[MyfirstEV]

Hi Everyone,

Just my ID.4 in the beginning of July and plugged the car in a handful of times with one really long charge of 48 hours (was going on a long road trip). Anyhow, I got my electric bill and my electric was over $1,022.00. Which means I used 1,600 more kWh then the previous billing cycle (which is 2 months). The only things that really changed in my usage was the car, with maybe a bit more A/C usage but not enough to put the cost at where it is. I live in LA and has LADWP as an electric provider to help narrow the situation and I do have some older plugs (not ancient, but I would say maybe 10 year old)

Has anyone ran into this?

 

[JimmyVW]

It depend a bit on driving style and mix of highway and local roads, but 1600KW equates to around 5000 miles. With an L2 charger you can easily consume 50KW over night, charging the car.
How many miles have you driven and how much of that was roughly charged at home vs somewhere else?

 

[mochalatte]

Look at how many miles you have on your car and divide by the car's long-term efficiency, a number that should be roughly 2.8 to 3.8 mi/kWh. Let's pick 3 mi/kWh for easy numbers--if you have driven 1000 miles, you have put approximately 1000/3 = 333 kWh into your car via charging. How much charging have you done outside your home? If you have done all at home, you would increase that by an EVSE efficiency factor of very roughly 90% to find how much energy you consumed to put 333 kWh into your car and that works out to 333/0.9 = 370 kWh per 1000 miles driven if you do all your charging at home.

 

[MyfirstEV]

Look at how many miles you have on your car and divide by the car's long-term efficiency, a number that should be roughly 2.8 to 3.8 mi/kWh. Let's pick 3 mi/kWh for easy numbers--if you have driven 1000 miles, you have put approximately 1000/3 = 333 kWh into your car via charging. How much charging have you done outside your home? If you have done all at home, you would increase that by an EVSE efficiency factor of very roughly 90% to find how much energy you consumed to put 333 kWh into your car and that works out to 333/0.9 = 370 kWh per 1000 miles driven if you do all your charging at home.

I have only charged a handful of times. Most of my charging is done at EA, as it is free. When I do charge at home, I normally charge from 70% to 80% and unplug it from there.

 

[Joe_U698745]

What is LADWP charging per Kilowatt hour? Is it a flat rate regardless of time of day usage? Do the hourly rates increase during the hot weather months?

Here in the Chicago area, ComEd charges around 7 cents per Kilowatt hour. I have my account on an hourly pricing program in order to charge at a lower rate at off peak times, generally after midnight. In short, the hourly rate during the summer months can fluctuate as high as 40 cents per kilowatt hour during peak usage times 2PM thru 5PM. At night it can be down as low as 1 cent per kilowatt hour especially after midnight.

This is where delayed charging by location comes into play. Currently this feature does not work on the ID.4. If it did, you could set your home location to charge off peak time say around 10PM thru 6AM, in order to save on charging cost.

If you have a DC fast charger close to home, you might want to use it since it's free for 3 years and just top the car off as needed at home with a Level 2 charger.

 

[Nai3t]

I assume you're level 1 charging since you mentioned the 48 hours.

By my measurements, I calculated charging on the included 10 amp, 120 volt EVSE to be 77% efficient, in other words a quarter of your electricity is converted to wasted heat.

But regardless, as others have said, you need to back calculate approximately how many kilowatt hours you put into your car by looking at mileage vs. average miles/kWh. Multiply this figure by 1.3 to factor in waste through charging inefficiencies.

I'f you're not on an EV charging plan, your utility may have your on residential tiers where once you exceed a certain monthly kWh threshold, you're moved into the next higher rate bucket, then the next. Gets expensive fast.

Check out your utility's EV charging options. They'll likely give you a higher base rate, but you can stay in it longer and instead have peak and off-peak windows.

 

[Ray Noneya]

How much did you pay for the prior two moths bill?

 

[MyfirstEV]

I assume you're level 1 charging since you mentioned the 48 hours.

By my measurements, I calculated charging on the included 10 amp, 120 volt EVSE to be 77% efficient, in other words a quarter of your electricity is converted to wasted heat.

But regardless, as others have said, you need to back calculate approximately how many kilowatt hours you put into your car by looking at mileage vs. average miles/kWh. Multiply this figure by 1.3 to factor in waste through charging inefficiencies.

I'f you're not on an EV charging plan, your utility may have your on residential tiers where once you exceed a certain monthly kWh threshold, you're moved into the next higher rate bucket, then the next. Gets expensive fast.

Check out your utility's EV charging options. They'll likely give you a higher base rate, but you can stay in it longer and instead have peak and off-peak windows.

I think we are just not going to charge at home any longer. To get an EV meter costs us money and then I need a level 2 charger. Since this is a lease, it just does make sense for the additional costs. At the end of the day, 30 mins or less I am charged to 80%.

 

[Nai3t]

To get an EV meter costs us money and then I need a level 2 charger.

Up here in NorCal, PG&E has two EV rate plans.
One offers the best rate but requires installation of a second meter.

The other (what I have) provides the time-of-use rate structure I mentioned.

It sounds like you're talking about something similar to option #1?

My time of use plan is fine with level 1 charging.

The DCFC fallback is fine if it suits your schedule, but I'd rank the convenience of at-home charging as one of the most important benefits of driving an EV.

 

[MyfirstEV]

Up here in NorCal, PG&E has two EV rate plans.
One offers the best rate but requires installation of a second meter.

The other (what I have) provides the time-of-use rate structure I mentioned.

It sounds like you're talking about something similar to option #1?

My time of use plan is fine with level 1 charging.

The DCFC fallback is fine if it suits your schedule, but I'd rank the convenience of at-home charging as one of the most important benefits of driving an EV.

I agree, the electric company does not do a time of use structure, which is ridiculous. They are reading the meters here still. Like we can take off to the moon but you cant have the meter communicate via signal or something. LADWP is the biggest set of crooks. It is worst then Donald Trump!

 

[Mike Bouck]

If LA is like San Diego then they probably have a tiered pricing structure based on time of day and kWh used. They also probably have special plans intended for EV owners - you'll need to check with your utility. Assuming you aren't on an EV TOU (time of use) plan then you are probably paying higher costs to charge your car. This is exacerbated by when you charge your car and if you just leave it plugged-in all day with a basic Level 1 charger you'll be pulling a lot of kWh at the most expensive part of the day. Get on an EV TOU plan, get a Level 2 charger installed (so you can charge fully within 8 hours or so), and then charge during the cheapest part of the day according to the TOU plan (probably early morning).

 

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Anyhow, I got my electric bill and my electric was over $1,022.00. Which means I used 1,600 more kWh then the previous billing cycle

I have only charged a handful of times.

Then your car is not the cause of your surprise electric bill. I don't know what "a handful" means to you, but lets assume you charged your car from 20% to 80% 8 times in that billing cycle. That would be at most 480 kwh used, less than 1/3 of your mystery load. Even if you charged the car from completely empty to completely full ten times, that would still only be around 1000 kwh. I suggest you start looking for other drains on your electricity. And for what it's worth, an air conditioner can EASILY used an extra 1600 kWh in two months during a hot summer, so you might have been a bit quick to write that off as the primary cause. I live in Arizona, and my summer electric bills can reach as much as 2,000 kWh more per month as a result of AC usage.

 

[J. Walter Weatherman]

the electric company does not do a time of use structure, which is ridiculous.

30 seconds of googling says that LADWP definitely does time of use: https://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/faces/l...-state=p6kgmb227_197&_afrLoop=923076640019308

 

[MyfirstEV]

30 seconds of googling says that LADWP definitely does time of use: https://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/faces/l...-state=p6kgmb227_197&_afrLoop=923076640019308

Ahh, i called and I have to have someone come and install a seperate meter

 

[TPG]

Ahh, i called and I have to have someone come and install a seperate meter

Just switch your whole service to a TOU rate plan and have all circuits go through the same meter.

 

[javi_ID4]

You should get an energy monitor and install it. Before I got solar panels, I was using Emporia Energy monitor. It really help me figure out what things at home where wasting energy. Now that I have solar panels. I have a generac power cell battery backup that includes an energy monitoring system.

 

[Tinman]

Ahh, i called and I have to have someone come and install a seperate meter

Have you tried reading your meter every day? Establish a base average usage without charging the car. As JWW posted above, I think you are probably misidentifying your vampire.

 

[Nai3t]

...They are reading the meters here still. Like we can take off to the moon but you cant have the meter communicate via signal or something. ...

So no smart meter? Yeah, I suppose TOU wouldn't be possible without a smart meter. Is that an option you can request, or is it simply not available in your area?

 

[mjmenhart]

If you don't have a smart meter yet, are they doing estimated readings? Where I live, they recently converted to all smart meters, but prior to that they were only required to do actual readings quarterly. I've seen similar posts on local social media about people having their bills double or more month to month. Obviously if estimates were low during months where there was high usage, the actual reading could catch up on several months of higher than normal usage and result in sticker shock.

 

[KB57]

Hi Everyone,

Just my ID.4 in the beginning of July and plugged the car in a handful of times with one really long charge of 48 hours (was going on a long road trip). Anyhow, I got my electric bill and my electric was over $1,022.00. Which means I used 1,600 more kWh then the previous billing cycle (which is 2 months). The only things that really changed in my usage was the car, with maybe a bit more A/C usage but not enough to put the cost at where it is. I live in LA and has LADWP as an electric provider to help narrow the situation and I do have some older plugs (not ancient, but I would say maybe 10 year old)

Has anyone ran into this?

We use the Juicebox 40 level 2 charger, it takes about 4 hours to charge to 80% from 10%. It uses 43kwh hours to charge in that time. Our cost per kWh is .03 cents. So the cost to charge for us is about $1.30.