electric bill shock

[UBUYGAS]

I have a 1000 watt stereo and I drive like I stole it

I'm in NJ, I pay 10.5 cents per kWh 24 hours a day.

My electric bill has gone up around $45 a month since April/May 2013 with I bought the LEAF.

I only drive 1100 miles a month.

Interesting, that implies that between charging inefficiencies, vampire losses, heat, etc you are getting around 2.56 miles/KWHR which sounds a bit low.

 

[kubel]

If anything, going from 120V to 240V should reduce your electricity consumption. But remember with winter comes heater usage while driving, preheating while parked, and longer charging as a result of the cold. A threefold increase tells me something else is at play here. Is it possible you accidentally left it on with the heater running while plugged in one night?

 

[UBUYGAS]

This has got to be the reason why my usage is $45 per month in the winter. When I looked at my first 6 months of usage the average was $25 a month.

My range has not increased. it has been exactly 1100 miles per month.

If anything, going from 120V to 240V should reduce your electricity consumption. But remember with winter comes heater usage while driving, preheating while parked, and longer charging as a result of the cold. A threefold increase tells me something else is at play here.

 

[KillaWhat]

I have a 1000 watt stereo and I drive like I stole it

HA!

I too am guilty of driving in fat-tire fun mode.
Gotta be fun to drive, or might as well park it.

I also become Granny Driver at 2 bars.
You know the drill.....
No heat, no air, no lights, radio off, 30MPH..

This thing, all in all, did not noticeably change my electric bill.

TED meter says 13000 miles, $278...

That's like 2.5 fill ups for my Diesel Suburban

I'm a happy guy

 

[XeonPony]

lol my cost is 50 dollars a month added tot he 770 for the payments of the car and I am still saving money 50 bucks is what it costs just to turn over my 1 ton diesel! then another ten to warm it up then so on, basicaly a 64km trip is 30 bucks one way, it is a tow truck not a daily driver, so all things factored in the car is the best thing I ever got my self!

atm I am paying 200 a month, most of all of that is due to the electrick heating in my place.

 

[Pipcecil]

either the OP drives A LOT or their electric rate is ASTRONOMICAL. I put ~1800 miles per month on my car - quite a lot (car is almost three years old with 51k+ miles). My electric rate is about 12.5 cents per kW, 24/7. Assuming I drive super crappy @ 2.9 miles per kW (I think thats what the EPA averages), I sitll only spend ~$75 per month. But, I average more about 4 miles per kW, only costing me ~$50 per month. So something must be way the extreme.

For the OP to get the best cost, charge at work - always (its free! thats half your electricty usage!) and use the Level 2 at home since its more efficient.

 

[johnrhansen]

Talk to your neighbor who puts $75 into his gas tank every week. Then you won't feel so bad.

 

[ksnogas2112]

My electric bill went down last month compared to the bill the year before. Since the electric bill here ranges from a low of $50 to a high of $200 I can't blame any of it on the car. The difference is how much heat/air is being used. Yes, even with a gas furnace the blower is still electric. So when it's cold and the furnace runs more so does the blower which uses more electricity. So do the Christmas lights. I had a $150 bill one year just because of Christmas lights. Also, what about space heaters? Those are massive electric draws.

Is it really the car or did other things change?

 

[Graffi]

Serious Comment to OP:

Look at CARWINGS data for your Leaf for the Miles, KWH used, M/Kwhr, ect. for each month. This will let you know how much energy your car us using. Then multiply your own electric rate times these Kwhr usage and you will know how much it cost to drive your car. Then factor in an amount for charging inefficiency and you will have the total cost on your bill.

Just because your bill increased $100 does not mean that the Leaf caused all of it. I suspect it only accounted for $25 to $50, and probably not more than that. Let us know what you find out. We Leaf drivers want all new Leaf drivers to be happy!!!

 

[elmobob]

i have the car 5 months now n the first few months i was using l1 charger at home n work n my bill was under 50 a month. i decided to buy a l2 charger n use it at home n never charge at work n my bill came in at 150 a month. if u can stick with your l1 charger n charge at home n work that is the best way to go. once in a blue moon if i need a little quicker charge i use the l2 but like i said it is once in a blue moon.

Hey I feel your pain, I'm in Westchester NY and Con Edison really screwed us this January, my electric bill for this month was $307 for 958 kWh consumed out of that 238 kWh the leaf consumed for 724 miles, that comes to 32 cents a kWh. Here in NY people seem to be ok with getting screwed by Con Edison, I myself have written to the NY state public service commission about coned's ridiculous rates last year but that went nowhere. I suggest you do the same, if enough people do it maybe it'll put pressure on them. Another problem seems to be that the Con Edison delivery charges are more expensive than the electricity supplied, add to that a bunch of overpaid workers, top heavy bureaucracy and you get the second most expensive electricity in the US, I believe Hawaii is the first. I hope to move to another state where electricity and everything else is much cheaper in a few years.

 

[cwerdna]

Hey I feel your pain, I'm in Westchester NY and Con Edison really screwed us this January, my electric bill for this month was $307 for 958 kWh consumed out of that 238 kWh the leaf consumed for 724 miles, that comes to 32 cents a kWh. Here in NY people seem to be ok with getting screwed by Con Edison, I myself have written to the NY state public service commission about coned's ridiculous rates last year but that went nowhere.

Can you post a link to your electricity plan details including tiers? What's the baseline (tier 1) that you're allocated?

I really hope the OP comes back w/some details, instead of us only being able to guess.

The only plus side is that some of us are educating others on how pricey electricity can be in certain areas. As I've said over and over here on MNL, it irks me when people w/cheap electricity keep talking about how much cheaper it is to "fuel" than a Prius... Yeah, if your electricity is cheap. If you have crazy expensive electricity and count by marginal rates (that of adding an EV), it can be just about as much, or even more than fueling a Prius.

 

[davidcary]

The OP states that he lives in New York. A state quite varied in climate and electricity rates.

Con Ed has a particularly cryptic rate schedule but it does appear to have a peak demand charge. With a high enough peak demand charge, you could actually pay more with L2 - if you don't pay attention.

I have a peak demand charge but of course, usually charge my car only at night. I have forgotten and the car on upgraded EVSE set at 25 Amps added to my demand (2013 Leaf). I forget because there is an off peak period from 1-4 pm in the winter. Since the charging timers only have a single off/on, I bypass it for afternoon charging but need to manually unplug at 4pm.

Con Ed supplies a portion of New York and certainly not all. Their average rate is about $.25. The average for New York is $.18. FWIW, the rate schedule I saw with Con Ed was what I would call a reverse tier - people who use more pay less. This could help those with an EV.

Honestly, electricity rates in New York have been a hot topic for years and anyone buying an EV there for financial reasons should have done their research. Just as anyone in CA should - at least CA has always been very high so it hasn't been such a hot topic.

 

[cwerdna]

The OP states that he lives in New York. A state quite varied in climate and electricity rates.

Con Ed has a particularly cryptic rate schedule but it does appear to have a peak demand charge. With a high enough peak demand charge, you could actually pay more with L2 - if you don't pay attention.

I've not generally heard of demand charges on residential, or at least not at a point where any home would hit it. At what point (how many kW being drawn) would it be triggered?

Do you have a pointer to such a residential schedule?

Again... if only the OP would provide us some solid details.

 

[RottenMutt]

I would suspect the the op's car on 120v ran til morning hours and half his charging was at a lower rate, the L2 chargers charge within 3 hours for typical usage which would have all been during peak usage time.

make sure to use your timer! i'm on a co-op and pay the same rate 24x365, but i will still use the timer in the summer to allow the battery to cool before charging.

 

[davidcary]

The OP states that he lives in New York. A state quite varied in climate and electricity rates.

Con Ed has a particularly cryptic rate schedule but it does appear to have a peak demand charge. With a high enough peak demand charge, you could actually pay more with L2 - if you don't pay attention.

I've not generally heard of demand charges on residential, or at least not at a point where any home would hit it. At what point (how many kW being drawn) would it be triggered?

Do you have a pointer to such a residential schedule?

Again... if only the OP would provide us some solid details.

Aren't rate schedules hard to figure out...? Here is a link to our demand based rate. Apparently AZ has a lot of these too. Ours is voluntary but we were forced into to get the utility solar rebate. Turns out with an EV, it is usually worth doing, even with our 6kw solar array (solar lowers usage but rarely peak demand so it favors the conventional rate). The conventional rate pays about 11 cents a kwh anytime with a lower base monthly charge and no demand charge.

https://www.progress-energy.com/assets/www/docs/home/R-TOUD-24A.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you can't figure it out, we pay a demand charge monthly no matter what. So even if we aren't home all month and use 300w peak demand, we pay roughly $5*.3 or $1.50. There is no threshold.

But with good control, we generally stay under 5kw. I've been to over 20 in the off peak time frames. Our house has the potential to use 40 or so. 9 - hot water, 5 - car, 10 backup heat strips, 10 -ovens, 5 - dryer. A/C can pull 6.5 or so but obviously would never run at the same time as backup heat strips. I have NG also so I don't generally need the backup heat strips but houses without NG could have 30 kw in backup heat strips. That demand charge can be significant.

Anyway, going from L1 to L2 charging with no attention to timing would raise the peak by 4kw or $20 in my low cost area. I could easily see ConEd being 2.5 times our charge or $50 a month. Of course, I couldn't figure it out from their posted rate schedule.

 

[Yvesm]

My last electrical bill was up by about $100. I live in Quebec and I was in Florida for 3 of the weeks of that time. So the explanation is that last year, it was warm for that period. This year it was windy and very cold. Home heating is the culprit. Yes last year the car was not charging , but this year I was even there to use electricity. The leaf was with me at Fort Myers. Surely the temperature was also colder in New York.

Edit: I had also a % charge increase that should account for less than $10