm worried about is that all the EV stations get filled up pretty fast in the mornings, I might need to do a full round trip on a single charge a few times but all freeway miles, usually ~50mph average (always slow over san mateo bridge), it seems doable.

Honestly I've never considered an electric car at all until now, just purely out of cost, but reading more about the EV experience makes me itching to get in one now. The 0-60 times are as fast, if not faster than my miata, and TORQUE!! something the miata is definitely lacking in, especially for commutes. I've been driving my 2000 miata as my only car for the last 8 years, and I am definitely ready to go for something more practical and efficient as a commuter.

 

[cwerdna]

As SteveC5088, it REALLY depends on your individual situation and provider. For example, if you were on PG&E staying within tier 1 and you get pushed to tier 3 or 4 because of the EV, then the marginal cost could be quite high.

A Leafer helped me run some numbers long ago: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=155519#p155519. The Leaf is less efficient than the Spark EV, but keep in mind you need to count energy coming out of the wall. Not all of that makes it into the battery due to charging losses and overhead.

There is http://www.pge.com/cgi-bin/pevcalculator/PEV.

 

[emv]

As others have said, there are many variables so this may be true only for me.

Based on actual PGE (not PG&E) bills, without time of day pricing, driving 1000 miles per month it's gone up $26-29 per month. As the old car was getting about 22mpg that's a big savings!

 

[Chaconzies]

You're in almost the same situation I was in. My 95 oldsmobile had coolant leaking in the engine so I decided I would be needing a new vehicle. Got my lease pretty cheap $2000 down $183 a month plus the $2500 rebate. I was charging at home (bellflower) on 120v making the commute to Fullerton (20 miles) and back. CSUF also has charging stations but they do fill up pretty quick. You'll be able to do the 35 mile commute round trip with no problem however you'll probably want to get a 240V charger as it will take a significant amount of time to charge back up to full.

I ended up fixing the car (it was the intake manifold) so now I use it for long distance trips or when I need room for 5 people.

 

[GeekEV]

As a very rough rule of thumb, I tell people it will be about 1/3rd of what they pay now for gas - or less. They get tired of hearing "it depends" after a while...

 

[cwerdna]

As a very rough rule of thumb, I tell people it will be about 1/3rd of what they pay now for gas - or less. They get tired of hearing "it depends" after a while...

Very rough indeed and not at all accurate, if one's ICEV is efficient and charging an EV pushes one into tier 4, if they're not already in it.

http://www.pge.com/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-1.pdf is the E-1 schedule. So, assuming 36 cents/kWh marginal rate, if you average 4 miles/kWh (gotta account for those charging losses), that's 9 cents/mile.

If I drove my Prius and averaged 45 mpg and gas were $4/gallon, that's 8.9 cents/mile.

 

[xylhim]

As a very rough rule of thumb, I tell people it will be about 1/3rd of what they pay now for gas - or less. They get tired of hearing "it depends" after a while...

Very rough indeed and not at all accurate, if one's ICEV is efficient and charging an EV pushes one into tier 4, if they're not already in it.

http://www.pge.com/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-1.pdf is the E-1 schedule. So, assuming 36 cents/kWh marginal rate, if you average 4 miles/kWh (gotta account for those charging losses), that's 9 cents/mile.

If I drove my Prius and averaged 45 mpg and gas were $4/gallon, that's 8.9 cents/mile.

If that's how the costs are breaking down for an EV driver, then it would be real dumb not to lease a solar system.

 

[GeekEV]

As a very rough rule of thumb, I tell people it will be about 1/3rd of what they pay now for gas - or less. They get tired of hearing "it depends" after a while...

Very rough indeed and not at all accurate, if one's ICEV is efficient and charging an EV pushes one into tier 4, if they're not already in it.
...snip...

It's accurate enough in my neck of the woods. I do usually follow up with a disclaimer about "but it depends on your usage and utility rates," - but I don't lead with that.

 

[emv]

Looking at that tariff, my sympathies to you folks being reamed my PG&E. Yow!

 

[StevesWeb]

It's accurate enough in my neck of the woods. I do usually follow up with a disclaimer about "but it depends on your usage and utility rates," - but I don't lead with that.

In our case we already had a large PV solar install before we bought our Spark EV. At that time we were on a typical tiered residential rate, with net metering, as customers of SoCalEd.

When we bought our EV we qualified for a new rate plan TOU-D-TEV with time of day based billing. So now, when our panels are putting up to 10kW onto the grid mid-day we get paid $.28 kWh and once the output tapers off we pay much less, and between Midnight and 6AM we pay only $.09 kWh to charge our EV.

The net effect on our electric bill has been phenomenal. Despite having two koi ponds with pumps running 24/7, a pool, a spa, three refrigerators in two living areas, and at least a dozen computers out total electric bill for the billing year ended June 15, 2014 was $347. We were only on the new TOU-D-TEV plan for 5 of those 12 months.

For the current first month of our new billing period SoCalEd already owes us $383, granted for the longest days of the year. We expect our next annual bill may be close to zero.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Looking at that tariff, my sympathies to you folks being reamed my PG&E. Yow!

Our friends at San Diego Gas & Electric are doing their part, too, with industry leading electrical rates.

 

[Chocula]

I'm currently trying to decide on a spark EV lease, or possibly financing a gasoline Spark, and I'm just running through all the details of cost. How much of an increase did you notice on your monthly electricity bill?

My old miata currently is in the shop for a broken water pump, it's possible there might be a head gasket problem which would mean I need a new car before Fall for a 35 mile highway commute to SFSU everyday, and looking at the $200 a month lease price, I realized I would save around $180 a month on gas alone compared to my miata, we also have multiple charging stations in our parking garage which is great. If the added electricity bill isn't too much then this looks very tempting as a cheap mode of transportation for a few years, until I graduate and can afford another miata .

Assuming you only use the car for commuting, that is would be just over 18,000 miles per year. Depending on your driving habits, this would consume about 4500 kWh of electricity each year or about 375 kWh/month. Your worst case scenario would be to just add that amount to your monthly electric bill and see how much that would cost. Assuming there is no cost for you to charge at SFSU, you could eliminate half of that cost by charging at both ends of your trip. It is possible that you could get by with only charging at SFSU as the Spark EV will easily make that round trip, but you would need to consider the risks should you not be able to charge for some reason.

Realistically, you would probably drive the Spark EV more than for just commuting and likely could benefit from changing to a Time of Use plan to reduce your charging costs. We have driven our Spark EV a little over 1000 miles each month and changed to TOU-D-TEV. Our bill has risen just over $20 each month compared to the previous year. The only habits we changed were using the timer to run the dishwasher at night and one of our computers is on only in the evenings instead of keeping it on 24/7. Almost all of our charging is done at home with most of it in "super off peak" rates of $0.09 - $0.10 per kWh.

We average 5.3 miles per kWh when driving. I use a value of 4 miles per kWh for my calculations to account for charging losses, your millage may vary.

-Chocula

 

[Franko]

So, I got interested in sustainability, the first thing I did was ditch my natural gas heater for an air source heat pump. A couple of years later I installed a 6kw photovoltaic system. This was overkill but I wanted extra capacity for an EV. Two years later came the Spark. It does suck up some juice, last Jan my power consumption was 79 kWh ($27). This year it's looking like a 100% increase. This does not mean that I will actually have to pay anything, my last bill was minus $27 and I have a $400 credit. My advice is to make a long term plan and make progress as your finances allow.

 

[aviatorjames]

I bought SEA SPRK on December 1st, 2014.
So I'm comparing December 2014 to December 2013...
(December 2014 was colder than 2013, but we're just making approximations here)

1350 miles driven in December
ALL charging was done at home with a Bosch 240v system

PG&E usage shows...
$49.85 (2013) vs $108.20 (2014) = $58.35 increase per month with Spark EV
376kWh (2013) vs 652kWh (2014) = 276kWh increase per month with Spark EV

So that gives me...
4.8 mi/kWh & 4.3¢ per mile!
(my Honda Ridgeline costs me about 22¢ per mile in gas)
...hope this helps!

 

[aviatorjames]

...yes, I know my PG&E bill is very low!
I live in a very tiny and efficient beach bungalow!

 

[c208driver]

My utility bill went up significantly with SMUD

It was a tiered rate and it went into base plus at .18 cents per KWH. driving about 1300 miles, my bill was double than it normally is. I now changed to a TOU plan which will cut that in half. Needless to say, make sure u are on a cheap plan.

 

[iletric]

PG&E has a special EV rate. You have to give them the VIN in order to get it. In my case, Marin County has become a juice provider, so MCS (Marin Clean Energy) charges for the juice and PG&E for delivery only. I signed up for deep green, so no CO2 generated in my EV driving.

The best and simplest way to calculate your cost per kWh is taking your entire kWh use and divide it by the bill's $$ amount minus the gas part of the bill. That way all the fees and b.s. is included in the calculation and you know exactly how much you're paying for your EV driving.

My winter juice comes to 16 cents per kWh, summer is about 20 cents. Each kWh represents about 4 electric miles on average. Hence, 4 cents per mile summer, and 5 cents per mile winter.

 

[cwerdna]

PG&E has a special EV rate. You have to give them the VIN in order to get it.

URL to the rate schedule and plan details?