Electric bill

[Oppre1945]

Received my first full 30 day electric bill since started charging the 2012 Nissan Leaf on a regular basis ( Level 2 ) .

Comparing it to same time period 2015 , the 2016 bill is about $ 80 something higher . Of course , this can vary some what according to Outside Air Temperature and how much I run the A/C .

But bottom line , I am somewhat disappointed . We have been running our 2015 Chevy Sonic , mostly in town , on roughly $ 2 gasoline . Typically we would fill it up for less than $ 20 a week .

This means , it appears , it is costing slightly more to run the Leaf on electricity than compared to the Sonic on gasoline .

I realize , if gas goes up & I expect it to sooner or latter , those numbers will change .

God bless
Wyr

Where do you live and how many miles/month do you drive? That just doesn't make sense unless you're paying a lot for electricity.
I drive ~800 miles/month on ~$20 of juice @L2.

 

[WyrTwister]

Best I can tell , about $ .11 per KWH . Drove a little over 1200 miles . Dash display showing 4.1 miles / KWH .

Guess is around $ 30 - $ 35 for the Leaf . Charging circuit is not 100% efficient .

God bless
Wyr

 

[Flyct]

My cost is about 10 cents/kW.

Here is a graph of electric usage. Spike at 5am-6am is car being charged.

Spike at 9am is 5 ton pool heater coming on to bring pol temp up a few degrees.

Spike at 1pm is electric hot water heater usage after taking showers after swimming.

As you can see electric cost to charge car was $1.46 to replenish the 66 miles driven the prior day, or about 2.3 cents/mile.

 

[Flyct]

Here's the graph on the same day charted by kWh rather than by cost.

 

[WyrTwister]

Got an email with the electric bill for August 2016

657 kWh for $72.97 . ( 34 days )

September 2016

2797 kWh for $ 285.37 . ( 28 days )

This raises way more questions than it answers ?

Both months should reflect " normal " summer time home consumption + charging the 2012 Nissan Leaf .

Granted , this past month was cooler & should reflect less A/C usage .

God bless
Wyr

 

[gshepherd]

Hmm. Might be worthwhile to start reading the meter yourself, if not daily, perhaps weekly. If your utility isn't already using a "SmartMeter" you can add a monitor from WattVision that gives you automatic live, hourly, daily, and monthly charts via a web interface. Very handy for discovering energy consumers in your home. I can see when my hot tub heater comes on, as well as the EVSE.

 

[WyrTwister]

Best I remember , when I rebuilt / upgraded the service to 200 amp . It is still the traditional / old electro -mechanical kWh meter . Unless the City Utility has swapped it out for a digital meter .

I honestly would be supprised if they actually read the meter more than 3 - 4 times a year . :-(

God bless
Wyr

 

[GerryAZ]

Best I remember , when I rebuilt / upgraded the service to 200 amp . It is still the traditional / old electro -mechanical kWh meter . Unless the City Utility has swapped it out for a digital meter .

I honestly would be supprised if they actually read the meter more than 3 - 4 times a year . :-(

God bless
Wyr

They may be estimating consumption based upon weather and other data or they have billing software problems. The variation between those two months is unbelievable so I suggest that you call your uti!ity and question the latest bill.

Gerry

 

[WyrTwister]

Typical for our city government . :-( ( City owned utility . )

God bless
Wtyr

 

[TimLee]

... They may be estimating consumption based upon weather and other data or they have billing software problems. The variation between those two months is unbelievable so I suggest that you call your uti!ity and question the latest bill.

Gerry

Hopefully it is something simple like bad use estimating.
If the actual measured use is varying that much it could be a defective meter.
If the real use is that much something in your house is defective.
That high use charge is so high it would almost have to be something like heat pump heater strips running.
A bad freezer or refrigerator could bump usage but I wouldn't think that much.

 

[rexki]

Typical for our city government . :-( ( City owned utility . )

God bless
Wtyr

Count your blessing's on city owned Utility!! Try ComEd in Chicago and the whole Eastern seaboard practically. They own all the State legislatures in about 13 states up hear. Extremely low accountability and a guaranteed 11% return on all assets. Only place better is a backroom cigar group in Manhattan.

City Owned means you can organize and attend City Board Meetings and get the local news @10 to cover stories when larger groups form to make change. We in Chicago have a snowball in Hell chance of making changes.

 

[WyrTwister]

And I bet they are too big to let them fail ! :-(

Oh , seems I have heard that before ?

11% return means the more they spend , the more they can charge , the more they can make . Sweet !

God bless
Wyr

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

with the range of usage you have, you must have the option for bill averaging where they take your estimated annual usage, divide it by 12 and bill you 11 equal payments with the 12th adjusted (generally in programs like this the meter is only read twice a year) for real usage.

 

[WyrTwister]

Yes , that is available , but I do not trust the city NOT to do even more funny math . :-(

In fact , I trust the city not at all ! :-(

God bless
Wyr

 

[Flyct]

Got an email with the electric bill for August 2016

657 kWh for $72.97 . ( 34 days )

September 2016

2797 kWh for $ 285.37 . ( 28 days )

This raises way more questions than it answers ?

Both months should reflect " normal " summer time home consumption + charging the 2012 Nissan Leaf .

Granted , this past month was cooler & should reflect less A/C usage .

God bless
Wyr

My guess is that the meter reader screwed up and misread the meter by 1,000 kWh for one of the readings.

That would put the actual usage for the two months in question a more realistic 1,657 kWh and 1,797 kWh, not 657 and 2,797.

 

[WyrTwister]

You are probably pretty close to being correct .

God bless
Wyr