Help...gas compared to electric should I purchase?

[Ingineer]

If you are paying $.34 a kWh, you should call a Solar Company and have them run some numbers. You'd probably be surprised how fast you can pay of a decent system! (And then it's FREE electricity for your LEAF!)

-Phil

 

[TurboFroggy]

I'm extremely surprised with the electricity prices shared by you guys. :shock:
I live in San Jose, CA and planning to buy/lease a leaf. However the electricity prices are almost $0.34 per kwh :roll: after a first hundred or two kwh usage ( going quickly from $0.15 to $0.34).
With my most conservative estimate, it would cost approx $180 a month to charge the leaf.
$0.34 * 24kwh * 22 days = $180/month (higher if i use it over weekends).

I dont have solar panels. and not sure how much cheaper it would be to switch to time of day billing model.

If your in San Jose your utility is PGE. PGE has TOU off-peak rates for EV charging that are much less, think around $0.04/KWH depending on your usage.
http://www.pge.com/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-9.pdf
Also you would not be using 24KWH a day of electricity in a Leaf. First off that is impossible in one charge as the Leaf only allows 21KWH of usage on the battery. Plus you are not going to be driving it from 100% full to 0% every day.
PGE has good calculators for miles per day and the various rate plans. Their calculator tells me that 40 miles a day on PGE EV off-peak rates would be around $23.
http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/enviro...ctricdrivevehicles/pevpluginready/index.page?
http://www.pge.com/cgi-bin/pevcalculator/PEV

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
(As someone who lived in WA state for ~9 years, w/much cheaper electricity than ripoff PG&E) The problem is that the baselines PG&E provides are a joke and switching to a TOU plan has other repercussions (e.g. "summer" peak rates ranging from $0.31 to $0.56/kwh (!) w/peak being Mon thru Fri 2 pm to 9 pm May thru October)

leaf3r being in San Jose most likely means they're in area X (http://www.pge.com/myhome/customerservice/financialassistance/medicalbaseline/understand/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false. Since he/she brings up almost $0.34/kwh, that's what happens when you get pushed into tier 3 and beyond.

If you want to get an idea how bad our rates our vs. yours try putting in the correct season 95136, no for CARE and your usage at http://www.pge.com/myhome/myaccount/charges/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

As for not using 24 kwh to charge, well, w/the ~21 kwh usable, in the battery, there still are charging losses. Not all the energy from the wall makes into the battery.

 

[leaf3r]

I wonder how electric car owners in bay area get around such high electricity costs ?
With ridiculous PG&E rates, the market for electric car practically boils down to home owners with solar panels.

 

[cwerdna]

On this note, planet4ever ran some numbers for me before at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=155519#p155519" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, when PG&E's rates were slightly lower.

It always irks me a bit when people keep talking about how much cheaper it is to "fuel" a Leaf than a Prius. It holds true in areas w/o ridiculous electricity costs but isn't necessarily true in ripoff areas.

As an FYI, https://www.seattle.gov/light/accounts/rates/ac5_erps24.htm#rsc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; has cheap rates and http://www.douglaspud.org/Service/2013RatesJanuary12013.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is infamous for having VERY cheap rates. It'd be unlikely a household would incur demand charges as I doubt any would pull 50 KW at a time...

From http://www.snopud.com/?p=1166" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; that leads to http://www.snopud.com/Site/Content/Documents/rates/ElectricRates040113.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, it looks like TurboFroggy's area has very cheap rates (at 8.714 to 9.059 cents/kwh), assuming that's his utility.

If I read that right, there are no tiers at all. Those rates are lower than the tier 1/baseline rates of the non-TOU E-1 plan and lower than ANY rates I can get on my TOU E-6 plan!

 

[ksnogas2112]

$.099/kWh summer (Jun-Sep)/$.089/kWh rest of the year but sigh...75%+ coal