Home charging - Off-peak electricity rate

[rcechinel]

I have not been able to find the TOU rates anywhere, maybe I am not that good at googling.

So sounds like this is not a black and white situation, especially given I don't drive that much and tend to use my second gas car for longer trips. Maybe that will change over time - I am only two months into being an EV owner. I guess I will talk to that rate analysis person once they call and take it from there. Thanks so much for your insights!

GA Power publishes the rates, what is not clear it's at what times I consume the most energy today. Without this info, you have to make some assumptions. As I said on the previous post, it wouldn't make sense to switch.

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[Skip Towne]

When doing my cost analysis I noticed something in the fine print you should be careful of when doing your cost analysis -

My, and probably all utilities, charges an account fee for the priviledge of having an account and receiving a monthly bill. The account fee is fixed, irrespective of how much electricity you use.

The account fee for an off-peak account was much higher. So much higher that unless you used a lot of electricity and could time shift your usage to the off-peak times, then there was very little cost savings for me.

For me, the risk/reward just didn't justify the switch - especially knowing the per kwh rate in this instance was much higher during peak times and all I could really timeshift was charging the car.

In summary - do a careful analysis- there are a few factors to consider.

How did I do my analysis at my house and secondd home - in 2 different utilities in 2 different states? (and why is the OP struggling with this?) My 2 states have regulated utiliities. They are required to post their rates schedules. I could find them online. Different states havedifferent rrequirements for such things.

 

[Triggerhappy007]

I have not been able to find the TOU rates anywhere, maybe I am not that good at googling.

Yes, you are not good at Googling.

https://www.fpl.com/rates.html

Under Rates and Charges, select Residential or New Customer Overview to see the TOU rates. Looks like you'll have to add all of those numbers up to see the rate.

 

[AKgrampy]

I have not been able to find the TOU rates anywhere, maybe I am not that good at googling.

So sounds like this is not a black and white situation, especially given I don't drive that much and tend to use my second gas car for longer trips. Maybe that will change over time - I am only two months into being an EV owner. I guess I will talk to that rate analysis person once they call and take it from there. Thanks so much for your insights!

https://www.fpl.com/content/dam/fplgp/us/en/rates/pdf/res-june-2022.pdf

 

[ridgebackpilot]

In northern California, Pacific Gas & Electric offers a Time-of-use EV rate with three tiers and two seasons. Currently, summer rates per kWh are:

Off-Peak (12 am-3 pm): $0.24699
Part-Peak (3 pm-4 pm and 9 pm-12 am): $0.44901
Peak (4 pm-9 pm): $0.55950

Peak and part-peak rates are lower in winter, but off-peak is the same. Obviously, at any time of year it's better to draw from the grid during off-peak hours.

Because I have a solar array and two Tesla Powerwall batteries, I'm able to shift all my draw from the grid to off-peak hours. During the day, my solar array charges the Powerwalls, and they supply power to my home during peak and part-peak hours. My Tesla and MME are both set to charge only after midnight.

 

[KevinS]

If charging overnight at a lower rate is sufficient for my required usage of the car, that's definitely my first choice.

If I have to charge during peak hours due to necessity, so be it.

Either way, I'm paying a lot less than I would be for gas.

 

[lonndog]

Definitely need to verify yourself though. They had my utility company and plan but the hours were wrong for what they said was off-peak.

Yes, I did check, and they were accurate. Plus, they had the billion or so plans that SDG&E has. Call me lucky.

 

[Neil4Real]

Yes, I did check, and they were accurate. Plus, they had the billion or so plans that SDG&E has. Call me lucky.

Haha super lucky, I was hoping I’d be just as luck with SoCal Edison. Oh, well, thankfully off peak times on their electric vehicle plan doesn’t change with the seasons.

 

[circle11]

Yes, you are not good at Googling.

https://www.fpl.com/rates.html

Under Rates and Charges, select Residential or New Customer Overview to see the TOU rates. Looks like you'll have to add all of those numbers up to see the rate.

Thanks this is helpful. Here's my VERY ROUGH back of the napkin math then:

Last month I used about 1500 kwh. Say I drive about 800 miles per month, that is about 250 kwh if I am not mistaken. So even if I convince my family to switch laundry etc to off-peak, I don't see how I can switch more than 500 kwh to off-peak hours. Assuming 1000 on-peak and 500 off-peak:

=1000*(0.067+0.035)+500*(0.077+0.045) = $163 - at my current flat rate
=1000*0.12+500*0.067 = $154 - TOU rates

If all this is correct, feel sorry about wasting everyone's time as well as mine .

 

[Dave-O]

Thanks this is helpful. Here's my VERY ROUGH back of the napkin math then:

Last month I used about 1500 kwh. Say I drive about 800 miles per month, that is about 250 kwh if I am not mistaken. So even if I convince my family to switch laundry etc to off-peak, I don't see how I can switch more than 500 kwh to off-peak hours. Assuming 1000 on-peak and 500 off-peak:

=1000*(0.067+0.035)+500*(0.077+0.045) = $163 - at my current flat rate
=1000*0.12+500*0.067 = $154 - TOU rates

If all this is correct, feel sorry about wasting everyone's time as well as mine .

you didn’t waste anyones time, people are here because they love this stuff.

 

[rcechinel]

Thanks this is helpful. Here's my VERY ROUGH back of the napkin math then:

Last month I used about 1500 kwh. Say I drive about 800 miles per month, that is about 250 kwh if I am not mistaken. So even if I convince my family to switch laundry etc to off-peak, I don't see how I can switch more than 500 kwh to off-peak hours. Assuming 1000 on-peak and 500 off-peak:

=1000*(0.067+0.035)+500*(0.077+0.045) = $163 - at my current flat rate
=1000*0.12+500*0.067 = $154 - TOU rates

If all this is correct, feel sorry about wasting everyone's time as well as mine .

It's all good. You gotta do the math. As I said, in GA, it's MUCH WORSE to go to a time-variable rate (peak, off-peak, and super off-peak), unless you don't work from home and drive A LOT every day. But the only way to know it was to do the math...

 

[ShaggySS]

Love living in small town SC. I pay a flat $.105 per kWh, regardless of the time or amount I use each month.

I am in a similar boat, but in California Its .09 under 500kW and over that its .14 so its pretty easy to just math with 14. No peak off peak to think about. Funny thing is I am just a few miles from those poor PG&E customers who have to pay 24 cents off peak.

I am glad the car and the home charger both are smart enough to handle peak and off peak so hopefully they work out all the kinks by then.

In answer the the original question. I would bet that off peak is cheaper so if you can charge off peak and save some money do it, unless it creates charging issues. Then again I am the cheap guy who will drive 10 min to a free fast charger and save $5 bucks charging for free vs at home.

 

[MME Farmer]

Our off-peak has been 6 cents but now changed to 7.2 but said it will return to the 6 cents in september. Charges from 11pm to 7am. If you can live with that it's pretty cheap driving

 

[RickMachE]

Many people forget to add in ALL the costs.

On my bill, I have peak and off peak rates
Then I have a per kWh charge for:
- power supply non capacity charge
- power supply cost recovery
- distribution
Then I have flat charges for other power supply volumetric surcharges, service charge, LIEAF factor, other delivery volumetric surcharges, and residental sales tax.

My off-peak rate starts at 1.16 cents. Then I add 4.261 cents, 0.665 cents, and 6.6611 cents. So I'm up to 12.75 cents and I haven't allocated the additional fix costs which add 15% more. So my 1.16 cents is more like 14.66 cents off-peak...

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