dhodgson said:
Being in Territory "Q" (Santa Cruz Mtns) with propane heating, our Tier 2 baseline (same rates as Tier 1) is a miserable 9.75 kWh, enough to charge a Corbin Sparrow.
Your terminology and number really confused me, but I finally figured out what you were trying to say. Your summer baseline is 7.5 kWh, and since tier 1 + tier 2 is 130% of baseline, that gives you a tier 1 + tier 2 allocation of 9.75 kWh per day, which I agree is fairly puny. But it is an error to think in terms of the total capacity of the battery. Instead you need to start from the number of miles you expect to drive during a month. Remember that even though baseline is quoted per day, your tier is actually set based on a (roughly) monthly average.
So, just as an example, assume you expect to drive 1000 miles per month. As a seasoned EV driver, if you lived in flat territory, I would think you ought to be able to get at least 4 miles/kWh measured at the wall. Since you are in the mountains, let's call that 3.8 m/kWk. Do the math: 1000 / 3.8 / 30 = 8.77 kWh/day. So, guess what! 9.75 is no problem at all. And with your baseline that goes up more than 50% in the winter, even with heavy heating costs and a possible drop in battery performance due to cold weather, that would also be no problem.
dhodgson said:
Beyond that we're looking at a miserable (Off peak! After midnight!) summer rate of $.25/.29 cents per kWh, which is outrageous.
OK, so let's try another example -- say you drive 1500 miles per month. Now you would be pushing up into that "outrageous" price. But wait. Since we are talking E9-b there is nothing else on that circuit, and you can't look at the LEAF as adding usage just at the margin. You would still get your 9.75 kWh/day at the bargain basement summer price of $0.05995/kWh. Since you would now use 13.2 kWh/day, you would pay $0.24907/kWh only for the last 3.45 kWh/day.
9.75 * $0.05995 = $0.5845
3.45 * $0.24907 = $0.8593
$1.4438 / 13.2 = $0.1094
So at 1500 miles you would be paying less than 11 cents/kWh in the summer. And for the other six months of the year you would have a good chance of getting by with tier 1 + tier2 (15.2 kWh/day) and only $0.06814/kWh!
Sort of makes me wish I had E9-b.
Ray